How many songs can your band perform?

The band I'm in, in our first year, we've worked up to about 55 songs that we can perform on stage. But its not enough, we need more songs!! We keep getting requests we do not know, or "do you know any songs by artist ABC" and no sorry we don't know any of those songs either. We need more songs!!!

I'll be glad when we've worked up to over 100 songs, but its gona be awhile.

How many songs can your band perform?

I have a band with my wife that has been together for 23 years (www.drburma.com). I have a song list that I send out to people interested in hiring us with about 300 tunes, but I'm sure we have over 500 tunes we could do - our bass player thinks it's close to 1000. It helps that everyone has good ears and a good memory!

I have three big binders full of lyrics, and two books of chord charts for soul/rock/pop, which helps when we need it. We can also play pretty much any jazz standard out of the Real Book instrumentally, and my wife or I can sing a bunch of them as well.

We played almost 6 hours NYE. We repeated a few songs, but not very many.

If all four of us learned every song the other three know, we would have a song list that would have several hundred songs.
But we don't like to look back, we would rather learn new stuff.

I think our band can do 150 or so. I counted them once but don´t remember. I do know it takes 65 songs to do a 9 to 2 gig.

I think our band can do 150 or so. I counted them once but don´t remember. I do know it takes 65 songs to do a 9 to 2 gig.

I've pulled off a 9-2 with three sets of 9. But we are a reggae/jam band. Our songs are as long as we need them to be, and reggae music is easy enough to listen and dance to that people have never cared--dance floor stays full.

That said, our band has about 45, but I tend to get bored easily, so I'm always pushing everyone to learn more

We did 28 this nye. About 6 were covers.

We have 32...always pushing for more, damn starting to think we don't know enough now!

We play about 45 songs in 4 hour night......we have about 80 in the bag....

How many can we do?

How many are there?

I learned way, way, way back in Jr, High, you can rock like Deep Purple and sing like the Eagles on a song nobdy has ever heard and get a smattering of attention paid to you. Do a cluster-$^%)* of a song everybody knows and you get the chicks to come out to your van.

We have our first gig coming on Jan-14. I'm pretty confident we will get through our 9 song set without a crash and burn. :roll:

I really don't know because we have a set of standards that we put on the list that's adds up to 85. However we have songs that we've culled over the years but could pull off confidently.

Probably around 150 if guessing but could be more.

Oh:oops:, is this a cover band thread???

Our band is for about 5 or 6 six weeks together and we have 5 songs....OWN songs...

Doesn't matter whose songs. Five won't get you booked around here.

Oh:oops:, is this a cover band thread???

Our band is for about 5 or 6 six weeks together and we have 5 songs....OWN songs...

I shall refer you to post #6 and toot my own horn once again.
Keep playing together, the songs will come.

Man! You guys are machines! Some of you know A LOT of songs...AMAZING!

Oh:oops:, is this a cover band thread???

Our band is for about 5 or 6 six weeks together and we have 5 songs....OWN songs...

We do some of our own material too.

How many songs can we do, not how many will we do.

Don't make this an Us vs Them thread.
Nobody here is putting you down for doing your own thing.
Return the favor.

After about a year, four guys who have full time day jobs and families, can comfortably pound out about 45 songs I figure. 45 songs is enough for around here. Here was some sets we did:
Start at 9pm end 9:50. Take a 10 Min break. Repeat to 11 pm. 11pm to about 12:30 and end it. About 3 hours of sweaty, stinky, playing, for what? $50 to $100? Not including loading, transport, set up, take down and put away. Plus a year rehearsing in advance to get to 45 songs. Ya gotta do it for love.

We have over 50 on the "master list" but being a three piece I can play something the rhythm section has never played and we can do a pretty good job if we have to. I have books and books of songs. If I'm going to add to the list I'd like to go over them once or twice before we play them in front of strangers. Luckily, the drummer and I have listened to a lot of the same music and the bass player's played everything from lounge jazz to heavy metal.

I am facinated by this thread. My band has been together for three years this month, and we know about 50 songs. A typical gig is from 9-1, and I usually put about 40 songs on the set list. We very rarely, if ever play every song on the list. We've got some songs that we'll jam on particularly if there are people on the dance floor. I swear, we play the longest Johnny B. Goode I've ever heard anyone play. People love it!

For our New Year's show, we played 35 songs.

We have about 40 all originals. We can put together a 3 set night, but we are definitely dipping into the B material.

Being in Chicago it is rare that you play more than an hour and twenty. Typically it is a two or three band bill and you play 50-60 min.

