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>Super Trouper by ABBA

>Airplanes by B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams

>Never Mind by Abstract Decision (Original)

>Tek It by Cafune

>Black Sheep by Metric featuring Brie Larson

Our set list was incredibly diverse, we made the decision to have it that way one rehearsal when we decided we'd try playing 'Black sheep', a much more alt rock sounding song, as opposed to airplanes and our original which are both HipHop tracks, and it sounded fantastic. We figured running with a more diverse sounding set would make 'Super Trouper' sound less out of place against those other two songs as well.

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As my key element of guitar was that I was on the acoustic, learning the set for the night of the gig was fairly simple, I kept mostly to open chords and the use of a capo for a couple songs. For the version of Super Trouper we did (Linked above) the chords were all basic open chords (C, F, G, G7, D minor, A minor and E minor, we left out G6) and the strumming pattern I kept to was a simple down-down-up up-down-up (DDU-UDU). When it came to helping with backing vocals I just chimed in every time Theodora sang the words 'Super Trouper'.

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As I could figure out via the mash house website (linked above, in the 'ABOUT US' section), the mash house main stage area has a capacity around 200, it would be a much smaller show without front of house monitoring, this means we were being mindful of how our stage setup will go, the amount of space we'd all have next to each other and how our actual performance would differ in terms of setup and experiencing it ourselves as opposed to our rehearsals. As far as I had heard from word of mouth, the venue is also known as a fairly diverse spot for the genres of music that is performed there, this was great news for our band as our setlist is very diverse in terms of the genres of the songs we're performing, so we shouldn't feel the pressure of trying to conform to the standards of genre or styles of music of the venue or its usual audience.

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For 'Airplanes' by B.o.B, I once again stick to three open chords (E minor, C and G shapes) whilst using a capo on the second fret of my guitar, with a largely simple strumming pattern of (D-UDUD-UDUD-DU) however, I also decided to arpeggiate the chords I was playing for the intro of the song, which I played alongside our keyboardist Erin, as well as the second half of the second verse and the outro.

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Capo on 2nd Fret [Intro] Em C G Em C G [Chorus] Em Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky C G Are like shooting stars Em C G I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish

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Abstract Decision:

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Abstract Decision is a guitar-rich collective with a big sound and a bold presence. With Edward and Theodora on vocals, and a wall of guitars from Brooklyn, Diego, Jakub, and Matthew, the band delivers layered, powerful performances. Erin adds colour and atmosphere on keys, Theo anchors the sound on bass, and Connor keeps everything driving forward on drums. Together, they create a striking, full-bodied live show that stands out from the crowd.

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Abstract Decision is a guitar-rich collective with a big sound and a bold presence. With Edward and Theodora on vocals, and a wall of guitars from Brooklyn, Diego, Jakub, and Matthew, the band delivers layered, powerful performances.

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Never Mind - Abstract Decision (Original)

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Never Mind - Abstract Decision (Original)

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Our original song 'Never Mind' may be the most unique in terms of the chords types I'm playing. For almost all of the song I'm playing between four barre chords (D Major 7, B Minor 7, E Minor 7 and A 7) in the beginning section of the song I'm playing a much slower, reggae inspired rhythm with with a mute on the '1' of every bar, then, we count the band in and play in a much faster way, for that I'm laying a much faster, more percussive rhythm with more muted strums as well. The two post-choruses of this song are the only times I'm playing something different, I'm playing different, more jazz inspired/shaped chords (G Major 7, G Minor 7, B Minor 7 and A 13). For backing vocals, I'm singing for the first and last part, along with Ed, of the choruses. Writing this song as a band was an amazing experience. Diego was the catalyst for this song, he brought us the initial chords and rhythm for the intro, Matthew brought together the chords for the post-choruses, i wrote Theodora's lyrics for the pre chorus, Gilly and I figured out the general structure of the song, when we had a basic loop Ed came in with brilliant lyrics to fill the whole song, Theo wrote a perfect and grounded bassline, and when Jakub and Erin had improvised and found their melodic parts for the beginning and end sections of the song it was perfect from then on.

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For our rendition of Tek It by Cafune the chords I played were of slightly more complex shapes whilst also using a capo on the first fret of the guitar (Bb Minor, Db 6, Ab, F Minor, Eb 7, D6, Eb, Cb Minor 7, Db Major 7, Ab Minor, A# Minor, Ab and F Minor add 9) and of a slightly more abstract strumming pattern, this involved a lot of keeping in time for the whole band. I also sang backup for the choruses of the song, as well as the ad libs during the chorus.

