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You must be careful when playing a variety of music that you don't go too hard-core in any one direction. There is a fine line between everybody's music and nobody's music.



I can tell this is great advice, but I'm not sure of exactly what you mean by it.



I'll try to explain, Pat.

Don't pick anything too hard-core in any direction - stick to more middle of the road songs.

Say for instance, you are playing for a group of retired folks, playing mostly baby boomer music and some modern tunes. You could probably get away with playing "Hey Soul Sister" by Train but if you crank out some Jay-Z you are going to alienate a huge percentage of the audience and it will take a lot of work to get them back -- if you can.

You cross the line and turn everybody's music into nobody's music when you alienate a huge portion of your crowd.

Watch the crowds reaction to everything you do and everything you play. Experience is a great teacher. Until you gain the experience, it's best to stick to popular and middle-of-the-road material. Establish your relationship with the crowd and make sure they are "with you" before venturing away from the MOR area.

And no song is beneath your artistic pride. We play at a yacht club one weekend a month, and a regular customer asked for "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies and "Sugar Shack" by the Fireballs. She comes every week, her husband is a "flag officer" and the next week we had them both. Neither one is a song I would have picked to learn, but we do the best we can, I have a good time singing/playing them, and when the vote comes up for who they want to entertain them next season, we are assured of their vote. Plus we found that other people enjoy them as well.

We would never play any Led Z in the Yacht Club, not even "Stairway" as it is simply too hard-core for this set, and while a few would enjoy it, we would ruffle too may other feathers. But after dinner when they start dancing, "Old Time Rock And Roll" always fills the floor (I wish I had a million songs that work that well).

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Sometimes changing cover songs can be dangerous *g*.

The audience expects one thing, the artiste comes up with something that doesn't go the way the audience expects and - that can be a problem. <...>
--Mac



So true. We re-interpret some songs, but most of them are pretty close to the cover versions. As we go through time, many of them evolve away from strict covers, with especially vocal touches and instrumental solos that are our own, but they are still very recognizable.

The songs that we re-interpret are played when we think we can get away with it, and that depends on both the gig and the audience.

You may be up there to have fun, but if you forget your main job is to make the audience enjoy themselves, you won't be up there having fun for long.

If you don't dearly love your audience and if your main focus is anything but making the audience have fun, you should get another profession.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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