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Posts: 441
Joined: Mar. 19 2009
From: San Francisco Bay Area
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
If you want traditional, select pieces from these books. You can preview the table of contents for titles of the included pieces. You may already have some.
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
Do you play exclusivley flamenco or can you play classical too?
I can give you some advice from my experience. For the ceremony you should generally start with more stately music and then have more happy music after they have been pronounced man and wife. While the congregation is arriving you can play some Solea, Granaina and any classical stuff you have in your repertoire. Its ok to improvise a bit. Try to pick music without a heavy accent. Bulerias and Tangos do not work well here. I avoid Rondeña because of retuning the guitar. You want to avoid changing tunings as much as possible for a ceremony. You cant be retuning your guitar during the quiet parts of the ceremony. The bride can often be late so make sure you have an extra piece you can fiddle around with. You will only get a nod before the bride comes in so there is no time to change tuning for the entrance.
For the entrance of the bride I get requested one of about 4 themes. 1. The Romanza anonima (yeah, its cheesy but thats what they are paying for) 2. Pachelbels canon. 3. Recuerdos de la alhambra 4. Wedding march You need no more than about a minute and a half of music for the bride and bridesmaids to get to the alter so dont worry about learning full versions. Most people only know the first 6 bars of any melody anyway so you can repeat a short theme with no problem.
You will need a piece during the ceremony for either signing all the paperwork. This needs to be at least 3 minutes long. I often use Ave maria or Cavatina at this point. You could use a more upbeat flamenco palo here as well. Again, there is no time to change tuning between the register signing and the recesional. You may just have time to put on a cejilla and its straight into the recessional.
An Alegrias works really well as the couple are leaving the church. You could also do a sevillanas. Another popular choice is "all you need is love" by the Beatles which I have as a guitar solo. Dont forget that people will be clapping so forget about fancy falettas...a good section of compas whilst they are leaving. They will be outside with photographers after a half minute so just keep playing until most of the guests leave.
I have been working on wedding repertoire for about 3 years now and I always get asked the same material. If you plan on doing more weddings then you should dedicate time this summer to learning 3 or 4 classical pieces 1. Mendlesohns wedding march 2. Romanza 3. Cavatina 4. Anything by Bach
If you mix this with your flamenco repertoire, you can play almost any wedding. Its well worth it because the addition of these pieces will enable you to charge 300 or 400 dollars for an afternoons work.
Whenever you learn a new piece, keep the tab in a folder. You will almost certainly get it requested again in the future. Take the folder to every wedding. Its surprising how your memory can go at the last minute. Make sure you have a digital tuner with you too. Its not professional to spend more time tuning the guitar than playing it! Finally make sure you dress the part with polished shoes and preferably a suit. You will feel more confident and more likely to be asked back.
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
guess a few of us here have been paying our rent for many years playing weddings. Pimientito's suggestions will see you through any wedding...a few tough pieces there, if you dont have them now...pretty hard to master in a week. guess it depends on the wedding but often after the deed is done and the champagne is opened some brazilian pieces suit the mood. some choro, bossa nova and something from the jazz rep get people loose for the reception...maybe a Venezuelan waltz....give a festive ambiance... i find i often play for 20 to 30 mins after the ceremony, maybe your gig is different... so you could throw in that alegrias, a tango, tangos, rhumba, ...let people know the formality/ceremonial part of the event is at a close... good luck but most of all enjoy...
quote:
polished shoes
good point one more wedding and i have a new pair.
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to rombsix)
My record so far was 9 in a month (although you cant charge $400 in Spain) The downside is that there are no weddings between mid October and April so you only have a six month period to get wedding work. The upside is that you dont have to play wedding music for 6 months of the year!
Its hard to make a living as a musician so I recommend playing weddings when there is less concert work around. If you can figure out flamenco then its not hard to spend 6 months learning 4 or 5 wedding themes. Once you have them in your fingers its easy money. I have been trying to get friends to learn some of my repertoire ....but frustratingly they wont and then complain about the lack of work. The fact is that every city has at least a dozen weddings going on every week and there is plenty to do if you get the repertoire and a web site together.
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
quote:
Oh and I would play with Flamenco tremolo......not the classical way.......
