Article Extra

Find out What the Pros Play and what they’re adding this season. 

Having a great gig book is like having the perfect Swiss army knife—a tool for any situation, a song for every occasion. Taking a broad range of well-organized tunes that you can play the lights out of to a gig is every freelancer’s goal, but knowing how to get there can be tricky. Whether you are just starting out and building your gig book from scratch, or simply need to give your outdated gig book a makeover, we’ve gathered some practical advice from top-notch freelancers to help.

Getting started

If you are new to gigging, then you need a starter gig book. You don’t need every title under the sun to start out, but you do need a skeleton book, of sorts. A few critical tunes from important genres that you can play with ease.

If you’re an experienced gigger, then you likely already have a gig book. Ask yourself, though, when was the last time you added a new tune to your book? How often do you have to shuffle through pages and pages of music to find music for that special request at a party? How likely are you to have the music a bride requests for her wedding? If you haven’t given your gig book much TLC lately, now is the time to give it some love.

If you are new to gigging, Monika Vasey Rhodes, a freelancer in metro Washington, D.C., recommends seeding your gig book with songs you already know well and feel comfortable playing. “Then gradually learn and add new repertoire to your book and before you know it, you’ll have enough rep to fill a substantial amount of time,” she says. Rhodes goes on to caution that not all of your solo music is suitable for gigging. “Try not to include songs that the audience can’t passively listen to—the intro and very end of Salzedo’s “Chanson dans la Nuit” comes to mind as something that might not be heard well or appreciated in a background music setting.”

Mary Keener agrees that a harpist’s solo repertoire is the best place to start building a gig book. “I always recommend that my students get a binder and start adding music to it as soon as it is polished, long before their first background music gigs,” she says. But don’t stop once you’ve popped it in the binder. “It’s a good idea to spend a little time every week playing through some of the music in your book,” she advises. “At first, most of the music will take some effort to maintain, but as your skill level increases, it will become music you can come back to comfortably without much refreshing.”

Erica Messer suggests to build your book with anything you know really well. “You want to be confident on your first gigs,” she says. “Have a few ‘show pieces,’ and then keep everything else really simple. The first 25 gigs are about focusing on performing and ignoring distractions, whether that is a blue carpet, a slippery floor, or just a crying baby and curious children.”

Despite starting with music you have learned, and adding songs as you learn them, the thought of building a book that is substantial enough to sustain you through a two-hour gig is daunting.

But Kristen Elizabeth Hoyos, a busy freelancer in Tampa, Fla., says not to worry. “Building a good gig book takes time. Don’t feel as if you need to learn 20 songs at once.” Hoyos recommends including “filler” pieces that are simple and you can play well. “I call them fillers because it fills in space in your set list. They don’t need to be recognizable songs. If it’s a short piece, repeat it twice or even three times with some variation. Over time, you will be able to remove your fillers and have a set list of quality pieces.” Hoyos does caution that you should have enough songs to not have to go back and repeat a song in your set. You never want to give your audience that feeling of deja vu.

The basics

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, weddings are the bread and butter of many harpists’ freelance work, so it makes sense that wedding music should be at the core of your gig book. You need to have a substantial amount of wedding music.

Adrienne Knauer, a Phoenix-based freelancer who specializes in weddings, says the bare bones of what you need to start out is 30 minutes of wedding prelude music, popular ceremony songs, including both classical and pop, and an hour of cocktail music—everything from Sinatra, to Coldplay, to Elton John, etc. “It takes years to fine tune your gig book ,but once you have it down, it is invaluable.”

Start with ceremony music—choose a few tried and true selections for the procession of the wedding party, the bridal procession, and the recessional. Then select several additional songs that could be used during a ceremony and double as prelude music. Just like a capsule wardrobe, you should choose pretty traditional selections for your core wedding music and supplement with some special tunes from different wedding traditions or a few love songs that are currently topping the charts.

