Songbook - what do you do once you get to more complicated songs?

Got it. So you just need to follow along with the screen. So it would be reading, singing, playing and staying in the pocket.

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Canā€™t speak for Jason but when I used Setlist Helper during the early OMs it was more a reminder and you kinda went on auto pilot - not actually reading chords and lyrics while performing but it was there as a reference in case you had some brain fade. Its almost a quick look and the songs is in your head and off you go.

Jasonā€™s situation with 35 songs on the playlist could be different. Just MHO.

Even now when I use the latest app (Songbook) for practice/rehearsal, the songs are pretty much in grained so its just a back stop.

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As Toby says it auto scrolls.

So I have all my songs in a setlist, see the next song, hit ā€œplayā€ and itā€™ll auto scroll ( at the speed I set ). Remember I know these songs backwards so for performance itā€™s just a backup. Playing (and singing) is pretty automatic and if anything itā€™s the odd lyric I forgetā€¦ so Iā€™m just scanning when I need toā€¦ most of my eye contact is with the audience.

In the studio I use it a lot more for remembering or working on new songs where I do follow it moreā€¦ it becomes second nature after a while.

I can even manually scroll with my finger for most songs ( if itā€™s going a little slow ) without breaking the rhythm.

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For me, the answer depends on what Iā€™m doing.

I have a collection of ā€œsongbook styleā€ sheets that are just chords and lyrics. No tab, no standard notation, etc. Maybe a time signature or some notes about a capo or bpm. These are just text files that I print out and put in a binder. Itā€™s mainly a spur for my memory, and mostly singer/songwriter kind of stuff that Iā€™d be likely to play and sing with just an acoustic guitar. (Thinking about it, I rarely use any form of written music if Iā€™m playing electric guitar, unless itā€™s jazz and weā€™re using lead sheets.)

I use ā€œlead sheetsā€ for some things. These are ā€œReal Book styleā€ sheets with the melody/head written in standard notation and the chords/harmony notated above the staff. Lyrics might be notated below. Obviously pretty common for jazz stuff, and also common if itā€™s a song Iā€™ve composed myself. I like to write my own compositions down in standard notation so I have a written record of the melody, in particular. I create lead sheets with the lilypond software.

Lastly, sometimes Iā€™ll use scores in standard notation. This is most common for songs Iā€™ve composed and that have multiple instruments, or for songs where I took music for another instrument and made my own arrangement, or for classical music.

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Interesting to see others approach, I find a few suggestion quite useful for the future if I ever going to step into the outside world with my guitar.

As to my current approach - everything that is strum da dum I just use websites to open up chord sheet and lyrics. I print out lyrics only when I sing along and practice or perform during OM nights as a little help to prevent me from forgetting lyrics. I donā€™t keep songbook for that purpose, just donā€™t feel the need.

As to more complex stuff wellā€¦ i donā€™t have that many under my sleeve (yet) but whenever I transcribe something I do it on A4 sheet of paper with grid printed off, then either keep those pieces together or rewrite it into my notebook. Simples :wink: no rhythm, no counting - just notes or chords.

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Black Betty, Scar Tissue, Snow?

Some really interesting insights here about what others do and gives me some food for thought as to what Iā€™m going to do. Some things to experiment with. Been a very interesting thread.

I like the offline feeling of a physical songbook right now - given so much of my life is with devices, itā€™s nice to be disconnected.

One thing that seems clear is I donā€™t think I read anybody is printing out whole tabs. Aside from a few riffs, it seems tabs mostly stay digital.

I think Iā€™ll end up tweaking what I do a bit with some of the info here.

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No need in this digital age. Somewhere round here I have a stack of tabs I printed off places like UG back in the late 90s (tā€™internet was still a baby and there was not much out there), must be about half a ream of paper. Back then there was no other option than to print (old dot matrix) or write. Tablets didnā€™t exist only at the pharmacy, Androids were scifi characters and mobile phone did 2 crazy things - made phone calls and text (just).

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Hi JK,
I printed out Justinā€™s blues studies with tabs (10 pieces), and also use them as a mnemonic deviceā€¦or isnā€™t that what you mean by this?
Greetings,ā€¦

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Actually no to all of those, Snow is just few riffs that repeat all the time and Scar Tissue wasnā€™t so bad to memorize. Black betty - this one I learnt from youtube channel where guy played and tabs were shown so no need to write it down.

