Break music idea, does anyone here do this?

[GCDEF]

 

That can work if the band is good. I've seen {censored}ty bands play hip hop dance music during breaks and the crowd gets upset when the band comes back on. They preferred the break music.

 

 

Depends a lot on the club. I've played in a rock band and played clubs where the people are there for the hip-hop. The sound man keeps the band volume down and cranks the DJ and his dance music during the breaks. It makes the band feel more like the break music and really takes the fun out of it.

 

It works for us the way we do it.

[rhat]

 

No. It's subtle, effective and IMHO, pretty cool. Perhaps I'm not describing it well. Let's say my band's name is "Fred". It's just something like every 6 or 7 minutes "You're listening to Fred radio. Fred will return to the stage in 10 minutes". It's no more than a real DJ would be doing if one were there spinning the break music.

 

 

Whatever you feel works for you... but one of the pitfalls of modern tech is the ability to overmarket without ever realizing you are doing it. Its a double edge sword. Over selling is almost worse than not selling at all. I guess we are kinda oldschool. Press the flesh a litte on break touch base with our regular crowd. Our break music is very low volume and has alot of original material in it plus alot of the material we cover. The idea is to give the people a break and be able to talk in the bar and smooze with the peeps. we do play to more of a listening crowd since we do early shows. we rock it out as the evening goes on and the dancers are happy.

[jeff42]

 

No. It's subtle, effective and IMHO, pretty cool. Perhaps I'm not describing it well. Let's say my band's name is "Fred". It's just something like every 6 or 7 minutes "You're listening to Fred radio. Fred will return to the stage in 10 minutes". It's no more than a real DJ would be doing if one were there spinning the break music.

 

 

I think that's a pretty cool idea. I may use it.

[MDLMUSIC]

I use my iPhone with the free Pandora app.

 

I pre-select a few different genres and use whatever is most appropriate at the gig.

 

For example, I have "Doo-wop", "Chuck Berry", "Peter Frampton", "Polka Music", and "Holiday tunes" on my phone currently.

 

Only slight drawback is that every once in a while they stick a 10 second commercial in there, but it's pretty fast and relatively unobtrusive.

 

Hey, what do you want for nothing?

[Vito Corleone]

 

That can work if the band is good. I've seen {censored}ty bands play hip hop dance music during breaks and the crowd gets upset when the band comes back on. They preferred the break music.

 

 

If that's the case, then the band should be spending their free time doing other things besides putting together break mix playlists.

[Blackbird 13]

 

Whatever you feel works for you... but one of the pitfalls of modern tech is the ability to overmarket without ever realizing you are doing it. Its a double edge sword. Over selling is almost worse than not selling at all. I guess we are kinda oldschool. Press the flesh a litte on break touch base with our regular crowd. Our break music is very low volume and has alot of original material in it plus alot of the material we cover. The idea is to give the people a break and be able to talk in the bar and smooze with the peeps. we do play to more of a listening crowd since we do early shows. we rock it out as the evening goes on and the dancers are happy.

 

 

For bands like mine, and I would guess guido's, jeff's, GCDEF's, Jason's, and mstreck's.. this would fail miserably. The people at the shows I play are there to party.. and if that vibe dies with break music they've never heard (or even worse, of songs we just played that they JUST heard)... they're going to go hear one of the other great cover bands at one of the venues that's in a ten mile radius.

 

YMMV, of course.. but for those that have higher energy bands, playing upbeat covers (especially those of us that have a lot of danceable music in our sets).. I can't see original, low tempo break music working..

[Hegmatronicon]

We tend to use break music to play songs over the PA we are thinking of covering - to see if ppl respond to them at all. (I also throw in some old classics like "Piano Man" and "Khe Sahn" for singalong value.)

 

It's not 100% accurate - but it does sometimes give us a good idea if a certain song comes on and ppl start singing along to it - we automatically add it to our "learn next" list.

[Chicken Monkey]

I, too, take the "good, but not too good" approach in choosing songs for break music, but I'm also in an acoustic duo. We get maybe a dozen dancers on a good night, so there isn't really a Party Vibe we have to worry about killing. We just want to cover the sound of silverware rattling in the bus tubs while we're peeing.

[jwlussow]

If that's the case, then the band should be spending their free time doing other things besides putting together break mix playlists.

 

[flanc]

 

For bands like mine, and I would guess guido's, jeff's, GCDEF's, Jason's, and mstreck's.. this would fail miserably. The people at the shows I play are there to party.. and if that vibe dies with break music they've never heard (or even worse, of songs we just played that they JUST heard)... they're going to go hear one of the other great cover bands at one of the venues that's in a ten mile radius. YMMV, of course.. but for those that have higher energy bands, playing upbeat covers (especially those of us that have a lot of danceable music in our sets).. I can't see original, low tempo break music working..

 

 

My band is lumped into that category too. On breaks...we get LOTS of dancers and we play a mix of dance hits...mostly current stuff (today and the past decade).

[Zeromus-X]

I used to make mixes in advance, adjusted for key and beatmatched when possible, but lately I've been basically DJing live between breaks, and people seem to enjoy the hell out of it. Live mashups always go over really well. I have a list of what songs mash with what, and just pick them based on the crowd.

[BlueStrat]

 

One thing that annoys the hell out of me with break music is when they crank it up really loud. Breaks are just that. A break for the band and a break for the crowd. bring the mood down a little and let people ears decompress from the volume of the band. while some folks seem to think that dance music at full tilt is great ,,,, it really voids out the purpose of a break.

 

 

This has been my approach. I run break music at about 1/2 to 2/3 the volume of the band. I want the next set to be noticed when we start, and have it seem like another show, not just a continuation of what's already going on.

[rhat]

 

For bands like mine, and I would guess guido's, jeff's, GCDEF's, Jason's, and mstreck's.. this would fail miserably. The people at the shows I play are there to party.. and if that vibe dies with break music they've never heard (or even worse, of songs we just played that they JUST heard)... they're going to go hear one of the other great cover bands at one of the venues that's in a ten mile radius. YMMV, of course.. but for those that have higher energy bands, playing upbeat covers (especially those of us that have a lot of danceable music in our sets).. I can't see original, low tempo break music working..

 

 

i guess its just a different kind of deal. people who come to the gigs are there to hear this singer songwriter. he works solo , in a trio format and with the full band. tonight was cajun night,, cajun food , alot of cajun music. he started off solo for the first set, we did the second and third set as a trio ,, and he will finish off the night solo. tomorrow its a full band show. its not a party band dance scene ,, more of a nights entertainment that swings around a singer songwriter and a wide variety of music. Its a house gig , so the band is always loaded in ,,, so all I had to do was drop in ,, play two sets and leave. Its not your normal band nor is it your normal kind of gig.

[Vito Corleone]

 

i guess its just a different kind of deal.

 

 

You mean there's more than one kind of deal? Whoda thunk?