Tips for learning function band set for a dep work.

[mr.noisy]

Hey guys,
So the day finally arrived and I just have had my first call to do a dep work at a wedding. I must say that while I have several years of playing experience, loads of gigs etc, I was always playing with original bands, so I didn't really play much of a covers in my life. Now I need to learn 2 sets, just under a 40 tunes, and I know maybe 5 of them already and the rest I'll have to prepare.

I want to prepare myself as good as I can, I respect the fact that someone is giving me work and that it will be a special day for someone too, so I want to play the sets as smooth as possible, and make sure that my phone number will not be deleted by the band leader.

I am looking for the advice on how you learn your repertoire quickly when you need it, I have a time until Saturday so that's not bad, but still gives me 10 tunes a day. I have been told that it's completely fine to bring the charts too. I've done some transcriptions and charts before, but I am wondering if someone has some tips for writing charts for functions and/or some good resources (websites etc) where I can find good quality transcriptions of typical pop/dance function repertoire?

I will appreciate any tips and help!
Cheers

[TKenrick]

Could you post the set list? I'm sure that lots of BCers will have charts knocking about for most standard function repertoire.


As far as other advice goes... Listen to the tunes as much as you can (you can do a lot of mental practice during commuting time or other situations where you have 'dead' time but no bass). Make sure you have a chat about intros and endings of tunes as different bands have different arrangements and it can save a train wreck or two if you can clarify these in advance.

The next one will be easier, I promise - there's very little variation in repertoire between most generic pop function bands so you'll pretty quickly develop a decent working repertoire and be at the point where playing 'Valerie' for the third time in a weekend brings you out in a rash.

[Acebassmusic]

Check the keys they are in........then check again! I was depping a few weeks ago, 6 hours notice and the band provided the charts. Great I thought, until I found out the keys player used their transpose button a lot and some of the keys had been changed and the band detuned by a half step as well...argh! Once sorted it all went well :-)

[mr.noisy]

Thanks guys for your replies.

As far as I know it's all going to be in original keys, so that should help a bit. I am also lucky because my friend who recommended me for the gig is going to play that night as well and we are going to meet on thursday to go through the tunes together, he played with this band already and they did the same sets so I will have a chance to note any changes to the intros/ending and structure.

Setlist:
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Kool and The Gang – Celebration [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Maroon 5 – Moves Like Jagger[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Daft Punk - Get Lucky [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Toploader – Dancing In The Moonlight [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]James Brown – I feel Good [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Jackie Wilson – Higher & Higher [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Jessie J - Price Tag [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Bruno Mars – Locked Out Of Heaven [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Bruno Mars – Treasure [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Amy Winehouse – Valerie[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Girls Aloud – Love Machine [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Pharrell Williams – Happy [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Beyonce – Crazy In Love [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Chuck Berry - Johnny Be Goode [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Madonna – Material girl [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Stevie Wonder – Uptight, Everything is Alright[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Whitney Houston – Dance with Somebody [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Stevie Wonder – Superstition [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Into Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Michael Jackson – Billy Jean [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Cee Lo Green – Forget You [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Sister Sledge – We Are Family [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Katrina and The Waves – Walking On Sunshine [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Michael Jackson – Shake Your Body Down [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Sam and Dave – Soul Man [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Jackson 5 – Blame It On The Boogie [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Aretha Franklin – Respect [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Tina Turner – Proud Mary [/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Encore[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Helvetica][size=3]I would be very grateful for any transcriptions. Some of the tunes are easy enough not to have them, but for most of them I could do with the transcriptions and the more I get from other sources the more time I will be able to spend on practicing actual playing. I will probably just make a simple chord charts just to outline the chords and the structure, because I want the tune to fit on a single page and i don't really need to play it note for note.[/size][/font][/color]

[ambient]

I have charts for some of those. Standard notation though, is that OK ?

[mr.noisy]

Hey, yes, that would be great, I am not the perfect reader but have no problem with the notation and I can always convert them to the chord chart

[ambient]

I have others, but I'd have to scan them.