If you are a seasoned gigger, then you likely already have the wedding basics. This is the perfect place to improve your book. If you’ve been playing the same arrangement of “Here Comes the Bride” since you played your first wedding in 1992, then maybe it’s time for an upgrade. “I still change mine all the time—and that’s what makes it fun,” says Knauer, who has been playing weddings for about 10 years.

Weddings aren’t the only events you’ll be playing, so it’s also important to have a solid set of background music songs in your gig book. Whether it’s a corporate party in a hotel ballroom or a sweetheart dinner at a retirement community, your background music needs to be easy to listen to for a wide range of listeners.

“Variety is key,” says Hoyos. “It is imperative to have a collection of songs that can reach all ages in an audience.” She also recommends including songs that can be appropriate for multiple events. “For example, a versatile song such as ‘River Flows in You’ by Yiruma can be played as background music for brunch, a wedding, or even a funeral.”

As you are building your basic book, try to include a few songs that are sure to be crowd-pleasers, advises freelancer Elizabeth Steiner, who plays at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. “There are certain classics that always warm up a room like ‘Autumn Leaves,’ ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ ‘What a Wonderful World,’ and ‘The Way You Look Tonight,’” she says. “It’s also important to have some contemporary pop to show the harp’s versatility.” Steiner says she has also found it useful to have a set of meditative music for more solemn events like funerals.

The digital divide

Here at Harp Column, we haven’t been shy about touting the benefits of taking your gig book digital. (See Making the Switch in our January/February 2018 issue and Going Digital in our January/February 2015 issue.) About half of the freelance gurus we talked to have transitioned their gig books to the digital variety, but not everyone is so eager about hopping on the bandwagon. We’re not going to go over the nuts and bolts of how to create a digital gig book in this article (you can see our previous articles on that, as well as Kimberly Rowe’s blog on the topic at harpcolumnmusic.com/organizing-digital-library/), but we do have some advice should you choose digital or paper to build your book.

Knauer is whole-heartedly on team digital gig book. “If you are serious about gigging professionally, invest in an iPad Pro and start uploading your music from the beginning. Don’t wait until you have an entire bookcase of music to upload,” she says. “It pays for itself in a few gigs.”

Hoyos says she has about 300 songs in her digital gig book after getting an iPad Pro two years ago. “Before the [iPad] Pro, I would use my iPad, but it was too small and made reading music difficult. Now with the large screen it is like looking at a single page of music. The downside is having more ‘page turns’ or a swipe of the screen, but it’s nothing compared to having to turn an actual page, arrange music in sheet protectors, or constantly adjust your binder so that the music fits just right,” she says. “I still purchase paper music if there isn’t a PDF version available, but it gets converted to PDF then safely tucked away neatly in my file cabinet.”

Southern California freelancer Erica Messer uses her iPad for gigs, but hasn’t quite let go of the edge of the pool yet. “I have a paper binder for emergencies that I leave in my car,” she admits. “I always worry my iPad is going to break or fall. In case of low battery, I try to have a portable charger ready to go or charge it in my car in between gigs.”

Even for those who haven’t gone digital, they say there are definitely benefits to going that direction, especially if you are just starting out.

London freelancer Harriet Adie says all of her pop music is now digital, and she is in the (very slow) process of uploading her classical gig music to her iPad. She believes the iPad is the way to go if you can afford it. “It is such a great way to keep music in one place, it avoids the need to print out anything, and keeps pages from blowing in the wind.”

Rhodes hasn’t jumped the digital divide yet, but she says she has been thinking about it. “This would definitely solve the problem of not being able to indulge some on-the-spot song requests for the more random pop tunes or the more soloistic harp repertoire,” she says. “And there are the additional perks of having less to carry and backing up your music on the cloud.”

Despite most harpists she knows having defected to the other side, Keener remains committed to team paper gig book, and is happy about her decision. “I’ve given it considerable thought and am contemplating the idea of going partially digital. But despite the many advantages to switching to a screen, I just don’t feel comfortable trusting technology for outdoor wedding ceremonies, which are the bulk of my performances for most of the year.”

