Karaoke Forums

Just wondering how different shows handle the question of song requests.

Personally at my shows many of my regulars do verbal requests, often just getting themselves in the rotation and then selecting the song right before singing (or in advance for others).

About half of my singers still turn in slips.

I am also very tolerant of song changes (I know some shows are less so).

Personally I prefer written slips, but accept both.

Being computerized some singers won't even look in the book --they just give you the ole--- You can look this up can't you ? and then say ok put me in.

The written slips just hep prevent forgetting a verbal request etc. Many times I'll get a verbal request while doing something else and then another question or two and then my mind asks ..WHAT SONG DID HE WANT ????

Just having the history features of CompuHost limits the number of actual written requests I get per night. Regulars know that all they have to do is ask me to put in a song if they have done it before and it takes me all of 2 seconds to add it in CompuHost.

If I am slow, I will also take verbal requests for new songs/new singers, but once it gets busy, I insist that new singers/new songs be on a slip so they don't get lost.

I would say that about 40% of my songs come in on request slips and about 60% are verbal.

Either way, I think the most important thing in dealing with this topic is to set RULES and stick to them. Stay in control, or the nuts will run the asylum!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I give the people what they want. Some insist on slips and want to write everything down. Some hate the slips and just want to tell me what to add to their slot. I use Compuhost so it's really very easy either way.

The only issue is when I am VERY busy and someone want to verbally give me a song, I have to tell them to "hold on for just a minute" while I do whatever I am doing. The verbal folks don't seem to mind though.

We still use slips and sometimes help people fill them out although the boyfriend is starting to lean toward a "If you are too drunk to fill out a slip you are too drunk to sing" policy. But there are other reasons a person might need help such as the bar is too dark to see the book, etc. Although we are a disc show, the boyfriend brings his laptop which has the master song list on it in case we have to correct a bad number or find a replacement song quickly.

The one thing about the slips is the regulars can bring up a pile and say they want to sing the songs in the order presented or else tell us to pick as we see fit. We have a couple of lines of clothespins tacked to the outside of one of the rack cases to keep each singer's pile in order.

I completely agree with Jam. Written slips are almost a must especially on busy nights (25 to 40 singers). Without the slip it is just too easy to miss/forget something.
If they are looking through the book (which I encourage), they already have all the info to fill out the slip correctly, rather than have me guess at the spelling, artist, or song name.

Mrmarog

kiosk requests also eliminate forgetting the request. It also saves me having to decifer their handwriting as I am a terrible speller.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I'll take a request any way it comes but it's mostly through the kiosk. If I don't touch it I won't lose it and the rotation is always fair and perfect.

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Okay, who took my pants?

Prefer written slips, but will take a verbal request. I just write their name on the slip for the rotation placeholder and add it to the playlist.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Ditto....its easy with Sax n dottie...especially with the "History" function..all my regulars...(the ones who won't try new songs......;SIGH ) I can put their songs into the rotation instantly....and when the singer sings...ONLY THEN does he/she get another song added to the rotation..despite how many slips I am given for them.....

I use slipa also ..I inform singers they must look up their own songs and write it down..I wont do it for them..not being mean just consentant in policy....never had a problem yet..

I was surprised to see such a large percentage of KJs accept verbal requests. Unless I have a very small rotation (<5 people) singing over and over, I always require a written slip. This covers me on a number of fronts:

- I don't mishear their name
- On those occasions where there are similar music titles by different artists, I get the right one.
- There's never a question about, "You didn't get the song I came and asked you for?" I either have a slip (on which I write the time it was turned in) or I don't.

My software does have a singer history feature, but I have enough to do (my shows usually have rotations of 30+) without keeping track of singers requests. You want to sing at a karaoke show? Seems the least you can do is fill out a slip!

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One of the best and worst thing about CompuHost is that it frees up a good 30-45 seconds between each song as opposed to using discs with all of the conveniences it provides. When I first started using CompuHost, I didn't quite know how to fill this time, as I was used to performing the manual process of cueing up the next singer. Since I don't have to do that anymore, I use that time to take verbal requests, within reason. If I don't have the time to put the singer's verbal request in right in front of them and have them verify the info, I'll ask for a slip.

I would NEVER take verbal requests back when I was disc-based.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Kind of off topic here, did all/most disc based users only use 1 player - I always hear that arguement that the speed of there shows improved greatly moving to computer & can get more singers in a night? I always preferred using 2 players (started when I was laserdisc based due to the cue up times of the discs themselves) just so there wouldn't ever be that 30-45 second in between song time while waiting to load/reload. So the move on my part did not speed the show up in any manner.
Also wondered, have seen some computer users that let entire songs finish, do you let songs finish out (regardless of outro lengths) or do you manually fade them out & move on to the next?

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

It can be a bit tricky, because some people are into the music itself and want to listen to a longish outro, others clearly not. I look at the body language of the singers a lot to see if the look "done".

If the outro is more than 30 seconds remaining I usually let it fade, and move on to the next song, but only if the singer has left the stage area and the crowd is not dancing to the music. It also depends a lot if the next singer is near the stage area. If not I might use the time to go out and find/him her and alert them they are next.

At my shows I would say that because of the next singer option scrolling at the bottom of the monitors, most of them are usually ready to go.

If it is really busy and the next singer is really ready to go (and up on stage already), i often clip the last 3-5 seconds of songs that are mostly "dead air" at the end.

2 Players when disc based. However now that I run on the PC it frees up all the time I used to spend getting disks out and putting them away. It leaves me more time to cater to the customer with less time playing archivist.

That being said I take both written and verbal slips. I normally have a 30-40 person rotation on Fridays and if I'm too busy to take verbal requests I simply ask for a slip. If it's a regular I can generally get a song from their history in under 15 seconds start to finish using Compuhost. If it's a new song I jot it down so I don't forget it and square it up when I have time.

I thought a bout a kiosk but I would get way to many request for people that didn't know they were going to sing. Also people would cue up 10 songs and ask when are they going to sing 100 times.