After about a year, four guys who have full time day jobs and families, can comfortably pound out about 45 songs I figure. 45 songs is enough for around here. Here was some sets we did:
Start at 9pm end 9:50. Take a 10 Min break. Repeat to 11 pm. 11pm to about 12:30 and end it. About 3 hours of sweaty, stinky, playing, for what? $50 to $100? Not including loading, transport, set up, take down and put away. Plus a year rehearsing in advance to get to 45 songs. Ya gotta do it for love.

That's almost exactly how it is with us. About a year in and we have maybe 40 songs with a couple of new ones being added most weeks. I think having about 60 at any one time tight and ready to go is about what we are aiming for.

I'd say we can do a couple hundred. We vary them depending on the audience. Bars..more rock, Banquet Hall....more dance etc. We also do a lot of Irish events. So for those, I set my synth for accordion, and we can do close to a whole set of Irish.

175

we are thinking of ripping it all apart and learning 40 top forty 'highway' country songs for this year... go modern, play what people will pay for. we are tired of telling people what they ought to like, instead, we want to play what they want to hear....

we had a casino person out to see us, she loved us but told us we need to play modern stuff or she wouldn't book us.. or if we played classic rock or 50's music that would work but, if we played modern country, it would be easiest to book us....

We've got around 150 songs on our master song list and play 12 songs per 45 min set (average). We play 3 set, 2 set, and 1 set gigs thru-out the year, along with a few concert format gigs where the set is 90 min to 2 hrs. With 150 tunes we rotate tunes in and out of set lists as needed for the particular gig/audience we have lined up. We always honor requests at small venue gigs, if the song is something we have worked up and can play. If it's not then we tell the person we'll play it our 4th set. :lol:
If the request is for "Freebird" we charge $500 to play it...haven't had to play it yet!

We know about 50 songs to do well enough to gig, bring 40 for a three set night and have about 25 more within polishing distance of adding to the set list. Most of those are ones we used to do but cut due to the "cricket treatment". ;)

-DJ

8 completely different sets. That way if you pull a 2 night gig you have a different show the next night. not repeat songs.

Here in Minneapolis, there are two kinds of bands. If you are an original band and playing in the city, even if you're a "major" up-and-coming act with an indie record deal, nobody wants you to go much more than an hour and you usually have a couple smaller acts supporting your show with sets of their own of 30-45 minutes.

If you're a cover band that takes the trouble to do justice to the "standards" (and maybe keeps up with current hits), you'll find yourself getting booked in the suburbs, exurbs, and out in the sticks, and generally the farther from downtown you get, the better the money offer usually is and the longer they usually want you to play.

When I was asked to join the band I currently play with,they had a catalogue of around 300+ songs. I had some catching up to do.:lol:

A lot of the modern pop stuff the punters demand is completely disposable,as much substance as candy floss,so sometimes we'll only play tunes like that for a few weeks and they are dead in the water,never to be used again. A normal set is 50-60 songs.

We Can Play All Our Songs In About 6 Hours. Longest Show We've Ever Done Was 5 Hours At A Private Event And It Was About 52 Songs.

I'm in a two week old band, and we've got about dozen covers and four originals down. It helps that we all knew the covers before we formed the band. We could get a set out of it.

several hundred, cover band...we probably play 40 ish on a gig...

But we change the set list as we repeat gigs at the same places, not 100% but add or subtract.

we also add or subtract based on the crowd ...sometimes you are doomed if you just stick to the set list...a regular working cover band should be able navigate based on whats happening out on the dance floor...but that takes a bunch of years experience, as long as a band is adding to the list on a regular basis and understanding if songs work or don't work then the future will be bright !.

LAUGHING, last night we closed with Mustang Sally, a pretty rocked out dual guitars version, the place went wild , everyone came to the floor at 1:30 AM ! we probably haven't played MS in a few months but last night it was the right song at the exact right time...yeh I know some of you will never play MS...but the truth is you should KNOW it even if you don't play it because at some point in your cover band career you will be playing a nice $1200 gig and the "party" will request it....or a monthly $600 gig and it will be a request...

t

The trio I'm in has done 5 two hour rehearsals so far. 26 tunes ready to go.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RN15DrY7PY0/Twm-RV0wHhI/AAAAAAAACl8/h0WfyOKjkQM/w383-h287-k/DSC00159.JPG

Collectively hundreds.. we play about 40 a show.. 10 until 2.. sometimes a little less sometimes a little more.. Sometimes we do stuff from the past we just feel like playing.. This form of the band has been together a year but me and the bass player about 5 on and off for about 8 years..