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Tek It - Cafuné (Guitar Tabs and Chords Tutorial)

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Black Sheep by Metric ended up being our closing song for the night because we wanted to end on a lot of energy. Whilst I played fairly simple chords for the whole song (E Minor, G, B Minor, D) the strumming pattern is very energetic for this song too, lots of loud crashes with the whole band all coming in and once and the lead in to the intro of the song which is just a very loud very fast continuous strum of an E Minor chord. This is also the song where i do the most singing, i sing for the whole first verse, all the choruses and parts of the second verse too, I also screamed some very energetic "Oh Yeah!" 's for the intro of the song which i had to practice to get sounding right.

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The final gig was a massive success! Everyone played great. On my end I heard no mistakes aside from maybe a minor rhythmic mistake during the intro to black sheep, but otherwise I think everything went perfectly. The crowd was so excited during our performance, they responded great to Ed's rap sections, Jakub's solo and even my "Oh Yeah!" 's at the beginning of black sheep. It was amazing to be on a stage like the one at the Mash House, at a venue like the Mash House, I can't wait to hopefully be on one again. There was one stressful part of the evening however, upon arriving at the mash house, Scott informed me that they couldn't accommodate my XLR guitar, I had to call my Uncle who was coming to the gig if he could bring his acoustic guitar, he ended up arriving down the road as my band was setting themselves up on stage, but in the end I made it in the nick of time. It's been an amazing time studying at Sighthill campus this year too, being able to use the facilities at the college for the rehearsals has been a massive help in how this year has gone. I've learned lot in terms of working with a band, the communication of being in a band setting is new to me, especially such a large band. There's been times where I've needed to begin talking in awkward silences to get conversation flowing in meaningful directions, putting myself in the roll of trying to be a conversation starter and put some pressure on the others to speak their minds was not a position I had been in before, but it's one I'm much more comfortable with now. My social confidence isn't all that's improved, my confidence with performance has skyrocketed over the past year, during one of the first performances of the year, with a different band even, I was shaking before going on stage, but being in front of that crowd at the mash house felt amazing, the adrenaline from my guitar predicament probably helped a little with that. The research I did helped a lot with the decisions i made leading up to the performance, I'm grateful for having made it. I think for next year I'd like to improve on my time management skills, as I would have liked to have been able to rehearse with the band at a faster progression rate, getting more songs down earlier before the gig as well as having done work more progressionally as opposed to bringing all the work I had done together at a later date.

Overall, I'm very happy with the work I have done this year, I think this final project was a big success and I'm excited to see what comes next, and very grateful for everyone who's done this alongside me.

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I researched effective ways to build a set list for gigs, here are a few of the things I took into consideration and then into practice with me:

1. How to effectively choose an opener to our set.

For choosing an effective opener to a set, the linked article talks about beginning with a bang, however we went with the advice noted in the article from famed luthier Les Paul of not worrying about our first song as I agree that the audience would take a couple songs to get in the groove of our band anyways. Our opening track 'Super Trouper' was the song the least of our band felt fit overall with our set list, we were still wanting to play it however, we felt that the super bright and soft tune of ABBA coming on after the likes of some of our other songs would throw the audience off a little bit, so we decided to put that in first.

2. Having an effective energy and flow to our set list as a whole i.e. the arc of our setlist.

Then, with trying to have an effective flow from each song into the next, we decided that from 'Super Trouper' we would lead in from there with 'Airplanes' by B.o.B which felt like would lead nicely as the first song our vocalist Ed raps in, to our original song 'Never Mind' which is filled with more of the fantastic rap. We also thought the energy would ramp up nicely from a slightly more mellow feeling, in terms of mood, song like 'Airplanes' into a much cheerier, upbeat song like 'Never Mind' as well as the overall ramp in the energy of our songs from 'Super trouper' into 'Airplanes' into 'Never mind, taking a slight dip in the energy levels with 'Tek It' before going into our Most energetic song 'Black Sheep'.

3. Effectively choosing an ending song to our set.

Choosing 'Black Sheep' as our ending song was a choice we made very shortly after our first full run through of it as a band. we wanted to end the show with a showstopper as my research says that you want to make a memorable end to the show and with our version of 'Black sheep we definitely thought we could do that.

Overall, we were very confident that the energy and flow, with the order of our chosen songs would lead to a successful and well received show.

