Do you need music during cocktail hour?

You need something, and live musicians are the option guests notice. Silence in that hour feels like a gap in the day, because the couple is away for photographs and nothing else is happening yet. A duo covers the hour without asking anyone for their attention. Signet Artists books cocktail hour musicians across Denver and the Colorado mountains.

How many songs for cocktail hour?

Roughly fifteen to twenty for a 60-minute hour and closer to thirty for 90 minutes, because a standard runs three to four minutes. Live musicians don't work to a count: the set runs continuously and tunes stretch or shorten to the crowd.

Will anyone actually notice the music?

Not in the moment, usually. Guests remember that the evening felt hosted more than they remember which songs played, and that's what the hour is for.

Can people talk over it?

Yes, that's what the level is set for. Two guests who have just met can talk across it without raising their voices, and the duo adjusts on the spot if a terrace fills up or empties out.

Instrumental or vocals for cocktail hour?

Instrumental, for most of the hour. A voice pulls attention to the words, and guests who are mid-introduction feel that as competition. Where a wedding wants a voice anyway, a singer can lead the hour and the level comes down to match.

Is a duo enough for 60 to 70 guests?

Yes. Two musicians are the right size for a crowd that size. On a big terrace or a lawn spread wide, the trio carries further, so the far edge hears the same thing the near edge does.

What does an outdoor cocktail hour need?

A covered, level and dry spot for the musicians, power run to it, and a plan for moving indoors agreed before the day. Colorado evenings get cold fast after sunset, and instruments and electronics both stop behaving in the cold.

How far ahead should we book, and what paperwork comes with it?

Whenever you're ready. If the date is coming up sooner than you'd like, no worries, just reach out and we can often make something great work. You'll have a single point of contact for the day, and we can send whatever paperwork the venue needs. Just let us know.

Wedding cocktail hour

Live music for cocktail hour at a Colorado wedding.

Cocktail hour is the turn of the wedding. The ceremony ends, the couple leaves for photographs, and the guests stand with a first drink deciding what kind of night this is going to be. A jazz duo holds that hour at conversation volume, close enough that guests can hear the bass, and the hour feels like the start of the party.

The duo is upright bass and guitar playing standards, and the same two musicians can carry cocktails through dinner. An acoustic duo or a solo guitarist covers the hour in a different flavor. The hour before this one is the ceremony, Denver weddings have a page of their own, and the whole day is on the weddings page.

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Trusted and booked by

A sample of the set

Standards from the jazz book. Requests are welcome.

Autumn Leaves
All the Things You Are
There Will Never Be Another You
Take the A Train
Blue Bossa
Beautiful Love
Someday My Prince Will Come
The Girl from Ipanema
All of Me
Green Dolphin Street

The set

Standards at conversation volume.

What should play is the easier half of the question: jazz standards and singer-songwriter covers, songs guests recognize without having to name. The harder half is volume.

The volume. The duo plays at about the level of the conversation around it, so two people who have just met talk across it without leaning in. That’s the real work of the hour, because half the guest list is meeting the other half.

The songs. Standards feel like a careful choice and don't ask for anyone's attention. A duo of upright bass and guitar leaves space in the middle of the sound where conversation sits. The instrumentation, the trio option and the longer sample set are on the jazz duo and trio page.

Hear it

What a jazz duo sounds like under a cocktail hour.

Guitar and upright bass on Autumn Leaves, at the volume a terrace actually wants. The conversation stays on top, the music stays underneath, and nobody has to lean in to be heard.

Outdoors

What an outdoor cocktail hour sounds like.

A Colorado cocktail hour is outdoors more often than not, and open air behaves nothing like a ballroom. There are no walls to hand the sound back, so guests hear what the musicians actually put out and nothing else. That changes what each format does with the hour.

From a guitar. The sound is close, detailed and warm within about thirty feet, and it thins fast beyond that. A guitar has no low end to carry it across a lawn, so an outdoor hour is amplified where the same booking indoors might not be, and the amplification is there to hold the same conversation level across a wider spread. Guests near the terrace rail hear the strings, and guests at the far end hear an evening with music in it.

From a jazz trio. The sound is fuller and steadier across distance, because the upright bass gives it a low end and low frequencies travel further outdoors than anything else does. Drums played with brushes keep the pulse without a single hard hit in the set, which is what stops an outdoor trio from sounding like a concert. On a big terrace or a lawn spread wide, the trio is the size that reaches the far edge of the crowd at the same level the near edge is hearing.

