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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Performance and Creating Moments
Performance and Creating Moments
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HarpNinja
2425 posts
May 14, 2012
11:04 AM
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This is an off-shoot of my ramblings in the scales/positions thread. Whether you are a hardcore blues purist or a metalhead at heart, I think setlists and creating unique moments within songs is THE key to live performance success.
Here is a featured setlist of mine from a solo show, and notes on my thought process. More than anything, I just want to provide some insight into what I mean. I do this with all my setlists, even if I am fronting a band, or being a sideman.
HELLHOUND - middle of the road tune that the audience won't know, but it does a good job of setting the tone and establishing the format...I make sure to not sit the entire song...2nd position with no real solo
HANDS ON YOUR STOMACH - middle of the road and my favorite solo song to play...has a dynamic harp solo with effects in 3rd
CHAIN OF FOOLS - upbeat and a song everyone knows and can get into...harmonica fills, but no extended solo, builds loops throughout (needs some woodshedding)
HEY JOE - bit of a sylistic curveball, very vocal heavy, complex looping song...3rd position modern solo
CAROLINA BLUES>BOOGIE MAN (original) - upbeat and driving, very harmonica heavy and lots of soloing, morphs into a 12bar boogie woogie instrumental with stops...harmonica showcase and very trad blues based
GHOSTBUSTERS - vocal looping, huge curveball, sing along song with no harmonica that builds on previous tune's energy
GUILTY - slow things down, opportunity to talk to audience and set up a story, no extended solo, but hook heavy harmonica...sometimes I do another harmonica-only original tune in the vein of Sonny Boy if I don't do Boogie Man
COCAINE - start of the build up to the last tune, bit of a curveball, effects heavy, lots of stops and looping 3rd position and very modern sounding...first song to cut if time is an issue
ZOMBIE - (original) slow build up, but very aggressive, great song to move around on stage and take an extended solo, potential to call/respond with the crowd, familiar blues groove
WISH YOU WOULD - upbeat and fun cover, complicated arrangement, lots of opportuity to interact with the crowd, barn burner, easily recognizable
Extra: RIGHT SIDE OF HEAVEN
I usually try to have 2-3 songs that fit each slot. For example, I might start with a cover of Let My Baby Ride instead of Hellhoud or do Going Down South instead of Guilty, etc.
If Ghostbusters is a bad idea, I break out the chromatic and do I'm Ready with a story about chrom harp. I might do Desire by U2 if playing blues isn't a priority.
I am already planning my June setlists. I assign all the songs a 1, 2, or 3 based on tempo/mood and can pull from it if I need to do things on the fly.
For full band cover shows with Groove Stew (which was SO FUN, but not sustainable with schedules and people moving around) I had 50 songs set lists we would improvise from. We didn't have to have dead time between songs and could always move to the best fit song immediately. We also had ways of extending each song people could dance to without always just taking longer solos.
The endgame is ensuring that you create moments and spread them out. There were Groove Stew songs with the sole purpose of letting me move around stage, or get the crowd involved, or drink shots, or whatever. I tried to make it a point to never just stand there and play a song.
I am the first person, though, to shut it down if the crowd isn't into it after trying and trying. If the club is dead, or people just want something to listen to, I tone it way down. I haven't gotten to the "dance like no one is watching" and pretty much live up to crowd expectations. I wish I was gutsier to just let it all hang out even if the reception isn't great to start.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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nacoran
5667 posts
May 14, 2012
12:06 PM
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In the one full length show we had to worry about wasting time on stage. Our one guitar player was switching between a resonator and a guitalele, so we broke the set list down into three parts so he'd only have to change instruments twice. Originally we planned to alternate lead vocals, but a couple of my songs got cut when I couldn't get vocals down (for some reason I have a mental block when it comes to rhythm and vocals on a couple songs.) That lead to a set much heavier in vocals for our other singer. We tried to mix keys and feel. We even moved the two songs that mention a girl by name far apart from each other (our lead singer doesn't like to sing about two different girls. He thinks it cheapens the songs.) Tried to make sure we had weaker songs sandwiched between stronger songs, and a bunch of ear-worms at the end. To paraphrase a famous quote, 'No set list survives first contact with the audience.' We cut one of my songs that I actually sing well because it was just so different than the other songs that were getting a good reaction and we cut a couple songs off the end because we were running out of time.
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Nate
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HarpNinja
2429 posts
May 14, 2012
12:12 PM
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I believe those are the little things that add up to big things. You absolutely have to find ways to approach the performance from the perspective of the listener. It is better to be over prepared!
Most artists approach it from separate songs living separate lives.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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HarpNinja
2442 posts
May 15, 2012
7:20 PM
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It's not scary...you just start with one or two songs in a set. I think it is really easy to do as a sideman on harp - you just pic your theme for each tune.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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nacoran
5684 posts
May 15, 2012
8:06 PM
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It gets complicated in a band really quickly because people usually have different opinions. I found no one actually wanted to sit down and make a set list, but once I took a shot at it and wrote it down they all wanted to make changes! :)
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Nate
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BronzeWailer
554 posts
May 15, 2012
9:54 PM
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The guitarist for my trio always has a set list on his i-pad. Just slide 'em around if you want to make changes. That is a blessing and a curse because it reduces the cost of being capricious. It also means he is lost without the i-pad.
I generally just go along with what he has (he usually has three guitars, creating switching issues) unless there is something I really want to play that was left off the list.
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