How to prepare and manage a set liist?
Hello, friends.
I am writing to ask your suggestions regarding the best way to plan a set list, especially using an mp3 player or cell phone, and whether or not it is even necessary to plan a set list at all.
I am a one-man-band, playing saxophone with prerecorded accompaniment, at wedding receptions and parties. I use a dedicated cell phone as my mp3 player, which I plug into my mixing console, and from the console to the speakers. I use printed music only: some homemade, some from Internet sources, and some from play-along books that I have bought over the years.
To be honest, up until now, I have never used a playlist. I have just prepared 800 songs, months, weeks and years in advance, and chosen which ones to play, on the spur of the moment, during the event, depending on the mood of each part of the event. Of course, it has helped to have those soundtracks grouped by genre into about eight different folders, but beyond that, they are just in alphabetical order.
This may be a very faulty method, as it certainly has its drawbacks, but it does seem to have its advantages, as well.
Recently I was playing at a Fundamental Baptist wedding party, for example, and did not know beforehand if the audience would be open to other genres of music besides old hymns, or jazzy arrangements thereof. After half an hour of playing, however, and seeing their reaction, and hearing some of the songs that they had chosen to use, themselves, in the background, as the guests were arriving, I realized that they were much more open minded than I had expected. I then began to include some of my ballads, pop music, and other things, and they loved it all, much to my surprise, so I was glad not to have created and stuck to any "set list" per se, because otherwise, I would have been stuck on the hymns.
To be honest, most of the events where I play, have lots of spontaneity, such as when the bride shows up an hour late, and I just fill the air with music until she arrives. I have been playing in Latin America, where this is rather common. Still, this makes it easier to get away with doing things a little spontaneously on my part, but requires having lots of "extra" songs on hand. The host of each party is usually poorly prepared anyway, and ends up having gaps in the program where my music would be entirely appropriate, so I have to have extra music for that, too. It has made me wonder whether set lists were even necessary or not.
While thinking of what to play next, sometimes the next song just pops into my head while I am still playing the previous one. Typically, however, I just keep the notebook binder of sheet music close by, and flip through the pages, between songs, until I see one that I think will fit the mood of the moment, but I have to do it fast, and I usually don't have time to grab other notebooks and flip through those, also, unless the song comes to mind just as I am ending the first one, and I immediately grab the notebook where that song can be found. After that next song, I will likely flip through this second notebook for another song, rather than go back tot he previous. As you might imagine, my decisions end up being heavily based on the alphabetical order of my songs, of course, although I do have three or four genres mixed in together, in each notebook.
I have tried scrolling through the titles on my cell phone, instead of the notebooks, but it did not seem any faster; in fact, it gets confusing when several titles are similar or identical (e.g., "Mornin'" by Al Jarreau vs. "Morning" by Kenny G).
Since my soundtracks are grouped by genre into separate folders, I can usually find the soundtracks pretty fast, once they come to mind. The problem is that I sometimes find myself flipping through the sheet music for a long time until something finally hits me, and that can take anywhere from 15 seconds to 60 seconds usually, which is a bit too much, don't you think? The drawback to my whole system is that I have to act fast when choosing the next song. My audiences have been forgiving, so far, but the day will come where they will be much more demanding, especially as I get better jobs playing before more discriminating audiences, rather than some of the charitable events where I have even played for free (nobody can complain when you are playing for free). To be honest, I have never played at dance parties, so I have not had to play songs back to back as you might hear at a night club. My parties tend to be dinner banquets, church wedding receptions, extravagant birthday parties, and Christmas parties.
So, I thought about creating a written set list, one or two weeks before the event, as I suppose that most musicians do, but I need advice on how to do it efficiently, especially whether I should do it through a cell phone app, or whether manually or written out.