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For all bands, regardless of their popularity, a strong set list is the foundation to putting on a good show.
Whilst it can be fun to perform without a set list (especially for bands with a pre existing following) a well designed set list allows a band to win over an audience that might not have heard them before.

It means they can focus on their sound, rehearse the performance to perfection and put on the best show possible.

What is a set list?

If you are new to performing live, a set list is simply a list of what songs you would like to play, and in what order.

While that is its simplest form, putting together a great set list that really works can be a bit of an art form in itself.

John Mayer's setlist for April 7th 2017 at Wells Fargo Centre, Philidelphia PA. Photo Credit: Daniel Prakopcyk
As such, here is Last Minute Musicians guide to putting together a truly great set list...
1. Begin with a bang

First impressions are extremely important and the first song on your set list should give the audience an overall impression of your bands sound - a real "statement of intent".

However, before you even get to the first tune, there are a couple of tricks you can use to kickstart your performance;

If you're a rock or metal band, consider kicking the evening off with a "wash" (No, we aren't talking about a shower, although that might be a good idea after the show!). Taken from the drumming phrase "cymbal wash" this generally means all of the band just making a bit of coordinated noise before they all kick into the first song in order to up the tension. Plenty of cymbals, a nice low rumble from the bass and even a bit of guitar feedback won't go a miss here! Although it's actually a tough thing to describe, for good examples, check out Catfish & The Bottlemen's live festival sets:

If you're a funk, motown, jazz big band or even Chicago blues style act, consider adding a bit of an intro to your song for the band to play first, before bringing on and introducing the singer. This worked brilliantly for the likes of Frank Sinatra, BB King and James Brown.

For everyone else, the key really is to start strong. Many people are going to make up their mind about your band within the first couple of songs, so it's important to start with a couple of songs you consider to work really well together.

That said, the great Les Paul (yes, the man that designed the famous electric guitar model!) always advised that bands should not worry about their first tune as audiences take time to become directly connected with the music. Who are we to argue, eh?

2. Have the energy of your songs form "an arc"

Although it's slightly genre-dependent, you probably wouldn't want to see a band that constantly performs songs of the same tempo and mood, after all, a bit of variety never goes a miss!

Now it's important to understand that by "forming an arc" we don't mean anything about animals going 2 x 2! A good way to structure your performance could be to start with fast and energetic songs, showing off your principle sound.

Follow this by moving towards slower songs for the middle of the performance (hopefully for a bit of a sing-along!)before finally finishing off with more energetic songs. If you were to plot this out on a graph, it would resemble something that looks like an arc.

While this is good general advice, it is only one way of doing things. A band should choose their set list based on the strengths of their songs. The one key point that all bands should remember is to make every performance memorable!

3. Leave room for improvisation

Again, this will be slightly genre-dependent, but if your band is beginning to attract a fan base, it will become increasingly important to allow some room for improvisation and experimentation within your set.

Fans won't want to see the same show over and over again. Have some changeable set lists, and allow for extra room in songs to jam and keep things fresh for both you and your audience.

This could be done by adding in new songs, changing a solo or even changing the arrangements songs. For example playing an acoustic version, or even fundamentally changing the groove of a tune can really help to change things up. For great examples of improvisation, rearrangement and groove change, check out Justin Timberlake's medley on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

4. Ensure that your set list flows

From the perspective of the audience, a band that stops between every song, perhaps mumbles a few words and then clumsily begins the next song can become incredibly tiresome.

This sort of performance can be seen pretty regularly, but if we're being brutally honest, it can potentially turn new fans away. Similarly, long gaps in between songs can also prove for an incredibly awkward experience for all involved.

As a guide, more than 10 to 15 seconds of complete silence on stage is going to start to feel pretty awkward. This might not seem like a long time, but it can feel like a lifetime with 200 hundred pairs of eyes and ears hanging on your every word and movement.

By treating every gig as an opportunity to engage with the audience and considering yourself as an 'entertainer' as well as a musician, you can end up with a much more interesting and interactive experience for both the band and the audience.

Come up with "standby" things to talk about. Interesting facts about the band or song (especially if it's a cover), stories about how the song was written or what inspired it and even a few tried and tested jokes can all be great ways to avoid an awkward silence and get that extra bit of audience interaction.
Like him or loathe him, Noel Gallagher is rarely caught without something to say onstage!
That said, no one wants to hear you break into a long monologue after every single tune, so it's important to strike a balance.

This can also be done musically - weaving songs into one another (known as a "segue") and leaving clear gaps in the set to allow for audience participation such as clapping along or sing-along breakdowns.

