If you use backing tracks in your live gigs I would love to hear how you handle chords and lyrics. Do you learn them off by heart? Do you have an iPad app with timed scrolling, or do you use use good old pieces of paper? Here is the method that I use.

How I use scrolling chords and lyrics

I would love to hear your methods.

Learn the song.

Plain and simple, you should have all the songs for a live gig learned to the point that you do not need to have scrolling lyrics and chords. If you use that method, it's easy to make it a crutch and rather than interacting with the audience, making eye contact, you are glued to the screen.

I don't play live anymore, but when I did, we had a set list of the songs generally laying by the floor monitors. If there was a new song on the list, perhaps I would write the first word of each verse as a reminder. Beyond that, no, the song was supposed to be committed to memory by the point we took it in front of the audience.

I see some of the big stars are using teleprompters that scroll the lyrics. And I guess, if I was on a stage being broadcast nationally, I might want that too, but then again..... The band supporting the artist knows, and when they see it happen, they are in rescue mode immediately. Unlike BB or some other pre-programmed song, the band can loop as long as they need to until the artists picks it up again. Have you ever seen an artist stop singing in a song and smile at the audience, or say a few words? Most likely, you saw a professional handle the forgotten words like a pro. The audience saw a "special, personal moment" with the artist, not a mistake.

There's a certain connection to the audience that happens when you blow your lines live. It's really not a bad thing, and a pro can handle it in a way that the majority of the audience didn't even know it happened. Everyone forgets the lyrics once in a while. I'd do one of two things.... either I make up lyrics until I get to the place where I remember the correct ones.... or I stop and while the music is playing, tell the audience I thought they were singing this verse. Doing either of those things makes the audience think it was intentional and not simply a forgetful moment on your part.

So regarding your live gigs with background tracks.... learn the chords and learn the lyrics.

If you forget the chords, stop playing... you have a full band behind you. Pick up again when you know where you're at.
If you forget the lyrics... chances are it's in a verse. No one forgets the lyrics to the chorus unless they are falling down, knee crawling drunk.... in which case you should be on stage anyway unless you're George Jones.... So just lay out for the balance of the verse.... come back in on the chorus. Chances are no one will really notice or say anything about it.

Been there, done that, and survived.

We have 550 songs, which are way too many for me to memorize.

The ones we do often of course are memorized, but especially the ones that only come out every couple of months need help.

Also, while playing with backing tracks, someone can come up while you are playing/singing and make a request or some other conversation to disturb the flow. The backing track goes on and on though. So by having the words or music chart in front of me, when I hear a cue in the music, I can get back on track easier.

So I keep two laptops on stage, one to play the backing tracks and the other for a 'cheat sheet'.

For lyrics I just use Windows WordPad, for music I use an old copy of Encore.

More details on how I make backing tracks and use them on stage can be found here:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

Notes

Herb. Thanks for taking the time to type such a detailed response and I totally take your point if I am putting on what I would call a "show" where someone has paid money to come and see me perform. It's the "other" types of live gigs where I would use scrolling lyrics (such as coffee houses, private functions, farmers markets and even live streams).

Could I ask if you were playing at one of these types of venues and somebody asked for a song that is in your repertoire but that you haven't played in over two years what you would do?

Excellent description Notes, thanks. Great advice for those intending to follow your footsteps, and to make sure that any problems of the past aren't repeated.

Use whatever tools you need to have a good performance! If you use a prompter you just need to get good at using it; great public speakers give amazing speeches that sound from the heart and spontaneous even though they are on a prompter!

I've never used music or lyric sheets live. Everything is memorized. I keep notebooks with chords and lyrics of all my songs and can sit down and review a song on a break, but no way am I going to perform a song on stage if I'm not pretty sure I can perform it without thing falling apart on me.

Yes J x 3. I just learned that Bruce Springsteen uses one! Edited to add: to us it all looks very sponateous if someone calls out a song and he actually plays it! I read that he expects the E street band to know it ( after all they have spent years playing the pubs) but he has a very nifty tele prompt operator who quickly brings up the lyrics.

This happened often in our shows. Especially when we were the house band in a club for two and a half years. Often several times a night.

Our response to the request was often dependent on a number of factors. There were times when we would look at the request, and then usually, say something like we'll get your requests in the next set or there were times where we'd drop that song into the set we were in right then and there. We also had no problems telling the person that we didn't know that particular song. If we were going to attempt it, we'd work it out in the dressing room.

