We¹ve done a couple of marathon medleys where there was continuous music for 3 hours! We did it by having four 3 or 4 person bands playing about 40 minutes each. We overlapped bands by swapping out one player at a time, which meant we needed to prearrange a swap tune everyone knows for each band switch. The last 20 minutes all the musicians piled on stage and played as a megaband. It was a real hoot! I think your melody players will have more fun if they can play off book and be comfortable handling changes on the fly - long medleys are bound to have a few surprises and if they're glued to a book they have a harder time making adjustments. Also you have to have a sound crew who is up to the challenge. We are fortunate to have pretty good equipment and generally cheerful sound people.
Sarah On 10/7/15, 4:06 PM, "Musicians on behalf of Susan Rachel Lorand via Musicians" <[email protected] on behalf of [email protected]> wrote: >I'm curious about other musicians' experiences with contra medleys, >especially in relation to their length. > >I've played for quite a few 6x6 medleys (6 dances, done 6x each) and >consider this a manageable length in a 4-person band (piano + 3 melody >players), provided I remember not to play the entire time. > >Do any of you have experience with longer medleys? > >Have you played one that goes 30 minutes or longer? If so, how many >musicians were in your group? > >What are your personal limits? > >Any experience alternating bands (or alternating individual musicians) in >longer medleys? > >Thanks, > >Susie Lorand (fiddler), Ann Arbor, MI >_______________________________________________ >Musicians mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net