[attachment=227257:signed-sealed-delivered-p1.jpg][attachment=227258:signed-sealed-delivered-p2.jpg][attachment=227259:Get lucky.png][attachment=227260:I feel good.png][attachment=227261:Forget you.png]

Edited September 6, 2016 by ambient

[mr.noisy]

Thank you!

[TKenrick]

[url="http://www.freebasstranscriptions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bruno-Mars-Locked-Out-Of-Heaven.pdf"]http://www.freebasst...t-Of-Heaven.pdf[/url]

[url="http://www.freebasstranscriptions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Cee-Lo-Green-Forget-You-1.pdf"]http://www.freebasst...orget-You-1.pdf[/url]

[url="http://www.freebasstranscriptions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Michael-Jackson-Billie-Jean.pdf"]http://www.freebasst...Billie-Jean.pdf[/url]

[url="http://www.freebasstranscriptions.com/2015/06/09/groove-of-the-week-18-bruno-mars-backwards-octaves-and-the-half-slap-groove/"]http://www.freebasst...lf-slap-groove/[/url]

[mr.noisy]

Cheers! Much appreciated

[johnpaulbass]

Hy .. my advice is:

1. listen to all of them and write down the most difficult one (i.e. you listen to the song and rate it from 1-5 in difficulty). The ones that you already know or you have played at least once - twice in your life put them to the bottom of the list
2. put them from the the "hardest" to the "easisest" one. By "hardest" IMO you should look if the song has some particular song structure, lots of chord changes, some riffes etc. The easiest ones are those who're based on on 3 chord progressions (like Sweet home alabama i.e.)
3. start to practice rationally but constantly with no interruptions. if you have a week or so oyu should be able to "get down" all the tunes by the first 2 days. The third day work hard on the tunes that give you most problems and leave the others. Just listen to tehm , possibly with some chord structure or something. The 4th days begin with the easy one and put for the last the "hard ones". The last to day "simulate" your set by splitting 20 / 20 songs and do that 2 times. If you have a day left just briefly go through the harst songs for you

Hope it helps.

[Bilbo]

Learn to read music and relax.

[chris_b]

[quote name='mr.noisy' timestamp='1473191192' post='3127910']
As far as I know it's all going to be in original keys,
[/quote]

Sorry, "As far as I know" isn't good enough. Get the confirmed set list, with keys, and find out which versions they are playing.

How long are the sets? How many numbers do you really need to learn? All 40? That's a lot for a function.

If you're going to assume anything then you risk screwing it up and that might just be the end of your function band career. A few weeks ago I was told to learn a version of a song which was in a different key to the set list. It turned out the set list was right. You've got to catch these things before you start to put the work in.

[ambient]

If I'm doing anything like this, then I would want chord charts as a minimum, preferably notated charts.

Two of the bands I gig with have lead sheets, charts (chord and notation) in a drop box. Simply log in, and download/print-off what you need. Though use of a mus** st**d is the norm .

[ChrisDev]

Some more transcription for you

Higher and higher (bottom page)
[url="http://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=183"]http://basslessons.b...tions.php?i=183[/url]

Kool & the gang - Celebration
[url="http://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=56"]http://basslessons.b...ptions.php?i=56[/url]

Wild cherry - play that funky music
[url="http://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=38"]http://basslessons.b...ptions.php?i=38[/url]

Sister sledge - We are family
[url="http://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=168"]http://basslessons.b...tions.php?i=168[/url]

Cee Lo Green - Forget you
http://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=33

Edited September 20, 2016 by ChrisDev

[gapiro]

I appreciate you probably alreadyp layed the gig now, but what I do is as follows:

Create trello board - see this for example https://trello.com/b/yppn6J2D
Create cards on board for each song
Have a listen to each song on set list, give it a basic easy - hard rating (use labels on trello)
Go through each song and write out a chord chart for it, or intersperse it with tab. As you do, move it from first to second column.
is the band happy to have ipads on stage? If so then get something like "onsong" or "forscore" where you can transpose charts at a click of a button. I like onsong because you can use use tags to put tab into it as well (although it doesn't transpose tabs)

Go through starting with hardest songs and make sure you learn them. Throw some easy ones in too so you feel like you are making progress. It is very depressing if you dont complete some things early on. But generally start with hardest

