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What Percentage of Your Songs Are Slow


joshmac

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How many of your songs would be considered "slow" songs.

What style of music do you play?

I would say we play 1 slow song per 8 fast. Most of our tunes are upbeat and we focus on how dance-able they are. We split up the set with one or two "breather" songs. A chance for the crowd to chill out.

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we usually do 1 per set, but usually skip it in the set that is loaded with dance stuff.

We rotate these around:
At Last- Etta James
Songbird- Eva Cassidy version of Fleetwood Mac song
I Can't Tell You Why- Eagles
Home- Michael Buble
Every Time You Go Away- Hall and Oates
I'll Be Around- Joan Osborn version

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I'd say zero... the slowest tune we do is Santeria and that's not really a slow tune.

We used to have a few in our set: Lonely no more- Rob Thomas, secrets-one republic, First Time- The Script and a few others but they always seemed to kill the mood we are after. So they didn't last long. I did think we did a great version of Lonely No More by again... killed the mood.

Since OH started gigging in May 2010 We have been asked for a slow song a total of 1 time. It was a private birthday party we were playing. We didn't know it was also the lady's grandparents anniversary that day. So after we were told this 15 minutes before we started we improvised with a slower version of Just the way you are- Bruno Mars. it was sounded pretty good actually.

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We typically do one a set ... maybe two if the crowd seems to want to head in that direction. We've got a pile of 'em ... and simply rotate them as we see fit. Here's our list of slow tunes:

Fooled Around and Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop
To Love Somebody - Bee Gees
Still Got the Blues for You - Gary Moore
Only the Lonely - The Motels
Me and Mrs Jones - Billy Paul
Eyes of Blue - Paul Carrack
Hero - Enrique Inglesius
Is This Love - Whitesnake
Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
Love Look What You've Done To Me - Boz Skaggs
Ooh Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson (Linda Ronstadt)
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling

I tend to look at slow tunes as a potential key to getting a dance floor going when playing to a crowd that seems glued to their chairs. If we've hit them with quality up-tempo material and they stay seated ... we'll often switch up and play a slow one. I never ceased to be amazed at how a well placed slow tune can fill the floor. Done right - once they're up, a speedy transition into a quality up-tempo tune will usually keep the majority of 'em. Slow tunes are a great way to prime the pump of a hard to start dance floor.

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Quote Originally Posted by jeff42 View Post
... the slowest tune we do is Santeria and that's not really a slow tune.
Agreed.

We do about...one to two
Maybe we typically throw one out a night, but the emphasis is largely on uptempo, and that's the lion's share for a reason, etc.
Playing a wedding is a different story, of course.
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This is interesting. We are a country band and generally play 2 ( what I would call ) slow songs per set. Many are are medium tempo/ 2 step songs. We have been asked many times to learn more slow songs. We are currently trying to put 3-4 slow songs per set and see how it goes. It must just be the difference with a country crowd.

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Quote Originally Posted by wheresgrant3

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I would love to have a list of recommended slow songs that work. I'd say the only three slow songs in our setlist are 'Santeria', 'Soul Sister', 'What's Going On'. We usually play 1 per night.

 

Hmmm. Santeria HAS got to be the crowd-pleaser out of those three.
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Hard rock cover band, and almost nothing is slow.

".45" by Shinedown
"Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi
"Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Sober" by Tool could be debated as slow, but I don't think that's what the OP implied. smile.gif

But yeah, even then, you need to let the crowd breathe. In between the heavy, faster, high-energy stuff, you need to slip in a chance to catch your breath.

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Very few. We primarily focus on keeping the music upbeat and danceable. These are the ones we rotate through when we do throw some out there:

Wonderful Tonight (still a popular song)
Imagine (again, surprising esp. due to the "and no religion too" line)
Your Man (great for couples dancing)

EDIT: Oops, forgot to add "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" to the list. I always play that one, I always enjoy playing it and it always goes over well. Nice to have songs like that in the mix.

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0%. We are an 80s cover band and play songs by INXS, REM, The Cult, The Cure, Psycheldelic Furs, The Plimsols, The Clash, New Order, U2, etc. Most of our crowd are professionals(attorneys, salesmen, realtors, engineers, Ph.d.'s, etc.) and want to dance the night away with the songs from their teen and university years. The bars love us because our crowd buys top-shelf booze and we usually fill up the place. We are a hobby/dad band but we strive to keep the energy level high throughout the evening. We've played weddings and don't play slow songs/ballads at those gigs.

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Quote Originally Posted by capitalist

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0%. We are an 80s cover band and play songs by INXS, REM, The Cult, The Cure, Psycheldelic Furs, The Plimsols, The Clash, New Order, U2, etc. Most of our crowd are professionals(attorneys, salesmen, realtors, engineers, Ph.d.'s, etc.) and want to dance the night away with the songs from their teen and university years. The bars love us because our crowd buys top-shelf booze and we usually fill up the place. We are a hobby/dad band but we strive to keep the energy level high throughout the evening. We've played weddings and don't play slow songs/ballads at those gigs.

 

I wish my band could be like yours... cry.gif
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Almost none. We do "Let's Get It On" on a regular basis... and have thrown out "Simple Man" and "Every Rose" has it's thorn here and there.. but we tend to not do slow stuff with the full band.

Acoustic, it's a bit of a different ballgame.. but you still don't wanna go overboard with it. No more than 1 for every 7 or 8 mid to uptempo songs..

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Quote Originally Posted by Blackbird 13 View Post
Almost none. We do "Let's Get It On" on a regular basis... and have thrown out "Simple Man" and "Every Rose" has it's thorn here and there.. but we tend to not do slow stuff with the full band.

Acoustic, it's a bit of a different ballgame.. but you still don't wanna go overboard with it. No more than 1 for every 7 or 8 mid to uptempo songs..
"you" meaning you, right? There isn't a blanket policy that works for all bands or solo artists.
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