We play about 45 songs in 4 hour night......we have about 80 in the bag....

Same here!

- Jagg

we do 30; but want more

Back when I was playing with the band (1980-1993) we NEVER ran out of songs in a four hour gig and on a three night gig we would only repeat songs as requested. I never stopped to count, but I think MY list ran 50-75, the leader/bassists list ran 100+ (some duplicates) and the lead player had about as many. All cover tunes, by the way. I have no idea how many I could pull off now, but I reckon I could go a couple hours.

I just joined a band that requires me to know the Nashville number system. Our working list is 350 songs... I am so glad they don't expect me to know all the written hooks and leads!!! I just have to be familiar with the song and the bass player tosses me the signal and I'm good to go. haha! But we have 100 songs that are in regular rotation that i have to know note by note.

Probably 50-75 in this band , last band could do double that.
But I quite often play in a rock band on a friday doing Thin Lizzy/purple etc
then my own band on a saturday doing completely different stuff, then maybe dep in a rockabilly band on a sunday doing different stuff again, so could easily be a 100 different songs in a weekend.
enjoy it all. :cool:

I have no idea how many songs I know, or how many my band knows. I'll tell you what, it's a freaking lot.

I do not carry lyrics or charts, I just know stuff. Gigged with my trio last night, three one hour sets. Mostly based on requests called out from the audience. If we don't know it, we can usually do it anyhow if we've heard it enough and it isn't too complicated. We played several last night we'd never done before. The unwritten rule is, if I know the lyrics, we'll probably try it. Lyrics are my thing. I haven't listened to the radio since the mid 90's partially because if I do, I learn songs. All I have to do is hear something 3-4 times generally, and I know the lyrics forever. They're just in my head. That's how I could do "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" last weekend when I got asked for a Whitney Houston song.:lol:

I have two master lists of songs, one for electric gigs, an one for acoustic gigs. They are not complete lists, just loose guides to get the brain working. I have them broken into categories like 60's, 70's, 80's, country, rock, blues, Dylan, etc. Once I start using the list, other stuff starts coming to me and I don't usually need it the rest of the night. No set lists ever, I just call tunes on the fly. My acoustic list runs from Civil War era to the 1990's, my electric list runs from the 50's to the 90's. All genres are spanned on both lists. I think total between the two lists is probably around 600 tunes, but I routinely play whole sets of songs that aren't even on the lists. I would say conservatively, there are probably 1500-2000 songs in my mental rolodex, including around 50 of my own.

The trio is a blast. I can do whatever anybody asks for in that band. If the guys don't know it, I just give them the key, a basic progression, and what it feels like, and then cue liberally through the tune. The guys are fantastic, and they don't usually blow it. I love a band I can work for good money with, and never have to rehearse, ever.:cool:

Our bank has about 55 or so that are in the regular setlists and another half dozen or so that are pretty close to being performance worthy.

My country cover band knows around 70 songs and we're always learning more. We've got our set list put together so we have set show centerpieces, tunes that we just kill on and play every night. Then we have spots where we'll play either song A, most of the time, but when we're bored with that one we pull out song B or C. So each of our sets has 3 or 4 spots that pretty much never change, another 3 or 4 that rarely change and another 3 or 4 where songs rotate in and out. If we learn a new song that kicks ass, we make sure it's in 1 of the premeer spots and not rotated in and out as much.

In my original band our short set for the 45 minute gigs is 10 songs and for longer gigs is I think 17 or something like that.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RN15DrY7PY0/Twm-RV0wHhI/AAAAAAAACl8/h0WfyOKjkQM/w383-h287-k/DSC00159.JPG

Ah,now that's not the same as knowing songs, is it? I can read hundreds and hundreds of songs. We play a lot of 6 hour gigs, but have done a couple of 8 hour events and never ran out of songs.

A band I play bass in does two sets.
All crowd pleasers - about 24 songs total.
We've played long shows by just alternating sets... 1, 2, 1, 2, etc.
No complaints and plenty of re-bookings.

With Mr. Whiz we usually play one set of 25 songs plus two or three "bises" (encores?); three if they ask for them, two anyway :grin:
All our songs are around two minutes long rockabillies

Currently, about 70 numbers....

...and we have been known to do quite a few four-hour gigs (although I should point out that does NOT necessarily always translate into enough $$$!) :sad:

Band has been together nearly 7 years.....