I thought about using the "playlist" feature in media players, but that seemed to be very tedious. Each event is unique, as the tastes of the audience vary, and even ethnic considerations must be taken into account. If it is a crowd of 70-year-old Army veterans and their wives, I may have to rely heavily on my oldies collection. If they are middle-aged Hispanics, I will not play any of those songs, but rather Latin pop, Latin ballads and boleros, for example. In either case, does this mean that I should sit down and sort through my entire collection of 800 soundtracks, and build a unique playlist for each event, one soundtrack at a time?
And what do I do when I suddenly discover that more songs are needed than what I had planned? Oftentimes I arrive at a party, only to find that it is starting 45 minutes later than announced, and I have to play, in the meantime. Now I have to play more songs that what I had planned. What to do? Exit the playlist and grab something from the "leftovers" folder? Or plan twice as many songs for the playlist, and then just exit early, whenever time runs out?
Also, as the mood changes throughout each party, what should I do to accommodate that? If I discover that the time of fun and games is ending earlier than expected, and now several people are making short sentimental speeches about how much they love the bride and remember her childhood, and are sad to see her move away with her new husband, to start a life of her own somewhere far away, and people are moved to tears, and I still have another five songs of "cheerful upbeat music" on my playlist, but the mood now seems to call for soft, sentimental music, should I just trash the playlist and go back to my "leftovers" folder? Should I have planned several different playlists for each party, based on the mood? For example: solemn songs, light cheerful songs, slow romantic songs, edgy upbeat songs, etc? so that I could jump from one to another? Of course, there is no way to know how the moods will swing until I actually get to the party, and experience each moment of it myself, and until I actually see how the audience receives the songs that I play, so that I can better discern their likes and dislikes. Sometimes I wonder whether I can really plan out a set list, days before the party ever begins. What do you say?
Since playlists are simply collections of "shortcuts" to the song files, would it be better just to move those physical sound files into collections manually, and hide all the others in a separate folder? In other words, to have one folder of "100 possible songs to play tonight" in no particular order, and another folder of "600 leftover songs for emergencies"?
By the way, how much silence do you think I should allow between one song and the next at a typical wedding reception.
Hello, friends.
I am writing to ask your suggestions regarding the best way to plan a set list, especially using an mp3 player or cell phone, and whether or not it is even necessary to plan a set list at all.
I am a one-man-band, playing saxophone with prerecorded accompaniment, at wedding receptions and parties. I use a dedicated cell phone as my mp3 player, which I plug into my mixing console, and from the console to the speakers. I use printed music only: some homemade, some from Internet sources, and some from play-along books that I have bought over the years.
To be honest, up until now, I have never used a playlist. I have just prepared 800 songs, months, weeks and years in advance, and chosen which ones to play, on the spur of the moment, during the event, depending on the mood of each part of the event. Of course, it has helped to have those soundtracks grouped by genre into about eight different folders, but beyond that, they are just in alphabetical order.
This may be a very faulty method, as it certainly has its drawbacks, but it does seem to have its advantages, as well.
Recently I was playing at a Fundamental Baptist wedding party, for example, and did not know beforehand if the audience would be open to other genres of music besides old hymns, or jazzy arrangements thereof. After half an hour of playing, however, and seeing their reaction, and hearing some of the songs that they had chosen to use, themselves, in the background, as the guests were arriving, I realized that they were much more open minded than I had expected. I then began to include some of my ballads, pop music, and other things, and they loved it all, much to my surprise, so I was glad not to have created and stuck to any "set list" per se, because otherwise, I would have been stuck on the hymns.
To be honest, most of the events where I play, have lots of spontaneity, such as when the bride shows up an hour late, and I just fill the air with music until she arrives. I have been playing in Latin America, where this is rather common. Still, this makes it easier to get away with doing things a little spontaneously on my part, but requires having lots of "extra" songs on hand. The host of each party is usually poorly prepared anyway, and ends up having gaps in the program where my music would be entirely appropriate, so I have to have extra music for that, too. It has made me wonder whether set lists were even necessary or not.
