Karaoke Forums

Shame on you for singing a ten minute song!!!! . I did For Crying Out Loud, once. THAT is a SERIOUS song. I sing a lot of Meat Loaf. Lately, I have been doing his version of It's All Coming Back To Me, Now. Been singing Heaven Can Wait, Two Out of Three, and Paradise for years.

As for the OP, I do the same thing. If I only have one singer, which happens in the beginning of some nights, I play filler music. Big deal. I don't play a lot of what others do. i play a lot of Blues based stuff, like Allman Brothers, Joe Bonamassa, Johnny Lang. My people appreciate that, as it is their kind of music, too. I play country, whatever. Once I have a few singers the filler ends and it is all karaoke from there on, except for the REQUESTED dance set. I always sing the first song, to get everything the way i want it.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Thanks for the suggestion, but I do not have the money or the time and patience to stick with vocal lessons. Besides that, I have never been in a band, and I only participate in Karaoke for fun. I don't do it to go on a singing marathon. As for letting the Mic do the work for me, there are certain parts of those songs (already mentioned) where I need to belt them out. Fortunately for everyone, I know how (and when) to pull back on a Mic. But, when I am belting, I am pouring a lot more energy into the song, and thus part of the feeling of being totally wiped out.

Yup... it IS a serious song, and it happens to be my favorite Meatloaf song (but it's only a 9 minute song... ). I only sing that song once in a blue moon, and when there are hardly any singers participating. I won't sing it when there's a lot of people waiting to sing. That song does take everything out of me. I even break a sweat by the time I've finished the song.

I appreciate everyone's responses. I must stress again: this is not something I'd expect from other KJs. Do whatever you want in your show.

I need to stress: she is a personal close friend of mine for 20 years. 20 yrs can make one an unofficial family member. We've literally gone to karaoke together for 16 of those 20 yrs. she's an active karaoke singer who has pointed out weaknesses of other KJs before becoming one herself. She was sharp with those criticsms tho I didn't always agree. So I looked forward to her being a KJ.
Again, I gotta stress 20 years. She's like a little sister to me. So imagine, I'm a KJ 8 yrs. now my "little sis" joins in it as her first year. I finally get a night to see her show fully--other times I got there late cuz I had to work too. I finally can catch her full show.
So I get there and it's literally her, me and the bartender. I put my slip in as she sets up. It'd been a nice gesture if she let her close friend of 20 yrs sing first and then she sings next. Because there's nobody there is my point. Drop formality. Let's have fun. I'm like family. Fix the mics while I'm on it. I'm not even a first singer like that. I don't sing at my shows. I only sing when I goto karaoke. Again if there was any type of crowd there, yes, KJ sing your first song, make the tone of the night. But if it's just you, me and the bartender who is busy texting, come on, and you're like family to me, please, since I dropped by let me be the first to sing. Don't play two song sets. The place is empty. I'm your friend! Nobody's there to care what you do.
I'm chalking it up to first year mishaps. I may be the closest person she knows to come to a show like that and she didn't know what to do.
Again, yall I've been a KJ for 8 years, she's been to countless shows of mine and was always my first singer without me singing first or I'd sing second. She loved that.

By the way, the bartender threatened to close the entire venue like 15 minutes after karaoke started because he didn't realize there was an actual rotation of her and me going on--She sang first, played two long songs then put me up. During the 3rd round of this I walked angrily to her in the booth like wtf are you doing? Esp since she used to bemoan things like this back in the day and she's been to my shows.

Again, this is why she should've put me up first to sing, before she sang. It looked bad. Picture it: the bartender was already at the venue. The venue was stark empty. He was in that emptiness for a little bit. Then we come in. Now there's only 3 people. She sings first then plays two songs. The bartender may not even be aware I'm in the rotation. Then I sing. Then she plays 2 more songs. Again if she was a stranger, a KJ I didn't know, I can't complain, KJ do you. But this is my close personal friend of 20 yrs who's a karaoke head, I expected something better from her. After I ordered her to speed up the rotate tion and to quit being so formal lets make this a party get some energy in here, I went to the bar and the bartender told me he was thinking of closing. Why not? At that point she played more music than we sang. She listened picked up the pace, cut the 2-song bit into 40 seconds and she and I were rolling and guess what? The bartender was more entertained and stayed open. Slowly more folks came in and the night was saved. He was texting pple who were on the way to not come cuz he was thinking of closing esp with that slow pace my 20 yr friend started the night off with.

