Karaoke Forums

What bigdog is trying to say,  is his whole library consists of songs that are 120 bpm, and under 3 minutes each..  He has KC and the Sunshine bands greatest hits... and a few other disco songs from the Village People, he also raises the pitch quite abit to get it over with..  That's why he ends up with Chipmonks

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Steven.... Don't put words in my.......  :whistle:  :wave:  :no:  :hug:

How could I resist  :worship:


Bigdog, If you haven't already.  Check out the young guitarist I posted in the Music and musician site.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

You're the King - the King can play with the rotations as he pleases, but around here to do so may cause him to lose his subjects.  Especially this one.

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Singing just for you

"Subjects"





"Dr. Frankenstein PhD, MD, KJ"

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Under normal circumstances, I would be very opposed to this suggestion.  :yes:   I don't like telling people that come out to have fun how they should be doing it.    

If it means I might be able to keep a larger crowd and the bar will make more money and I will consequently get a bigger payday, then I must humbly submit the following....


Here is the answer everyone has been waiting for.    :yes:

Tatadadadadadaaaaaaaaa.    :worship:

If the gas price situation wasn't what it is and keeping jobs wasn't going to be the next big issue for a lot of us, I would say that you could limit the number of slow songs sung in an hour.   This would be at the risk of losing many of your following.     Tell them to submit several songs that will be substituted at the KJs discretion.   If the  slow song limit for this hour isn't reached then you can sing one, if it was reached, I will be substituting a fast one from your pile.   You will get priority to sing a slow song in the next rotation.    :whistle:

Send all donations as quickly as possible.   I can't keep drinking free water forever.

I really should get an award for this.  :yes:

You could handle this in a number of ways.   You could tell the bar owner how he could fatten his wallet.....    Should need no further explaining.   You could tell singers that the bar owner wants to liven things up a little.   You could print it in your song book, informing them of the slow song count/hour.

Do you think this would work in your gig, without too much controversy?   The chances of some of the regulars going else where is there, but I don't know how drastic it would be.    I would lose a few, but I think if it was handled right you could get them to see that the bar needs to make money in order for you to remain there.   Place it on the bar owners need to have so many paying customers for it to be worth having.   It really does come down to that, anyway.

You could lump the slow songs into a slow dance set.   Play them all at once and then 45 minutes of fast songs.  We could be just like DJs.   Playing 3 slow songs, 3 fast songs, 3 country songs.    I'm still trying to talk myself into this whole idea.     It does have some merit.

Cayeene pepper makes a poor windscreen but it will make the singers suddenly come to life.

Don't think many of you will be interested, but --- I have had the slow song history destroy my evening - sometimes even all country!  This is how I handled it.  After speaking to the bar owner of a particular estabishment, we decided to pep things up and play a game.  Of course you have to have an owner who is interested in keeping their crowd.  She (bar owner) and myself were tired of so many slow songs in a row.  Or so much country.  If country was upbeat it wasn't so bad because all would get into the songs.
Anyway - we announced at the beginning of the evening that we would be giving away a free drink (whatever they happened to be drinking at the time) to whatever singer had the most response with the crowd.  In no particular order other than the rotation would you know if it were your song and with a timer that the bar owner set.  A couple of dollar investment.  It took a while to get the hang of it going, but we have had some pretty ggod rotations with the regular following.  Singers are kind of performing, and singing more upbeat songs to get the crowd motivated.  Without even knowing it, they are making more money for the bar.  And yes,  they are drinking some pretty expensive drinks in hopes to get that $4 or $5 drink free.  But what is it really costing the bar owner?  Pennies!!  We have not had one patron complain about it being someones elses turn when the timer went off.  We do this about every half hour.  The gave away 6-8 drinks, mostly beer, but didn't run a special where they got burned by selling bottled beer for a $1.00 or $1.25 and then everyone drank bottled beer.  It killed them.
Anyway it was fun, still is, and working to keep the slow songs to a minimal.  We actually have more people clapping.  And God knows, these karaoke junkies want applause!!!!!!!

I really like this one. It would def. work on me and many of my friends.

It IS fun!   And I want to try it at a few of the other places.  Let me know if it works for you.  It can't hurt to try new things.
I think a lot of KJ's are just afraid to approach our bar owners.  I had to learn real fast.  My ex wouldn't approach any of them.   I had to do all of the talking.  And I grew by that experience.  And I might add, his expertise.  But I did all the talking.  More or less I guess you could say, I had to do what I was told to do.  But it was was a great lesson in the end.  I became very confident in speaking to even the worst bar owners, and the rowdyest crowds.  Not that we had or ever drew rowdy crowds.  But there were nights when it could of happened.  I was prepared.

