Varying tempos and song styles through an event

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Ron · #1 Post by **Ron** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 3:28 pm

How would you vary tempos and song styles throughout a 3-hr evening event? Not song-to-song, that's a whole other thread, but in general.

On tempos, I would tend to play faster songs on average during the 1st hour, but not extremely slow or extremely fast songs. This keeps the energy high when people first walk in, and gets everyone dancing. I wouldn't play all fast songs, because Lindy beginners and groove-lovers wouldn't dance at all. The 2nd hour I would tend to play average tempos, with some extremes, particularly an occasional extremely fast song. Not everyone dances to these, but some appreciate them a lot. Then the 3rd hour I would mellow it out, with more slower and groovier songs, occasional faster ones. If there was a prior beginning lesson, I would choose the first 2 or 3 songs to be close to the tempo of the lesson that was taught.

On song styles, I would tend to play more popular favorites and vocals during the 1st hour, not tricky 6-minute groovy songs nor obscure scratchy swing-era songs. 2nd and 3rd hours I would play everything. More piano jazz in the 3rd hour, say.

Thoughts?

Mr Awesomer · #2 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 1:56 am

Does anyone really play "obscure scratchy swing-era songs?"

GemZombie · #3 Post by **GemZombie** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:09 am

GuruReuben wrote:Does anyone really play "obscure scratchy swing-era songs?"

Not sure about "Obscure", but if you play anything from a "Laserlight" disc, then yes

funkyfreak · #4 Post by **funkyfreak** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 2:10 pm

Non-helpful answer: play to the crowd. That's about it.

-FF

Lawrence · #5 Post by **Lawrence** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 3:14 pm

Does anyone really play "obscure scratchy swing-era songs?"

.

. (biting my tongue....

)

Mr Awesomer · #6 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 3:36 am

Lawrence wrote:biting my tongue

Please let the tounge go... I'm curious. Or do you already see my trap?

Lawrence · #7 Post by **Lawrence** » Sat Jan 11, 2003 5:51 pm

I don't see a trap, I see a hornet's nest.

Suffice to say that there are differing opinions on what is and is not obscure and scratchy.

CafeSavoy · #8 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Sun Jan 12, 2003 9:05 am

Lawrence wrote: . . . (biting my tongue.... )

"God be my judge that I hate fighting. If I be damned for anything, I
shall be damned for keeping the two-edged sword of thought tight in the
scabbard when it should be searching the bowels of fools and knaves."
Sean O'Casey

szarka · #9 Post by **szarka** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 5:40 pm

If there's a beginner lesson that night, I tend to start with slower rather than faster stuff. Once the room starts filling with experienced dancers, then I kick up the tempos and the complexity of the music.

Greg Avakian · #10 Post by **Greg Avakian** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 7:48 am

I count the tempo that the teacher is teaching at and start about 5% faster. Then I play something a little slower and then go a little faster for a song or too. Then a little slower again to make sure the newbies aren't freaked out. So the first half-hour is for the newbies. After that I bring up the energy, keep it higher for an hour or so, bring it down, bring it up, bring it down again and adjust according to what I see.

I think it's pretty obvious that tempo is not the only thing that determines a crowd's reaction, so I might play same tempo but different style within the same half hour to see what people like.

That's very general. I like the idea of DJing little "sets' of 3-4 tunes and seguing to another set.

One thing I've learned from other DJs is to jerk the music around a little; when some folks told me my sets were "mono-toned" I liked that. I always felt that the music should be seamless so that if someone couldn't feel the changes between swingin' blues at 136 BPM and swingin' vintage at 200+, that meant I was doing a really good job at managing my transitions. I believe the vast majority of dancers like this approach, but I'm trying to open that up a little.

Nate Dogg · #11 Post by **Nate Dogg** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:46 am

It all depends on the venue and who is teaching the lesson. I try to pay attention to the who the intro lesson teacher is. We have four sets of teachers with four different ideas about what the best beginner music is.

When the room is full of newbies, I will try to play something close to what their teacher exposed them to.

Nate Dogg · #12 Post by **Nate Dogg** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:54 am

Greg Avakian wrote:That's very general. I like the idea of DJing little "sets' of 3-4 tunes and seguing to another set.

Greg:

Back during the first Albany Exchange, a certain DJ told me that they work under this approach. I have used it as a rule of thumb ever since.

The trick is to get the bridges between the mini sets (i.e the final song of one set naturally flows to the first song of the next). That way, the set still flows somewhat.

In my opinion, the main advantage that DJs have over bands is the amount of musical variety they can bring to the table. I have never understood why a DJ would want to play two hours that sound like they came from the same band.

Of course, there are times when I don't follow the "no more than four songs alike" policy, but those are usually theme nights, special events, Exchanges, and such.

P.S. - If the songs happens to be a novelty song (Hip Hop, waltz, latin, country swing, etc...), I generally don't do mini-sets of those. I usually limit novelty songs to one per hour, if at all. I do attempt to find complimentary songs before and after the novelty song, so the song is not an island unto itself.

At the end of the night, all the policies get bent a lot more.

yedancer · #13 Post by **yedancer** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 2:53 pm

I think it's a disservice for teachers to do a "beginning lindy" lesson, because they inevitably use a slow-to-midtempo song. Then the DJ is forced to play slower songs, or else the newbies can't dance to it. I think it's better to teach the beginners something like ECS or charleston, that way the DJ can play lots of high-energy fast(er) stuff. The beginners will have a lot more fun flailing about and kicking around than they will massacring the swingout.

In general, I would say that I slow down toward the end of the evening.

CafeSavoy · #14 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:24 pm

i think at the beginning you should play good energy with clear rhythms,
but not necessarily fast. and then once people get warmed up you can
run the tempos up more. i think how you mix the tempos should depend
on the crowd and the time of the night.

Lawrence · #15 Post by **Lawrence** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:31 pm

This is an interesting thread suggesting that slower music is beginner-friendly. For years, I have battled the notion in Austin that playing "beginner-friendly" music implies playing nothing under 150 BPM because beginners want to do nothing but quickly shuffle and wiggle through 6-count steps without noticing that they are off-beat. (Talk about encouraging bad habits!)

I agree with Rayned. Tempo is relevant, but just one thing to consider. The complexity of the music, strength of the beat, and energy of the song seem to be more important differences between beginner-friendly and "advanced-friendly" music.