[Musicians] Contra medley length?

[Sarah Gowan via Musicians]

We¹ve done a couple of marathon medleys where there was continuous music
for 3 hours! We did it by having four 3 or 4 person bands playing about 40
minutes each.  We overlapped bands by swapping out one player at a time,
which meant we needed to prearrange a swap tune everyone knows for each
band switch. The last 20 minutes all the musicians piled on stage and
played as a megaband. It was a real hoot! I think your melody players will
have more fun if they can play off book and be comfortable handling
changes on the fly - long medleys are bound to have a few surprises and if
they're glued to a book they have a harder time making adjustments. Also
you have to have a sound crew who is up to the challenge. We are fortunate
to have pretty good equipment and generally cheerful sound people.

Sarah

On 10/7/15, 4:06 PM, "Musicians on behalf of Susan Rachel Lorand via
Musicians" <musicians-bounces at lists.sharedweight.net on behalf of
musicians at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

>I'm curious about other musicians' experiences with contra medleys,
>especially in relation to their length.
>
>I've played for quite a few 6x6 medleys (6 dances, done 6x each) and
>consider this a manageable length in a 4-person band (piano + 3 melody
>players), provided I remember not to play the entire time.
>
>Do any of you have experience with longer medleys?
>
>Have you played one that goes 30 minutes or longer? If so, how many
>musicians were in your group?
>
>What are your personal limits?
>
>Any experience alternating bands (or alternating individual musicians) in
>longer medleys?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Susie Lorand (fiddler), Ann Arbor, MI
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