Organizing your gig book

Whether your music is digital or on paper, organizing your gig book is critical. It doesn’t matter if you have every Disney hit ever written if you can’t find it when someone makes a request. There are several ways you can organize your gig book, and many times you will want to organize it using a few different methods.

Set lists: Creating different set lists is helpful so that you can control how each piece flows into the next at a gig. You can also use set lists for specific events.

“I have a set list for every wedding I play where I upload specific music requests, contract, etc.,” says Knauer. She says she organizes all of her music through set lists on her iPad. “I have general setlists—funeral, wedding prelude, wedding ceremony, cocktail Hour, and harp and violin.”

“Because I’m a freelance harpist playing a variety of gigs, I find it to be so easy and convenient to organize my music by type of event” says Hoyos. “I can create a set list for each type of event: wedding, cocktail hour, funeral, holiday, etc. Once I have each set list created for a general event, I am then able to quickly customize it for that specific event. For example, I can quickly add the processional and recessional music for an upcoming wedding to my existing wedding prelude set list.”

“The main section of my gig book is in the center (where page turns are easiest),” says Keener. “I shuffle that section as needed for the next event I’m playing, but it consists of a nice mixture of classical and popular music with wide appeal across generations. These are my go-to songs when the set list is left completely up to me.”

Being able to flip directly to a specific genre of music is helpful when you’re trying to match the mood or style of a gig.

“Outside of my setlist in the middle, I try to keep the rest of my gig book divided into sections by genre—sacred, folk, etc.,” says Keener.

Steiner agrees that genres are a convenient way to organize your gig book. “At my hotel gig, I simply organize my books into classical and pop. On my iPad I also have categories for film music, Broadway, contemporary pop, etc.”

Rhodes keeps track of all her gig music by genre. “I have a rolling briefcase bag with several divided compartments, and I keep different genres in the different compartments. I have a classical arrangement binder sorted mostly by period, and a few spiral-bound wedding collections that I keep in one compartment.  In the other compartments I keep jazz and standards, then Broadway, then pop, then Disney.  There is a less-opened pocket where I keep more minor tunes and selections I might reserve for a funeral service,” she says.

Keener notes that unless you have gone digital, eventually, it won’t be possible to carry all of your music with you everywhere you go. “I have one main gig book, and a secondary gig book that I bring with me to most events, but often leave in the car,” she says.

Must-have music

So you know how much music you need, which styles are important to have, and how to organize your gig book. But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty—the music. Even if you have started building your gig book with music you’ve already learned, you will need to fill it out with some essential genres and specific songs.

There are certain classics that always warm up a room.

—Elizabeth Steiner

Knauer says, “The standards are still standard— ‘Wedding March,’ ‘Here Comes the Bride,’ ‘Canon in D,’ ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.’” She says “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri, “Marry You” by Bruno Mars, and “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles are also hugely popular wedding choices, and adds her prediction that “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran is going to be popular this year. To jumpstart your gig repertoire, Knauer suggests asking every harpist you know what books of arrangements they prefer, then buy a few books and mark your favorite songs that are easily playable.

“I love anything arranged by Ray Pool—for gigs, the Tea at the Waldorf collections are great.” Knauer says she loves them for gigs because they are “playable” and segue one into the next. “‘Nightingale’ by Deborah Henson-Conant is my go-to as the last song in a wedding prelude—it’s so pretty and easily loopable—I highly recommend it.”

“Of course I keep the most popular songs in my book at all times,” Knauer expalins. “Even though they are not requested as frequently, I like to keep a small section of sacred music including ‘Amazing Grace,’ ‘Ave Maria,’ and a few other popular hymns that come up occasionally.  I have a modest variety from just about every genre and make sure I always include favorites like ‘Greensleeves.’  If you can’t play ‘Happy Birthday’ from memory, be sure to have a copy of it handy and know exactly where it is.  Most requests can be played at your leisure, but when someone asks for the birthday song, there likely won’t be much time to hunt for it.”

