I do a medley of the Spiral Starecase's greatest hits.

More Today than Yesterday

Jerry

Hi Bill. Some songs in my medley may use the SAME style with tempo variation, and others I transition to a completely different style & tempo completelly. In the case of going from Chicago (Big Band Fast2 156bpm ) to Do YOu Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans (Moonlight Ballad 90bpm), it involves an abrupt shift in both tempo & style, but I find it quite a succesful mood change. That said, I also frequently utilize song transitions (including key change modulation) the way JerryT described above as well. Figuring out how to succesfully string songs together in a medley can be both challenging and fun, but I've found putting together medleys a real feature strength our arrangers provide, and because medleys can often bring together often very different songs (and styles) into a common theme, offering greater audience satsifaction (at least from the feedback I get from my audiences), it's one reason I especially enjoy including several medleys in my concert performance sets.



Jerry . . . Cool! Which specific Spiral Staircase's songs are included in your medley, and in what order do you play them in?

Ok, I'd love to hear from more people here about the themed song medleys they do/recommend. Be sure to include both the 'song titles' and 'song order' played in too.

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 10-08-2007).]

I, like Scott, use registrations to play loads of medleys. I don't need the same styles, tempos or anything constant to make it work. It's called using your imagination and it works soooo well on the Yamaha.

zuki

Ditto to what Zuki said. Zuki: That said, might you share with us just a sampling of some interesting themed medleys (including songs/song order) you frequently enjoy doing?

Scott

Sorry Scott!!

It was a little humor, since the Spiral Starecase was a "1 hit wonder" group.

Altough we do perform the song, since it is a great tune.

Jerry

Scott,

Very soon I'll have a clip of my performance live, which I am having professionally done on 10/11.

zuki

Ah ok Jerry. I guess I fell for that one.
Anyway, I'd think you could include Spiral Staircase's "More Today than Yesterday" as a part of an interesting medley.

A number of things come to mind. Maybe perhaps include it with "Stairway to Heaven, and/or "Stairway to the Stars", or Jefferson Airplane's "Today", or the Beatles "Yesterday". I find it a lot of fun to mix and match songs this way in registration or on the fly when performing. Any other medley ideas? - Scott

Great. Would love the opporunity to hear it. - Scott

WOW Zuki tell us more.....is this for your website or?

IMHO there is only one way to put medley's together and that is "right out of your head" and "on the spot."

If you have enough material in your head to work with, you read the audience and determine what "fits in the pocket" on the spot.

When I play, I'm always thinking 3-6 songs ahead depending on the mood of an audience at any given moment. Often (either by choice or by necessity) I'm won't know what I'm going to play next until I get to the last measure of the song I'm presently playing....that's how fast an audience's attention span will change. You really can't pre-program medley's as you have to be able to read and respond to a mood change among listeners.

Here are examples of how I'll put medley's together "on the spot."

Oktoberfest on Saturday. I'm playing the Blue Danube and the people are so into a waltz, I went right into Dr. Zhivago, and then Take Me Out To The Ball Game, finishing the medley with a short version of Ach Du Leiber Augustine.

Today at the Senior facility. I never know what I'm going to play until I have a chance to study the audience. I ended up looking out the window and seeing the sun shining, so I announced we were going to do "weather songs." Started with: Sunny Side of the Street, into Pennies from Heaven, then September in the Rain, slowed it down for Singin' in the Rain, Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, and finally down to a crawl with an emotional version of Over the Rainbow.

Then to pick them up again, I did an "around the world" medley: Italian tarantella, Mexican Hat Dance, Scotland the Brave, Fere Jacques (France), Deep in the Heart of Texas, etc

Broadway (fast 4): I might start with Get Me To The Church On Time (My Fair Lady), then To Life or Fiddler on the Roof (Fiddler), end with Do-Re-Mi or I Could Have Danced All Night (both big fanfare tunes for going out with).

I find "impromptu" works best which is why I never use MIDI files. I need the freedom to follow an audience, rather than follow my MIDI file!