Did anyone say anything about it sounding too much like a "crowd killing" contest?   Or feeling pressure and taking the fun out of it?   I'm just asking, because most of my singers don't want to feel like everything is a competition, even though we both no differently.     They are all participating in a silent competition, if you know what I mean.  ;-)

No, never.  Because it could of been the worst singer in the bunch!  You have to realize too, that these singers, at least in this bar are there weekly.  Never see them anywhere else.  They patronize this place because it is close to home, they have good repor with the owners and othere clientele.  Yes there are some new faces weekly.  come one week, don't see them for a week, then again, then not.  But for the most part, these people have fun with all the other singers too. New or old.

Something that I have found that works good if I have too many slow singers, I will put in my DJ version of Cha-Cha or Electric Slide. This will get most of the gals out on the dance floor (which the guys love to watch) and it also tends to inspire the singers to pick some faster songs. In our area, the singers really like it when people dance to their renditions, so if they see a lot of people dancing to fast songs and not so many dancing to the slow songs, then they try the faster ones.

As far as rotation, in my area you had darn well better keep the rotation in order. Do not skip someone, they will let you know real quick. If Mary has been singing right after John all night and John is still there, Mary wants to sing right after John and she doesn't care how many singers have come or gone. Keeping your rotation in order also helps the singers get to the stage on time. Mary knows that if John is singing, she will be next and she won't go to the restroom. She doesn't want to miss her turn to sing. That is something I do and I let the singers know I will do it. I don't hold the show up waiting for them to finish telling a story, etc. If they are not there and ready to sing when it is their turn, then I will go on to the next singer or if that singer is ready (in the restroom--it wasn't his turn next), I will put in a DJ song. I never sing one myself when I am skipping someone. Don't want them to think they were skipped so I could sing.

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Keep on Keeping On! It's never too late and you're never too old!!!!!

Our kj from a few years back would play the faster dance tunes occasionally, but he had background music as well that would play while announcing the next singer. He always used upbeat or fun tunes then as well.

His trick was to gauge it by the audience. He would feel the atmosphere of the club and play tunes for background that were one step closer to the atmosphere he wanted. After a short time, the crowd was comfy, friendly and ready to do mostly fun songs. We still got a few slower songs per rotation, but is like the valley between the peaks of faster songs. It worked out just great.

magimae,

Our rotations are the same as yours and I also believe it helps keep the pace up as many are ready to go....  Some even move closer to the "stage".  While this doesn't help with the pace of the song it does allow for more songs.

It would be a RARE occasion that I suggest someone change the song they've chosen for a faster song.  Now if someone asked me what I'd like to hear or if we were picking songs (kamikazee or not) for each other I might suggest a faster one but I don't feel it's up to the KJ to dictate the tempo of someone's song; I sure wouldn't want someone doing that to me...

Susie

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You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
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Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

Full House, I totally agree with you about not suggesting to the singer what to sing unless asked. Like you, I would get really P.O.'d if someone told me I had to sing a certain type of song. Karaoke is meant to be fun. I get a lot more people to try it because I start every show by telling customers that Karaoke isn't about how good of a singer you are, it is totally about having fun. Sometimes I will get a new singer that is really good, but had never sang in public before and was afraid of making a fool of himself. By taking the pressure off to be good he has the confidence to try it. And of course sometimes I get some really bad singers-----then I ask my Bar Owner for "Hazard" pay. Haven't got it yet! He keeps telling me that it's my own fault I get these really Baaaaaad singers up. Oh Well,, we all have fun.

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Keep on Keeping On! It's never too late and you're never too old!!!!!

I have stated in other posts that the last thing on my mind is the tempo of the show.   It's the last thing in one sense.    I will never tell anyone what they can or cannot sing, ever.    I make up for the slow songs by what I sing.     Everyone has fun, no matter the tempo of the show.   You will get some people that are going to leave because they thinks it's boring.    But they wouldn't be happy if money was falling from the sky.   You can never make everyone happy, and you will drive yourself crazy trying to please someone that can't be pleased.    I still say everyone is too worried about this issue.   Yes you have to keep as many people happy as possible.     So they stay and keep paying your wage.    It's always going to be karaoke and that's how karaoke is.   PERIOD.

I did not realized that Karaoke means fast song. Now I am not going out to sing.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott