Here in this sentence, "Sometimes will" vs "Always will"? and "because" vs "but"?

Question

Here's a sentence I think is a bit awkward.

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, but sometimes our manager will sing for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

I think this sentence seems like a little awkward, because 1: 'will' is more likely to refer to a situation that is always expected to happen, rather than a situation that will happen in the specific future. So, here I think 'will' doesn't go well with 'sometimes'. And because 2: it would be better to use 'because', rather tan 'but'. To make this sentence more clear to understand, what if I say like following?

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, because our manager will always sing for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

Answer 1

Those two sentences are saying two completely different things:

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, but sometimes our manager will sing for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

This one is saying that, occasionally, the manager sings for a long time. It does not actually imply that this always occurs... the word sometimes is telling you that.

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, because our manager will always sing for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

This one is saying that the manager always sings for a long time and the because makes the first clause beg for the word only:

Everyone only gets to sing one or two songs,...

If you really want to simplify the sentence and keep the same meaning, the simplest thing to do is to remove the word will:

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, but sometimes our manager sings for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

From what you added in the comments, this may be a good way to word it, with some slight changes for what you're trying to say:

Everyone usually gets to sing one or two songs but sometimes our manager will sing (or sings) for ages by himself until he runs out of steam. When that happens, most of us only get to sing one song.

There are many ways to say the last part of the phrase based on what you're actually trying to say. You could say:

When that happens, most of us don't get to sing at all.

When that happens, we're lucky if we can sing even one song.

Just a couple of options in addition to what's in the example above.

Answer 2

The first sentence:

Everyone gets to sing one or two songs, but sometimes our manager will sing for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

It seems to mean everyone will get to (have the opportunity to) sing one or two songs, but actually won't be able to because of the manager. Using sometimes, we are not describing a particular event (it is more of an ongoing experience), so using will sing is OK.

The second sentence:

Everyone (only) gets to sing one or two songs, because our manager always sings for ages by himself until he runs out of steam.

This seems to mean that everyone is limited to singing one or two songs because of the manager. If he wasn't there, they would sing more songs.

Using only makes description of the limitation clearer. Also this is closer to describing a particular event, so will is not necessary.