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Wedding Band Tips


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sdoletrumpet
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 9:14 am    Post subject: Wedding Band Tips Reply with quote

Hello trumpeters! I finally joined the forum after years of lurking. I recently moved to NYC, and a connection is willing to recommend me for wedding band gigs that fit into my schedule. Do you folks have any tips and tricks to play well on the bandstand at a wedding, or where I could find the right rep to learn/shed? I want to ensure I play well should this connection ever stick their neck out for me. Thanks in advance!
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Matthew Anklan
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Consider asking your friends who play wedding receptions if they wouldn’t mind sharing a few recent set lists with you. Make a Spotify playlist of the songs, and learn as many of them as possible by ear. Sometimes bands have charts, but it’s common for live performances to stray a little. Being really familiar with the songs and their structures will help you a lot when/if this happens.

When you do get a call for one of these gigs, maybe ask one of the other horn players to walk you through the book beforehand. There’s nothing wrong with being overly prepared!
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Brad361
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There’s probably no typical set list for a wedding gig, so being totally prepared pre-gig is not easy. But depending on a lot of variables, being familiar with “standards”, such as found in some of The Real Books, can’t hurt.

The problem you may run into is getting a call to sub for a wedding band that has few or even no charts. In that case, the only thing you can do is get the set list early as possible, and listen to the original recordings of what’s on the list, and/or check for specific charts on line.

Probably the thing to remember is that even if a band provides you with charts ahead of the gig, it’s very possible that they don’t follow the charts verbatim. So once you’re on the gig, LISTEN, if there are parts you’re very unsure of try to blend with the ensemble more than standing out, and be flexible. I’m not saying play timidly, just try to minimize how much your mistakes project. But also keep in mind that unless a band or musician has a major train wreck during a song, the majority of guests won’t really notice. or care. Alcohol helps that. (Alcohol for the crowd, not you).😎

It can be stressful, but it can also be a lot of fun.

Brad
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trickg
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m literally in bed getting ready to go to sleep, but I have a few thoughts about this - my main gig for the better part of 20 years was playing in a wedding band.

More to follow tomorrow.
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GeorgeB
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a small 5 piece combo and played a lot of weddings in the 50s and early 60s. Even though 3 piece string bands were starting to surface it was still the big band era and most wedding planners wanted just plain good old dance music. I had a ton of the old standards and kept up with popular stuff on the hit parade ( that was an absolute essential ) because I was also playing a regular Saturday teen dance.
Just make sure you have a good repertoire, and stay up to date and you'll be okay.
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trpthrld
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 6:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Matt's reply is about as spot-on as you could ever hope to read.

Being the Trumpet player...you will always be TOO LOUD!

Years ago I was walking into the room while the band was setting up. I hear someone yell "YOU'RE TOO LOUD!!!"

I turn around and it was the wedding planner. I said "Excuse me?"

She says "You're the Trumpet player, right?"

Yes, I am.

She says "I can tell...just by the way you're walking...that you will be TOO LOUD! So DON'T BE!"

What a wonderful work environment, eh?
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trickg
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:07 am    Post subject: Re: Wedding Band Tips Reply with quote

sdoletrumpet wrote:
Hello trumpeters! I finally joined the forum after years of lurking. I recently moved to NYC, and a connection is willing to recommend me for wedding band gigs that fit into my schedule. Do you folks have any tips and tricks to play well on the bandstand at a wedding, or where I could find the right rep to learn/shed? I want to ensure I play well should this connection ever stick their neck out for me. Thanks in advance!

Good morning - I'm back in the saddle and fortified with a couple of cups of coffee.

Ok - so here's a few thoughts about the wedding band thing based on my experience.

My wedding band used backing tracks. Everything we had was put together by our band leader who was both an arranger, a recording engineer, and was functional on multiple instruments as well as voice. He played sax, keys, drums and bass, so when it came to putting together the backing track, except for occasions where he asked for real horns, we never had to worry about it.

