Concert Dynamics
 

1. Which ideas do you use when you build a song list for your concert? Overall idea of the concert, expected audience, mood, tempo, key of every song, something else?


2. How do you build the overall line of the concert to make it "not-so-boring" for the listeners? I mean something like "Start strong/fast, continue with some slow/romantic tunes, switch to the different style of music for a few tunes. etc.etc.etc."

3. Where would you put technically difficult tunes? Start from them, play them in the middle of the concert, keep them for the strong finish, scatter them across the program or group them together?

4. How would you separate the 1st and the 2nd parts of the concert?

Thanks,
Vlad

Hi Vlad,

I used to think of the tempo changes as a sine wave -- start with fast tempos, vary toward slower tempos, pick it up again, etc.

Then again, varying keys to songs helps to avoid that "everything sounds the same" thing. Also, varying major and minor key changes helps.

There are an awful lot of formulas, but most performers like to start and end on up-beat material and then vary the center of the performance as they see fit.

In the end, nothing is boring if the music is good and inspirational. Tommy Emmanuel told us at one of his workshops that people have told him that if all he played were the sweet, melodic slow pieces, they would be happy. But Tommy mixes up fast pieces with the slow on a pretty regular basis because the non-guitar playing audience needs these pieces.

Regarding technically difficult pieces, I never play the hardest stuff first while I am nervous and getting used to a crowd. I always play something that is easy so I won't mess up.

Regards, Glenn

+1. I have always found my best success when I play exactly what I really want to play. The pieces that move me as I play them. The pieces that I look forward to playing simply because I love to play them. Then, let the audience come along for the ride.

Steve

I try to avoid playing two pieces in succession in the same key, or the same tempo.

-Raf