Agreeing song/set lists

[TimR]

18 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

Starting off with a simplified version of the song is definitely good advice as you don't know if a song will work until you give it a go. I then start to pad it out if it's a song that sticks around and I haven't 'wasted' time learning the intricacies of a song I'll never play. 

Fully agree with @Lozz196's advice about highlighting it with the rest of the band too. It takes the mick if this is a persistent thing and you spend loads of time on something only for people to write it off without any prior discussion.

 

 

Yes. Never learn a song note for note until the band have jammed a verse and chorus a few times and agreed it will work. Then all go away and learn it properly. 

You can get through several ideas per rehearsal that way. Plus when people turn up having not looked at any songs they don't like, you can decide where their priories lie and decide on your priorities to suit. 

 

I'd always consider it a bonus if people suggested a load of tunes I already know and know will go down well at gigs. Means you get on the road quicker and can introduce new/more complicated material at your leisure. 

[Muzz]

The awkward ones, though, are the songs with iconic bass lines, which have to be right to get any idea of the song (I'm thinking stuff like A Town Called Malice); they're a bugger to get just right and then find they never get played again...I've learnt a few of those...

[uk_lefty]

There's always the excitement of everyone chucking in their "I've always wanted to play..." And this is where I think a covers band always, always needs a theme. That way when I'm setting up an 80s band and the guitarist asks if we can all do Hot n Cold by Katy Perry he gets told No by all other members immediately. So if you limit your pool of songs, genre or theme then it's easier to narrow down from every song ever to just a very big number of songs. I'd always then give the singer the deciding vote, as long as they can be sensible about the decision, i.e. it is in their range or sounds good with their voice, not "I don't like it". While I agree life is too short to play loads of songs we don't like there can also be a lot of fun had in getting an audience reaction or making a tasty bassline to amuse yourself, same for everyone else in the band. 

 

In my current band we agree three songs to work on for the next rehearsal. Sometimes someone will text on the day, or earlier, to say they haven't had time for song number 3, or they're finding number 1 tricky, etc. That's life. We play them together and if they work we chuck it in for the next gig and see the reaction. If the audience like it, we like it. 

 

We have a long list of songs somewhere but everyone is realistic about working through it logically and slowly so we get songs right. We always want to add new songs in when we return to a venue, nothing worse than spending five years playing an identical set with no change. 

[nilorius]

20 minutes ago, Muzz said:

The awkward ones, though, are the songs with iconic bass lines, which have to be right to get any idea of the song (I'm thinking stuff like A Town Called Malice); they're a bugger to get just right and then find they never get played again...I've learnt a few of those...

There was a situation, when i joined a very popular band here in Latvia, who didn't exist allready a few years ago and the vocal was different, but the other band members where the same. We played some rehearsals and all was ok. Then we came to make a cover for EC-tears in heaven. I allready knew this song and perfectly knew the bass small solo lines in this song. When we tried it, the drummer went crazy and told me to play easy small low parts instead. I said him that, without these solo bass lines the song will loose it's uniqeness. He started to told me about the way EC played this song Phil Collins. I insisted that the song must be played in it's original way, but he just couldn't do that. And finally it all ended at this point. They told me that they don't want to play with me anymore. Was i wrong???

Edited January 31, 2023 by nilorius

[Muzz]

Sounds like you avoided a rubbish drummer to me...

[Ricky 4000]

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

Was i wrong???

 

Were you playing this version?

 

 

Not a lot of room for vocals without stripping it down a little.

[nilorius]

5 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

 

Were you playing this version?

 

 

Not a lot of room for vocals without stripping it down a little.

sorry, not possible to listen at the version now - i am at the work where my desktop can't speak.

[Ricky 4000]

5 minutes ago, nilorius said:

sorry, not possible to listen at the version now - i am at the work where my desktop can't speak.

 

No problem. 👌

[nilorius]

Just now, Ricky 4000 said:

 

No problem. 👌

I can only say, that i learned it from it it's original recording where fretless bass did a lot of simple but beautiful solos.

[tauzero]

I was the final recruit to what was a five-piece - two gits plus the singer could also git for the occasional song, plus drums, plus me. By the time I was in, there was a list of maybe a dozen songs. One git could play some soloes, but never progressed beyond what he already knew (and his intro to Paranoid was the most truly awful I've ever heard, though everything else was OK), so he got dumped and singer got to do more git. Songlist expanded, some songs got added to it because we jammed them a bit at one session and decided to give them a proper go next time out. A couple of songs have faded away. We all have occasional suggestions, and responses vary from "I don't want to do that" through "We'll give it a bash" to "I'd really like to do that". We've never decided on an official way to select songs, or whether there should be a veto, we just achieve consensus somehow. As it's classic rock, there's not many complicated and iconic bass lines, they tend to be one or the other, and I've probably learnt half of them at some point in the past.

[Jackroadkill]

I'm in the process of putting together my first "proper" covers band with my friends and my brother.  When we first floated the idea we all suggested a ton of songs (mostly '80s and '90s alternative rock tracks) based on what we liked that wasn't typical pub-covers-band material.  When there was a pool of about 60 songs we started getting rid of the ones that anyone said "Sorry, I can't bring myself to play that" about, and then we learned the three that were left!  No, I'm being silly, of course...  We ended up with a core of about thirty five that we judge to be really solid, interesting, unusual, fun etc etc and are working our way through them.  No gigs lined up yet (well, not until the summer), so we reckon we'll have time to get a pretty decent set/sets together before we inflict ourselves on anyone.

