| Tough one to generalize, Richard. Rather than answer your question,
here are a few other medley-building ideas that might help.
Consider that in a medley, you don't always have to play the whole end
of the first song and the whole beginning of the second song. Maybe
there's a common chord near the end of one song and the beginning of
the next that can be used as a switch point. When you get to that
chord, you just jerk the band out of the first song and into the second.
This can work with songs in different keys.
Also consider that you can get an excellent medley effect even if
you're not technically doing a medley in some circumstances. If the
songs have the same meter, say 4/4, try hitting the last chord, letting
it ring for a count of 4, and starting up the next song on the beat. Or
if the second song has a pick up note to begin it, just end the first
song and go into the second with minimum delay. The band should
practice these transitions in rehearsal to get them cold. This also
works well sometimes if the songs are in related or close keys, for
instance, ending in D and starting the next song on C#m, or if one song
is the relative minor of the other, or if one song is in a major key
and the other in the same but minor key.
I believes that practicing and performing songs in medleys can help the
professionalism of a show, both because medleys can be interesting to
begin with and also because they automatically keep the show moving. My
band uses alot of "song groups," some of which are medleys, others are
just fixed groups we rehearse and perform together.
Marc
|
|
I certainly agree with your latter statement. The band I play in
(actually its a 'group', sixties stuff you know!) always play sets of
three (or sets of two for slow numbers). It was amazing when we adopted
this approach (as opposed to stopping after each song). People really
started to let their hair down. Pretty soon it becomes so natural to play
the songs together they almost become a single piece. Our penultimate
set is Honky Tonk Women, straight into Brown Sugar and, bang, into
Satisfaction. I've yet to play to a crowd that isn't up and dancing and
singing by the time we're into the opening bars of Brown Sugar.
On the subject of key changes I guess I can always crib some of the
classic ones. Two that spring to mind are the key changes in My Sweet
Lord. Uses a dim chord somewhere from memory. Also the key change in
Cat Stevens 'Morning Has Broken'. There's got to be tons of other gems.
Richard
|
| Not particularly inventive or original, but useful:
If you need to move up a fourth (e.g., C to F), when you finish
the first song, follow the ending I chord with its dominant 7th
version (follow the ending C with a C7) or some variant (C11 or
Bb/C). This will lead you into the new key.
To move up a flat 3rd (e.g., C to Eb), recognize that the destination
keys relative minor is the minor equivalent of your current key.
Go to the V7 chord, go back to I, but this time make it minor (C -> G7
-> Cm). Move in some fashion to a Bb7 (e.g., Cmin, Fmin, Bb7) and
resolve to Eb. Likewise, you could go from G to E minor to E major.
To move up a step, play I, V7 and then the V7 chord of the new key,
resolving to the new I key (C, G7, A7, D). Or for a less abrupt
transition: I, V7, III to the V7 of the new key (C, G7, Em, A7, D).
Dominant seventh chords "want" to act as the V chord. You can use
the circle of fifths use this resolution to get to where you need
to be.
Jim
|
|
You can string together all sorts of I, IV, V rock'n'rollers.
I won't bother re-hashing the transitional chord info from the
previous reply, but you should be able to string together snippets
from various rock'n'rollers (it ain't rocket science, even I've done
it).
As mentioned before, it's very important to transition from one
song to the next as quickly as possible. It's been my experience
that if a couple is up dancing, and you give them more than a few
seconds between songs, they'll sit down. I like to give 'em at least
10 minutes of continuous music before stopping to indulge in some
snappy reparte`
/Billy_K
|
| >> It's been my experience that if a couple is up dancing, and you
>> give them more than a few seconds between songs, they'll sit down.
Amen to that. It doesn't take much to lose the groove. And it's
generally impossible to predict which song will start the crowd
dancing. My band has occasionally toyed with holding a group of dance
songs in reserve which we can kick in by shouted agreement when the
crowd starts dancing.
Probably the saddest (and most amusing) thing is when a couple waits
until the very end of a slow song to get up to dance, and we know
there's a rocker coming in the next 15 seconds.
>> ... stopping to indulge in some snappy reparte`
We always have a case of this stuff sent to the dressing room before
the show.
8*)
|