# How many tunes? How many sets?



## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

For any of you playing out at the local bar level I'm curious,
How many sets are you expected to play? (I assume 3 sets is typical)
How long are your sets? 
How many songs... roughly?
What's a typical time to wrap it up?


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

We're in the midst of filling out our sets in the band.

Three sets, anywhere from a dozen to fifteen songs, depending on length.
You can always stretch the odd song, redo the first verse, add a solo.

If the bar is ending service at one o'clock, try to end near there, or just before.
Expect an possible encore, or two, so leave a bit of room for that and keep a song or two in the bank.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Our band has played 3 proper bar gigs, and two of them we shared with another band where we each did two sets. As sulphur said, three sets of 12-15 tunes seems to be the standard.

With the demographic that we play to (40-55), we tend to start early and end early. We generally play from 8 'til midnight, with prime dance floor activity running from 9:30 to 11:00. The bars here are open 'til 2 or so, but they are pretty much empty by shortly after midnight. We will usually invite local songwriters and young performers to "open" with a few acoustic tunes or maybe play a short "tweener" set.


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## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

Cover/dance band - 3 sets of roughly an hour each.
Original band - 1 set of 45 min to an hour, with 2 to 5 bands playing in a night.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Good point kat, I was referring to a cover band.

You might want to think of preparing some recorded music for the breaks.
Especially for a private gig, or even some bars, if there's no DJ,
the only option is a jukebox, or worse, silence while you're off.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I've done more bar gigs than I care to admit, probably ten or eleven years full time and then );@& years of weekends.

Back then, full time meant full time. It was split weeks and generally six and sometimes seven nights a week. You can do the math. 

I've been done with bars for long enough now that things have changed considerably.

We used to do three 50 minute sets or sometimes two one hour sets.

Special events are a different animule. There are obviously lots and lots of possible scenarios there.

Sulphur's right by the way. Have a cord to run an MP3 into your PA.

It's cool to control the mood of the room and the level of the music between sets. Easy as hell to do with an iPhone/pod/ whatever.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

As far as between sets goes, we usually share the stage with another band and/or invite local singer/songwriter/solo performers to do short sets in between and before the first set. It gets more people in the door and gets some of them there before we go on - it also gets them some exposure to a new audience. If you do go the mp3 route, _choose_ the songs you play, don't just set it to random. You don't want a song from your set list to come on. We have had good luck with using TV themes - gets people talking and reminiscing.


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## james on bass (Feb 4, 2006)

Pretty much every club I've played at the last number of years is 3 sets of 45 to 60 minutes. A couple of places specify 4 sets and those really suck. 

If the bar has a dj, make sure he/she has a copy of your set-lists - nothing worse than hearing the dj play a song that you know is coming up in your next set.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Most places require 3 sets of 45 minutes here in Ottawa. I usually would ask if we could play 2 sets of 1:15 each which I've never been turned down so far. Just means less breaks. Our setlist these days compose of 28 songs. We play originals but add a sprinkling of covers which fit our music in general to give the crowd some sense of familiarity with what we are playing.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

typically 3 sets of 15 songs. Little more or less in reality. We also keep three or so "extras" at the bottom of each set list to make it easy for changes on the fly and be ready for how requests or guest musicians can change things too.

There was a time when we did 4 sets a lot. The owners seemed to like it as people, including ourselves had a chance to focus on ordering more often.


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

three, 10 song sets = 3 hours, but you've seen us....we are a little over-indulgent when it comes to solos & improv sections


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