So far it was: More than words, Sympathy, Una Mattina and I have one more which I learn now and will keep it hush hush for now as I am still learning :grinning: I also have Gotten by Slash but got exhausted by it when I started as it was a bit too difficult so it just waits for me now :grinning:

Whatā€™s the common link? Poor tabs online which needed me to either write down something that was unavailable in tabs format from ear or just literally writing it down from tabs shown on the screen.

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My first mobile phone was bolted to the floor my truck and you had to contact a telephone operator to place a call. This was before the brick phone and the freedom of packing a 3lb phone around with you. You either memorizes songs or got your girlfriend/wife to write them out by hand and put the in a 3in thick ring binder.

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There is a special topic here somewhere in the comunity,(?)ā€¦and most of these people used to carved their lyrics and chords in stone I believe,ā€¦those good old daysā€¦ :joy: :wink:

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When I used to learn songs for me it was current music and as there was no internet and sheet music was expensive I learned them by ear, Iā€™ve never been able to sing so I didnā€™t learn lyrics but learned the notes in the singing so I could recognise where the chord changes were. My repertoire was generally speaking current songs plus a few old ones picked by whoever I was playing with at the time. As this moved with time so did my repertoire, songs got filed (in my head) and new ones became more important, fortunately I could pick up an older one quite quickly.
Nowadays I learn a song by the easiest method I can find but get it into memory the same way as before, age takes its toll so I canā€™t remember many now but say if I wanted to play something old that I had played in the past it wouldnā€™t take much time to get it back.
I donā€™t really play cover songs these days and very rarely play the same thing twice, I mostly play ā€œambienceā€ music (if you could call it that :joy:), often with a sci-fi theme using FX to give the mood I like. I donā€™t take notes because I play how I feel, it varies a lot hour to hour, day to day; I just like to enjoy what Iā€™m doing. Some time in the future I shall record something fairly short so that youā€™ll get the feel for what Iā€™m doing, maybe on Bass, which is a new project Iā€™m embarking on soon!

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Because Iā€™m such a book nerd, if they are people/groups that I know I will always want to play their songs, then Iā€™ll see if I can find the original book that comes out when the album does to learn from and keep on the shelf.

Iā€™ve also subscribed to Justinā€™s tabs. Along side that on UGT, you can save the songs as PDFā€™s, so Iā€™ll download what Iā€™m interested in and then I have a ā€œto learnā€ folder in my guitar folder to work on the songs, then once Iā€™ve finished with them they are moved to a subsequent folder within the guitar folder.

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Toby @TheMadman_tobyjenner

Thanks for pointing me in a direction of Soundbook-pro.

I have been trying to create chord sheets for songs we are doing at the guitar club, where we are repeating verses changing things around to best suit the audience. Not always working from Justinā€™s tabs or UG which has meant a lot of scanning, converting, cutting and pasting.

Downloaded trial version on my iPad and had a bit of a playground, no problem with sheets from UG which you can edit on a PC. I had a hard copy only of one song, which had some graphics as well and wanted to see if that worked. After scanning and converting to word from the pdf, then saved as txt file I was able to load it and edit it. Wouldnā€™t take the pdf because of the graphics.

Will definitely get it and at 4.99 GBP for a lifetime licence, got to be worth it. To paraphrase Justinā€™s words about the cost of one of his apps, ā€œless than the cost of a cheap bottle of wineā€

Thanks Toby :+1:

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Michael

Cheap as chips and as you see multiple inputs not just UG but a good place to start.
And the best element is the ability to edit. Correct chords and lyrics or add tab lines by hand. PDF imports are great with GuitarPro but some will need converting to text and then import the TXT. Simples. You will have to experiment with the autoscroll and adjust as you go. But once you get each song in its sweet spot youā€™re set for life.

Suspect chips are more expensive these days !

:sunglasses:

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Toby @TheMadman_tobyjenner
Cheap as chips, well just, paid about 4GBP for them with a pizza delivery last week. Unfortunately the days of getting a reasonable bottle of wine for 5 GBP are long long gone.
I think I am going to find the app very useful.
Michael :champagne::wine_glass:

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Yeah Iā€™ve printed out reasonably small tabs tooā€¦ some tab sheets are 10 pages or so though.

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Okay - another one thatā€™s similar!

I find some days Iā€™m riffing and find parts I want to make songs from. They stick in my head until they donā€™t.

How do you guys keep note of in progress songs that you are writing yourself? The same way?

Writing it out in guitar pro seems a bit rigid and hard.

Iā€™ve been lurking here, so to contribute a little, I have a few pages of blank tab paper printed out (Print Blank TAB & Manuscript | JustinGuitar.com), stashed in my office and gig bag to cover this kind of scenario.

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