Karaoke Forums

nooooooo not that, god u people r sickkkkkk....

i thought about becoming a k j a few times and i was wondering on a slow night r just the being of any night, is it hard to get people up to sing? do u say, ok someone get up and sing...oooooooook its time for someone to singggggggg...okkkk 5 dollars for anyone who sings.... maybe thats going a little far but u get the idea...
i've been to clubs where u have 15 to 20 peple and no one wants r can't sing....untill there drunk anyway....any thoughts on this??

My Monday gigs dont get going until about 10pm so the first 1/2 hour is slow.

I just do a brief intro to let everyone that it is karaoke time and that the songbooks are on the tables and if they wish to sing go ahead and fill out a slip and I will get them up as soon as possible. In the meantime I'm gonna play some filler music until we get a rotation started. I will repeat this about every third song until I get some singers.


Hope this helps

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

That may only be a problem for a very short while.  Soon you will have a group of regulars who are there handing you slips while you're trying to set up.

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Spreading the karaoke gospel

If you have it, they will come.

not even touching that one....bigdog....llol...to me a sound styem is the ticket, if the p a sucks i want be back, period....i feel that if they have the guts to get up there its up to you to make them sound the best they can...and the better u sound the more u want to sing...ty guys

sound system and your sound mixing skills are is important.

But you will find that many customers could give a rip about quality of sound. I do but I'm continually amazed at how many people don't.

Make sure you have a solid selection of music for them to sing to. Don't get all caught up in how many songs you have. If you have 5000 songs that are well selected you can hold your own with a competitor that has 12000. Let's face it there are only so many poplular songs for karaoke. Invest your money wisely.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

True I only have 4700 songs(no doubles) all hand picked and a few of my customers went to another karaoke at another bar where the guy had 15,000 songs and they came back to me saying there wasn't anything good to sing. So for me quality over quantity is #1.

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

I get that all the time as well.  Only 10K songs (non-dup'd, over 14 years invested) of carefully selected tunes.  I buy per customer requests & will only buy from a selected few manufacturers (unless it's a song not found on anything else).  Not the first to have everything & found it's not needed.  I will get it when people ask for it.  There some occasions when I thought I had a song (should've) but didn't & was very surprised.  I used to buy 'just to have it first' & found most of those discs sitting on the shelf after a week or two - if they got used at all.

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Billy,  Here's an idea.  You periodically go out and sing in your area.  A few KJ's likely know who you are. As with anything else, of course there's initial capital that you need to invest in equipment. So prior to spending a penny on something you find might not fit you, or your lifestyle....See if you can do a "fill-in" night on a slower night at first, IOW show up on a slow night, and talk to a KJ and watch what happens during slow period's... I'm sure a KJ in your area wouldn't mind letting you sit in perhaps for an hour or-so even initially if he has another engagement and needs to be late on a given night, assuming you seriously are thinking about trying it out, you can try it out without spending money at first if you get to know and like a KJ in your area, who in turn trusts you.... Get your feet wet apprenticing someone else, using THEIR equipment, in turn you can volunteer a few hours of your time to do it is a hobbyist who might wish to do this fulltime... It seem's relatively easy given our ages, experiences with music, as well as people to get a part time "fill-in" or apprentice type KJ gig on a slow night,  you'd be doing him a favor, and he'd/she'd be doing you a favor....Like any business, depending on your financial situation, actual interest, and job market in your area....It's best to test out the water before diving in..... Tell what you are telling us to a KJ in real.... He'll likely approach you at some point and say,

"btw, you have a chance two weeks from monday if you'd like to show up at around 8:30 PM, and cover for me until about 10PM,  I want to visit my mom mothers day, I only get a few hours between jobs....We can work out a time that I'll familiarize you with my equipment, just show up the saturday before for abit so you get an idea of how things work, even though your night will be much slower, just a chance to see what this is about"...

Before HS and College FM radio jock days,  that's what I did,  I sat in the studio with friends... Thing is, after having a show for a few days, I got REALLY bored.... It feel's like you're sitting in a room alone with an engineer on the other side of a window... Too boring for me..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

[shadow=darkorchid][font=Comic Sans MS]From a singer's point of view.......slow times at the beginning of the night is always nice....in that situation KJs around here let people sing two songs till the rotation starts to get larger........this gives time to practice/warm up before the 10:30 crowd shows up.....word of two songs per singer gets out there will be more......[/font][/shadow]

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[glow=blue]Tequila & A Song
KKid[/glow]

You announce there will be karaoke and play a few songs while waiting for singers.
Mingle with your crowd and let them know who you are and when they are ready to sing to approach you. I wait a little while and sing a song. Sometimes they  are just waiting for someone else to go first.
I keep lists for my singers of the songs they sing, so when I start I already have the people's lists pulled and after I sing the first song I just start calling them up. If they don't want to sing yet they'll let you know.
You can always put in some well known songs and invite people up to sing with you, also to get the night going. Half the time they end up taking over the stage. If you are singing and you see people singing along you know those are the people to target.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

How hard is it?
It is easier than you think. And it get easier as you learn the tricks of the
trade.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

If you're thinking about becoming a working KJ - Getting people to sing is the least of the concerns.  If you have a decent selection and sound system "singers" will find you !    The venue you're hired for also plays a major part in WHO if anyone will sing. But to answer your question  when I first started out or if I start a New Venue its always a little slow in the start of the night. BUT JUST WAIT for the ALCOHOL to kick in and then WHAM...  YOu won't be able to STOP them from signing up to sing  WISHING YOU LUCK!!