I learned: folks will not like your filler music but let someone sing that same filler music as a karaoke song and they'll tolerate it. How many times has a mundane karaoke song sung brought a standing ovation yet play the same song as a filler gets no reaction. Ha.

To answer the opening question about the way your friend does karaoke...

Let her be. Don't tell her what to do or how to run her show. Let her sink or swim.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Totally agree. This also brings up the need for the KJ to be on the ball and attentive to the singer's needs each and every song.

Setting the mic to a certain level and leaving it there all night seems to be the way many KJ's operate. Unfortunately, the "one size fits all approach" is detrimental to the singers who actually know how to work the mic.

The common scenario is "Big mouth Bill" (who doesn't really even need a mic) gets up and screams directly into the mic. Mr. one size KJ lowers the mic volume to keep his ear drums intact. He then leaves the mic at this setting all night..

Since not all singers have the experience, brains, or just plain courtesy to deal properly with a hot mic, Mr. one size "fixes" the potential problem by leaving the mic volume so low that no one can possibly overload it forcing all the other singers to overcompensate in order to be heard.

I have a soft voice, and it drives me nuts when I have to push way harder than I should have to just to get a song out. Hard to work a mic when you have to eat the screen just to be heard.

Couldn't agree more. I am pretty loud at high notes but in the lower register I am much quieter so need plenty of mic to be heard. I know the way of my voice and hold the mic further away if I know I'm going to be louder than normal. But I often have to signal the KJ mid song to turn my mic up, it's annoying. I could see the point if I had a history of whooping/cupping the mic, but I never abuse the equipment so would like to be cut some slack in return. Not so loud that we get a howl round, but a sensible volume to be heard clearly above the music.

It really depended on who the other singers were as to whether I sang first or not. If I had singers I knew really well and knew they were chomping at the bit, I'd get them up. Lots (most) singers prefer to wait a few songs, especially if the room is dead. Others could come in before they are up. The KJ at my old place knows me well and likes to get me up first if he can. He doesn't sing much so he knows I'll do a good job picking a great opening song and being able to do an OK job while he gets things fine tuned.

I am going to assume that the bar wasn't totally dead and they had some bar flies that aren't there for karaoke. The last thing a host and bar manager should want is to drive out people that are there. If they aren't there for karaoke, and they outnumber the singers, then playing some filler is the smartest thing to do. I am not sure how anyone can complain about a four song rotation...

The wife and I walked in to the bar this past Friday night and it was close to this situation. There were two friends of mine there that sing, myself and my wife doesn't sing. There were lots of other folks in the bar and I knew most of them. Bar flies that only tolerate karaoke would be a good description. Luckily, the three singers were all very good. I asked my wife what she wanted to hear, so I started off with "Animal". I went to some of the flies and asked them, so we were able to keep singing while also including the bar flies. Even still, after several rotations the KJ changed things up some and played a few songs, then a song after each rotation. It was the smart thing to do IMO..

As a kj, I will open the show (sing the first song). Doesn't matter who is there. It's mostly to get everything dialed in if it isn't already.
As far as regular music, generally won't play any, but on the rare occasion I do, it would be after a rotation - so if it were me & 1 other (like the described scenerio), I would sing, they would sing, then may put in 1 or two regular songs just to space out the time. I have come to find that unless the singer is an absolute diva and don't care if they are singing an entire show by themselves to nobody, that MOST singers typically only want to sing but not necessarily every other song or back to backs - and alot don't have the stamina to do more than 5-10 songs in short amounts of time.

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