How To Pick New Material

[blue]

I'm not sure how much of this topic we've seen, but I thought it would be a good enough discussion.

What are some of the processes and basis and guidelines you use to pick new songs for gigs.

Blue


Vlue

Edited October 15, 2017 by blue

[JapanAxe]

In my country band, the drummer comes up with loads of suggestions, 90% of which are Merle Haggard numbers. The the rest of us make other suggestions in the hope of watering down the Merle Haggard content. Then we have a rehearsal and end up playing some of the numbers live, and about a third of them fall by the wayside after a few gigs.

The process is repeated every six months.

[DJpullchord]

Sit down and write some songs.

[mikel]

We play Funk and Soul Funk. We try to select songs that we can change to suit this style. It is surprising what you can do to songs you like to make them fit a bands style. We prefer to steer clear of the obvious so we change songs to suit our genre. It means we can be creative without writing our own songs. Also it means punters recognise a song, but we play it in a funky style they can dance to.

[Crawford13]

We use a Facebook group chat. We all suggest 3 songs, and majority rules (4 out of 6), however any member can veto a song if they really dont want to play it...it’s an unwritten rule that they can’t do this too often.

[blue]

[quote name='DJpullchord' timestamp='1508093801' post='3389709']
Sit down and write some songs.
[/quote]

Do you write with an audience or what you think people will like or do you just write in hopes people will like it.

I'm assuming the songs you write will be heard by other people.

Blue

[blue]

I have no say in what songs we play or don't play.

However, my personal experience is not picking songs that I happen to like. IMO that would be a recipe for disaster.

The decision maker in my band picks songs we can play and sing and based on what our audience might like.

Blue

Edited October 15, 2017 by blue

[Guest]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1508099980' post='3389783']
Do you write with an audience or what you think people will like or do you just write in hopes people will like it.


[/quote]

Is there any way option 1 can lead to better songs than option 2?

To be honest I reckon too many songs being written in styles musicians [i]think[/i] audiences will prefer has lead to the crazy amounts of mediocre music that have flooded almost every corner of our perception. More passion projects, please.

[blue]

[quote name='Spaced' timestamp='1508100780' post='3389790']


Is there any way option 1 can lead to better songs than option 2?

To be honest I reckon too many songs being written in styles musicians [i]think[/i] audiences will prefer has lead to the crazy amounts of mediocre music that have flooded almost every corner of our perception. More passion projects, please.
[/quote]

I don't really know, but now that I think about it writing songs is not really the same as picking songs.

I would think most songs are written from the heart for the heart.

Blue

[NoRhino]

Do people know it?
Can they dance to it?

Two yesses and it's in.

[roceci]

In my soul/funk functions band we started out with the intention of playing songs we wanted to hear played that weren't necessarily regular fare. Fast forward four years & with the exception of maybe two songs we're playing pretty much what every soul/funk function plays & it's difficult to add new stuff outside of that, cos that's what people seem to want.

We even broke our no Mustang Sally & Superstition rule after a while...you can't ignore the classics when people are paying you a decent fee to hear em.

[Lozz196]

[quote name='DJpullchord' timestamp='1508093801' post='3389709']
Sit down and write some songs.
[/quote]
[quote name='blue' timestamp='1508099980' post='3389783']
Do you write with an audience or what you think people will like or do you just write in hopes people will like it.

I'm assuming the songs you write will be heard by other people.

Blue
[/quote]

We`re the same, we just write the material, either the singer/guitarist will come up with an idea or I will, then we`ll all work on it together at rehearsal. We don`t set out for a specific format or formula that we think people will like, we just set out for the best version of the idea we`ve come up with. All of the songs we write are written with the aim of being performed live.

[Dad3353]

There seems to be a different target audience, I'd say. Some have dancing in mind (a Saturday night out at the pub...), others more of a concert attitude, with a (preferably seated...) audience listening and watching. In my (distant..!) youth, I can't remember ever having assisted at the former, but spent (too..?) many late nights at clubs, concerts and festivals of all sorts, watching and listening to 'live' bands. I can't really imagine folks getting up to dance to Pentangle, for instance, or Johnny Winter. Originals bands are in the latter category for the most part, I'd suggest, so choice of repertoire and pick of songs to do (including some covers; it's often done, and allowed...) have very different criteria.
Maybe things have changed with the advent of discos and raves and such, though; I wouldn't know.

[blue]

[quote name='NoRhino' timestamp='1508102480' post='3389814']
Do people know it?
Can they dance to it?

Two yesses and it's in.
[/quote]

I guess that's a good start. It's no garaantee it will work. I've seen bands play very dancable songs and nobody dances.

Blue

[blue]

The Jefferson Airplane's *"White Rabbit" came into our set list and I thought it was dated and not a very good idea.

I couldn't have been more wrong, people love it, we usually close with it with everyone singing a real crowd pleaser.

It's why I stay out of the picking material arena.

Blue

* Another reason why I don't like to see Blues bands painted with a broad 12 bar shuffle label

Edited October 15, 2017 by blue

[super al]

[quote name='roceci' timestamp='1508103404' post='3389822']
In my soul/funk functions band we started out with the intention of playing songs we wanted to hear played that weren't necessarily regular fare. Fast forward four years & with the exception of maybe two songs we're playing pretty much what every soul/funk function plays & it's difficult to add new stuff outside of that, cos that's what people seem to want.

