Jump to content
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO ALL OUR HARMONY CENTRAL FORUMITES AND GUESTS!! ×

keeping a reportoire?


Recommended Posts

  • Members
Posted

Sorry if this has been covered, but the search engine is disabled. So I have to ask it again.

 

Anyhow, I'm wondering how others keep a large reportoire. I have close to 50 tunes that I "know." Some better, some worse. But, if I don't practice them often I "lose" 'em. It's an ebb and flow for sure, but as I acquire new tunes it seems more get "lost."

 

Should I practice X amount of "known tunes" a day? Do I need to take memorization classes? Maybe I'm just screwed and I should just welcome my ever advancing age? :)

 

thanks!!!

 

:jb

  • Members
Posted
Originally posted by can't remember

But, if I don't practice them often I "lose" 'em. It's an ebb and flow for sure, but as I acquire new tunes it seems more get "lost."

I keep a winamp playlist and use x minutes a day sing-a-long/play-a-long to those songs using Winamps shuffle function (random order). There's also lyrics plugins for winamp. The best is "lyrix", a french one, who save to id3 tag and search on the net when not found in mp3 file. Unfortunately I can't find it anymore, but there are other lyric plugins.

  • Members
Posted

The same thing happens to me. I forget every cover tune I learn about 10 minutes after I learn it unless I really have to work on it for some time. If it takes me only ten minutes to learn a tune I forget it in about ten minutes too. I don't swet that too much cause I can always go back and learn them again.

 

With my music its a different story. I don't want to forget my tunes cause I can't always go back and relearn them if I forget one. I have a sheetmusic book where I write down ideas and whole tunes. A lot of my tunes are in my head and that is ok too as long as I have a reference for remembering them. The way I make this reference is to: 1) make sure I've named the songs and 2) write the name down on the last page of my sheet music book.

 

Its better to write down the whole tune and most of the time I do. But when I don't write down the whole song I at least give the song a name and write down the name.

  • Members
Posted

Speaking of covers, you just need to remember what you play with your bands. I don't spend time to forcibly remember something that I'm not currently playing in a band, in which case it probably helps itself to be remembered.

 

What I mean is that it's not important to "remember" the full score of a song unless you need it. Why does it bother you? Do you have people laughing at you because "you don't know enough songs"? It can happen :) an ex-gf of mine constantly made fun of me because (I was in my very early guitar days) I played exercises and only a few actual songs. But why should you care? :cool:

  • Members
Posted

I also only actively remember the songs I have to perform currently. We have about 5 hours of songs to juggle, so I do keep a notebook, containing lyrics with chords written in. They serve as visual cues.

 

Outside of band practice, I do work on other material, but my retention is pretty bad, unless that new material is brought into the band scene.

 

I find that, once I've performed something live a few times, it becomes embedded in my memory.

  • Members
Posted

Originally posted by Li Shenron


Do you have people laughing at you because "you don't know enough songs"?

 

Hehehe...not laughing at me...I laugh at myself enough.

 

I guess I just like to make everyone happy.

 

See, I'm not in a "stable band" at the moment. I'm into jamming with just about anyone that will have me or for anyone that is willing to listen. I like to tote my guitar(s) to dinner parties, beach parties, camping, a jam at a buddy's house, a jam at my buddy's buddy's house, a jam with some person(s) met over the internet or in the classifieds, a jam with some guy at the park, etc. I aspire to be a street corner performer :)

 

Eventually someone says, "Hey dude, do you know ?" If I don't know it, I flat out say 'no' but I'll try to pull it out from memory if I've heard it before and can remember how it goes. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. No sweat there, the effort is actually fun and people appreciate it. If the other musicians know it, I can at least strum along, follow, and pick it up.

 

What I hate the most is when I DID know the tune note for note. Instead of jamming it flat out, I'm stuck somewhat relearning it again. (If it's one that wasn't recently practiced.)

 

I've seen other musicians seemingly pick stuff out of thin air and nail it or at least come very damn close. Close enough where no one else but those who "know" the tune would actually know the difference. This being the case, I'm thinking if I can grow and maintain my reportoire then I'd be better off.

 

Eventually, I'd like to be able to hear a tune once, remember it note for note and recall it at anytime :) But, I'm sure I'm a looooooooooong way off from that.

 

 

 

thanks!!!

 

:jb

  • Members
Posted

The way to memorize something, for instance a tune, is through repetition and a lot of it. Keep repeating the thing you want to remember until you can play it in your sleep. Literally.

 

I've heard that Anthony Hopkins reads his lines out loud 100 times before he even begins to try to act.

 

Once you have something memorized it'll be easy to brush up your memory if you need to. And if you have it well memorized you won't have to think about it when you play it.

  • Members
Posted

 

Originally posted by zookie

I also only actively remember the songs I have to perform currently. We have about 5 hours of songs to juggle, so I do keep a notebook, containing lyrics with chords written in. They serve as visual cues.


Outside of band practice, I do work on other material, but my retention is pretty bad, unless that new material is brought into the band scene.


I find that, once I've performed something live a few times, it becomes embedded in my memory.

 

 

I knew a guy who could do this... a DRUMMER of all people...

 

And though I can't do it (and I have no excuse because I've had plenty of time), I think the key is to develop really good relative pitch. For example, I know a professional bassist who, while listening to a song for the first time can call out the chords relative to the key as they go by: 1, 5, 2, b7

 

Work the ear... i should take my own advice...

  • Members
Posted

 

Originally posted by zookie

I find that, once I've performed something live a few times, it becomes embedded in my memory.

 

 

Now that is a good way to learn something on a deeper level.

 

For me it's often like this... I learn the song at home, play a few times in the streets before I play it on stage. Songs that go this way will seldom disappear from memory altogether. They may fade a little, I might need to brush them up if I haven't played them in a few years, but they come back fast.

 

Singing and playing at the same time helps too. In order to do both at the same time you need to have one thing on "automatic" and for me that will be the chords. And this way I start to remember them faster.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...