On stage lyrics

Cols

For those of you saddled with vocals as well as guitars, how many of you use some kind of technical solution on stage for prompting the lyrics?

The other singer in my band is stressing out about remembering all the lyrics for her numbers, and it occurs to me that I may be in the minority these days by taking the old-fashioned approach of storing them all in my noggin.

RocknRollDave

I use a folder, the old-fashioned approach. Most of my peers use an iPad, which I’d love to do but am skint.

I have to play a large volume of requests from a playlist numbering into hundreds of songs, and most gigs will play at least one song I’ve never played before - usually as a first dance with the extra pressure not to mess it up - so I make no apologies for having lyrics and chord sheets in front of me. Classical musicians don’t get a hard time for having their music in front of them.

Stratavarious

I memorise in the main band but two in the band have ipads with OnSong for lyrics and chords.  Set up right it will scroll in time. The big acts just hide screens in fake floor monitors.

I dep enough to have files of charts and Realbook/iReal is good 

poopot

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

RocknRollDave

poopot said:

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

Yawn.

poopot

RocknRollDave said:

poopot said:

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

Yawn.

Why “yawn”?

if you can’t be bothered to learn the lyrics you have no business being up “on stage”

how would you feel if the bass player/drummer/keys didn’t know the songs?

why should a singist be any different?…

shufflebeat

Stratavarious said:

The big acts just hide screens in fake floor monitors.

"...if you can’t be bothered to learn the lyrics you have no business being up “on stage”"

Mmm...

There are lots of lyric apps for Android and lots of relatively cheap Android tablets, Acer are pretty good.

Even a used tablet that's not too old will be fine.

Apps to explore:

Lyric Pad

Songbook pro

Roland

poopot said:

RocknRollDave said:

poopot said:

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

Yawn.

Why “yawn”?

Because, as @RocknRollDave said, there’s more than one answer to the question. If you’re playing a 24 song set of songs with guitar solos and repetitive choruses then there aren’t many words to remember. If you’ve got a repertoire of 100+ songs, any of which could be requested, then it’s a different game.

poopot said:

how would you feel if the bass player/drummer/keys didn’t know the songs?

why should a singist be any different?…

In many cases the singer has more detail to remember.

poopot

Roland said:

Because, as @RocknRollDave said, there’s more than one answer to the question. If you’re playing a 24 song set of songs with guitar solos and repetitive choruses then there aren’t many words to remember. If you’ve got a repertoire of 100+ songs, any of which could be requested, then it’s a different game.

Sorry but I have to disagree…

if your being paid to put on a show you should know your set… doesn’t matter if you have 1 song or 100 songs…

our old function band had well over 120 songs to choose from and we knew them all inside and out…

be professional!…

Cols

poopot said:

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

AC/DC, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Madness, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney and Ozzy all use teleprompters.  Are they all terrible performers who just couldn’t be bothered to learn the songs?

Snags

If it's a regular band situation, I'm firmly in "Learn the bloody words". You can't perform if you're staring at a piece of paper or an iPad.

If you're taking requests all night and busking by ear, that's different. But IME that's more of an instrumental piano man thing. 

If the set list is known, learn the set. 

Snags

Roland said:

poopot said:

RocknRollDave said:

poopot said:

That’s an easy one tbh.


learn the songs…

Yawn.

Why “yawn”?

Because, as @RocknRollDave said, there’s more than one answer to the question. If you’re playing a 24 song set of songs with guitar solos and repetitive choruses then there aren’t many words to remember. If you’ve got a repertoire of 100+ songs, any of which could be requested, then it’s a different game.

poopot said:

how would you feel if the bass player/drummer/keys didn’t know the songs?

why should a singist be any different?…

In many cases the singer has more detail to remember.

Argument from the general to the specific much?

poopot

Roland said:

In many cases the singer has more detail to remember.

I spose if you’re banging the same four chords out on guitar song after song that could be true…

Roland

Snags said:

Argument from the general to the specific much?

The point is that we each work in different situations. So a single answer, however intensely felt, doesn’t apply to everyone. FWIW I’m firmly in the learn-the-bloody-words camp. Knowing the song backwards is part of putting on a good performance. However I recognise that other people’s needs are different.

CaseOfAce

Whenever I've used crib sheets, folders etc.. I've found myself relying on them and using them as a crutch - not feeling I could do the song without them at my feet... so I'm in the memorise them if possible. 

guitarmangler

I had a singer who used an empty floor wedge which had inside it a computer monitor which he plugged a usb memory stick with the words on. A floor pedal allowed him to scroll through the pages. 

robinbowes

And all those bloody unprofessional orchestral players who rely on reading music for *everything* can get in the sea too.

poopot

robinbowes said:

And all those bloody unprofessional orchestral players who rely on reading music for *everything* can get in the sea too.

Chalk and cheese…

a pro orchestra probably rehearses once maybe twice before performing… and to be fair a musician in an orchestra will probably play that piece maybe two or three time in his lifetime… there are 10’s of thousands of classical works out there… they can’t be expected to learn everything off by heart…

now a soloist, they usually perform without sheet music as they “learn” the piece they will be playing…

for a singer, in a pub covers or function band not to know the words is unprofessional…

if you’re up there performing and the audience knows the words verbatim… so should you!….

Snags

When I use to go see Opera North, I didn't spot them prancing around holding lyric sheets. 

And the purpose of an orchestral performance is qualitatively different to a rock gig or a pop concert.

It's really not difficult. Different situations have different expectations, but if you are putting on a show, you need to know the material. 

There are exceptional circumstances (e.g. the Strictly band) but generally they are not regular bands who rehearse and perform a known set list as a show. Orchestras, pit bands etc are different situations. 

PolarityMan

I'm have something to remember the lyrics on stage....it's called the singer.

EricTheWeary

Assuming it’s roughly the same set each time ideally the lyrics should be learned because a) it looks better and b) it should lead to a better performance. It’s easy to rely on having the lyrics there and never get free of them as a crutch, you have to be willing to make mistakes as well before you eventually get them right. 

I’d suggest that she works out all the lyrics by listening and writing down rather than finding them online. The active listening process means she’s more likely to get the words right (Google only if something is truly incoherent), know the song structure and will have half remembered them by the end anyway. She might do this already, obviously I don’t know. 

There are quite impressive teleprompter solutions that pro singers use but you do see people using iPads. I wouldn’t use an iPad because ( well, okay no one is asking me to be the singer in their band) sorting the technology is another thing to go wrong and it’s a fairly expensive and vulnerable item to be taking on pub gigs. If you play regional theatres or gospel meetings this might be less of a worry. I have a distinct memory of watching a The Jam tribute and their Paul Weller clouted his iPad with his Rickenbacker. With sheet music a tech solution means you can scroll through but there can’t be all that many pop/ rock song lyrics you can’t fit onto two sheets of A4. 

This clip is a few years old although not so old that technological answers didn’t exist but that looks like lyric sheets on a stand to me. The stand placed to be relatively unobtrusive as the lovely Imelda sings songs she doesn’t normally perform. Indeed I think most of the musicians have sheets except for Beck but they would have been his choice of songs. 

https://youtu.be/Vt-lKsOz9H0