Initially we had paper books. As the band continued and charts got added, it grew to the point where it was a big burgeoning ugly mess that we did our best to keep in large hard-spine legal binders - they'd outgrown even the largest D-ring binders. Eventually we went to the Music Pad Pro, and from there we went to iPads.

Everything was synced via FTP where he'd upload new charts. We just knew that before every gig, we needed to sync the iPads to pull any new charts that had been uploaded to the FTP server.

The band is pretty much defunct at this point, but there are over 700 charts in the horns books - anything could be called at any time, and it wasn't unusual for a tune to get called on a random night that literally had not been called in years, so you had to be able to read, and you had to be able to retain things that you'd previously learned.

As for the music itself, I had the MP3s for all of the main tunes, but the tunes themselves were all arranged based on the original radio recordings. I would practice the tunes by sitting in my practice/studio room, I'd pull up the tune on iTunes, and simply play along to it. I found that this was a good way to do it because it helped with rhythm, timing, phrasing, inflection, etc.

We had a lot of tunes that had horn lines where the original tune didn't - this was to keep everyone on the stage occupied and not just standing there.

Everyone also sang lead on something and everyone partook in singing backups - over 20 years I'd say 40-60 tunes got thrown my way because they were in my wheelhouse vocally - I did a lot of the Billy Joel stuff, Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffet, Bobby Darin, etc.

Regarding repertoire, it's hard to give you a comprehensive list. We did a ton of Motown, disco, classic rock...if it was a hit and you could dance to it, either fast or slow, chances are it was in our book.

I'll do another post of tunes that we played a lot and always seemed to get great response on the dance floor.
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trickg
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok - wedding band post Part 2:

Before I list out a bunch of tunes, I want to first address why I think our band ultimately stopped getting booked and why it's completely defunct now - in our heyday we were gigging about 40 Saturdays out of the year - we were very busy.

I think part of it is that when the band started up, everyone was late 20s, early 30s. I was 31 when I joined, but I looked like I was about 25 - so we conveyed a young energetic vibe that directly related to the wedding crowd. As the years went on, we all got older, fatter, and we were no longer relating to the wedding party - we were relating more to the parents of the wedding party. It just wasn't the same vibe.

Then Covid 19 hit and it took an already sparse calendar and killed it. Our drummer is also no long with us - about a year ago he left this plane of existence permanently.

Moving forward to the song list, here is a list of tunes we did on the regular that always did well on a dance floor. so they're songs you're likely to encounter as well. Keep in mind, this is just a subset of the book - the book is considerably larger than this list. I quickly scanned down through the book on my iPad - I'm certain there are some other good ones that I missed.