[gapiro]

Remember also the band is generally there to support the singer - no one is going to care if you get Johnny Be goode as per record - just play some rock and roll bass line that is in the right key.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='gapiro' timestamp='1474558400' post='3138820']
I appreciate you probably alreadyp layed the gig now, but what I do is as follows:

Create trello board - see this for example [url="https://trello.com/b/yppn6J2D"]https://trello.com/b/yppn6J2D[/url]
Create cards on board for each song
Have a listen to each song on set list, give it a basic easy - hard rating (use labels on trello)
Go through each song and write out a chord chart for it, or intersperse it with tab. As you do, move it from first to second column.
is the band happy to have ipads on stage? If so then get something like "onsong" or "forscore" where you can transpose charts at a click of a button. I like onsong because you can use use tags to put tab into it as well (although it doesn't transpose tabs)

Go through starting with hardest songs and make sure you learn them. Throw some easy ones in too so you feel like you are making progress. It is very depressing if you dont complete some things early on. But generally start with hardest
[/quote]

I do a similar thing but with Excel.

[JTUK]

Before writing out 40 songs worth of notes...make sure you are going to use them again otherwise you might want to charge for that time.
As it happens this is a standard set so a good set of notes should last a lot of gigs.

For speed, the vast majority of them, you can busk if you have a decent ear that can hear intervals. That way you could breeze a few charts with just Verse, Chorus, Bridge etc etc .

Use standard musical notation symbols for repeats etc but you are going to have to chalk this one up to experience as they probably aren't paying you enough for the work involved, ie, for all the groundwork you have to do. That is ok.. you need to get started somewhere.

What is useful, if you don't know the band, is to ask for a pad... if they are sorted and more formal, they'll have one, if they aren't, they wont but in this case that is likely to work in your favour.
You might also want to hear a recording of the band to see how they cope with tracks...and any idiosyncrasies they may have..? You may well be heartened or scared crapless about the compentence of the band and what you are getting yourself involved in,....

Understand this gig date may have passed for the OP..but decent enough info generally, IMO.

[bristolmusiclessons]

When I was in music college, I used to find local cover bands online and learn their set to a deadline just for 'fun'. You can also do this with any bands obviously.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='bristolmusiclessons' timestamp='1478027341' post='3166186']
When I was in music college, I used to find local cover bands online and learn their set to a deadline just for 'fun'. You can also do this with any bands obviously.
[/quote]

Then you can go up to them at a gig and say 'I know your whole set, call me if you need a dep'.

[mr.noisy]

Hey guys, haven't looked here for a while! Thanks everyone for tips, some very useful info here.
Just want to say that my function went well, already played again with this band and have one more booking next month, so it wasn't that bad even that I made some mistakes here and there.
I ended up learning almost everything by ear, it wasn't as hard as I thought, just been going through the sets once or twice a day skipping the easy tunes, and wrote some quick chord charts with laid structure for the more tricky ones, but i only had to do it for 3 or 4 tunes.

[quote name='bristolmusiclessons' timestamp='1478027341' post='3166186']
When I was in music college, I used to find local cover bands online and learn their set to a deadline just for 'fun'. You can also do this with any bands obviously.
[/quote]

That's great, I was also thinking about doing that a while ago, and even went to one bands site, made playlist on spotify but never actually sat down to do it. I need to stop being so lazy.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1474321890' post='3137192']
Sorry, "As far as I know" isn't good enough. Get the confirmed set list, with keys, and find out which versions they are playing.

How long are the sets? How many numbers do you really need to learn? All 40? That's a lot for a function.

If you're going to assume anything then you risk screwing it up and that might just be the end of your function band career. A few weeks ago I was told to learn a version of a song which was in a different key to the set list. It turned out the set list was right. You've got to catch these things before you start to put the work in.
[/quote]

What I meant here was that I actually 'do' know, as I have asked that before. Maybe it wasn't the best sentence, but english isn't my first language. I wouldn't risk not asking as my transposing skills on the fly aren't the best, unless I have iReal Pro in front of me