Having a large and varied repertoire/ song list is essential for any professional Wedding Singer who wishes to produce unique and tailored shows. Before thinking about your demos, stage clothes, equipment and even advertising you should put some serious time in and come up with a show – a list of songs that are compatible and that will make for some great listening when performed live. To make it easier and get you started just learn enough songs to make 2 x 45 minute shows (which seems to be the industry standard), you can then slowly add more songs that will allow you to vary these shows and offer your clients the option of choosing their own favourites.
When I put my first repertoire together I thought long and hard about my music choices and started with 50 songs, which was about 2 and a half hours worth – more than enough to allow for variation in my performances. Here are some quick tips to consider when putting together your first repertoire.
TIPS FOR PUTTING TOGETHER A GREAT REPERTIORE
- Learn as many songs as you can: The more you have as a Wedding Singer the more you can vary your shows to keep them interesting and to suit different occasions. It will also stop you from getting bored with your material
- Only learn songs that you can sing well: There’s no point in performing a popular song if you just can’t pull it off. It’s better to just move on and concentrate on your strengths.
- 80% Upbeat – 20% Slow: This is roughly the ratio of fast to slow songs that you should aim to have in your repertoire. A lot of Wedding Singers make the mistake of learning too many ballads, which end up resulting in depressing and sluggish shows that people don’t want to dance too.
- Stay Popular: Try not to be too geared towards one particular genre and stick with Pop music in general, unless you’re selling yourself as a specific type of act. People like to hear what they know and don’t generally want to be ‘Educated’ in obscure music when they’re celebrating at a wedding.
- Make it presentable: Once you’ve learnt your repertoire save it to a word or PDF document so that you can present this to your clients when the time comes. I find that it’s useful to present your repertoire in a number of formats, so make one by Song name, then maybe others by Artist, genre, decade etc. This can make choosing songs a little more pleasurable for your clients.
Hopefully with these tips in mind you’ll be well on your way to producing a great repertoire and becoming a top class Wedding Singer. Keep in touch with the Vocal Show Wedding Blog for more great posts on Becoming a Wedding Singer amongst other useful news and topics.
