Karaoke Forums

As I read the post I excerpted this from, I inferred from it that a time limit is imposed on singers; so I became curious.

Is this a common practice?

If so, what are the limits?

How much time is considered too long?

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EveningStar Entertainment & Events
JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

I really don't limit what people can sing on time. If someone really wants to sing American Pie or Taxi I let them. I just suggest to the regulars I'd rather them not if it's busy and say, if they could please wait until a slower night I'd appreciate it. Most people realize when there is a two hour wait to sing it's unreasonable to sing a 12 minute song. If the person is new I'm very careful in what I say.

Another thing I may suggest is that the song MAY not be received well because so many people are waiting to sing or I can cut it short. Usually in those very long songs there is a place after about 3 -4 minutes I can fade it out with out disrupting the song noticably.

I always make it their decission though.

I guess I worded it that way because most of my regulars are really cool about it and will ask me first if it's an okay night to do the long song.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I impose no limits. If it's in my book, you can sing it.

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

I think some KJs simply don't put long songs in their books. I leave them in because sometimes they're not a problem.

It's not for me I try to discourage long songs on a busy night. It's for the other singers waiting to sing.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Although I don't mind the "long" songs at karaoke; I don't think that they should be allowed during the last hour of the show.. If you want to sing PBTDL, get there early. A few long songs during the last hour and you have gone from being able to get 15 singers in for one more song to gettting only 10 singers in, all because a few people had to be mic hogs at the last minute. Ever notice that MOST of the people that choose the "long" songs don't really sing all that well????

Yes I do. I guess they figure maybe they'll get better as they get closer to the end of the song. Therefore they need the extra time.

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EveningStar Entertainment & Events
JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

I will disagree about the long song singers - the one guy who comes to our show who does A/Pie does a fabulous job, never looks at the screen in fact. Entire room sings along but we do make it the last song, "Hey, you wanna sing the last song tonight?" and put that up for him. He doesn't care, really, as we have a lot of songs that he sings and usually just says first time up, "Hey, can you put in my songs for me tonight?"

I'm not a fan of these long songs if they're not done well, and I will suggest the same as Babs, if it's a busy night, that they do it another time...and then hope they forget!

WE don't put limits on our songs although sometimes we'd like to. But we did have one regular who made it a running joke to complain that a certain other regular always got to sing 4 minute songs while his were only 2 1/2. So one night we put up "American Pie" for him and he has never made a song length comment since.

As for such things keeping Bruce from getting in one more song--if he had one more song to sing and it was closing time, we would stay and he would get his song. If the place is hopping and both we and the bar tendress agree to stay late, we are glad for the business and stay late.

I have taken some of the longer yawners out of my book. Of course my book is a subset anyway, by design. In the case of American Pie and PBTDL and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and one or two others, I have taken them off of my hard disk. Just don't need them.

It may be my imagination, but I do note that many of the poorer singers tend to sing mostly long songs.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I'm glad you posted this, jr. I have been curious as to whether I'm the only one that hates dealing with long songs. I do have a couple of people that do PBTDL well. I also deal with a few singers that always want to sing the long songs in the last hour when I'm rushing to fit as many people in as I can. I will also try to discourage these songs late in the night or if we have a really long rotation. I have thought before about counting it as two turns, since it's longer than someone else's two turns put together! PBTDL is hard though, because it's a duet. People can be very stingy about their time on stage and want to make sure they pick long songs. It's so irritating!!

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

I will under certain circumstances. If the rotation is long I will ask the singer to pick another song.

"My friend, I like this song too, but I'm trying to fit in as many folks as I can. To be fair to everyone could you pick a different song please?"

works in most cases. If the guys a jerk about it he just doesn't sing at all.

At the end of the night when I'm trying to get everyone in, and bar staff is wanting to go home, and I've got dance requests, I'm sorry... no American Pie.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

The easy way to discourage long songs to be sang when the rotation is long is to edit the file title to include a *. A note at the beginning of or at the bottom of the page explain that song with * cannot be sang when rotation is above 8 ie. This way you don't need to explain it over and over. Then those who love to sing them need to come early.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

No limits but i have often wondered why everyone wants to sing the longest songs in the last go round. Kills my timetable for getting done on time.

That's my same problem. I'm thinking about telling people that they can't sing these songs after a certain time for that very reason. That way, they can't say I don't have it; They just need to be fair to other singers.

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

I pretty much run mine like Lonman in this regard.

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

I'm like Lonnie also and I don't have a timetable, the show ends when it ends. Whether a "long" song is sung at the beginning of a show or at the end, it's the same space of time.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

It matters when you promise singers they will get to sing and then some jerk wants to sing a 20 minute song and you only have 10 minutes left.

Then don't make promises. Simple. But then again I guess it's too much trouble to actually look at slips and estimate the time left.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I guess being a Canadian you know the exact length of every song in the book? As an American i'm not that good yet.

It usually happens when someone wants to change the song they were going to sing to a different song.

As an American, you unfortunately personify the "Ugly American" moniker. Thankfully Most I know are good people.

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You can be strange but not a stranger