Creating the perfect mood for your home games is important, and one of the best ways of doing this is by choosing some good music to listen to.
With the advent of MP3 players and streaming software like Spotify this is now a lot easier than it used to be, and saves you the annoying job of leaving a hand to turn over a record or change a CD.
Now you can just plan a playlist and leave it playing throughout the night, and you won't have to leave your seat once. Except to go to the bathroom of course, I can't help you with that.
Planning a playlist can be difficult though, how should you go about it?
Think Of Your Audience
First of all, think about who is going to be playing. If your 70 year-old neighbour is coming over, then he might not want to hear Snoop Doggy Dogg. Similarly a game full of 20 year-old college students will not react well to the Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently album.
Try and include a little bit for everyone, and find some common ground, such as classic rock, or some good, non-intrusive jazz, which should fit in with everyone's tastes.
Be Eclectic
You might end up having a massive ten hour session, so add some variety into your list. You don't want to be stuck listening to the same style of music, no matter how good it is. One of my rules of thumb is to start off with some good uptempo stuff, such as Motown Soul, or modern indie type stuff, or HipHop, then a bit of classic 60s/70s rock, or some good P-Funk type groove, some Frank Sinatra/Rat-Pack Vegas music and then maybe ending up with some good jazz, like Miles Davis, or Charlie Mingus for the wee small hours when the sun is just rising.
Don't Let The Music Take Over
Remember why everyone is at your house. It's not to listen to your Peruvian Nose-Flute music, or your collection of Death Metal. It's to play poker. So remember to keep the playlist as strictly background music. Instrumental music is good for this, or ambient albums by artists like The Orb, Air, M83, Ulrich Schnauss, Brian Eno, Harold Budd etc.
Have a Sense Of Humour
Remember it's a long night, so try to inject some levity into proceedings. Songs from westerns, or James Bond movies are usually good ones, as they always evoke a certain atmosphere, of duels at high noon, or sophisticated spies playing poker for millions. Look for artists like Ennio Morricone, John Barry and other soundtrack artists for inspiration.
Some of the funnier songs from programs like Saturday Night Live might be good as well, though not too many, as comedy songs are much better in small amounts.
Theme your list
On my site, http://www.pokerplaylists.com I use a lot of themes to make it more interesting. From Las Vegas, to songs with poker references in, to a French playlist, there are many themes you can browse for ideas. The best thing about using themes is it makes adding tracks easy, as you can lead on to other songs easily.
The best thing to remember is to just have fun with it, and put music you like on. Your friends will probably be like-minded, and will enjoy your mix to. Good luck.
With the advent of MP3 players and streaming software like Spotify this is now a lot easier than it used to be, and saves you the annoying job of leaving a hand to turn over a record or change a CD.
Now you can just plan a playlist and leave it playing throughout the night, and you won't have to leave your seat once. Except to go to the bathroom of course, I can't help you with that.
Planning a playlist can be difficult though, how should you go about it?
Think Of Your Audience
First of all, think about who is going to be playing. If your 70 year-old neighbour is coming over, then he might not want to hear Snoop Doggy Dogg. Similarly a game full of 20 year-old college students will not react well to the Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently album.
Try and include a little bit for everyone, and find some common ground, such as classic rock, or some good, non-intrusive jazz, which should fit in with everyone's tastes.
Be Eclectic
You might end up having a massive ten hour session, so add some variety into your list. You don't want to be stuck listening to the same style of music, no matter how good it is. One of my rules of thumb is to start off with some good uptempo stuff, such as Motown Soul, or modern indie type stuff, or HipHop, then a bit of classic 60s/70s rock, or some good P-Funk type groove, some Frank Sinatra/Rat-Pack Vegas music and then maybe ending up with some good jazz, like Miles Davis, or Charlie Mingus for the wee small hours when the sun is just rising.
Don't Let The Music Take Over
Remember why everyone is at your house. It's not to listen to your Peruvian Nose-Flute music, or your collection of Death Metal. It's to play poker. So remember to keep the playlist as strictly background music. Instrumental music is good for this, or ambient albums by artists like The Orb, Air, M83, Ulrich Schnauss, Brian Eno, Harold Budd etc.
Have a Sense Of Humour
Remember it's a long night, so try to inject some levity into proceedings. Songs from westerns, or James Bond movies are usually good ones, as they always evoke a certain atmosphere, of duels at high noon, or sophisticated spies playing poker for millions. Look for artists like Ennio Morricone, John Barry and other soundtrack artists for inspiration.
Some of the funnier songs from programs like Saturday Night Live might be good as well, though not too many, as comedy songs are much better in small amounts.
Theme your list
On my site, http://www.pokerplaylists.com I use a lot of themes to make it more interesting. From Las Vegas, to songs with poker references in, to a French playlist, there are many themes you can browse for ideas. The best thing about using themes is it makes adding tracks easy, as you can lead on to other songs easily.
The best thing to remember is to just have fun with it, and put music you like on. Your friends will probably be like-minded, and will enjoy your mix to. Good luck.
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