Jamkaraoke is right. I would think you'd be more concerned about your system.
Unless you already have one.

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

great ideas guys, ty....but i didn't know i had to turn tricks...ohhh u said learn the tricks....sorry....l...no i don't have a P A but i can get one if i wanted to, plus thats the end of it that i do know about,  i know for me, a great sound system is # 1, but without the song what good is a great sounding P A ?  and without a doubt i will go to the best sound system everytime...

Steven, great idea my friend i'm sure the place where i go would let me sit in for awhile....could be fun to....come join me....we would have a blast....

the place where i go, i never fill out a song r  send 1 in...i'm for sure not a regular but he knows me when i come in and he doesn't care what i'm singing, he will call me, i walk up and say....ok what am i singing?  sometimes its...whatever you want...r  he will have it cued up already, pretty relaxed there, which i like alot....plus if ur getting ready to leave and u want to sing before u go, he has no problem getting u up...i think he does that to most people if they ask.... seems to work for him.....and us....

ty guys

I don't know how everyone else feels about this, but I look at it this way.    The bar owner is paying you for a night of karaoke, in my case that means a four hour gig.    Key words here are PAYING & KARAOKE.     It's not a play regular music until someone sings night.    It's karaoke.   It's not a play music in between singers night.    If you can't carry a show, why not?    To me that means when it's time to start for the night someone is singing from the first minute to the very last.    If it's me singing then it's me.    That's karaoke.     I have already sang for three out of four hours, back to back on a brand new night.    That's more than any professional performer has ever done.   To top it off it was a saturday night after I did a five hour kids christmas party for our local union.   I sang three out of five hours at that.    That day and night, and I never did it since, I sang for a total of six hours.    When people walk into the bar someone is singing, so they get the message that it is indeed karaoke and not a DJ.   If it's me and one singer then it's me and him till he sings his entire rep'ertoire.    When he can't hang it's back to me, till someone else shows.     That's what the bar owner is paying me for.    I know about 600 songs.   They are a mix of oldies, to today, country and ballads.    I mix them depending on the crowd.   When they get sick of hearing me then they will sing.    I refuse to carry regular music unless it's an unadvertised karaoke night.    Meaning I'm filling in for a DJ or band cancellation.    Then I'm a KJ/DJ.     I know people will get sick of karaoke especially if they were expecting something else.   I'm still thinking about making the most money I can for the bar owner.

BigDog, I think it really depends on the bar and the KJ. Most bar owners aren't paying you for karaoke. They are paying you to keep people in the bar! And if you're a well established KJ, they hope you'll also bring a crowd in with you. Karaoke is just the vehicle we use to do that. I could sing 30 songs in a row, but with my voice, after 3 or 4 songs, I'd start to get hoarse and people would quickly start to leave. I've had shows where there were already around 30 people in the bar when I started, but nobody wanted to sing. If I just started singing one song after another, they wouldn't be there long. But I read the crowd, played music that they liked, and they stayed ... and they drank. After about an hour one or 2 would decide to sing. then 3 or 4 more. As more people came into the bar, they would get into it and by the end of the night I had around 75 patrons and around 30 singers. That never would have happened if I chased them away with the KaraokeRoy show.

I've also had shows where I started with 7 or 8 people, but 4 wanted to sing, so I'd throw myself, and my girlfriend in the rotation, and we just did karaoke. As others came in they would be entertained by the singing, stay and drink, and eventually get up on stage. We ended up with about 40 people and by the time the night was over 20 of them would've sang at least once.

The bar owner just wants you to generated more business than he's paying you - actually, more than twice what he's paying you. Most don't care whether or not it's all karaoke, all dj music, 50/50 or even if people want to get up there and tell jokes. As long as it's all in relatively good taste (by bar standards) and it keeps butts in the seats he's happy.

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[highlight=purple]The Truth is out there. ... Way, way out there![/highlight]

If the sign outside says karaoke every Thursday, that's what people expect.    They know why they came.    99.9% of singers I know ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO HAVE MUSIC PLAYING BETWEEN SONGS.    Or hear the KJ rattling on like he's the hottest radio personality in the world.    They want to sing, period.    Sign says.. everybody welcome, come in, sit down and sing. (put this line to music)         KARAOKE NIGHT.     All of the other filler crap chases them away.      Gotta go the kitty is meowing.....

I don't understand KJs that play songs for 15 min. plus.
If you are waiting for someone to get to the stage and play filler that is different.

I personally don't have time to play filler music. I have to many singers climbing up
my back to sing. As the music is playing out from the end of a song I have people clap for the singer. When the music stops I call up the next singer. I cue it up imediately unless I know the person is coming from the back of the bar. sometimes the music starts before they get to the stage. Then they hurry more. Seldom do they not make it to the stage to sing. They know in my bar to be ready to sing because I won't wait for you to light your cigarette or get another beer.

With so many people waiting to sing it is just rude to take your sweet old time to get to the stage.

If I played music for breaks they would kill me.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

- How about when they stop along the way to get the attention, and sometimes chat, of the people in the crowd!!  It's not like they haven't heard twice before that they were coming up!  It is very rude to the other singers.

Susie

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