Ain't no mountain high enough
All Night Long
Always on my mind
Authority Song
Baby Give it Up
Baby Got Back
Bang Bang
Best of my Love/Then Came you medley
Baby Love
Back on the Chain Gang
Billy Jean
Blame it on the Boogie
Boogie oogie oogie
Bless the Broken Road
Build me up buttercup
Brown Eyed Girl
Burnin Love
Blues Brothers Medley
California Gurls
Car Wash
Centerfold
Cheerleader
Crazy in Love
Can't Get Enough of Your Love
Centerfold
Country Roads (this one would crush at the end of the night - I sang it)
Crazy little thing called love (I also sang this one)
Can't take my eyes off of you (I Love you Baby)
Celebration
Come on Eileen
Devil with a blue dress/Good golly miss molly medley
Domino (Jessie J - not Van Morrison)
Daydream Beliver
Easy (Like Sunday Morning)
Dancing in the Dark
Disco Inferno
Don't stop til you get enough
Electric Slide
Endless Love
Faithfully
For Once In my Life (Buble)
Get this party started
Feelin Alight (we close with this one a fair bit)
Freeway of Love
Gimme Some Lovin
Gangnam Style
Go Your Own Way (oddly, crowds would go nuts with this one)
Footloose
Get Ready
Grapevine (faster version)
Going to a GoGo/Nowhere to Run medley
Happy
How Sweet it is
I feel good
Hot Hot Hot
Higher and Higher/Good Lovin medley
I wanna dance with somebody
I will Survive
In Da Club
I want you back
Knock on Wood
La Bamba
Jessies Girl
Just the way your are (Billy Joel and Bruno Mars)
Last Dance
Late in the Evening
Let's hear it for the boy (HUGE Dance floor hit)
Love on Top
Love Shack
Locked out of Heaven
Madonna Medley (80s and 90s hits)
Making Memories of Us
Man! I feel like a woman
Margaritaville
Mony Mony
Mustang Sally (this song, as much as players hate it, ALWAYS hit)
My Girl
New York, New York
Old Time Rock and Roll
One in a Million
Pink Cadillack
Play That Funky Music
Raise Your Glass
Respect
Save the last dance
Shake Your Booty
Sexy Back
Shake Your Groove Thing
September
Signed, sealed, delivered
Smooth Criminal
Superfreak
Sweet Caroline
Sweet home Chicago
Take me home tonight
The Twist
Time of my Life
Turn the Beat Around
Uptown Funk
Vacation
Video Killed the Radio Star
Wagon Wheel
Wanna Be Starting Somthing
We Are Family
We Got the Beat
We've only Just begun
What a Feeling/Flashdance
The Wobble
Wonderful Tonight
You May Be Right
You should be dancing
You are the best thing
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Last edited by trickg on Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Patrick - 80s?

I'm really interested in how cool-ly you used the technology.
Simple question, though. Was the backing rhythm section and (optionally) strings? Who was recorded and who was live? Thanks.
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Robert P
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

trpthrld wrote:
Matt's reply is about as spot-on as you could ever hope to read.

Being the Trumpet player...you will always be TOO LOUD!

Years ago I was walking into the room while the band was setting up. I hear someone yell "YOU'RE TOO LOUD!!!"

I turn around and it was the wedding planner. I said "Excuse me?"

She says "You're the Trumpet player, right?"

Yes, I am.

She says "I can tell...just by the way you're walking...that you will be TOO LOUD! So DON'T BE!"

What a wonderful work environment, eh?

Lol - that was the first thing that came to mind. People whining about you being too loud - when I'm not even beginning to open up. I'm guessing it's one or two peevish people like the individual in your anecdote. Park of me wants to tell them - oh, no - I'll *show* you loud.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

trpthrld wrote:
Matt's reply is about as spot-on as you could ever hope to read.

Being the Trumpet player...you will always be TOO LOUD!

Years ago I was walking into the room while the band was setting up. I hear someone yell "YOU'RE TOO LOUD!!!"

I turn around and it was the wedding planner. I said "Excuse me?"

She says "You're the Trumpet player, right?"

Yes, I am.

She says "I can tell...just by the way you're walking...that you will be TOO LOUD! So DON'T BE!"

What a wonderful work environment, eh?


Oh, and, Tim;

Can you try to sound a little less Broadway-like on this Broadway show they flew you in for?

LOL!
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sdoletrumpet
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:42 am    Post subject: Thanks! Reply with quote

Can't thank you all enough for the good advice, stories, and humor. I'll be reading and posting on here a LOT more often, now!
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RandyTX
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been playing in a 'horn band' the last few years that does a lot of weddings and corporate parties. Basically, we run guitar, bass, keys, drums, sometimes with an extra percussionist for congas and whatever bizarre noisemakers are also needed.

For the horn section it's usually 6 horns, 2 trpt, 3 saxes (alto, tenor, bari) and a bone.

One real life safer is in recent years everyone in the band has an iPad and Forscore. If we sub someone in, they have an iPad too, or they don't get the gig. All the charts are up on dropbox so everybody can get the lastest/greatest stuff before a rehearsal or gig.

