Rotation question

alfalfa4381 · Post by **alfalfa4381** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:05 pm

Ok, a husband and wife are in the rotation. Can they be in the rotation individually, so they each have a turn, even though sometimes the wife joins the husband and sings backup? How do you guys handle this?

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:08 pm

Most of the time I let them know that t he duet counts as both of their turns and ask the one who is the second name on the slip if they want to give up their turn for that round. But every show host is different.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:17 am

What if they were boyfriend & girlfriend or brother & sister or mother & child? What difference does it make? They are paying customers just as if they were not related at all.

I treat them as individual singers. I'm not going to run around checking everyones ID to see if they are related or not before I decide if they should sing. I'm not God, just a KJ. They pay for drinks like everyone else. They can sing with whomever they want on thier turn to sing. Why not????

Marlena · Post by **Marlena** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:24 am

yeah i'm the same way. Everyone gets a turn every rotation. BUT i do try to keep those that sing together, away from each other in a round. So if bob and Carl sing together all the time. i might make sure to have them 5 to 8 singers apart in rotation. i try to keep all singers from 1 table apart from each other just so it feels like i'm not ignoing any 1 table at any time.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:02 am

If I were to allow singers to both have separate turns I would put hem together so that I don't have to wait for the soloist to come to the mike. It just flows better that way. It just looks bad because one of the singers just sang and then they are getting a second bite at the apple. It doesn't matter if they are related at my shows a duet counts as both singer's turns. My singers always give me both names so I have the bility to look down the rotation list to see if either put in a solo song or not. The program I use to run my shows also allows me to mark the singer inactive for that round and it skips over them to the next singer when their name comes up.

Post by **wiseguy** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:02 pm

Any relationship between singers is of no consequence. I made a promise to my singers some 16 years ago that I have never broken. The promise is that "no person will sing twice before your next turn to sing". Duets and groups count as a turn for every participant. I have NEVER been accused of showing favoritism.

Take the husband and wife for an example scenario. If the husband sings alone, and his wife has a duet to do with her husband as her only request, she will have to wait for her husband's turn to come around again. Of course the husband could decline to do the duet and sing another solo if he chooses.

letitrip · Post by **letitrip** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:43 am

Personally, I count duets against both singers if they signed up that way. I plan my rotation out ahead as the slips come in to account for situations like this. I'm similar to wiseguy about the no one sings twice before everyone in the current rotation has sung. Only in rare instances to I stray from that rule.

JDtheKJ · Post by **JDtheKJ** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:10 pm

I guess if there were 30 or more people in rotation, I would think the way you guys do, however if there are less than 20 people I let the folks sing with whoever they want. For instance if joe, julie, and horace all have singles in and joe and julie do a duet and then horace wants julie to sing with him too i would do 1 joe 2 joe and julie 3 julie 4 horace and julie and 5 horace. I know this makes for a long rotation if there are lots of people and if there were I would not do it that way. But with the smaller crowds where everyone knows everyone else, why punish them because someone asks them to sing with them. What about when Horace says, Hey joe, come help me out! should I then punish joe on his next turn if he has already sung this round? like I say it is pretty laid back here and many times we even have folks who ask the kj to let a really talented singer sing again, and everyone else applauds. Again , before anyone jumps me for being unfair to the others, let me stress these are small crowds who act more like family than competitors

Marlena · Post by **Marlena** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:05 am

Again everyone deserves their 3-4 minutes of mic time, if they want to share it, it's their choice as far as i'm concerned. and if you can figure out how to work the system all the power to you. (suezy could find 12 people who "want" to sing duets with her, or want her help and she could sing all those songs with them. but I make sure everyone understands who's turn it is before the music starts.)

OH on another note, I found the cutest little program today for sharing my rotation, it's called Dream scroll and it's a freeware that you can get from download.com, i have started tonight scrolling my entire rotation across the bottom of my screen, no more questions of when am i up or do i have time for a smoke or dead air. evweryone knows where they are. it's great!! the customer's loved it tonight. and it takes about 10 seconds to figure out how to use it and the scroll changes as you type WOW.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:45 pm

I have ralxed my rotation because I have a couple of regulars that won't sing alone and I decided it would not be fair to that person if their partner choses to sing their solo song so I no longer count the song against both singers, just the one whose name is on the rotation screen.

michaeljvaughn · Post by **michaeljvaughn** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 4:12 pm

One person, one turn, I say. But that means they're two people, so they each get a song, backup activities or no. The only exception is the rare occurrence when someone has the gall to multiply these "duets" even when it's clear that one individual is dominating the singing. The nerve! ;-)