Set List

[Cameron]

So I'm trying to make a serious set for  instrumental lounge/dinner type music. (using only guitar)

 

So far for songs I have:

 

Autumn Leaves

Fly Me To The Moon - Frank Sinatra

Classical Gas - Mason Williams

(plus a few things i wrote)

 

any suggestions on good songs to play for just guitar for that type of scene? It's taking me a long time lol took me a month to put together just those 3 songs lol! I wanna start gigging busking is starting to take its toll on me lol. 

[Mahesh]

Well, it depends greatly on the kind of music you listen to and the kind of music your audience prefers. Here in India, hotels and bars expect "Popular Covers" because Western Music has not penetrated as much as it could have. So we do stuff from artists who would probably be taken as too cliche there.Nonetheless, would like to share my set list with you that you can try. This was for Christmas gig, so you can ignore those.

 

1. Hey Hey - Eric Clapton
2. Love Will Keep Us Alive - Eagles
3. Sleeping Child - MLTR
4. Jingle Bells
5. To Be With You - Mr Big
6. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles
8. You've Got A Friend - James Taylor
9. I Wont Give Up - Jason Mraz
10. Dreamer - Ozzy
11. Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
12.Rudolf
13. The Reason - Hoobastank
14. When You Say Nothing at All - Ronan Keating
15. More than Words - Extreme
16. Aint No Sunshine - Bill Withers
17. We Three Kings
18. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
19. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
21. You're Beautiful - James Blunt
22. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
23. Hey Jude - The Beatles
24. Words - Boyzone
25. Dancing Queen - Abba
26. Silent Night
27. Can't Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley
28. Gravity - John Mayer
29. Request song
30. Let it be - The Beatles

 

 

 

I'm not exactly trying to suggest you these songs but giving you a perspective. It depends on what you know and what people want.

I see you've included a few Jazz standards there.  So more of Frank Sinatra songs would do good. You could also pick some good ones from the infamous Chet Baker Sings record. More recently you could go through Michael Buble's previous records. He has covered a lot of the Jazz/Traditional Pop standards. If people are looking for something more current, exploring artists such as Jason Mraz, John Mayer, James Morrison, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars etc would do good.

[Cameron]

thanks man! do you play those instrumentally or you sing along too?

[Mahesh]

They are pretty classic songs. So I do either.

I mostly do sing. But there is nothing stopping me from bringing along a friend and asking him to play the chords while I play the melody.

 

Remember, unless it's a musician crowd, audience would expect music to which they could relate to.

[TapperMike]

lounge jazz doesn't bode well with classic pop/rock. If you want to play jazz improvisations or interpertations of pop/rock then you will want to ease the audience into it with timeless jazz standards.  Every jazz musician should have a copy of "The real book"

 

If you start with Autumn Leaves and Fly Me to the Moon here are some songs I played regularly when on the jazz circuit.

All of Me

(there will never be) Another You

Sunny

All the things you are (kern)

Afternoon in Paris

A nightingale sang in berkley square

Blue Bossa

The shadow of your smile

Bye Bye Blackbird

Mahna De Carnaval (also known as black opheus / day in the life of a fool)

Close to you (bacarach)

The Boxer (simon and garfunkel

Norwegian Wood.

 

I'm thinking of more but getting distracted playing them.

[Cameron]

Thanks Tapper Mic!  That really helps, those songs seem to fit the scene I need, do you think single guitar is doable? Just acoustic? 

 

Also what do you think about throwing in songs like Classical Gas? Do you think that would be to much of a stretch from Jazz? I was just thinking it would be a cool song to perform because I don't think to many people could play it and its recognizable to almost anyone. Like i was thinking about throwing some classical and blues in there but what do you think?

 

Just stick to the jazz?

[TapperMike]

Some will take work, that's for sure..  There are several "schools of thought" for fingerstyle or combinations there of in the soloist guitar performer world.

 

 

When I started playing fingerstyle soloist jazz there were very few resources for actual material yet endless books on how to play fingerstyle.  I developed my own approach and started building my own arrangements it was a lot of work.

 

http://lickbyneck.com/ has a huge assortment of pieces arranged for fingerstyle.  The .exe isn't dangerous but I prefer reading in guitar pro format as opposed to the method used.

