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Sometimes changing cover songs can be dangerous *g*.


Mac... the grin you ended with makes me wonder if this is the voice of experience...?


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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.



OK, gotcha this time. I am a people watcher who tends to test the water before getting riskier. I think Bob, Mac and you are all saying the same thing in different ways;
"tailor the music to the audience"

I agree that experience is the best teacher, (even other peoples' experience which is why I ask so many questions)

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And no song is beneath your artistic pride.


hey, thanks for assuming I have artistic pride! I'm pretty sure nobody ever thought that before! ;-)

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Another thing I will say is, ……………If you have to play stuff you don’t like, then why do it?



There are literally thousands of songs from which to choose. I'm looking for songs that meet the double test of whether I enjoy playing them and whether they appear on other peoples' tried-and-true song lists (thanks to all the BIAB forum giggers who have posted their song lists, by the way)

Later, based on my own experience at the local places, I'll naturally modify the set to add more of what works and less of what doesn't. A friend who started gigging a year ago recently told me that he started with a set of songs he liked, and he doesn't play any of them anymore. His audiences like other songs, and that's what he plays.

Thanks guys for passing along your valuable hard-earned experience! Hopefully I won't make as many re-newbie mistakes because of your collective shared wisdom.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0