Hey guys -
We need to put together a couple of 15 minute playlists for some whistlin’ at Grand Junction Celtic Fest. Do any of you have tips on how to build playlists? Suggestions welcome - we’ll have to combine your suggestions with what tunes we know 
Thanks!
Variety. You can’t do a long list, obviously, in 15min. Do a jig set and a reel set, or a jig and march set. I, personally, love slow airs, but you can easily overdo them in a busy, short-attention span venue. Fast things get peoples’ attention. (I don’t mean necessarily playing really fast.) You can do repeats of 2 or 3 times/tune. If you do 2 repeats, you can get more tunes in. There is a recent thread in the C&F ITM board w/ set recommendations. Have fun.
Tony
What I do when I have a performance to do, is I make a list of all the suitable ‘performance-quality’ tunes I have memorized, or can play really well. Then I go through and find which ones go best with each other. (ie. Some slow aires go wonderfully after a particular jig, or reel)
Then what I do, is I play through my list, while either timing myself, or having someone time me, so that I know which songs I need to cut (if it’s too long), or how much time I have to talk in-between the tunes.
Personally, I find that the people love the Jigs, Slides, and Hornpipes b/c they are kind of “bouncy” and “upbeat.” Reels are ok; you might just want to have one or two in there for ‘flavor,’ and maybe a slow aire or two to give a bit of variety.
In my shows, I can usually fit about 6 to 8 tunes in a time slot of 15 minutes. However, it depends on how often you want to repeat. On the longer sets wont’ do any repeats, but on the shorter tunes, I’ll do the repeats if I have time for them.
Hope that helps!
I’m by no means an experienced Irtrad player, but our group comprises three people who have a variety of professional music experience, and we all seem to follow basically the same “formula” in putting together what we want to be attention-getting “sets.”
We go for the elements of surprise and of building to climax. Audiences seem to particularly respond to sets that change meter while keeping the same tempo, or that suddenly switch to a much faster tempo while keeping the same key, maybe changing from minor to major, too, or that build from one instrument to others joining in and adding complexity. (Appropriate changes in volume and percussiveness are just two tools to increase expressiveness.)
If we are going to play an air for a lively audience, we pick a short one, play it no more than twice through, and then use it to lead into something that goes with it (same key and/or mode) and much more energetic tempo.
I still have a lot to learn about arranging for a trio, and it has become as interesting to me as learning the tunes.
Lisa
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-08-20 11:01 ]