Timing

Sixty minutes, sometimes ninety.

A standard cocktail hour runs 60 minutes. Plan 90 when ceremony and reception share one space, because the guests wait out the venue flip with a drink in hand, and the duo covers the wait.

Where the time goes. The couple is away for photographs, the venue is turning ceremony rows into dinner tables, and the guests are sorting themselves into the evening's conversations. Sixty minutes covers all of that when the reception has its own space. When one space does both jobs, the flip sets the length, and 90 is the booking that fits.

One booking through dinner. The duo that plays the hour can keep playing through dinner on the same contract, and if you think the hour might stretch, just let us know when you book.

The same duo plays dinner and cocktail parties year-round and client dinners on the corporate side.

Duo or DJ

Two musicians for the hour, a DJ for the late night.

A duo reads the crowd while the crowd is still forming, adjusts its volume on the spot and takes a request. A DJ is the better booking after dinner, keeping people dancing for hours at a stretch.

The jazz duo: Upright bass and guitar playing standards, with the set sampled at the top of this page. You can book it for the hour on its own, or the same two musicians can carry cocktails through dinner. This is the lead booking for the hour.
The acoustic duo: The same footprint with the set turned toward singer-songwriter covers, for a wedding that wants the songs one notch more familiar than standards. Details on the acoustic duo page.
The string trio or quartet: The same string players who played the ceremony, on the terrace for the hour after it, with Coldplay and the Beatles arranged for strings at a level guests talk across. Sizes and the song list are on the string quartet page.
The pianist: Standards and love songs on the venue’s piano, or on a stage piano we bring to the terrace or the rooftop. The songs are on the solo pianist page.
The solo guitarist: One instrument, the smallest booking on the roster, sized for a short guest list or a second space the crowd passes through. Details on the solo guitarist page.
Tejas Singh, where the hour wants a voice: Voice and guitar with bass behind it, singer-songwriter covers with Tejas out front. Configurations and the set are on the Tejas Singh page.
The DJ, after dinner: For the hour itself, a duo is the better fit. The DJ is the late-night answer, on the same contract and through the same sound system when the night runs past the last set.

What live music costs across Colorado, format by format, is set out in the cost guide.

Cocktail hour questions

Stage sizes and power are on the technical page, how the hour hands off to dinner is on the run of show page, and the questions every booking shares are on the full question list.

Do you need music during cocktail hour?: You need something, and live musicians are the option guests notice. Silence in that hour feels like a gap in the day, because the couple is away for photographs and nothing else is happening yet. A duo covers the hour without asking anyone for their attention. Signet Artists books cocktail hour musicians across Denver and the Colorado mountains.
How many songs for cocktail hour?: Roughly fifteen to twenty for a 60-minute hour and closer to thirty for 90 minutes, because a standard runs three to four minutes. Live musicians don't work to a count: the set runs continuously and tunes stretch or shorten to the crowd.
Will anyone actually notice the music?: Not in the moment, usually. Guests remember that the evening felt hosted more than they remember which songs played, and that's what the hour is for.
Can people talk over it?: Yes, that's what the level is set for. Two guests who have just met can talk across it without raising their voices, and the duo adjusts on the spot if a terrace fills up or empties out.
Instrumental or vocals for cocktail hour?: Instrumental, for most of the hour. A voice pulls attention to the words, and guests who are mid-introduction feel that as competition. Where a wedding wants a voice anyway, a singer can lead the hour and the level comes down to match.
Is a duo enough for 60 to 70 guests?: Yes. Two musicians are the right size for a crowd that size. On a big terrace or a lawn spread wide, the trio carries further, so the far edge hears the same thing the near edge does.
What does an outdoor cocktail hour need?: A covered, level and dry spot for the musicians, power run to it, and a plan for moving indoors agreed before the day. Colorado evenings get cold fast after sunset, and instruments and electronics both stop behaving in the cold.
How far ahead should we book, and what paperwork comes with it?: Whenever you're ready. If the date is coming up sooner than you'd like, no worries, just reach out and we can often make something great work. You'll have a single point of contact for the day, and we can send whatever paperwork the venue needs. Just let us know.

Book the cocktail hour on its own, or with the ceremony and the reception.

Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.

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