Opinions on medleys

[klokker]

Our cover band is doing fine, playing out enough, making some money on weekends so we're doing OK. But one guy in the band has all these ideas for some big medley he wants to do somewhere during the evening. I dislike the idea, and the guy is a BSer so we'll probably never see one anyway.

But let's just say it actually happens. I can just see us wasting rehearsal time trying to make songs work together that don't, or god knows what. Key changes that are half baked etc. No way to really go through it at home unless it's recorded right etc. No way to really be on top of it. I guess in the end I'm open to it, if he really has it down and can show us how to do it well. But that's being overly optimistic at this point, from where I sit anyway.

Plus if I go to a show I don't like medley's anyway.

Anybody else have experience with this or help me have a more postive attitude about this? Learn the songs as they are first, then put them together etc.? Meh, I'm thumbs down, but I could be wrong.

 

[Killing Floor]

Either a home run or a strike out. There's absolutely no such thing as a pretty good medley. Proceed with caution. If you do it play with the arrangement and IMO keep tempo upbeat and consistent. And rehearse the crappe out of it. I generally don't love them but there are places it can work.

 

[Wasnex]

If the songs, order, and transitions are well chosen, a medley can work really well. I think they are more useful when doing a feature show where the audience is really focused on the band; especially if you have multiple vocalists.

Years a ago I ran a military country cover band. When I arrived they had three medleys. These were mainly used for 20 min shows before small groups of DVs at little parties hosted by the MAJCOM commander.

During my time we built at last one new medley. We used some of the transitions when we played 90 minute shows and also dances. In some instances we played the medley length snippet and other times we played the full song. If you have a bunch of people on the dance floor, a medley format can work really well.

For us, rehearsing a medley mostly involved working the transitions.

 

[2saddleslab]

Nothing wrong w/ a well executed medley.

 

[JRA]

Anybody else have experience with this or help me have a more postive attitude about this?

i have tons of experience playing medleys and mashups. if done correctly = they just work!

what @Wasnex said, and i agree with him: its the transitions that need to be thoughtful.

keep an open mind about the concept, give your bandmate enough support (and help if needed) to make your medley work. if your boy is clever enough with his effort, your band just may have a winner! good luck!

 

[silky smoove]

i have tons of experience playing medleys and mashups. if done correctly = they just work!

Same here, and I agree completely.

I advise caution in that playing single songs is much easier than playing medleys and mashups if you want them all to be at a high level. Nailing medleys and mashups tends to take far more planning and rehearsing than just playing a song before moving on to the next one. Adjustments to key and tempo are to be expected as well. These should be viewed as opportunities rather than problems.

 

[DWBass]

Depends on the type of cover band. I'm all for medleys. Lots of them. I don't like playing songs that just drag on. A few minutes of each song will suffice. Find the right songs to blend together with same BPM and drum groove. I've no experience in rock music. We play R&B, Soul, Funk, Pop and Top40 dance music.

As for executing..........it's pretty easy. Vocal cues and watching each other. A verse and a chorus and a verbal 1, 2, 3, 4 right into the next song. It ain't hard at all.

Here's one I put together. Easy. I'm also singing BGV's.

 

[SteveC]

Some in the band would like to do a medley/mash up for those songs that you just want to hear a verse and chorus and that's enough, and I get it, but learning/rehearsing a medley takes time. What key? How do we transition to the next song? Etc. Adding a song is easy. everyone learn it. Run it at soundcheck. Add it to the set list. Done. We could add an entire set in the time it would take to add a medley.

If they are done well they are great. If not, they suck equally as great.

 

[ArtechnikA]

My function band does a couple. One is the 'DooWap' medley; 4 or 6 songs, all in the same key, all with the same changes, all with the same tempo. There's also the 'Twist Medley' which is the same thing; big crowd-participation favorite, since the brass section goes out and dances with the crowd.

One project I was in did a mashup of LaGrange - Freeway Jam - LaGrange. Same keys, same tempo. Seamless. Fun.

