My current list of tune for solo concerts has twenty four tittles on it. There are other tunes that have been fazed out that I will dust off every few years, and new things loom up as well. A typical solo concert for me is about sixteen tunes. Usually I make a set of eight for before intermission, and then a set of seven more for after, and have one tune for encore.
I have a two solo concerts coming up this week, though one is more of a short concert followed by a discussion. The other is more typical. So two weeks out (while knee deep in duo concert stuff from a whole other list of tunes ) I picked the sixteen or so tunes, and maybe tinkered with the ones with the most dust, or are fairly new, or otherwise challenging. At one week out though I’m more serious. I play everything once, always with the metronome on the 2 and 4, and often recording it on my phone to listen back and make notes. As the week goes on I start leaning heavier on the harder things. Day of the show I only practice things that have nothing to do with the show. Assuming most gigs are solo jazz/blues fingerstyle, show day I might be in my hotel room flatpicking old-time fiddle tunes or woking on classical pieces.
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