If the song was old and we hadn't played it in a very long time, we'd discuss it backstage between sets, and if it seemed easy enough to pull off, we'd attempt it and let the chips fall where they may. Repeat a verse if we couldn't remember them all or cut it short. We didn't do that very often. The usual response to a song we weren't sure of was.... sorry, we don't know that song, how about if we do (song title) for you instead?

In fact, I can recall a number of times in one of the other bands I was in, getting a song request that I had never heard before..... but the drummer and bass player knew it from way back in former bands. The bass player would tell me what kind of groove.... start it like such and such a song, that we did know..... and then he would call out any "off normal" chords. I was extremely good at playing by ear and could anticipate chords easily. We'd pull that song off like pro's and at times we'd even add it to our regular set list.

Essentially, we'd do what we had to do in the circumstances. No rules, just get the job done and make the audience happy. Happy audiences come back to see you again.

I try to memorise chords and lyrics, particularly if I'm playing live or acoustic. I sometimes have my folder on the music stand to pick songs and as moral support!

When I'm on-line I have been using a folder on an out of sight music stand for my material as some of the material is not memorised yet. Also, I have pre-programmed solos, guitar patches and vocal patches in the BIAB backing tracks, so my folder has notes on that. I find with BIAB doing so much work for me, I can get away with playing stuff I know less well. Live, I need the eye contact etc.

Now I'm moving away from the folder to just BIAB. Check out the jpgs below for how I have my screen now in BIAB.

I don't use the last screen, but I may in the future. Full Screen Chord Sheet View on the Window Screen or [Ctrl T]

Herb, we handled that much the same way. "We don't do that one, but I think you will like the one we do for you instead."

I have met many musicians who see it as a badge of courage somehow to brag that they know 8,293 songs. My first question (that I say to myself because I really don't care how many songs you know) is "You do 45 a night, and in a different place every night. Why do you carry that kind of luggage with you? And the second question is "With that much material, unless you rehearse 29 hours a day, every day, you can never rehearse them. You DO need to touch a song in the rehearsal hall if you are going to play it." Which then leads me to "But I know you never rehearse. You don't even play with the same people every show. Which is why you only know that same 50 songs every band in town knows."

But it's not my concern if you know the Famous 50 or the 8,293.

The only thing that used to get me angry is when some drunken idiot would come to the stage in the middle of the 3rd set of MOTOWN MUSIC and start yelling "Skynaaaaaaard!!" I actually had people removed by security a couple of times for that. Don't disrupt what we are doing. Stay on the floor where you belong. If you want to hear Skynaaaaaaard, join a band and play it. Oh, that's right. You have no talent and don't play or sing....

I just can't imagine needing 550 songs, Notes, but I don't really know what you do. If you are playing a prom tonight, a wedding tomorrow, a bar the next night and then a show for geezers at an old folks home, I would imagine you need to know both Uptown Funk and String Of Pearls. Plus you are a "captive" band. With you and your wife, you are always available to practice, learn.... It's different with an 8 piece band of players with kids who have to be dropping them off at soccer or the swim meet.

Starting to see why I don't play anymore? LOL!!

The interesting thing is I knew a few people who easily knew 500+ songs and all of them by memory.

The one guy in particular was a freaking genius when it came to music. He was an amazingly talented piano player and singer. He was always swapping out players in his band's lineup. playing with him was a musical education because the guy could play anything. And he practically knew everything and every song. He knew the top 40 stuff on the radio and he also knew the hits and popular songs from the 40's. A walking talking musical encyclopedia. The fellow didn't use any sheet music or lyric pages. He didn't write up set lists either. He was the band leader.... think Paul Schafer. He'd start the show and call the songs as he went. You never knew what was coming. Of course he did have a regular group of about 100 songs that he drew from most often. I never had the misfortune to play with his band. He was quite the arse.

I did play with the other guy who also had an amazing repertoire. Like the first guy he knew lots of tunes, but he did make a set list and pretty much stuck to it. Never saw him use a lyric sheet or sheet music. I played in that band for a few months. When they started requiring tux's and playing lots of country club gigs... that was the beginning of the end. This fellow was a nice guy, but his momma ran the band.

McCartney uses one and I suspect most acts nowadays use them. Why not? Just another tool to integrate into your act.

Karaoke rules

When I first played in a band in the 1960s learning chords and lyrics - and lead guitar breaks in my case - was not a problem. It was only when I hit my late 50s that I found I needed song sheets, mainly to remind me of the arrangement, e.g. which verse I solo over, and lyric prompts: usually the opening line suffices. I'm 67 now and envy you guys that can still commit songs totally to memory, I can't, no matter how many times I play them.