I would think twice about that... Might end up having a very very VERY slow rendition of Recuerdos de la Alhambra if you use p-i-a-m-i. Or, my tremolo sucks.
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
Can you capitalize on that by driving from city to city, playing weddings 24/7 for those six months of the "wedding season?"
Not if you want to stay sane. I do travel a lot though from as far as Jaen to Gibraltar and have been honoured to play in some beautiful locations....even the Alhambra palace.
Rumbaking, it sounds like you have half a repertoire already. Canon for violin and guitar is easy as you only have to play chords. I have tabbed a solo version but its classical, not flamenco. The more solo material you can do, the better. You can easily find a Recuerdos tab in the tabs section. Go to " before requesting tabs". Cavatina is much easier than recuerdos to learn. You just need a wedding march and maybe Ave Maria (which is difficult) and thats it. Send me a pm if you get stuck for tabs as I spent a long time making my own wedding tabs.
Posts: 1967
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
Just want to second everything Pimiento wrote. Romance makes a great tune for the processional-it's perfect. I have stretched it when needed by playing the first section again in tremelo. Some brides take forever to walk to the pulpit. Also recuerdos with the flamenco tremelo is a great piece for weddings, as is Cavatina, which I've never played. I've played dozens of weddings and never played the wedding march. They were among the best paying solo gigs I've ever done, but much of it has little to do with playing. It's more about making the clients comfortable with your presentation.
I've used Guajira for the recessional -like Pimientito said, lots of rhythm, few falsetas needed at that point. Once a guy paid me 700. just for the ceremony. I don't do them anymore, prices have dropped and it's not worth it to me to give up a weekend and also have to keep those pieces under my fingers. Now you see brides advertising on craigslist hoping to get someone for 100.00 Well, it was fun while it lasted.................
Posts: 233
Joined: Apr. 7 2005
From: Adelaide, Australia
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
I do weddings most weekends in season and I can definitely agree with Pimiento's excellent advice. When using flamenco repertoire make sure you know lots of stuff in major keys (not exclusively, but maybe around half). As well as guajiras and alegrias in various keys, instrumental bulerias in a major key work great, such as Moraito's buleria in D major.
For the bridal entrance, I usually do one of these:
Middle section of Mallorca by Albeniz Cavatina Recuerdos Instrumental version of a pop song (if they have a favourite song)
Signing I usually play flamenco - guajiras etc.
As they leave my favourite thing is upbeat Brazilian stuff like AlVal recommended - especially Rafael Rabello's versions of Girl from Ipanema and One Note Samba.
After that I do mostly flamenco - everyone is in a good mood by the end so anything upbeat goes down well. As long as there is an occasional tune people recognise, they will be happy.
If there are more than a handful of people, make sure you have good quality amplification, even if you need to borrow it. If they offer a PA say no thanks I'll bring my own - theirs may be terrible. A separate website just for weddings can definitely generate work - mine is weddings.aloysiusleeson.com
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to aloysius)
quote:
Middle section of Mallorca by Albeniz
I never thought of that. That would be a beautiful bridal entrance. I have been tabbing a solo version of the Adagio from Rodrigos guitar concierto in the tabs section in the hope that this could also make a good piece for the bride.
I would invite players who regularly do weddings to list the most unusual request for a piece in the ceremony. My top ones are 1. When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, thats amore - Dean Martin 2. Nothing else matters - Metallica 3. Dance of the sugar plum fairy - Tchaikovsky
Posts: 407
Joined: Oct. 10 2010
From: Wooli, NSW Australia
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
I have got so much distance out of C and G , they seem to create a relaxed happy atmosphere , throw in a D to break things up . Good for about ten minutes if your creative enough .
RE: Suggestions for wedding music????? (in reply to Guest)
For a non-flamenco croud I always keep handy:
- Jeux Interdits - Asturias - Recuerdos de la Alhambra - Barrios' final tremolo - A Sabicas farruca - El Fuerte de Cristal (Paco Cepero) - David Qualey Opus' 20 & 22
David Qualey has absolutely beautiful pieces that aren't so difficult. He's responsible for me putting down the electric guitar:
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one more wedding and i have a new pair. 
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