The way a musician prepares a programme for a solo concert has similarities with the way a chef puts together a menu for his guests, be it a private event or daily menu in a restaurant. Both are thinking about selecting what they think will be a suitable fit for consumption within given time period, ensuring a variety of tastes, tempos, dynamics, and textures to avoid boredom while meeting the constraints of time and feasability. Having a theme or occasion helps guide and constrain the set list.
The menu is like the set list for a gig. The pieces in the repertoire have been well-rehearsed and ready to showcase.
A chef ponders over the occasion. It’s birthday for his beloved. What does she love to eat? What has she requested? What hasn’t he made for her recently? What does she love to drink? What ingredients are in season? What is in his repertoire? Who else will he invite to make it a special evening?
A pianist considers the audience and the reason for the concert. Is she playing her usual set? Has she been hired to play for a special occasion? Is she debuting new pieces, perhaps even premiering a new composition? Is there anyone special in the audience that she has invited or should be aware of? What will be her warm-up piece? What will she end with? Encore?
A one-hour dinner and a one-hour concert both follow expected formats: starters (warm-up, opening piece), first course, second course, ….. main course, dessert, aperitif (encore).
The difference between a concert (gig) and a rehearsal (jam session) is that you can experiment and make mistakes in the latter without penalty. For performers, every gig is an audition for the next one. The stakes are much higher in a gig than a rehearsal.
There are two extremes in the way ukulele clubs approach the selection of songs for their jam sessions. Some rely completely on the leader to choose. Others use a round-robin approach where everyone takes turns. In-between are 1) members to shout out requests for the leader to choose and 2) the leader chooses for the first half and opens it up for requests.
Not all leaders of ukulele groups set the menu for their jam sessions, also known as rehearsals, meet-ups, group play and sing alongs. Those that do, spend a lot of time preparing. They create a set list with links to song sheets of their choice and/or compile a pdf containing these song sheets. To lead, they have to try out the songs to make sure the notes are within their optimal voice range and the skill level is not beyond that of their group members.
Many ukulele club leaders let their members choose from their own custom-made song book, their own custom-compiled song book, a published song book, another club’s song book, another club’s dropbox, or a website or websites of song sheets. To avoid spending time looking for song sheets, as there are so many different versions and formats, some clubs, such as the Hanwell Ukulele Group, have pre-selected the song sheets they prefer to use, make corrections, and put them in their own dropbox, website, google drive folder, or compilation. Other clubs prefer to ensure all song sheets are free of error and follow a consistent format, thus they may recreate their song sheets themselves.
Since I launched a new ukulele group on the night of the super blue blood moon in January 2018, I have been experimenting with different approaches. I began with themes, because thematic concerts which I started on Maui helped me focus on concert programming. Compiling song sheets to fit a theme proved time consuming on a weekly basis. The main benefit of this approach is minimising time to switch between songs. These song books, however, can be re-used because they’re easy to find (alphabetical order) or easy to use for instruction (ordered by increasing level of skill difficulty).
How do you choose songs at your ukulele jam session? Presumably for gigs, you choose songs for the occasion and songs you’re best at?
Note @ 29th July 2018
If you have read this entire blog post, you are very likely a candidate for my 50-question survey to help me understand how leaders of ukulele groups select songs and/or create song sheets for their members to use in jam sessions, workshops, or gigs. Without a doubt, song sheets are a necessary ingredient of ukulele jam sessions (group play and sing alongs). The current atmosphere of freely sharing and distributing song sheets on the Web helps foster the spirit of amateur music making. For most, it’s a labour of love, for you do it without expecting any remuneration.
What will you get out of completing the Google Form survey? It’s entirely voluntary. However, the more responses I get, the more reliable my results will be. You will be the first to learn the results of my research and new song sheets that I produce or critique.
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