I know I'm not alone in this; it's not advancing dementia or anything, just one of those age things. I've seen artists on TV such as Brian Ferry and Paul Heaton of Beautiful South both openly using song sheet books on music stands, even though they've written the songs themselves. Some prefer to be more discreet, for example Ian Gillan, lead singer of Deep Purple, who uses scrolling teleprompters placed near his floor monitors. I watched Sting playing live on TV the other night doing the same.

So I bind all my lead sheets in a booklet and refer to one as and when I need it and don't worry about it anymore.

For me, it is something I have always battled with, not so much age related.

Digital Fakebook. And it's free!


http://www.mike-warren.net/digitalfakebook/



Regards,

Bob

I suppose everyone has their own situation. Here is why we need 1,000 songs (working on that)

1) We play a variety of venues.

* Our weekly outdoor marina gig requires a good deal of Caribbean music, Calypso, Soca, Reggae and tropical music like Jimmy Buffett, Bertie Higgins and so on

* One of our yacht club gigs likes a long dinner set of mellow music followed by one hour of dance music

* The gig we played last night (and we've been a regular ther for about 20 years) likes a lot of line dances. We know about 10 songs that we play there and nowhere else

* The condo gigs require a lot of oldies

* New songs come and go, even with the adult audience, "Love Shack" died when "Blurred Lines" came in. "Uptown Funk" still works while "All About That Bass" is fading. "Happy" seems like it will hang around a while, etc. Next year there will be new adult-crossover hits

2) We play a lot of our clubs again and again

* New songs keep us fresh. Our weekly gig is in our ninth year, some monthly gigs for over 20. Plus people follow us from gig to gig, the enjoy new music from us

3) Requests

* When a regular fan asks for a song, if it is appropriate and if we can learn it, we will. And when we see that person again we'll play it without being asked. It makes that person feel special, and it should, because our fans are special to us.


4) We thrive on new songs

Songs go through three phases (1) An adventure - they are new, and not fully explored yet and each play can turn up a new discovery (2) Peak - you are totally in command of the song, it's just a lot of fun to play and you get into the zone immediately (3) Familiar - it's like a lover you have been with a long time, still great, comfortable, but not the fireworks that it was during peak time.

So why not over 550 songs? We're probably up to over 560 now but I haven't counted in a while.

Notes

Notes; thank you. That woke us all up with the description of all your gigs. Respect!

Danny C does a different set of songs with every live stream he does! I wonder how many songs he has in his repertoire...

Our bluegrass band typically did three one hr sets in clubs and 45 minute sets at festivals. Janice would make up a set list for each gig working from a master list of about 200 songs of which about 25% were instrumentals. We had three lead singers so the lyric memory thing was not bad. Most of the set organization was based on the guitar and banjo capos

So we just tossed a set list in front of each monitor and had at it.

Bud

When I do solo performances I create a folder of songs that I plan to use.
Most shows are 1 hr. in length which is about 20 BIAB files.

On my MacBook, I then select the program "text edit", which has the lyrics to all of the songs, and stack the lyrics in the same order as the songs that I intend to play. Text edit is set up on the left 1/3 of the screen and BIAB on the right 2/3. The songs are set to play in jukebox mode with pauses between each until I hit the spacebar.

I sing and play tenor sax during the performance. The lyrics and Biab are there for reference only for 95% of the time as I know the lyrics and melodies for all the songs.

/Users/Ernie/Desktop/Screen Shot 2016-11-19 at 10.02.03 AM.png

Hi jazzsax
That looks very nifty. Is "text edit" a program that will automatically bring up the lyrics of the next song as soon as you touch the space bar?

There are also apps for iPads and Droid tablets that will scroll your lyrics.

We just played two 4 hour gigs at the same venue this weekend. We do 4 hours straight - no break (we're compensated for that) and probably repeated fewer than 10 'club favorite' songs from night to night that were requested or we know they will definitely want.

When we play our weekly marina gig, we'll probably play a dozen of the most currently popular ones and the others will be all different, because the needs of that audience is different.

Later in the week it's an RV park, and it depends on who is in the park, but it's usually much harder rock and country than our retirement community gigs.

I don't do set lists, but call songs as my intuition and experience tells me is the best for the moment. I can switch to the next song with a couple of key taps and start the new song without a seconds hesitation if need be http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html to keep dancers on the floor.

In order to make a living playing music around here, we found job security in being chameleons. There are a few gigs we won't take because it's worse to be mis-booked than not booked; (1) we can't do an all Country gig, while we know a lot, we don't know all the latest country hits and (2) we can't do a young person gig, we don't have the desire to learn EDM and Rap - not that there is anything wrong with it, I just think we are not able to do a good job of it.

