The Beatles Jam Event Management Model – A Mission Impossible?

To celebrate Excel’s 40th anniversary, Bill Jelen posed the question: What non-business spreadsheet have you ever created?

My answer is simple and unique: the Beatles Jam Model.

Ten years ago, I started a Beatles Jam meet-up group in London. It grew to around 200 members, and once a month we gathered to play and sing Beatles music. But unlike most jam sessions, I introduced one strict rule: we would recognise and preserve the harmonies that made the Beatles so special.

For those unfamiliar, vocal harmony is when two or more people sing together but on different notes—different melodies that intertwine. The Beatles’ catalogue of 216 songs is full of such harmonies, ranging from simple two-part blends to more complex three- and even four-part arrangements.

And here was the challenge:

• Each song could only be performed if all the necessary vocal parts were present.
• For example, the song This Boy requires John, Paul, and George all singing distinct harmony lines. If one of those voices was missing, the song was off the list.
• Every member, when they joined, declared which parts they could sing, but only one part per song.

As organiser, my role was to create a set list for each meet-up. But that turned out to be far trickier than it sounds. People drop out at the last minute. Some decide they want to switch from one part to another. Others arrive unexpectedly. And with 216 songs to choose from—and eventually more, as we added the Beatles’ live-only songs from outside the studio catalogue—it quickly became an organisational nightmare.

That’s where the Beatles Jam Model comes in.

Its purpose is simple:

• To take the list of attendees for a given meet-up.
• Match that against the songs they’ve declared they can sing.
• And automatically generate the viable set list—songs for which all required parts will be present.

By doing this, the model takes the stress off the organiser. No frantic copying and pasting on the night, no last-minute scrambles with paper lists. Just a clean, dynamic way to answer the question: What can we actually sing, given who’s here?

The Three Stages of the Beatles Jam Model

1. Member Profiles & Attendance
   • Members need a way to declare which parts they can sing.
   • When the next meet-up is imminent, a subset of members confirm attendance.
   • The model must then calculate which songs are viable for that lineup.
2. Extend & Update the Catalogue
   • The Beatles officially recorded 216 songs, but members may request additional tracks (live performances, covers, later releases).
   • Members also need a way to update their profiles: “I thought I could sing Paul’s part, but it turns out I’m better at John’s.”
   • The model must allow for these updates and extensions without breaking the logic.
3. Last-Minute Changes
   • Life happens. Singers drop out on the day. Others show up unannounced.
   • The model must allow quick adjustments so the set list can refresh instantly.
   • The goal: minimal admin for the organiser, maximum focus on the music.

What the Model Achieves

• Removes stress: No endless admin in the middle of a jam session.
• Keeps harmonies intact: Only songs with the full harmony line-up make it to the set list.
• Scales with the group: Whether 10 members or 200, the logic holds.
• Lives and breathes with the event: Updates on the fly as people drop in or out.

The Beatles Jam Model, then, is more than a spreadsheet. It’s an event management tool for music. It combines data, logic, and real-world uncertainty into something dynamic and useful.

And in the world of Excel Mission Impossible, it’s also a perfect case study: a non-business challenge that pushes Excel to act as a living system, helping people sing in harmony—literally.