Oh my! Iām way behind. I havenāt been keeping any notes at all. I find it relatively easy to remember simple songs, the chord progressions and the lyrics but I think I have a capacity in my brain for about 10 songs and each time I learn a new one, I forget an older one.
You guys are so organised! I think Iām going to have to start keeping an online folder. I thought I would just make pdfs and scan some of my notes and put them in a dropbox folder so that then I can access them on every device.
Itās ok to keep an archive of songs in your direct vincinity.
though, my advice would be; make it a āpyramidā, with a very personal and select top and layers that become wider (bigger in numbers) as you go lower
Have some all time favourites you know through and through and where have total control to change styles, to sing with emotion, to play embellishments, creative strumming etc.
A layer below that will the the ones that you know and play and donāt need notes for. The bread and butter of your set you can play without extra practice.
A layer below that, the songs you need notes for but you can play through. The notes are reminders on how the song goes
below that, songs you are learning, getting to know, etc. The notes are study material to help you internalize how the song works
You can evolve songs upwards as they start to grow on you. Keep an eye on the rough shape of oyur āpyramidā. You will notice that getting songs higher up will ask increasingly more effort, time, ability to include expression and vulnerability etcā¦
If you want to know more about buildign a repertoire, chek the recording of Motivation Club #26!
Nice format. My archive consists pretty much of the bottom two levels and close to adding some to the next level above that. I certainly am not skilled enough to have anything up at the top level yet.
I find the whole repertoire building hard. I have tried to copy some songs into the notes app to ācarry with meā but can play along to many on UG, obviously. Can I play them in a live-gig type way rather than in campfire manner? No, or at least not if someone asked me to a month after I practised them last. Iād probably default to an easy rendition if at all possible. Like Prof Thunder, I forget one if I learn a new one by heart and kind of feel that only the ones I truly know by heart are repertoire, but I am equally impressed by all that professional organising mentioned here!
I use the same app in a similar way. I have loads of songs that Iāve played on piano or bass. My guitar one is just shy of 20
I also use an app called āPaperless Musicā. This is more for bands Iāve depped with, particularly originals bands. Both of the og bands Iāve depped for have sent me chord sheets in Word / PDF (or similar) format, so I need an app that can handle them.
I came across this thread and watched Justinās video about the three types of songs (campfire, developers, and dreamers). I sat down and started listing songs and I think my list of ādreamersā has about 75 songs on it.
It is short for ādeputisedā. The American translation is āsubbedā. So where a regular band member canāt do the gig, (in my case it would be the bass player) and someone else plays in the band for that gig.
Whenever I learn or write a song, I do it in Word, (nowadays landscape format) with the chords in red within the text where they are played, rather than āsomewhere aboveā the line.
I print off a page if I need it, say for an open mic.
I just checked and there are about 300+ in the document, but @Richard_close2u
says you canāt have enough Wish You Were Here is probably the only song Iād be able to perform without a prompt today
Songs! Songs! A subject near and dear to my 60ās to today heart, soul and ears. My songbook has 175 songs - and growing. My Spotify āLikeā playlist has 1200 songs, 80% are candidates for my songbook. So far I have played 85 songs from my songbook live, either at little gigs or busking. I reckon that it will be difficult to ever learn how to play 25 of those 175. A skill deficit. I have zero songs memorized. (Unable to - long story). I can play about 5 riffs ā see SONGS! I have written one original (an exercise in music theory) ā and made it very hard for me to play. Idiot! All my songs ā lyrics and chords are on two paper pages. Two because I want to play them live - no page turning. Each song is continuously evolving as I refine chord place for timing with the lyrics, better vocal phrasing, transpose to a better vocal key, add modest embellishments, add intermittent percussion/pop stops, pauses, , and even write an additional verse (please donāt tell Bobby D and Neil Y and many more). Some songs are on their eighth āversionā. The current 175 songs are sorted in binders. Gig ready fingerpick A and B, Gig ready strum A and B. Pipeline to gig ready A and B. Jazzy (finger style on an electric). And finally those 25 I canāt seem to find a way to play live alone in their own binder. I would be remiss here not to say a heartfelt thanks to Justin, Richard, Lieven and all the amazing sharing Justineers! You all rock! You shepherded me from the time I picked up the guitar during Covid with no musical background at all. Jim. Portland, OR
Early on I decided that I wasnāt going to become an archivist. If you analyze your hard copies you will note that they are basically the same chord progressions over and over again. Learn common chord progressions, how to transpose, and some ear training to āfeelā the changes, and you will free yourself from managing reams of paper, binders and bloated text documents.
Sure, there are songs that are outliers, but if you can cut down your archive by half, youāll be ahead of the game.
Good golly miss Molly!! Donāt you want to simplify things and therefore become a much better player in the process? A thousand songs and every nuance of them sounds like the goal is to be a human playback machine, which is another one of those musical priesthoods. Heck, I can only sing in a couple of different keys! Oh and yes, itās OK to admit to singing and playing our favorite parts of songs --and we should not beat ourselves up if we repeat a verse or chorus.
Walk ups and downs, intros and outros, linking chords in interesting ways, and strumming patterns are all part of the puzzle of finding your own voice. Itās just musical glue. Free yourself!
EDIT: @GDPiper169 , I just scrolled your AVOYP entries and you are strumming (very well I would say) and not singing. Why do you need to know ANY lyrics?
Yeah, consider starting to learn progressions, some simple theory, ear training and finding a key that you can sing. Singing makes us better guitar players.
Hmmmm. Archivist? Do I like being tied to chord charts, key and capo reminders, notes on playing dynamics, indications on when to switch from block chords to finger style to different voicings to arpeggios to percussive raps, etc. Not really. But my approach allows me to sidestep my congenital inability to memorize, play 80+ songs with widely different chord progressions (Brown Eyed Girl to A Whiter Shade of Pale), and do so live and make the arrangement āmy ownā (for better or worse). As each song evolves over time in my songbook, it gives me an opportunity to put a nascent attempt to learn music theory into real practice. So I have altered the chordal harmony and harmonic movement in at least a third of my songs selectively adding say a secondary dominant, and shift to a major 7th or sus4 or 2, an extended version of a chord, etc, when it sounds good to my ear. Since I canāt play a lick of lead (pardon the pun and the alliteration), this makes my arrangements of familiar songs feel fresher to my audience (such as it is) and to me, plus more fun to play ā yet within my very limited skill range. Looking now for opportunities to insert a few dim7ās and a line cliche somewhere where it actually works. Challenging. So old school? yup. Having fun? YUP! Best to all
I havenāt heard you play, so itās hard for me to gauge where you are in your journey. I think learning those common progressions and mapping them to songs will get you to 80+ songs quicker than anything.
A single cheat sheet (using Nashville notation if you can) for a song can be a reasonable approach. Locking in to a particular key is fine for unaccompanied playing, but being able to quickly transpose a song goes a long way when sitting down with other players (or for multi-track recording).