 

I realize band in the box is the bane around here.  Nonetheless you'll never find a larger collection of lounge type songs then the biab member users have and.... biab has a chord solo feature that will insert functional harmony against the melody in a few different jazz styles.  I used to be in the hospitality biz and for a few years I'd work at these restaraunts in hotels.  The slower nights still had live entertainment either duo or single performer. Many would bring backing tracks with them for drums and bass.  Many biab users do this as well.  They'll take biab backing track or an output of the biab file (midi. mp3 with them to a gig)  Band in a box chord soloist is work. As it's primary function isn't to simply hand you an arrangement but to show you what is possible in arranging for fingerstyle.  If you have some fingerstyle soloist experience it can enhance your experience but still you may need to fill things up and make minor changes to the arrangement to fill things up.  It's a great tool for learning not always the best tool when you want something you can quickly add to a repetoire.

 

The fingerstyle arrangements (I'm sure they are out there) for Guitar Pro are well hidden. It seems they were more popular with the powertab and tabedit community. Many of those have vanished as well.  Most chord melody transcriptions now are in pdf format.

 

All those things being said. I kind of stumbled on my own arrangement practices with simple sheet music like Wikifonia unfortunately wikifonia was closed down when funing for the material ran out.  I'll also use biab and rather then go with the chord sol feature devise my own arrangements. 

 

I stumbled upon chord/melody the same way as Tuck Andress.  After being in many bands I was in a position where I was accompanying a singer alone which required me to revise my treatment of chord/bass arrangements.  Then one day I happened upon a melody and started harmonizing it.

 

There used to be a vast community ahd huge archives for powertab aimed at fingerstyle/soloist guitar but they too have all been diminished. As well a smaller comminity for tabedit.  Most current stock tab editors (guitar pro etc) will open these older ptb and tef files.  But you'll do a lot of surfing the web to find fingerstyle transcriptions.

 

I've honestly been thinking of assembling a collection of favored transcriptions however I don't feel comfortable linking to them online for legal reasons.

[Cameron]

ahh that's to bad! I'd like to really see some of your favorite transcripts! and thanks for the information man, i read threw it all, really helps me out, And I'm trying to lean away from band in a box and more just solo guitar, like I don't think pre-recorded tracks are as entertaining as live performers, if one day I had a full band it'd be a whole new story. 

 

And man that resource you sent me is awesome!  I immediately book marked it lol! thanks so much for the help yo i really appreciate this! 

[TapperMike]

If you are a classical style player it doesn't hurt to throw classical gas or an occasional classical song into the mix.  It often gives you credibility with the crowd.  I would avoid doing a whole set of ...classical standards as it may disenfranchise your listening base.

[Cameron]

I'm not really any particular type of player I meddle with all genres of music but I wanna play instrumental solo which leaves me to jazz and classical, i prefer jazz because of the improvisation and experimentation, but i also like a few classical songs I learned over the years. 

 

What genres do you think could work with jazz? or just stick to jazz and couple classical songs like u said?

[TapperMike]

The beatles ballad stuff always works well and there are a number of jazz legends who have recorded them. A few selected Sting songs such as Fields of Gold, Shape of My Heart. Norah Jones would work really well but I'm not aware of any solo guitar transcriptions. 

 

 

It's always nice to have something contemporary in the mix.  Unfortunately I'm no help with that.  I don't follow contemporary music maybe Jack Johnson

 

A lot of soloist jazz performers I've seen (keys, guitar) invariably have to sing a song during the show. They don't sing all the songs but they will sing an occasional song.  Usually when one carves up the amount of time to play instrumental music the voice can be weak.  That's fine. Sing a song softly and then move to another or at least have some conversation with your audience to let them know you are human.

[TapperMike]

A few things of note.

 

I'd left my chord/melody playing behind several years ago.  Since you started this topic I've been re exploring that aspect of guitar playing. So thanks for that.

 

If you can.... find a bassist.  A duo is fine for smaller more intimate settings and a bass player will free you up so you aren't always supporting the melody line with a harmony. Also bassists generally have smaller ego's.  They are easier to get a long with then say another guitarist or a vocalist where considerations have to be made for what song to play and who does what.

 

And on a final note....

Writing your own arrangements isn't as hard as it might seem at first once you get the hang of it. It can be a lot faster then trying to find the material already completely written out in tab as well offer a creative opporitunity akin to improvising itself.