Messer agrees that a few good collections are a great place to cultivating gig tunes. “Get a wedding arrangement book by [Suzanne] Balderston or [Sylvia] Woods, or other easy book appropriate for the occasion,” she says.

“I love Daniel Burton arrangements for classical gig music,” says Steiner. “And the Tea at the Waldorf books by Ray Pool for the old standards. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rodgers and Hammerstein books by Sylvia Woods are great as well if you’re looking for crowd pleasers. These books were my starter kit when I was fresh out of undergrad and had two weeks to pack for a world cruise gig for four months.”

“Essentials for me are my binder of popular classical arrangements and wedding collections,” says Steiner, “But I also love playing Gershwin, Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein.”

Adie makes sure she selects from a wide variety of musical styles that are regularly requested: classical, pop (old and new), jazz, folk, Jewish music, and Bollywood music. “For some of this I bought piano greatest hits books, as there is a greater selection of music in one place, and it’s pretty much the only choice for Bollywood music,” she says. “My largest section of gig music is easily pop music, as this is what most people now want to listen to—thanks, YouTube.”

It’s important for a freelancer to keep up with what is popular today and also what audiences want to hear—recognizable songs from different decades. So we asked our experts what clients are requesting right now and what tunes they’ve been adding to their gig books.

“I try to stay current with what songs are popular now,” says Hoyos. “Whenever I’m ready to spice things up in my gig book, I research what songs are topping the charts and choose from there. I also make note if I hear a song on the radio that I really like, I’ll write it down to learn later. I have yet to see The Greatest Showman, but I’ve heard the soundtrack is great. I will most likely add some of the songs from the soundtrack once I’ve seen the movie.”

Hoyos says some of her most popular song requests are “All of Me” by John Legend, any song by Ed Sheeran or Coldplay, “Turning Page” by Sleeping At Last, and “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

“‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri has definitely been the top requested bridal processional for over a year now,” says Rhodes. “Perhaps this is tied now with the Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D.’”

Steiner echos the continued popularity of “A Thousand Years.” Other popular pop songs are “All of Me” by John Legend and anything by Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran.

“Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ has been requested a whole lot,” says Mary Keener. “I find requests are generally all over the map for weddings, but ‘Love Me Like You Do’ by Ellie Goulding has been requested more often than any other newer release. I’m confident this is due in large part to the fact that so many couples use YouTube to find ideas for their music now, and Amy Turk’s great arrangement and video has had broad appeal,” she says.

Adie actually figured out her top 10 most requested songs, and they overlap quite a bit with songs already mentioned: “Canon in D” by Pachelbel, “A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, “Marry You” by Bruno Mars, “All of Me” by John Legend, “Thinking Out Loud” and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, “Paradise” by Coldplay, “Greatest Day” by Take That, “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson Five, “River Flows in You” by Yiruma, and “Kissing You” by Des’ree.

Something for everyone

As you build your gig book or revamp your set lists, don’t forget one important listener—you.

“I think it’s really important to enjoy your gig book and keep yourself from getting tired of your repertoire,” says Rhodes. “I try to add or remove arrangements often, or change up the order of the songs a little bit.”

Hoyos points out, “Whenever I’m creating a set list, I like to include songs that I enjoy playing. We all know that there are songs that we just don’t like, hate playing, or even that one song you played hundreds of times and you’re just tired of hearing it. Adding songs that you look forward to playing is a great way to stay focused and maintain excitement throughout the duration of the gig.”

“Use your gig book as an opportunity to create a signature sound for yourself,” says Steiner. “Play what you like, and it will affect the environment and everyone around you in a positive way. You never know how a song you’re playing may reach someone and possibly make their day.”