The book is pretty much the same list of songs every other wedding band plays, a bunch of oldies, motown, disco (ugh) and more recent pop tunes that everybody knows from the grandmas to the little kids.

We often run with different vocalists, so a lot of the charts are written out in multiple keys, so we don't have to wonder if people will be covering horn parts in the right one for a particular singer, or failing at transposing on the fly. It's a bit of work to keep everything written out and edited with changes to roadmaps or whatever, but in the end, it makes the gigs go much smoother.

To 'prepare' to play in a band like that, see if you can get an invite to sub, either on a gig or at a rehearsal. Some bands probably have their own take on horn parts, or 'watered down' horn parts for some tunes, but most of the time, I suspect good wedding bands play as close to the originals as they can, because that's what the audiences know.

Good luck in your quest, it's a lot of fun to play this type of music, if for no other reason than the audience at weddings is usually in a great mood, fairly inebriated, and they know every song and sing along and dance. Nobody wants to play to a dead room, right?
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kehaulani wrote:
Patrick - 80s?

I'm really interested in how cool-ly you used the technology.
Simple question, though. Was the backing rhythm section and (optionally) strings? Who was recorded and who was live? Thanks.

Once again this has been a busy day, I’m laying in bed winding down, and pecking out a response with one finger - I’ll fill in some of those blanks first thing tomorrow morning.

Real quick though regarding who was recorded and who was live, if you saw it on the stage, for the most part it was going out through the PA. Most of what was on the track was there to fill in and fill up the sound, and to lend consistency from one gig to the next.

More to follow.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Patrick.
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trickg
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Getting back to this thread finally, and the subject of what exactly was or was not on the backing tracks we used, it really was a mix based on our particular band setup and instrumentation.

Here are some things that were typically on the backing track:

-- Keys - we went through times where we didn't have a regular main keyboard player. for years we had one on stage that a gal stood behind and "played" but it was literally turned off.

-- Rhythm guitar - With only one guitar player in the band, it was hard for them to do rhythm and leads at the same time, so rhythm parts were usually on the track.

-- Background vocals - we had a lot of background vocals on the track. They were also being sung live by various members on the stage, but it helped to fill out the sound.

-- Song-specific synth parts

-- Bass Guitar - I mentioned that the bandleader was a multi-instrumentalist. On stage he mostly played bass, but sometimes he had to play keys, sometimes he had to pick up a sax for a tune or a sax solo, and sometimes he would sing lead without playing an instrument. For those tunes, the bass guitar part was also on the track - it just depended on the tune. Typically each one of our backing tracks had two versions - one with bass, and one without.

-- Keyboard horns - when the band first started, there were no horn players and the horn lines were all on the backing track. As it was, we only ever had two dedicated horn players - initially trumpet and trombone, then trumpet and when our trombone player kind of imploded, and we never could find anyone competent to take the gig. The interesting thing is that when you mix real horns in with keyboard horns, it fattens the whole thing up, and to the average listener, they think it sounds like a big horn line.

The bottom line for us is that we wanted to sound as much like the original recording as possible - we didn't always hit that mark, but that was the goal. Truth be told, I always thought it was a little bit cheesy, but we weren't there to try showcase our musical prowess. We were there to entertain a wedding dance crowd, and that meant that certain compromises were made so that we could have as big of a song library as possible (over 1000 songs) that sounded as full and consistent as possible. In the first couple of years with this band, we did have a couple of rehearsals to lock in some background vocals and to get certain tunes learned, but after that, it was a matter of taking care of business on our own in the practice room to make sure we all stayed on top of the music so that we could go out, play the gig, and play well.