While thinking of what to play next, sometimes the next song just pops into my head while I am still playing the previous one. Typically, however, I just keep the notebook binder of sheet music close by, and flip through the pages, between songs, until I see one that I think will fit the mood of the moment, but I have to do it fast, and I usually don't have time to grab other notebooks and flip through those, also, unless the song comes to mind just as I am ending the first one, and I immediately grab the notebook where that song can be found. After that next song, I will likely flip through this second notebook for another song, rather than go back tot he previous. As you might imagine, my decisions end up being heavily based on the alphabetical order of my songs, of course, although I do have three or four genres mixed in together, in each notebook.
I have tried scrolling through the titles on my cell phone, instead of the notebooks, but it did not seem any faster; in fact, it gets confusing when several titles are similar or identical (e.g., "Mornin'" by Al Jarreau vs. "Morning" by Kenny G).
Since my soundtracks are grouped by genre into separate folders, I can usually find the soundtracks pretty fast, once they come to mind. The problem is that I sometimes find myself flipping through the sheet music for a long time until something finally hits me, and that can take anywhere from 15 seconds to 60 seconds usually, which is a bit too much, don't you think? The drawback to my whole system is that I have to act fast when choosing the next song. My audiences have been forgiving, so far, but the day will come where they will be much more demanding, especially as I get better jobs playing before more discriminating audiences, rather than some of the charitable events where I have even played for free (nobody can complain when you are playing for free). To be honest, I have never played at dance parties, so I have not had to play songs back to back as you might hear at a night club. My parties tend to be dinner banquets, church wedding receptions, extravagant birthday parties, and Christmas parties.
So, I thought about creating a written set list, one or two weeks before the event, as I suppose that most musicians do, but I need advice on how to do it efficiently, especially whether I should do it through a cell phone app, or whether manually or written out.
I thought about using the "playlist" feature in media players, but that seemed to be very tedious. Each event is unique, as the tastes of the audience vary, and even ethnic considerations must be taken into account. If it is a crowd of 70-year-old Army veterans and their wives, I may have to rely heavily on my oldies collection. If they are middle-aged Hispanics, I will not play any of those songs, but rather Latin pop, Latin ballads and boleros, for example. In either case, does this mean that I should sit down and sort through my entire collection of 800 soundtracks, and build a unique playlist for each event, one soundtrack at a time?
And what do I do when I suddenly discover that more songs are needed than what I had planned? Oftentimes I arrive at a party, only to find that it is starting 45 minutes later than announced, and I have to play, in the meantime. Now I have to play more songs that what I had planned. What to do? Exit the playlist and grab something from the "leftovers" folder? Or plan twice as many songs for the playlist, and then just exit early, whenever time runs out?
Also, as the mood changes throughout each party, what should I do to accommodate that? If I discover that the time of fun and games is ending earlier than expected, and now several people are making short sentimental speeches about how much they love the bride and remember her childhood, and are sad to see her move away with her new husband, to start a life of her own somewhere far away, and people are moved to tears, and I still have another five songs of "cheerful upbeat music" on my playlist, but the mood now seems to call for soft, sentimental music, should I just trash the playlist and go back to my "leftovers" folder? Should I have planned several different playlists for each party, based on the mood? For example: solemn songs, light cheerful songs, slow romantic songs, edgy upbeat songs, etc? so that I could jump from one to another? Of course, there is no way to know how the moods will swing until I actually get to the party, and experience each moment of it myself, and until I actually see how the audience receives the songs that I play, so that I can better discern their likes and dislikes. Sometimes I wonder whether I can really plan out a set list, days before the party ever begins. What do you say?
Since playlists are simply collections of "shortcuts" to the song files, would it be better just to move those physical sound files into collections manually, and hide all the others in a separate folder? In other words, to have one folder of "100 possible songs to play tonight" in no particular order, and another folder of "600 leftover songs for emergencies"?
By the way, how much silence do you think I should allow between one song and the next at a typical wedding reception.