Trying to work in tempo, key, or feel transitions sounds like flirting with disaster. Walk before you run. Which reminds me -- Surf Rock sounds like another genre ripe for this -- WipeOut, Walk Don't Run, PipeLine, Misirlu if you can pull it off...

 

[DWBass]

We already knew the songs individually. It's really not hard to medley songs. Just cue the drummer. He'll do a transition for the next song. Or a vocal 1234 will do. It ain't hard. It really isn't!

 

[Core Creek]

We play a bunch and they’re great. More than Medleys I’d say they’re pre-planned “groupings of songs”. Like 80’s Medley:

Your Love, into
Jenny Jenny, into
Jesse’s Girl

Funk Medley:

Play that Funky music, into
Rapper’s Delight, into
This is how we do it

I suspect we’re playing all or most of each tune, but once we get started, we don’t pause until the end. There are lots of other places where we go between similar songs, like Shake it Off and Hey Mickey, or All the Small things into Melt with You at the bridge and back. As far as I can tell the audiences love them and we fill long spaces of time without having to communicate the next tune.

 

[silky smoove]

We already knew the songs individually. It's really not hard to medley songs. Just cue the drummer. He'll do a transition for the next song. Or a vocal 1234 will do. It ain't hard. It really isn't!

In theory this works, but in practice there are often other considerations that need to be made. The most obvious is songs of sufficiently differing tempos need to be adjusted to work at the transition point. If the tempos are too different it usually won't work at all, but even small differences can throw off the feel of a tune. Key changes are also sometimes required. You could just go from one to the other, but if the transition from one to the next has a dissonant change, such as a tritone or between two keys that are very far apart on the circle of fifths, it can take quite a few bars before the sound has "normalized" to the new key. Transposing the song up or down can often help a ton, provided your vocalists can handle it in the transposed key.

 

[lomo]

When done well I love them and have had some very +ve experiences with 'em in my old cover band. We had a "go to" Em medley that started with New Orleans is Sinking>>>>Another One Bites the Dust>>>>>Roadhouse. We'd finish a set with it and bar patrons loved it. Like any song, if well done it's great. The problem is that if it's not well done it's a longer dud than a single song.

 

[NickyBass]

I was in a cover band, and when I joined, they had an entire set that was one long medley. We normally did it as the first set. It was fun, people hear enough of each song, etc. BUT, in order to add new songs, we would have had to replace an entire hour long set. So, I think it stayed around longer than needed. Luckily they were all ‘older’songs (not current hits) that a lot of cover bands still play today. When I left the band, they were still playing it.

 

[Queue]

I always wanted to do a mashup between Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, one of those back and forth ones from song to song and back.

 

[DWBass]

In theory this works, but in practice there are often other considerations that need to be made. The most obvious is songs of sufficiently differing tempos need to be adjusted to work at the transition point. If the tempos are too different it usually won't work at all, but even small differences can throw off the feel of a tune. Key changes are also sometimes required. You could just go from one to the other, but if the transition from one to the next has a dissonant change, such as a tritone or between two keys that are very far apart on the circle of fifths, it can take quite a few bars before the sound has "normalized" to the new key. Transposing the song up or down can often help a ton, provided your vocalists can handle it in the transposed key.

Well.....that's not the way to do a medley. Key changes are minor. Tempo is key. I just posted a medley we did and the songs were in different keys. If it's that difficult for your (or any) band to do, then don't do them. Maybe it's just me but I don't see the difficulty.

 

[fretno]

This should be a poll. I am a solid no on any band doing a medley. My opinion is it cheapens the quality of the tune/s.

 

[bassfran]

If you keep things moving and the transitions are smooth they can be effective. My current band does a few- some are fairly short and they work pretty well.
(They were doing them long before I joined up.)

 

[BtaylorTheRogue]

I don't like them, but boy did our crowds go wild every time we did them. Fortunately, the bar pays me to play what I like, not what the crowd likes..... right?

 

[Akami]

I've always done medleys and mostly based them off the atmosphere in the room, with most of them either being at the same basic tempo, or starting on the ending chord of the previous song being the easiest.