Performing, Pacing A Set
Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 12:17PM This Sunday I’m doing a house concert at the home of Hope and Laurence Juber. It is their first house concert and I’m honored to be the one to be first.
I have been thinking about the pacing of the set for the last week or so. I believe that you should plan a set but be very flexible depending upon the audience reaction. With 23 CD’s out, I have an enormous repertoire to draw from. But I essentially do songs from the CD’s that I’ve brought with me. I have become a little bit more cognizant of how to sell CD’s to the audience, which I ‘ve talked a little about in the datamusicata article " What's The Best Way To Sell CD's At A Live Performance (http://www.datamusicata.com/journal/2007/8/21/whats-the-best-way-to-sell-cds-at-a-live-performances.html).
My friend, Michael Smith, www.artistsofnote.com/michael/index.html , an extraordinary songwriter from Chicago, has written thousands of really good songs and hundreds of great ones. He has simply put together a set of what he considers his very best songs, along with songs that his audience clearly thinks are his best and he made a show of them. He essentially does that show when he tours. I have seen the show and it is wonderful; impactful and completely entertaining.
So what does one do to put together a successful set? I’m thinking something in the middle of the above suggestions. I like to do one hour sets and take a break and do meet and greet with everyone and then go back up for a fifty minute set; slightly shorter and leaving them wishing for more. And you need to know how long you are playing before you can structure a successful set.
My rule of thumb is to start the set with either something familiar or something uptempo and also a song that is not too long. I have a new CD, The Eternal Contradiction (www.jamesleestanley.com/eternalcontra.html), so I’m going to want to do songs from that. I have two covers on that CD, so perhaps I will start with one of those. I like to do a song and then welcome the audience, talk a little bit and then do a couple of songs in a row before talking to them again. I believe that you have to give the music time to create the mood and that the comedy shouldn’t break that mood. So I don’t go into a joke in the middle of a poignant ballad. Comedy where it goes, music where it goes.
Thru years of being on stage I have developed an effective persona and a banter that is seemingly spontaneous. When I first started, I thought that you had to be spontaneous all the time, the way that I thought Robin Williams (www.robin-williams.net) was. So I did a different show every night, every set, and of course, comedic bits evolved. And I maintained the illusion that they were spontaneous. I didn’t want the audience to think this was something I said by rote every night.
Now what Robin did was brilliant. He certainly was amazingly spontaneous and worked off of what the crowd was giving him, but he always, and in a very smooth and efficient manner, steered it into a bit that he had already prepared. So he didn’t have to be one hundred percent spontaneous one hundred percent of the time.
That took a load off my anxiety let me tell you. I was so nervous being his opening act because his audience expects so very much from a performance. But he was gracious and supportive. Came into my dressing room every night as I was warming up (see http://www.datamusicata.com/journal/2007/7/11/performing.html) and talked to me for ten or fifteen minutes. Told me I was good, that he liked my music and that the audience was going to love me. Great fellow.
And working with a wonderful musician and raconteur named Gamble Rogers, who’s shows entailed brilliantly worked out stories of Americana (www.gamblerogers.com), I learned that the stories are just as important as the songs and that people request them just as they would a song. So in structuring a set, I must make a time and place for these stories. Gamble told me that my stories were so good that people would request them just as they would a song, and he was right.
If you talk on stage, make it matter. Now some musicians don’t talk on stage. It didn’t hurt Miles Davis (www.milesdavis.com) any. I saw him live several times and he never uttered a word to us and it didn’t hurt the show at all. However, if you are going to talk at any length, then your dialog must have the same sense of momentum and destination that a good song would have. I’ve said this before, but don’t waste your time on stage (and ours in the audience) telling us what a song is about. A good song will be about many things to many people. Tell us about the inspiration if you like…you saw an old man by the road and it got you to thinking about loneliness in the elderly…that sort of thing describes the inspiration but leaves it to us to apply it to our own experience.
And don’t talk too long. If you have a really long story, then break it up into several parts and sprinkle it thru your set. That way there is a narrative theme to what you are saying that threads it’s way thru the set. Very good technique and very effective.
Reader Comments (23)
Do you sit down and out line your shows... a basic set and what stories you are going to tell where etc?
almost never when i am the headliner. if i am the opening act and i have a specific amount of time, then i do. but when i do a concert, i like to have it be different than the one last night, or whenever. different songs, different stories and i seem to never tell the same story exactly the same twice. i live them to live and breath. same with the songs, same with the arrangements. i try to use different effects at different times, tho there are a few that have become fixed.
I really enjoy all the stories and jokes you tell during your shows. It helps to connect you to the audience. If a performer just comes out and sings a bunch of songs I feel like I might just as well listen at home to my cd rather than attend a show. It's fun to get to know you as a person and I come away from the shows feeling like I spent the evening with friends. You really put alot into your shows and that's why we keep coming back for more.
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