To add to this a bit more, I was not the best trumpet player to play in this band. Not even close. I had a period of time when I wasn't in this band - about a year and half. What ended up bringing me back in to the band was a combination of things. I think more than anything else, I was a full package. I wasn't just a decent trumpet player, but I was also a solid singer, both for leads and for backups, I was reliable - it's unreal how many musicians are absolute flakes - and I presented the right kind of vibe to a crowd. I genuinely had a lot of fun doing this gig, and that kind of energy translates to the crowd. I don't know if I looked good doing it or not, but I was always up there dancing around and having a great time. We had a sax player for a while who was a fabulous sax player - literally a member of the Airmen of Note, graduated from North Texas, etc - but he just had a kind of awkward stage presence. He kinda just stood there, and even when he tried to move a bit, you could tell he didn't really look comfortable doing it. The fact that he just absolutely shredded sax solos was enough to overcome his lack of stage presence.

So getting back to the OP, when it comes to wedding bands, there are a lot of tunes that are fantastic tunes, but will clear a dance floor like roaches fleeing when the light is turned on. There's a difference between a great song, and a great dance song. We had a "must play" one night of Steve Miller Band, "Take the Money and Run". It completely cleared the dance floor, and then we had to really work to get people back out there again. If it's not danceable, don't waste your time on it - not for a wedding band.
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improver
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Try to sound good on everything you play. Know the songs, because even if your reading you have to be able to play by ear without music.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Patrick that was awesome.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

improver wrote:
Try to sound good on everything you play. Know the songs, because even if your reading you have to be able to play by ear without music.

Unless the band actually has charts - with a 1000+ song catalog where any song could be called at any time, the only way to do that is to have actual charts and arrangements.

The days of the wedding band with a 40-60 song list of tunes are long long gone. If you can't play everything from current pop hits to swing, 50s doo-wop, and everything in between, the band is just hurting itself.

Part of the reason we got booked as much as we did was due to the fact that we gave the bridal party to literally hand-pick every single song they wanted to hear over the course of the evening. We also had the ability to play off-the-cuff requests when the the bride would come up and say, "Do you guys know/can you play....?"

To be fair, we always did better when the bridal party stayed out of our way. Whenever we had carte blanche to play whatever we knew would work, the party was bumping all night long.

More than once, after a very carefully selected and hand-picked list wasn't working on the dance floor, the bride would come to the band and plead, "just do whatever you have to do to fill the dance floor!" Then we'd get the party going.

Ugh - sometimes the do-not-play list was more extensive than the song list.

One last comment on the backing tracks. For the drummer, there is a click track, a count in, and a verbal narrative of what's coming up and when. It would typically start with something like, "Blame it on the Boogie starts with straight drum beat - 1 - 2 - ready go..."

Or it might be, "Bless the broken road, light time only in the beginning - 1 -2 - ready go..." Then it would follow up with something like, "move to a light cross-stick pattern on the chorus...1 -2 - ready go..."

That way the drummer, who didn't have a written chart, knew exactly where they were in the song, and in a general sense, the kind of beat they should be playing, or whether or not they were playing on hats or ride. There was a verbal narrative on the click-track the whole way through. Even as a trumpet player, I liked having that in my ear - it kept me tracking along with everything going on.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wedding reception classics that you should know the trumpet part to regardless of if there are charts, 2021:

Signed, Sealed Delivered
Uptown Funk
Sir Duke
Get Down On It
Jungle Boogie
Sweet Caroline
September
Let's Groove Tonight
Hold On Im Coming
I Feel Good
RESPECT
Happy
Cupid Shuffle
Play that Funky Music
We Are Family
Wobble Dance
You Are the Best Thing
Get Lucky
Wake Me Up
Timber
24k Magic

Similar to trickg's post but smaller. I think you should work on learning these tunes from memory. I play a lot of weddings without charts and need to know these. I also play some wedding cocktail hours that is more jazz, swing, crooner standards. But these are the reception classics you should know. I get a lot of gigs actually playing with a DJ and drums and a sax and the horns just play the horn parts while the song plays. There are no charts and you need to know the parts and also be able to improvise parts or take a solo when the moment is right.
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