Hey everybody. Last year we ended up not hiring a DJ to play any music for the Central Texas FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament, and on the competition floor we suffered from not having the energy from the music - it was horrible. So, this year I’ve been put in charge of coming up with the music to play. Of course I’ve checked with FLL about the legal implications of playing music at an event, and their official answer is that as long as the competition is not being broadcast and the music I’m playing was obtained legally then there’s no ASCAP licensing necessary and so on. So, the biggest problem I have is that I’m a Classic Rock nut and I’m going to put together this playlist for kids who weren’t even alive when the artists died (though unfortunately for most of the music I listen to the artists pretty much all died right after doing their best work).
So, I’m asking the CD community - if you were to put together a playlist that was AGE APPROPRIATE and FLL APPROPRIATE, what would it be? I’ll give you credits if I use all or part of your playlist.
While not exactly a playlist, here is a technique I use often.
I have all my music on iTunes, both CDs and vinyl, about 8 GB. I sort them by artist, and then go through them and set the ratings. I choose one rating value for my ‘project’ so I can pull them out later - it doesn’t have to be 5 stars, it can be any of them.
Then I go through each song, considering the venue and purpose, and pick appropriate songs. Clearly my copy of Joe’s Garage doesn’t make it onto the list for a FIRST event, but lots of other stuff does. For a FIRST event, I’d pick high-energy songs, and stay away from long mellow ballads (unless you want some during a break, to mellow everyone out). I then place them in order on a playlist that’s about 2 hours longer than the event and press ‘play’.
Hope this helps.
Don
Oh - don’t give much thought to the age of the music. The energy is universal.
I also use iTunes for all my music, and for when I DJ. (Duel on the Delaware FRC Offseason, DE State JFLL/FLL/FTC Tournaments, and for the Girl Scouts)
Some General Things I’ve Learned…
If you have iTunes or something similar… grouping all of your music ahead of time can help keep you from playing a completely inappropriate song at the event. (For example - I sort all my music into Clean, Not-Yet Rated, Book-On-Tape, or Dirty)
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Never trust “Clean” or “Radio Edit” ratings. All ways listen to the whole song beforehand!
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Create a playlist before hand. But not one that is too long, because then you are giving yourself too many options. Which makes it harder to choose what to play next.
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Be prepared for delays. Sorting out scores, deciding who gets what award, and setting up for the awards can take longer than expected. I always keep a second “Dance Music” Playlist to keep the kids busy between the last match and the awards ceremony (And exhaust them so they zonk-out for their parents on drive home.)
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Parents usually appreciate calmer/quieter music over lunch breaks.
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Make friends with the Emcee… they can help boost lagging energy by getting people to join in on dance songs or sing-a-longs like Bohemian Rhapsody (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme was a winner at the Duel this year… got me how they all knew it… but they did!)
I’ve been completely guilty of creating playlists that are WAY too long. (In 2006 my playlist was 3.5 days worth of music) So I’ve started tracking what I play. This past October, at the Duel on the Delaware I only used about 140 songs (~8.2 hours) not including the lunch/planning break playlist I made which I accidentally deleted last month. It will probably be a bit large of a playlist if you plan to run each song from start to finish… which I was not… I played one ~2min. song during the match, and 2-3 songs in between matches. [Similar to most FRC regionals on Saturday when they actually have a DJ in.] Either way you decide to run the music… I’d try and cap the playlist at a 150-160 song maximum.
With FLL as your target group… you’d best have at-least 2-3 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus songs. And some stuff from the High School Musicals, Jonas Brothers, and some Pop songs off the radio closer to the event. White & Nerdy by Weird Al is also usually a winner at FIRST events.
I’ve attached a copy of the music I played at the Duel. Just in case it might give you some ideas.
Whatever you play, just be sure it isn’t too loud. Beside the obvious potential for ear damage, the FLL competition is different from FRC. The referees have to be able to talk with the teams at the tables.
The FLL event we did had an opening show that ran just a little under 25 minutes. Opening with “Get ready for this”, then some talking and special guest speaking and the national anthem.
The closing had a 25 minute preamble ( music, dance, video, etc ) then the awards were tacked onto the back end of the preamble, followed by ‘walking out the building’ music. kernkraft, cha-cha slide, ymca, something else, video, rock and roll pt.2, then awards.
There was NO other music during the day. The FLL coaches HIGHLY preferred that format as it was already noisy enough and it made their jobs easier trying to work with young kids.
No, really, I’m the Head Referee for the Central Texas FLL Championship Tournament and I definitely see the benefit/need for music. I MOST DEFINITELY agree with you on the loudness, I appreciate having hearing afterward and being able to talk to the referees, teams, and coaches. But without music, we had kids every 10 minutes or so trying to stomp on the bleachers to the tune of “We Will Rock You”, and the referees tired quickly after lunch without the music. All music should be kept low, I completely agree, and should be a background item rather than a foreground item - but it most definitely needs to be there.
For our qualifier tournaments this season we purposefully made the first round of play longer than the rest of the rounds; we had 7.5 minutes between matches. So, one of the qualifier hosts took advantage of the long interlude and scheduled the Cha-Cha Slide or whatever it’s called for one of the breaks between rounds, and they had 6 teams worth of kids plus tons of spectators come out on the floor and dance to the music, and it was a HUGE blast and a crowd hit. It’s that kind of energy I want to have at the Championship Tournament!