We even broke our no Mustang Sally & Superstition rule after a while...you can't ignore the classics when people are paying you a decent fee to hear em.
[/quote]

We've just started out with the same maxim, let's play stuff that's not the same ol' stuff every function band churns out. Turns out that's a tall order! 1st gig, the party host requested 5 tunes, 5 tunes we had to learn because we strayed from the function band norm.
Not complaining though, part of the fun is learning new tunes. Picking new material seems to be a bit fraught at times, I'm on a similar wavelength to the keyboard player with our 80s choices but drummer and singer can be a bit harsh if they don't like what you pick.
We try a few tunes out and then see what sticks really, some start out as good ideas but might not work (dancing in the street springs to mind, we sounded terrible!)

[blue]

I wonder if there's a reason all these working functions bands play what many are calling "the same old tired stuff"

Blue

[bazzbass]

easy peasy

one of us says he's written a new song

he plays it to us while we look at the charts he provided

then we all play along, and bada bing bada boom, we have another song.
songs went down well at our first gig at a music festival a fortnight ago,got another headlining multi band gig next week to test the waters again.

that's the joy of playing originals, not knowing if the crowd will like it or not.

the thrill you get when they like it is nothing like the feeling you get after playing a cover,regardless of the reaction to it, nothing like it

[DJpullchord]

Grace slick makes me happy.

[Phil Starr]

I ran a mobile disco back in the very early 70's. You can get people to dance to almost anything with the right beat, it only needs to be something they recognise or something with a predictable rhythm so they know when to move their feet. When the only thing you have to work a room is your choice of music it becomes quite an interesting art form. Audiences always surprise you with what they like and something that goes down well on one day will tank on another occasion but people are surprisingly empathic and once you've tuned in it's a lot of fun to take people on a journey just by playing music.

Now I play bass (strictly covers) and the game hasn't changed much, though people dancing whilst you play is a new and different pleasure, what a buzz to have a room full of people dancing to your fingers

I'm kind of amazed at the way covers bands choose their songs. The audience don't often get much of a thought. So many bands where a dominant band member forces a collection of their own favourite songs often dating from their own teenage years, filtered by the limitations of the band and padded out by a couple of Mustang Sallys 'for the audience'. Alterntively the covers bands who all play the same set simply because that's what all the other bands do, and they go down well. Rarely do things like 'can the singer really sing this well in the original key' come into the choices.

The truth is that there are thousands of songs and dozens of genres that will get audiences tapping their feet, singing and dancing. Play it well and with conviction and the audiences have come out to have a good time, they're on your side pretty much. The deal is that you set out from the start to entertain them. Good live bands are putting on a show so your song choices need to be part of that show. You need light and shade, four big dance songs followed by a chance to get to the bar and get your breath back, then a big song to get them on their feet again.

The truth is that an audience will happily dance along with a blues band one week and a punk band the next it the band deliver their songs well and with conviction. There's a kind of confidence that grow during an evening in a band that knows what it is doing and which makes contact with the rest of the room so for me the question whan adding new songs is fairly simple. How will this song improve the set for the audience, where does it fit in, how does it make us a better band?

Edited October 16, 2017 by Phil Starr

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='NoRhino' timestamp='1508102480' post='3389814']
Do people know it?
Can they dance to it?

Two yesses and it's in.
[/quote]do they like to sing a long to it, blokes don't normally dance unless they're on the pull, but enjoy shouting woho to down in the tube station

[mikel]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1508099980' post='3389783']
Do you write with an audience or what you think people will like or do you just write in hopes people will like it.

I'm assuming the songs you write will be heard by other people.

Blue
[/quote]

Surely if you have something to say in a song, you say it. If people like it then that's, great but to write simply to please others you may as well work in the old Tin Pan Alley. If everyone only wrote what they knew others would like music would never have progressed through all the genres. Someone has to push the boundaries.

[bassjim]

We will look at anything anyone suggests within our genre. Every now and then we do a new tunes needed session.

Its a compulsory suggestion list of 2 songs each. This gives us a potential 10 new tunes.
We then will take a majority vote with a tune needing a 3 out of 5 yays to go forward before it gets assigned as homework.
We then put a time limit on how long that time period is say 3 -4 weeks.
Every one is expected (although this doesnt always happen. #bandlife ) to be able to turn up and play it with complete conviction at the designated rehearsal.
If it works then it goes to the next 4-6 gigs to get an unbiased reaction appraisal.
Out of the original 10 new suggested tunes we may end up keeping 1-2.

We have a core set of the usual which keep the ship steady so we can take a gamble on things.
There are things in our set today that at least one of us has given the thumbs down only for it to end up as a keeper as well as things we have all really liked, really got into, spent more time ect that have just bombed.

[ead]

For the covers band we all come up with suggestions, see what is doable and apply that most volatile of things, an audience perception filter. I think it would be fair to say we have a pretty reasonable right to wrong ratio so far.

That having been said I think it's also fair to say we have some safe choices on the set list.

[BigRedX]

1. Write a new song

2. Is it better than the least good one in the current set?

3. If "yes" replace the old song with the new one. If "no" either discard the new song or work on it some more until it is better.

4. Repeat.