Background: As many of you know, after 12+ years of performing with my quartet, I ended things on NYE. I pondered this for two years, spoke with several friends including a few SZ-ers, and really weighed the Pro's/Con's of it. In the end, there really wasn't much confusion on what to do. I have no regrets, in spite of each of the guys now thinking me a fool for walking away from a popular, well received band that was capable of working several times a month.

I played my first gig at the main client the band has had last Saturday, and everything went fine. Dance floor packed all night, crowd stayed till late, Commander complimented me, etc...Even had a few guests admit they were wary of how I could pull it off all by myself but now confessing to me that it was quite good. I also was invited to work with another local club.

This club is trying to move toward a younger crowd. (Who isn't, these days, eh?) When they say younger, they're looking at pulling in more 30's and 40's age groups. I've totally overhauled my new set lists from the old band ones and included more stuff from bands like the Eagles, Wild Cherry, some R&B, Oldies, etc. than the band did.

I need more...call it a work in progress...

So, I worked up a form for all the guests last weekend to write down some new requests. The form specifically stated "looking new songs." I personally handed these forms to each table and verbally explained again what I was looking for.

The results:

I got 70 total requests turned into me...

Of the 70, 52 songs were songs I've been playing at the club for years...

Of the remaining 18 "new requests" 9 were immediately dismissed for various reasons. (not danceable, too obscure, I didn't like the tune, etc...)

That left nine songs that I feel I could work with...

But...all of these 9 tunes are basically standards. They're not "newer" tunes. If I add them, which I will do over the next few months, I won't have advanced one step closer to my goal of moving toward a younger sound. The newest thing was "Key Largo." I'll keep adding newer stuff on my own, of course. (You should've seen them trying to dance to "Play that funky music." OMG!!!)

This is a very interesting challenge for me. All my other dance accounts are huge country places and they love the classic country, so they are pretty easy to keep pleased. This place is different. I need to move toward pleasing a crowd that for the most part, isn't even in the building most nights. I think the word of mouth from the bartenders and club officers will be critical to this working the way I want it to.

Thoughts, comments suggestions always welcome...

(Sorry for the length...wanted to give context though...)

The first things that strikes me, Bill, is who was in the audience? Was it an older crowd, was it none of the very people you want to attact -- 30s and 40s age group? If none were present, then, that's why you got "older" songs.

Also, if there WERE 30s and 40s age people there, how did you pose the question? If you said "Suggest some new songs for me," it could be that some of the younger people think you are wanting suggestions for "old" songs. But if you said, "I am seeking songs popular with 30-somethings and 40-somethings, please suggest some," that would zoom in on what you seek.

One thing you could do is find the hit charts for those aged 30 to 40 when they would have been ages, say, 17 to 29. Roughly, music from the 80s and 90s... and search out those songs on youtube to listen to them. I am confident you will find plenty of songs that you can play that your younger audience will be SHOCKED that you are playing. Also, I don't know your rig, but many of these songs are bass-heavy, so, plenty of sub power is in order.

Walk away and make in up in your strength which is nursing homes, 7 a much older crowd..let them enjoy their wild drunk bands and DJ's
start mixing it up with a laptop & a MP3/smf/live play mix...no matter what you do they'll want that newer stuff to sound like the original & thats not gonna happen with an arranger kb solo all night for 4 hrs. Your not in a good situation at this time.

Bill-The only people under the age of 65 I'd say that night were me and the bartender, lol...

Don-That's the fall back plan. What I have to say is that I felt better driving home from the club last Saturday than I have a long, long time. My wife said she never saw me this pumped up after a band gig...ever, lol...

As I said, the Commander came up to me and complimented my work that night. I honestly can't remember the last time one of the officers came up to me to say "good job" when the band played..

It went well...I'll keep gently pushing more modern things in that have a really good solid dance beat and I suspect it'll work out.

I've tried the midi file thing and I can't get comfortable with it. I feel like I'm waaaaaay more dependent on it than I do when I play with styles. heck, I don't even have to play the chords if I don't want to. I personally don't feel good about noodling over this awesome sounding midi file. Some guys are great with them...not me. I find styles that are suitable matches for the songs I want to play, then create exactly my own arrangement, and it works for me...

Well, there's nothing to prevent you from editing a commercial SMF into the arrangement you want, and of muting as many of the parts as possible to give yourself a musical challenge when you play it. Nor of using 'Mark/Jump' features to re-order the arrangement on the fly, if your dance floor needs extending (or shortening!) the piece.

I personally don't see a LOT of difference between 'noodling' over basic chords you input with the otherwise almost completely unused LH, and 'noodling' over an SMF. Either one of them can present as much challenge as you are willing to give yourself. Or as little.

The biggest challenge in doing more music from the last thirty or forty years, compared to standards, is popular music's move over to the electric guitar as the main sound used. Back in the 'standards' day, the guitar was just part of the rhythm section, and not a very big part even of THAT, and seldom featured compared to horns, etc.. If there's one thing arrangers in general are weak on, it's getting electric guitars RIGHT. As integral to modern pop and rock as they are, they tend to show up the weaknesses in our arrangers.

This might be the place to try and find good MP3 backing parts, with REAL guitarists playing. There's STILL nothing to stop you editing even THOSE into a structure you feel more comfortable with (although I'm not sure if any arranger has the 'Mark/Jump' feature for audio yet, dammit!), and the end result will go a long way towards packing the floor.

Another approach might be to work with whoever runs the break music, whether it is YOU, or someone else. You might be able to stick to your formula, if the break music concentrates exclusively on this 'younger' period. I've worked several clubs where the band tend to concentrate on say, classic rock, or R&B, and the DJ does the more top 20 stuff of the day. Worked pretty well when done right.