I have just returned from Nashville, TN CMA Fanfest 2011. A week long gig-a-thon in heart of Nashville’s fabled downtown Music Row where each year thousands of Country music fans descend on the scene for a week-long expirence that features the best (and maybe not the best) of local, regional, and national musical talent. For the next few weeks, I’ll share some insights for guitarists that may help you through one of the most fabulous and terrifying places to play in the world.
I learned early on in my band career that it is important to be in charge of my own set list. Often the last detail worked out with some artists, I found it is better to map out my own system of notes to remind myself of solo locations, keys and song arrangements, especially when learning gobs of new material.
When playing with Hollywood, www.hollywoodyates.com often times keys are different from the recording, or the “live” arrangements would differ ever so slightly from the recorded version. For a regimented thinker such as myself this can play havoc on my brain when in the thick of the show were precise execution is tantamount. Out of all this, I developed something that I call “The Smart Set” list where after each song, is a small system of cues that remind me of song specifics. I’ve included the set list and a legend below.
Symbol legend for the songs:
* = I start the song alone
T = We start the song together
Bass = The Bass starts the song. (I used “Bass” instead of just “B” so I wouldn’t inadvertantly think the song was in the key of B.
Ky = The Keyboard starts the song
sl/ = the song uses a slide for the main riff
(A….. ) = The parenthesis indicate the song arrangement and Key
<solo I, II> = Indicates the guitar solos. “I” indicates the solo is in the middle of the song. the “II” means there is a second guitar solo in the body of the song.
<solo out or end> = indicates the solo is over the outro of the song, often the length is ad lib.
CAPO 1,2 … = Indicates a CAPO is used on the guitar and what fret the CAPO needs to be placed.
