Concert Lighting time to find potential cues hidden in the dialog. I approach a song the same way. The first time, I listen to it for the sheer enjoyment, and the second time I try to pick out the cue points, accents, verse and cho- ruses, and tempo changes. The last time I listen for the "color" of the song: happy, yellow and orange; moody or melancholy, blue and lavender; fiery and hot, red; soothing, green and blue­green. Listen to music with your eyes closed, and try to visualize the colors that might be associated with it. Picking the Console to Match the Cues Analyzing a song helps you determine the type of lighting console you will need. Manual consoles are almost a thing of the past, but many hybrid consoles allow manual operation with recorded cues that can be accessed when needed. I was one of the first to take a computer console on tour, the early Light Palette by Strand Lighting, Inc. My reasoning at the time was that the artist, John Denver, had a very large song spot, and the ending. Changes between verse and chorus may be repeated several times. Another cue may occur at the turnaround , a musical device found in most pop music that allows the songwriter to repeat a melody by interjecting another musical phrase between similar themes. Are the cues going to be bumps or slow fades? It does not matter what they are. What is important is that they each act as musical punctuation not just flashing lights. After doing this for all of the songs, look at the song order, or set . See if you have the same color patterns for songs that are played back-to-back, and do not hesitate to change the colors to avoid repeat- ing a look in two adjacent songs. Certainly, a look can be repeated later in the set. If the same color simply must be used, try to change the direction the color comes from; for example, use an amber back- light for the first song but an amber sidelight or an amber follow spot for the next song, with white as a backlight. Cue Placement