 

We'll have to prune out any which get negative reactions, I suppose - guaranteed to be all the ones I like the best.  What's wong with the extended Canadian Club Mix of the 1984 version of Temple Of Love, that's what I want to know?!

[chris_b]

On 30/01/2023 at 21:31, Waddycall said:

Always seems to be an issue. Had a rehearsal with a newly formed band yesterday. We each chucked in 2 songs plus a few others. Learnt all of them note for note and spent time making sure my effects set up was spot on for all. Turns out the singer decided against doing two the guitarist chose and the guitarist chose not to do the singers choices so I learnt four songs note for note that  I didn’t need to and some were quite tricky.

 

This is par for the course with singers and guitarists.

 

I just treat as a learning opportunity and extra homework on my technique.

[Muzz]

9 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

This is par for the course with singers and guitarists.

 

I just treat as a learning opportunity and extra homework on my blood pressure control technique.

Just a slight mod for you there... 🙂

[uk_lefty]

I have to say, the band I joined just over a year ago had been going for ten years with the singer and drummer. Lead guitarist joined at some point way before me. It was made clear to me that they have a solid set of songs they play for an upcoming gig but that they always look to add and change. They don't do anything from before the year 2000 unless requested for a wedding or private party. You have to come to rehearsals familiar with a song that's been set to learn, it's not a 'start from scratch'. I quite liked having these rules, everyone knows where they are. I also said on joining "you guys have been going ten years and have a great reputation locally, I'll just slot in, I'm not here to take over or force you to play Pearl Jam B sides" and we get on perfectly. I suggest songs regularly but I'm never in a huff if we don't do them. I have a go at playing songs I don't like, tonight I've got to do a One Direction song. It will have some industrial sounding fuzz and octave in the bassline, because I want to and I'll do it in a way that keeps me amused but doesn't ruin the song. That's the way I find works, compromise all over, don't get emotional about your choices. It is annoying when you get one person who won't even have a go at something they don't like even though it fits your set, they're usually the ones who want the band to play their own personal "mix tape" of favourite songs, they don't think about the audience, just themselves. 

[Nicko]

In my last couple of bands everyone suggested songs and as a group we decided whether to play it or not.  A simple "no" from a band member on the basis that they don't like, or are unable to play, the song would indicate that the song is never going to be as good as it could be because not everyone is interested in playing it.  

 

Most of the time people would agree to play things they didn't really want to play and reserve the veto for things they hated or felt were too far off topic.  

 

For a new band sitting around a table and making a list of potential songs is best - and once they are in the bag it's ad hoc suggestions which doesn't always work. 

 

Some examples:

 

At a rehearsal one week another band was attempting "Dreaming of You" by the Coral.  Someone said we should try that and within a few weeks it was got added to the list,  The guitarist ended up hating it and never understood why it made it onto the set list.  Gigged it a few times and then it got dropped because no one really wanted it.

 

Same guitarist one suggested "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" by Elton John.  In an indie covers set - WTAF?

 

I ended up refusing to play "Are You Gonna Go My Way" after a few years - I simply hated playing it.  I hated playing it even more than playing "Rocks" by Primal Scream which the drummer hated playing as well. That never got dumped because there has to be some give and take but I used to miss changes in it all the time because I never practiced it, and never wanted to listen to it and spent most of my effort trying not to yawn while playing it.

 

[HengistPod]

Current band is set up the same way as most bands I've been in have been - totally democratic (at least on the surface - let's ignore past closet-narcissist guitarists for now ).

Songs get thrown into the whatsapp group, most are ignored. Any that everyone is happy with gets given a go at the next rehearsal. Some of those are obvious keepers, some we agree to go off and try again next time when we've learned our parts better, some are quietly forgotten about. (Sometimes we'll all agree on something and it gets quietly forgotten about after we all go off to listen to our parts and realise the realities. )

 

We don't play songs we don't enjoy playing - we don't intend to whore ourselves out with all the lowest common denomiinator material so many others already do - and so there are basic rules. No Bon Jovi, no Oasis, no Nirvana, no Bryan Adams, no Enter Sandman, Sex On Fire, Don't Stop Believing, Dakota etc. Every other band does that stuff and good luck to them. If anyone says "I really don't fancy that" to anything it gets dropped without question and that's the end of it. As a cover band, there are plenty more tunes out there.

On this principle, and over the last year, we've moulded a set that we're all happy with and that we think will offer local venues something slightly different whilst avoiding being too niche. Just working on a couple of reserve tunes now and the show will be on the road with gigs waiting. About bloody time, too.

[Lozz196]

In my new band I’m just playing their current selection which is excellent aside from a couple of songs that I think are just ok. I suggested adding in Pump It Pump by Elvia Costello at some point and they’re all up for it so great that there’s a willingness there. 

[chris_b]

I'm here to play bass. I want to gig with the best guys I can find and play songs that make the band work. Good songs are a bonus but as long as the set is successful then I'm not hating anything.