Opinions on medleys

[Akami]

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.

Key changes working only boils down to paying attention to how to resolve, and you're right, it's not that difficult.
Tempo can be more awkward, but then that's where a lot of the fun comes from!
If it's just not working, then figure it out until it does.

 

[silky smoove]

Well.....that's not the way to do a medley. Key changes are minor.

It is the way to do a medley if those are the songs you're transitioning between. If you have to make adjustments to them to accomplish the goal then you do it rather than just not doing the medley. Key changes are minor when they work. They're not minor when they're wildly disparate, but as-stated in my previous post, a simple transposition can often resolve that issue in a way that's more sonically pleasing than sticking to the original key.

If it's that difficult for your (or any) band to do, then don't do them.

No need to be passive aggressive. One of the professional GB acts I work with is built around the idea of "like a live DJ but it's a band" which essentially translates into mashups and medleys all night. Even wildly non-conventional ones that no one would ever consider easy, but are made sonically viable through manipulations of tempo and key.

 

[matthewbrown]

I was in a show band that almost never rehearsed, and yet somehow we managed to pull off quite a few medleys over the years. If you want to keep dancers on the floor, smooth transitions are one way to do it.

 

[ChazBassBoCO]

A CLASSIC technique in some folk genres. The Chieftains made a good living from starting with a stately air and move thru 3 or 4 tunes, each a bit faster until they finish at a gallop.

 

[DWBass]

Here's a medley my current band does. By the way, the drummer, keyboard player and guitarist were all subs and we pulled this gig off with only 2 rehearsals.

 

[Wasnex]

BUT, in order to add new songs, we would have had to replace an entire hour long set.

A bit of an exaggeration IMHO.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I like them. For cover bands every second of silence between songs seems like 10 to the audience.

 

[DWBass]

A bit of an exaggeration IMHO.

Agree

 

[NickyBass]

A bit of an exaggeration IMHO.

The medley was about 50 minutes. It was the entire set. I suppose we could have cut songs out, but we would play part of one song and then pick it back up a few songs later.

 

[roadyboy]

A CLASSIC technique in some folk genres. The Chieftains made a good living from starting with a stately air and move thru 3 or 4 tunes, each a bit faster until they finish at a gallop.

I bought my Upton standard upright, from the bass player in this band. If rehearsed properly and done well, it can be an entertaining interlude or good way to keep dancers on the floor.
It might be interesting to see an original act with a deep catalog of hits, [i.e. the Stones] do a medley of songs in concert.

 

[basted]

A local band used to do a medley at the end of their last set. It was fairly long and got faster as it went. By the end all the dancers had had enough and before anyone could catch their breath and call for more songs the band had said goodnight and were packing up. A clever idea.

 

[NickyBass]

Or maybe we could have plugged new songs in or replaced some. Maybe I did exaggerate a bit. Sorry

 

[Core Creek]

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.

We do that! We actually do the Kid Rock song, and then Sweet Home, and then Wherewolves. Again… gets us playing straight for 5 minutes, and from a bass perspective a great time to zone out a little and watch the audience.

 

[Altitude]

Once upon a time I saw Ian Moore play his own song “Muddy Jesus” and in the middle of it he quoted a whole verse of “Personal Jesus” which he managed to play in his style, not like Depeche Mode.

This might have been in 2003 but I remember it like it was last night. It was that cool.

But I think the cool came from the execution, not from the idea.

 

[LuckyScott]

They have always worked great for us. We do several. The no brainers are all summer long by kid rock, Sweet Home Alabama and werewolves of London. Same chord progressions.
Also What I like about you and R.O.C.K. In the USA. Also same chords.

 

[SteveC]

I’d be more open to a “mash up” of like Rich - Joker - Rich. Same song basically. Chords. Tempo.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

When done well, they work well. I have done both where we transition after playing part of the songs and others where we do most of the song and then transition into something in the same (or close) key and tempo. I think it adds to the show. It keeps people on the dance floor, shows that you've put some work into it and takes away any potential down time between songs.

The important thing is to plan it well. I can put them together and hear it in advance splicing up the songs and creating any transitions (as long as it is part of the song) using digital audio software. Keeping things simple, intuitive and smooth is the key.

When I suggest and arrange a medley, I create an MP3 of the arrangement and it is just a matter of everyone learning it like any other song. That goes a long way to reduce the rehearsal time working on the transitions; just listen to the recording I made!

The only drawback is you end up locking in those songs to the medley, so if you want to change up your setlist, you're limited in what you can do.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

We had one..count em...one medley.
It was sort of our "emergency " medley.
It was designed to get dancers on the dance floor. It almost allways worked.
Hang on Sloopy--> Louie Louie---> Wild Thing
Same 3 chords, up tempo.
Don't know if it would fly today... It would depend on the crowd.

 

[Goatrope]

I'm in a classic rock cover band. 3 piece. We've been together 10 years now. We don't use a set list but are tight with more songs than we need to fill many hours.

We often do blocks of songs by one or three artists, but they're complete songs, and not run together like a medley.

However, we do have an actual medley built up for a specific need. We're not a dance band, but occasionally we have that group of 15 girls that bop into the venue wanting to dance, so we do a Sly Stone medley, plus other songs that basically continue the dance beat.

It keeps the folks dancing for about 45 minutes. Just enough to wear them down a little. Usually they'll stick around for the remainder of the gig, so I think it working well for its intended purpose.

So I'd say yes, build and work out that medley, then use it when the time is right.

 

[Jazzdogg]

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.

Medleys can work really well when everyone in the band reads; in bands without the ability to consistently follow an arrangement, it's a crapshoot IME; a good musician is a good musician, whether playing from sheet music or not.

In one former band, instead of medleys we had themed sets; a blues set, a Jazz set, a Santana set, a Steeley Dan set... The key was to transition from song to song seamlessly, minimizing dead time.

We typically played each song in it's entirety, not just a snippet from each song. But, sometimes, we would transition from one song to another, and back again - more like having a cameo pop up within a song.