I'm not a rock musician, I'm not a country musician, I'm not a blues musician, I'm not a jazz musician, I'm not a classical musician, I'm not a salsa musician, I'm a musician. I can learn just about anything.

And it's fun putting on different musical 'hats'. It takes a different expression and an interesting head shift to go from a Country song to a Standard to Hard Rock to Reggae to Easy Listening to whatever. It's like having a varied food diet, but instead of food for my waistline, it's food for my soul. And variety is the spice of life.

So its 550 songs and counting. Had a request for some Dylan and Patty Page's Fever (although I like the Elvis Presley version better - and it's close enough). More musical adventures.

And back on topic. The first laptop will have the backing track which I will make myself (I tried buying them, but I find if I make them myself, I understand the music better, which substitution chords are used, and it's in our key and our arrangement), and the second laptop will have either the words/chords oar a sheet music chart that I made in Encore.

Plus all the data will be on both computers so if one fails, I can play the track and read the music/words on one computer if need be.

Am I embarrassed to have the music/words in front of me? I was at first, after years of being in memorizing bands, but I got over it.

It's no worse of a tool than putting a capo on a guitar. The only tool I refuse to use is auto-tune, but that's another thread.

Insights and incites by Notes

.

Hi Eddie. yes I have been investigating these for my purely acoustic gigs.

Here is a good write up on the four of them http://www.stevemacdonald.org/tablet/apps.html

I plan to scan in all the bits of paper I have lying around. For my "backtrack" gigs I still plan on using my scrolling chords and lyrics which scroll along in time with the backtrack.

Hi Joanne,

I think iPad-type technology is cool, and could be used liberally for those "wedding" type gigs as you mentioned. (Others here have covered that enough.) But then there is the other kind of gig, the gig that makes your jaw drop. I remember a series I played outside of Phoenix in the middle of the desert some years back where Noe Venable showed up.

She just walked on stage in a petticoat and black railroad boots from San Francisco with an old Martin, didn't even say hi, just walked up the mic and sang for an hour and left everyone in a total state of awe. I literally had no words. It was an hour of sheer stunning memorized genius delivered with the force of an exploding comet. One woman. One guitar. One mic. Then she just walked off and disappeared in a thunder of applause.

That's the kind of stuff I live for when I attend a show--all originals that just blow you away. Those that say "I came here to conquer and take no prisoners. Just sit still and listen."

Here is a link one one of her tunes. You should check out her stuff. I think you will like her. Summer Storm Journals is an album you would probably love. She plays the drums with her mouth as a human beatbox on some songs. The mixing is incredible and all basically acoustic and done at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Ih-2OjAxQ

I ended up being a backer of her last album and she sent me an oyster shell with the lyrics "What kind of creature shall I be?" written in her handwriting. I keep it in sight on my desk when I am writing lyrics. It's my magical talisman.

Hi, Joanne !:))

Neither I do live gigs
other than with my barbershop
groups and in that genré you
always have to memorize the
words to a song because the
style requires that you are
free to interpreat the lyrics
from your heart and not from
any paper that will distract
the listeners and viewers
attention to you and the
message that the quartet is
trying to convey !


It is as simple as that !:))

Cheers
Dani

Joanne, how many independent outs do you have on your sound-card?

I play 2-3 times/month at church; either on electric guitar, electric bass, or Hammond & keys.

We play to a click track, and on some songs, the worship leader will also add in some pre-recorded synth tracks that play through the mains.

In addition to the click, he will also put in some verbal cues (which we call Siri!) on song section changes, where there is a change in feel (all in!), etc.

It seems like you should be able to do with BIAB, if you can send individual tracks to individual outs of your soundcard. Perhaps even L/R separation.

He has all of our songs memorized, but then again, it's his job. I have about 1/4 of our songs memorized.

Prior worship leader would occasionally use his iPad with OnSong with autoscrolling. He really liked it - mostly when it was just him leading and no band backup.

Some great comments on here and a wealth of experience.

If I'm playing with the band, we do it from memory. We have a 2 hour set list with about 25 solid songs, rock covers.

If the audience is dancing and rocking along and we think we can get another few songs in, a couple of "requests" appear to play one or two that we've already done

If I'm playing solo and using backing tracks, I make a karaoke file for each song and then render the audio and lyrics into a movie file (one for each song) and play that on the iPad.

That way I know everything is in synch and in one place and guaranteed to work as it's only one app running and movies play pretty solidly.

The lyrics are there for occasional reference.

One thing though if you're using a tablet / iPad, it's worth putting it into airplane mode before the gig as I was in full swing once and an email came in and muted the audio whilst it informed the audience "you've got mail".