5. End with a showstopper

It could well be argued the most important bit of the set is the end of the performance and a band should aim to make as memorable impact on the audience as possible.

Depending on the genre, this could be an opportunity for one last sing along with the audience, the lead guitarist's last chance for a solo (or both!). Either way, make sure you have a strong set of songs towards the end of your set.

As the old adage says, it's important to always leave the audience wanting more!

Always, always, always have an encore prepared, just in case. There is nothing worse than an audience screaming out for more and having nothing to give them!

Not only will this increase your chances of being asked to perform another show at the same venue, but you may even get asked for an encore! You should know that there are very few musical experiences quite as gratifying as having 300 people shouting, "We want more!" at the end of a show...

General tips:

Always over prepare. It's better to have more songs ready and cut some than to not have enough. That said, if you're playing a bill with multiple bands, keep one eye on the time as you don't want to run over by so much you eat into another bands set.

Make sure everyone has copies of the set list and compares notes beforehand. The last thing you want is the drummer launching into a different introduction to the guitarist!

Keep a sharpie handy for last minute set changes. This should be part of your gig bag. For more advice on what to keep in there, check out this LMM guide.

If you're a function or covers band, decide as a group if you want to take requests. Be realistic, given the amount of material you have prepared. You can always offer the audience alternatives IE "Sorry, we've already done 'Mr Brightside' but how about 'Chelsea Dagger'?"

Sources: Do you have any tips on writing a set list? Let us know in the comments below!

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How to write the perfect set list for your band

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For all bands, regardless of their popularity, writing good set lists is the key to putting on a good show.

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I researched how to have effective stage presence, here's what I found and how I tried to keep it in mind for implementing it before performing the final show:

1. Dressing for the Gig.

It seemed to me that given that stage presence is all about the audience perceives you, the best I could do was think about how i could implement some of the key tips I found in ways that would boost my personal confidence on the stage, as stage fright is something I'm no stranger to. When it came to my outfit for the stage, thankfully I had a very wide variety of choices. Given how diverse our set list and in fact our own band members themselves are, we decided to simply leave each to their own when it came to our individual outfits on the night, and decided that what generally makes me comfortable is accessorising, and otherwise i would see closer to the gig if there was any clothes that i had felt good in recently or that had gotten me any compliments or the like. I figured a little confidence on my appearance on the night would express to the audience and perhaps simply help with other factors of my stage presence and improve it overall.

2. Body Language and Expression.

Something I've been mindful of for a while of my performing history now is how my body language and facial expressions come off to the audience. So I'm fairly well practiced in trying to keep a comfortable and cheerful demeanour whilst on stage, I did however, feel I could improve this for the night. I tried to practice this by trying my best every rehearsal to express the body language that I would hopefully replicate whilst on stage, this was easier given the complexity, or lack thereof, of my parts for each song so instead of standing still whilst trying to figure out an intricate solo, whilst playing with the rest of the band I had the space to move around a little or try to smile a little and have fun whilst playing.

3. Embracing Imperfections.

A big part, I think, of playing to an audience and having a good stage presence is making sure that you don't freeze up at the first mistake you make, or let it ruin your performances as the link puts it. I had to make sure that during rehearsals i was keeping an eye on myself to not get too lost in having a good time, so I didn't get lost as to where we were in each song, meaning if I did make a mistake, I could brush it off and quickly get back to playing what I should. I hoped that with the practice in rehearsals if i messed up with one note or chord during the final performance, I'd be able to easily bounce back.

4. Adapting to the Environment on the Night of the Performance.

The final thing i kept in mind was making sure I could adapt to the environment of the actual performance. I had to keep in mind that playing to an audience of potentially up to 200 people on a fairly small stage with my other 8 bandmates would be very different to the rehearsals I had been doing up until then in terms of energy, lighting and even sound. there was also some uncertainties before the night of the performance, for instance my acoustic guitar, which is the guitar i used for every rehearsal previously, i had to use the XLR out it had as opposed to a jack like almost every other guitar uses, since the jack-in on my guitar had broken. This was something neither me nor my lecturers were sure the venue would be able to accommodate and I'd simply have to wait until getting there on the day to figure out what id be able to use for the gig. Bu regardless of what happened on the night I'd need to not freak it, adapt and give it my all just the same for the audience.

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Stage Presence For Musicians: 15 Key Performing Tips - Indie Network Blog

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Discover what stage presence is and how to master it with our 15 essential tips for musicians. Learn to engage your audience, boost your confidence, and leave a lasting impression on stage.

