How to Make a Setlist for a Gig (Step by Step)

By the E-Akor team · Updated November 1, 2026

A good setlist does three jobs at once: it fills the time you were booked for, it keeps the audience with you from the first song to the last, and it makes the night easy for the band. This guide walks through how to build one, step by step, whether you play solo at a café or with a five-piece band at a wedding.

1. Start with the gig, not the songs

Before you pick a single song, answer these questions:

How long do you play, and in how many sets? Two 45-minute sets need a very different plan from one 90-minute set.
Who is in the room? A wedding crowd, a bar crowd and a listening-room crowd want different things.
What is the room for? Background music during dinner, a dance floor, or a show people came to watch?
Are there must-play songs? A first dance, a birthday song, a request from the venue.

Write the answers at the top of your setlist draft. Every later decision should match them.

2. Work out how many songs you need

Time a few of your songs as you actually play them, including the count-in and the gap before the next song. Most pop and rock songs land somewhere around three to four minutes, so a 45-minute set usually holds roughly 11–14 songs. Your own timings are what matter, so measure them rather than guessing.

Then add two or three spare songs per set. You will need them when a song runs short, when the crowd wants more, or when you have to drop something on the spot.

3. Open strong, close stronger

First song: pick something you can play in your sleep, with a confident, mid-to-up tempo. The first minute is when nerves and sound problems show up; a song you know cold covers both.
Second and third songs: keep the energy up and play something people recognise.
Last song of the set: your strongest crowd-pleaser. People remember how a set ends.
Encore: keep one more big song in your pocket, even if you think no one will ask for it.

4. Shape the energy

A setlist that stays at the same level gets flat, even if every song is good. Think of it in waves: build up over three or four songs, give the room a breather with a slower song, then build again. On a dance gig the slow moments are short and rare; at a dinner gig most of the set is calm and you build towards the end of the night.

A quick test: mark each song as low, medium or high energy and read the list from top to bottom. If you see four lows in a row or a long stretch of highs with no break, move things around.

5. Group songs by key, tuning and instrument changes

Small technical changes add up to long silences on stage. Try to:

Group songs with the same tuning (standard, drop D, capo positions) so you are not retuning between every song.
Put instrument swaps next to a natural break, such as after a song with a long ending or a moment where the singer talks to the crowd.
Use keys to your advantage. Two songs in the same or related keys can run straight into each other with no gap. If a song sits uncomfortably high or low for your singer, change its key rather than straining through it; a chord transposer makes this quick.

6. Plan the transitions

The gaps between songs are where a set loses momentum. For each change, decide in advance whether you will:

go straight into the next song with no pause,
link two songs with a short shared groove or a drum fill,
stop and talk (introduce the band, take a request, tell a short story).

Write the plan next to the song name, for example “→ straight into” or “talk: thank the venue”. Then rehearse the transitions, not just the songs.

7. Keep a list of backups

Below your main setlist, keep a short list of extra songs grouped by mood: two slow ones, two dance ones, two well-known sing-alongs. When the room surprises you, you can swap a song without a band huddle.

8. Make it readable on stage

A setlist you cannot read in bad light does not help. Keep it short and clear:

Large text, one song per line.
Next to each song: the key, capo position or tuning, and who starts it.
Mark transitions and planned talking points.
Give every band member the same version, and the same updated version when it changes.

9. Rehearse the set in order, then review it

Play the whole set at least once in the final order, with a timer running. You will find the awkward key changes, the transitions that do not work and the songs that run longer than you thought. After the gig, write down what landed and what did not while it is still fresh, and adjust the list for next time.

Paper or app?

A printed sheet taped to the floor still works, and it never runs out of battery. Many musicians now keep their setlists on a phone or tablet instead, mainly because it puts the chords and lyrics for every song in the same place as the list, and because changes reach the whole band at once.

If you go digital, our own app MeloRep is built for exactly this: you create setlists from your repertoire, change keys on the fly, use auto-scroll while you play, and move through songs hands-free with a Bluetooth foot pedal. You can bring in chord sheets from sites such as E-Akor, Ultimate Guitar and E-Chords with its Import from Web feature, or from ChordPro, PDF, Word, Excel, image and text files. With MeloLive (part of the Cloud plan), everyone in the band sees the same song at the same time. The free version holds up to 10 songs, so you can try it with one short set. Whatever you use, the steps above matter more than the tool.