Happy gigging!

Cheers.
Mike.

Loved that video David. Thanks for sharing the link. I am definitely getting into both types of gigs. The ones where people come specifically to see me (such as at our National Arts Festival) or at the folk club, where we have about 5 artists each playing a 1/2 hour set. For these I am memorizing everything (or at least trying to).

Then there are the "musical wallflower gigs", like a private function, a pub, or the farmers market. These I am using scrolling lyrics for my backtrack stuff and good old fashioned paper for the acoustic stuff. I am going to try the iPad app for the acoustic stuff.

Hi Scott. This sounds like higher grade stuff to me. Are you taking about having the prompts and the click track coming out of the monitors while you are playing? If so, unfortunately the types of gigs I am playing I am the singer, the guitarist, the sound engineer and the general groupie (and sometimes even the audience )

Hi Mike, Yes, that is exactly what I do Explained here



Ha ha! I have not been caught out like that yet but it is only a matter of time. I have all my karaoke tracks on my phone so an actual phone call can really mess things up!

What an excellent thread this has turned out to be.

There is a wealth of knowledge here. All sensational and very worthwhile ideas.

It's what I like about this forum and the BiaB community. There are a lot of nice, generous people here willing to help each other out.

I think I've gleaned a lot more helpful information from this forum than anywhere else I visit.

A friend of mine uses http://onsongapp.com/ on his iPad. Says it works fine. I've not tried it myself, I just use my iPad for couch surfing and bring my ThinkPad laptops to the gig.

Notes

You can do the same by having a mixer out routing to some channels that would feed in ear monitors which sound expensive but really are not. You probably already have all of the year except the earphones.

"That looks very nifty. Is "text edit" a program that will automatically bring up the lyrics of the next song as soon as you touch the space bar?"

Joanne, Text Edit does not automatically bring up lyrics. It is a very basic Apple program. What I do is to have all of my lyrics in one folder. When I decide on my BIAB set list I set the songs up to be played in Jukebox mode usually 1-20 for approx. one hour set.
I then go to text edit and open up the corresponding 20 lyric files and stack them in the same order of the BIAB songs. As the jukebox is loading the next song, I close a previous lyrics file to reveal the next lyrics.
As an aside, 95% of my sets are set up ahead of time. If I get requests, I have the complete folder of all songs and another of all lyrics open in back of the BIAB chord sheet. I can go to the to each and fill the request.

I hope this helps.

Here's my simple setup, Joanne:

1. Lead sheets with chords, lyrics and melody on iPad Pro (large enough for even my 69-year-old eyes to read). They're in pdf format on Documents 5 File Manager, which lets me flip to the next song. (I don't sing, but I like to "hear" the lyrics while I play.)
2. BIAB on regular iPad, using BIAB's iPad/iPhone app. (Now if PGMusic would just update it so I can flip to next song on that!)
It all sits on my music stand so that the audience sees no computer screens, and the BIAB highlighter reminds me where I am when I'm interrupted or suffer a senior moment.
Memorization's not for me. I play mostly jazz standards. In my opinion, it's a lot harder to remember chord changes for those than for most pop songs.

Did not read all the replies sorry, but here is what I do:

#1: Enter the lyrics in notes memo
#2. Split screen with Lyrics in Memo and chord chart.

Wayyy to much trouble to enter lyrics into the chord sheet.

Hope this helps.

Later

That is all so interesting. That's why they make chocolate and vanilla I guess. (Alistair, I'm definitely not talking about jazz, below. That is complex and I see your point.)

Speaking only to lyrics, (and having access to a teleprompter aside, and not including piano where sheets are well hidden and right at eye level), at a base level like mine where I wouldn't need sheet music for the melody's sake, I find anyone reading lyrics distracting and it sucks the soul out of the song. It is so obvious when they have to return to the sheets, find their place, and read-sing for a while. I use a set list on the floor, and if I have the foresight, I include the first few words, and/or the one #$(% word or phrase I always seem to have problems with, or recently changed.

I think as long as you depend on sheets, you will never learn the lyrics. I like the "I'd love to but it's not in my set list right now and I'd hate to screw it up for you," and the above, "We don't do that one right now, but I think you will like this one."

Now, someone who can do it in a seamless way is another story, but I've rarely seen it. Last summer at an outdoor event a gust of wind blew dozens of pages off a well known touring pro's stand, and it stopped them cold, and she could not continue with any songs until they were gathered. She was super pissed (at the wind and at stage hands and anyone nearby), but I'm sure she was extremely embarrassed. They were her standard songs.