I'd like to start figuring out the best way to go about this. We can do this in stages.

Here is my proposal for phase ONE
Stage 1) - Various Singers enter the artists they typically can sing well. - Then they ask - who should I be able to sing well? and it simply cross references the artists that are in common.

For example - I sing: Neil Diamond, Tim Curry, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, James Taylor

Someone else says - "I sing Neil Diamond..."

And it answers - try Tim Curry, Nat King... etc.

It would be easy to weight the response so that the most number of similarities were sorted to the top - that is - if 20 people had Neil Diamond and James Taylor in common - and only 5 had Neil Diamond and Tim Curry - James Taylor would sort to the top...

From the artists - easy to bounce over to songs... and a lot faster to get decent data from everyone than keying in ranges of songs, etc...

Thoughts?

I've been contemplating this concept for awhile too. My KJ friend just bought a laptop, and he's prodding me to start writing a program to keep track of the rotation system (something I was thinking about a year or so ago). This system will also be linked to a songbook, and a feature that might come out of the process is the ability to keep track of exactly what songs each person has ever sung.

Say "Phil" is a regular at your show. Well, guess what? This system will have the ability to print out every song Phil has ever sung, how many times, and when (basically the data collection is just an added bonus to having an automated rotation system). This information may also be used to a type of "Song Matching Service" (or maybe SoundChoice's "3-Of-A-Kind" series ideas).

I posted a "Who Do You Sound Like" thread a long time ago to try to gather this type of information as well. However, having people log onto a website to enter this data might be too much to ask for. That's why I thought of the automatic data collector program built into the rotation system.

Anyway, I visited Diane's 20Q's, analyzed my own data, and here are some things I've come up with:

For starters, I've been keeping track of every karaoke song I've sung, how I thought the audience liked it, how I would rank myself on it, where it peaked on the Billboard charts, what year it came out, what genre it is, if someone gave me a compliment after performing it, if people got up and danced to it, if I won a contest with it, and if someone requests that I sing it.

Why do I keep this data you ask? Because I'm a nutcase. Seriously, it's so that if I didn't do a song that well but thought I could do better, I could practice and try to raise my own ratings. Also, I used to bring my list to shows to give me ideas on what to sing based on what I think the audience will enjoy. In addition, a few years ago I had a goal of focusing on trying new songs each time I went out - primarily because I was tired of hearing the same people sing the same thing every week, and I wanted to force myself to try to find more songs I thought I could do well, and I also wanted to always keep the audience on its toes on what I would be singing. Right now I'm at 299 different songs, so that's quite a bit of data to work with.

For the "Song Matching Service", I started having some problems in analyzing my own data. I sorted my songs by "Total" rating. But how the audience reacts to a song, or if you won a contest with it really has no bearing to if someone else can sing it who has a similiar vocal range.

In addition, the songs that I've scored highest with may be odd-ball artists that no one would care about. For example, I might be able to sing a J. Geils Band song very well and a Baha Men song very well, but that information is practically useless to anyone else.

So, I contemplated focusing solely on the NUMBER of different songs I've sung by the same artist. But this generated another problem... For example, I've sung 5 Grateful Dead songs, 4 AC/DC songs, and 5 Beatles songs. These artists have no relation to each other. A lot of people sing songs they want to for their own personal reasons. In addition, just because I've sung 4 different AC/DC songs doesn't necessarily mean I did them well.

So, thinking about the 20 questions concept...

There would have to be "filters" of some sort like the 20 questions. The first question would be "Which types of song do you prefer to sing? 1. Classic Rock, 2. Modern Rock, 3. Hard Rock, 4. 80's, 5. 90's, 6. Current Pop, 7. Rap/Hip Hop, 8. Any Genre"

******

Making a long story short, I don't know if this venture is very feasible. People will sing what they want, when they want. If you suggest another artist or other songs they might not have any desire to sing them (i.e., they've never heard of the songs, or they don't enjoy them).

I believe when people go through a KJ's songbook, that's when they get ideas of what they can sing and what they want to sing... so there may be no demand for the song matching service to begin with. Still thinking about it though .

quote:

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If you suggest another artist or other songs they might not have any desire to sing them (i.e., they've never heard of the songs, or they don't enjoy them).

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The first version of the thingy that I am working on right now actually matches through artist - it's a lot less data entry, and you can springboard from the artists to the tunes.

After all - it doesn't force you to do a tune - just suggests things you might not have considered.

Genre etc. could come later if people are swamped... we'll see.

Peter Cetera "Glory Of Love"
(RIYL: Steve Perry, Journey,Phil Collins, other high-voiced males)

Ray Stevens
RIYL: Bobby Bare,Jimmy Buffett,Rodney Carrington, Cletus T. Judd

I'm wonderin' about the practicalities of researching, designing, and building such an application for our purposes tho'.

For example: I can sing 2 Joplin tunes pretty much bang on...but I suck at the rest of her stuff ???

I can sing a couple of Etheridge tunes fairly well...but really REALLY suck at most of her stuff ??!??

I can sing the soft Heart tunes but not the heavy...the heavy Etheridge tunes but not the soft, one Fleetwood Mac tune feels like it belongs to me (the rest are foreign to my ability)...

I can sing Nazareth and Foreigner tunes but not Triumph???!

...and then there are tenors who sing Alanis, Jann Arden, and Tori Amos a full octave lower than the original artists...

I don't mean to dump...but I'm stuggling to see a practical application that outweighs our own sense of what our singers would like or can manage. As well, it does me no good if someone tells me I could sing a particular artist's material if I don't know any songs by that artist...

We already do provide a similar service for our patrons. We suggest material we think they could do based on how well we know their range, ability, and age (when picking time period pieces ie 70's 80's etc.).

i dunno convince me.

Artist similarity would be where to start - not where to finish. Agree that specific tune matches will be more useful over time.

Don't think the service is meant for soundboard users - think it would be for average Karaoke singer wondering where to go from here...

.02

Sometimes you guys all get so serious and hung up on the little things. LOL. Whatever happened to having fun? Sheesh!!!

my six cents worth!

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Still working on this - but am ploughing away on the back end database design and matching code - just about right - but, the feature creature has invaded...

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Originally posted by Diane:
I gotta agree with binaryrhyme. This should be thought of as a [b]fun tool for us (karaoke junkies) to play with, and possibly a little infomational tool for the regular Karaoke singers (you know, not so junkie, more newbie/normal types. LOL).

Sometimes you guys all get so serious and hung up on the little things. LOL. Whatever happened to having fun? Sheesh!!!

my six cents worth!

[/B]

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I gotta agree here! Diane got me singing Ambrosia, and now I try it usually whenever I can. It's got me listening to their stuff with the idea of me really trying it. Before she even mentioned it, I was totally against it.

Sometimes we have our OWN hurdles to jump... obstacles the we ourselves have put in our own path. Sometimes it's one put in place by those who have listened to us.

Years ago, I tried unsuccessfully to sing Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings"... now, it's one of my favorites to belt out if the mood is right. I've made real progress on "Drive" by Incubus, when before I was flat-out TOLD by regulars to give it up...

One of my old buddies went out with me one night when I was hosting Red's... the gig I just lost. He was TOTALLY amazed at some of the stuff I sang. And I've been told when going to other places that first impressions of me some singers just don't expect me to belt out Ozzy tunes or sing something that's still played on the 'new tunes' radio stations!

my own three cents...