How to Choose Cover Songs for Music Performances

Video Transcript

"Hey this is Jerimae Yoder with Expert Village I'm talking about performing solo today. So should you do a cover song? Should you do originals? And I know you are already thinking about putting your set list together and rehearsing. But think this a little bit where are you going to be playing and how you are going to connect with that audience. Cover songs are great to do and I encourage you to have a few covers within your arsenal, you know those can be very creative covers I did a cover the other night, a Jeff Buckles Holy Alleluia and you know what? Only a few people in the audience got who Jeff Buckles was or got the song. It was originally written by Leonard Cohen but the people that got it couldn't stop talking they just wanted to come over to me and all of sudden wanted to build this really cool bridge with a couple of people. Just because I did something that connected with them I also have done recently Airbag by Radiohead for two people who really got that. So I started thinking man maybe I need to do another song or pull another song that really enhances my set that a lot people will know. So I've done that I'm starting to put new songs into my set depending on where I'm playing the people will connect with, make sure you are doing a original song to also in your set. Or maybe the majority of the song originals and you're throwing in a couple of covers, which ever way you figure out that you need to go cause the venue that you're playing at or because of where you're playing at in your life. Make sure that you are practicing the heck out of your originals and that they sound as good as if not better than the way that you do your cover songs."