I'm curious if the answers will be consisten. If you play/sing, have you found there is an "average" song length? You guys been at it a long time. In a 45 minute set, how many songs do you play?

It depends entirely on the venue and audience response. For a senior home performance, I'll usually want to provide variety and several selections. Since there'll be some kibitzing and time restrictions, I'm guessing the average song length might be 2 - 2 1/2 minutes.

However for a dance, that all changes. Average song length will be longer, maybe 3-5 minutes... even longer if you're doing a medley for something like a 'robers dance'

Most important, you have to always 'rread' your audience... be prepared to shorten of lengthen a song depending on how people are responding. You might be playing a song with only a few dancers oon the floor and after 3 minutes, you're ready to end... then some more couples come on the floor. You have to either extend the song or go into something similar with no more than a few seconds 'dead air' time.

This is where (the flexibility) arranger mode has it all over MIDI or Mp3.

BTW, another option is LIVE! 4 mode... but that's a whole 'nother subject.

Hi,
when I perform, I combine songs to medleys. So I can vari the length of a medley and decide spontanously to play a song with 2 verses (instead one) or to skip a song.
Dancers are good for surprising the musician. Maybe they enter the dance floor after 2 minutes, but the song lenght is 3 minutes. What do you do? Do you interrupt the song or do you extend the song (it's boring)?
So medleys helps me to match better with the dancer's needs.
In this way I can play up to 50 songs/h.
I group songs of an artist (for example Fats Domino, I use the "I'm Walking" style to perform: I'm Walking, Margie, My Blue Heaven, Mary Ann (I would perform "Hello Josephine" too, but my song books does not contain this song).
Or I group songs by style (all Cha Chas, all Sambas, all Foxtrots).
Some oldies songs becomes new with a new arrangement and a different style. "Tea For Two" becomes a Cha Cha, "Mambo No 5" becomes a Swing Mambo.
I add other songs of the same composer - and it works. Some of the Swing songs of Youmans are perfect Cha Chas too and many Mambos composed and/or performed by Perez Prado does work in Lou Bega Style (Lou Bega was a One Hit Wonder).

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Regards
RF