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This is one of our earlier rehearsals from abstract decision, in this practice session we practiced the only three songs we had at the time, ‘Super Trouper’, ‘Airplanes’ and our original ‘Never Mind’. This rehearsal was mostly to tighten up these songs before going on to choose new songs and add them to our set. In this video you can hear us rehearse super trouper, by this point I had gotten my section down so was largely just trying to add in some character and stage presence to my performance.

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A much more recent rehearsal. In this video we're rehearsing 'Never Mind'. Whilst this song has a little more strain on my hands, given I'm only playing a very similar shape of chord and therefor putting pressure on my hands in the same position for a while, at this point I had the song 99% fully committed to muscle memory. so, what I'm trying to strengthen here is remembering to express whilst performing and (while it was not intentional) my reaction to unwanted things happening on stage in the middle of the performance, as midway through performing the song, my guitar strap comes undone and I'm having to keep it up by putting pressure on it from my arms. Thankfully, I was able to alert my bandmate Matthew to what happened and he was able to help me out with it immediately.

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Ed being in our band led to some of the core choices of our set list, Edward primarily raps which gave our band an interesting and different direction to take our set list in from the other bands. He was integral to bringing together our original song to, as he had come up with a basic loop for the bulk of our song, he had a whole songs worth of lyrics already prepared that sounded great and fit right with the energy of our song.

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Theodora Vocals pulled the band together, locking down most of the key singing parts aside from during 'Tek It'. She's also the reason we chose to play the ABBA song 'Super Trouper' which became our key intro to the setlist.

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Brooklynn (Me) - Guitarist & Backing Vocalist

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Brooklynn (Me) - Guitarist & Backing Vocalist

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In a band with four guitarists it was important for us to find ways to sound different texturally as we struggled to all find enough different parts for each song. In my case I was the inly guitarist playing on an acoustic, largely sticking to open chords and switching between simple strumming styles and trying to add further texture with a faster, percussive strumming style.

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Matthew held down a lot of the groove for the guitar section, when he wasn't playing largely barre chords he played higher chime-like triads. Matthews guitar texture relied on a clean, warm tone. Matthew has also previously played The Mash House, so he was a good source of word of mouth info of what it's like to play there.

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Whilst Diego and I played a lot of the same chords in the same way, his textural difference largely came from a more distorted tone on his electric guitar. He was great at keeping the rhythm strong in the guitar section. He was also the key person in helping us start to create our original song, he came up with the main four chords we use for almost all of the song and the lyrics for the intro that Theodora sings.

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Jakub was predominantly our lead guitarist, he was great at improvising lead lines to find what would sound good over the large bulk of our songs. This kept our songs lively with melody. His texture relied on very distorted tones for his electric guitar.

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Theo as our bassist was another part of our band that kept us unique, largely due to his bass itself. Theo uses a five string, active powered bass which he largely uses for aggressive metal zounds. Using this bass in the context of our specific setlist gave us another leg up as a unique sounding band. Wether playing root notes or switching it up and arpeggiating chords, Theo held down the bass section of our band very well.

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In such a guitar heavy band that played a large amount of chordal parts, Erin did great cutting through that wall of noise with lovely melodic parts that kept us sounding lively and exciting through our whole set. She did well at keeping the set sounding grounded with iconic keyboard parts like for the post chorus in 'Super Trouper' or the intro to 'Airplanes' and also bringing that energy to new places like with the outro to our own original song 'Never Mind'

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For a drummer playing in several different bands, Gilly never fell short of holding down the beat very well whilst keeping the drums sounding exciting and interesting. Gilly had a great feel for rhythm that the rest of the band could easily latch onto and fantastic fills that kept us sounding energetic and interesting.

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Our music box session went incredibly well! We rehearsed the whole day leading up to it. Going over 'Never Mind' again and again. by the end i think we had a very polished sounding take of it. The video came out great too! Sharing it with friends prior to the show, regardless if they were actually coming to the gig, was such a cool experience as well.

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One of our final rehearsals before the gig, this was a more stressful rehearsal as we were still trying to learn the song 'Tek It' before the night of the gig. We were struggling to get the timing right at first but we had it all down enough by the end of the day, and it wouldn't be our final rehearsal either. I wasn't struggling too much with playing the chords themselves but for the end of the song there's a long drawn out section of just playing three chords over and over again and I wasn't quite sure how long we were doing that for. Thankfully, our lovely drummer Gilly had us sorted out with fills as cues for our parts.