How many song books to you bring to a show?

[bryant]

I was wondering how many song books we carry to shows?

[Lonman]

10 Title/10 Artist

[mindonstrike]

8 Artist & 4 Title.

[bryant]

I see that most of you have separate books for artists onlyand another set of books for titles only.,

I find that interesting. Never thought of that approach.

Do you find many saying such things as "Do you have a title/artist book" when they have aone and nee the other? Or see them swapping around during the night?

[kedmison]

8 Artist and 2 title.

Kelly

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by bryant

I see that most of you have separate books for artists onlyand another set of books for titles only.,

I find that interesting. Never thought of that approach.

It only happened for me because my books were getting rather large - about 3" binders. Splitting them up made more sense & I can yield more books overall.

Originally Posted by bryant

Do you find many saying such things as "Do you have a title/artist book" when they have aone and nee the other? Or see them swapping around during the night?

Sure they do, but no more so than I used to hear them asking me, do you have an artist listing - when it was IN behind the title section at the time.
Most have their preference & want just the artist, others want just the title, then you do get some that flip flop back & forth - sometimes grabbing both, but knowing if someone needs a book, they need to let 1 go.

[KimoBell]

I take 8 "TITLE"
and 8 "ARTIST"

[alec.c]

here in london, uk , we only take 4 artists books out. because most people think it is funny to take them home with them. why???????


shame they dont know that i have a supply indoors, and if they are seen, taking the books and get caught, hehe the books get back in one piece if you know what i mean

[thomas]

It Usually depends on the size of the place and number of people that will be where you're playing, I bring nine most of the time, My books are listed by title in front and by artist in the back.

[capnvic]

I carry eight books. Artist in the first half and titles in the second half. I will also carry eight to ten update books in small ring binders.

[wired2up]

With the help of another KJ Host, and very proffessional I might add, helped me to load all 50,000 songs on to 2 portable WiFi laptop systems that I have been using for the last year. singers find it very user friendly and then they just send the request to me using WiFi that also helps me to keep a better rotation and the information is transformed to the TV screens and lets the singers know ahead of time when it is there turn. Displays approx. 7 singers ahead of current singer. At the end of the evening just close up the laptops, works great.

[Bi-Polar Bear]

I take two artist two title. they are expensive. People are not respectful of them. Most of them by the first hour are too drunk, stupid or both to figure out how to use them anyway

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by wired2up

With the help of another KJ Host, and very proffessional I might add, helped me to load all 50,000 songs on to 2 portable WiFi laptop systems that I have been using for the last year. singers find it very user friendly and then they just send the request to me using WiFi that also helps me to keep a better rotation and the information is transformed to the TV screens and lets the singers know ahead of time when it is there turn. Displays approx. 7 singers ahead of current singer. At the end of the evening just close up the laptops, works great.

How do you have this set up? Do you use one laptop to run your show and one for the singers to make requets?

Jim

[Mitd9922]

8 both artist and title but with a twist, I set up my songbook in Word and then deleted all duplicate listings making the books about 90 pages lighter and cheaper. I just have the singers give me song titles then pick the best version I know or singers choice.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by Mitd9922

8 both artist and title but with a twist, I set up my songbook in Word and then deleted all duplicate listings making the books about 90 pages lighter and cheaper. I just have the singers give me song titles then pick the best version I know or singers choice.

That's pretty much exactly what I do. My thinking, based on the poll results, is that most people carrying 10 or more books to a show have half their books in title and half by artists. I prefer not to go over 1-1/2" binders, but I will need 7 font down from 8 font on the next reprint in order to keep that 1-1/2".

[Bi-Polar Bear]

I keep carrying my 4" binder humoungous books even though they have a bunch of dupes and are a pain in the neck.

Reason? People decide on how good you are largely by how you look.

If I have 55,00 songs in a shiny huge binder.... people will say I have the biggest coolest list in town and will consider me a better operator than the guy who carried a 40% smaller book but with the same amount of songs.

I also carry twice the sound in that I need. I bring in big double 15 and horn cabinets sitting on 18 subwoofers.... half the time I don't even hook the subs up but people are always talking about the incredible bass

When i was a touring musician, if i went to a club with no new songs from last time I played, I bought a new outfit and they thought I had a new show. Same principal.

I ain't right, but it is what it is.

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by Bi-Polar Bear

I keep carrying my 4" binder humoungous books even though they have a bunch of dupes and are a pain in the neck.

Reason? People decide on how good you are largely by how you look.

I disagree with this. People will judge how good you are by 'how good you are'. I have literally seen very successful shows that purposely run no more than 1000 songs - carefully picked by the history reports of their software programs (praying Hoster adds this to theirs) so they can see what is popular & what is not. This particular show is packed every karaoke night & the book is literally 1" thick. The host is very attentive to the sound & can keep the crowd entertained. Now is this the norm, probably not. Would I attempt to cut my 11K book down to 1000, most likely not. But the size of a book has nothing to do with how good you are.

[Bi-Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by Lonman

I disagree with this. People will judge how good you are by 'how good you are'. I have literally seen very successful shows that purposely run no more than 1000 songs - carefully picked by the history reports of their software programs (praying Hoster adds this to theirs) so they can see what is popular & what is not. This particular show is packed every karaoke night & the book is literally 1" thick. The host is very attentive to the sound & can keep the crowd entertained. Now is this the norm, probably not. Would I attempt to cut my 11K book down to 1000, most likely not. But the size of a book has nothing to do with how good you are.

I didn't mean to say it had anything to do with how good you are. I'm speaking of perception... and people perceive you to a great extent by your presentation. Now if you and your gear and books look like a million dollars and your show sucks... that's a different story. But if all things are equal, appearance is key in my 18 year experience.

[rickyrey]

Most of the time I carry around 5. I prefer bright colors for them that way they are easier to find. Most of the time the clients are careless about the way they use and treat your catalogs and believe me, they are expensive to mantain and prepare. In this case less is more and since Hoster allows you to search if a client ask you about a specific song. I think that 5 songbooks will work for most of us.