I've kept what I thought of as my "FakeBook" from when I first started learning to play and sing in front of other people. First edition was perhaps 20 pages, 2-sided, of xeroxed songbook pages, SingOut versions & typed up lyrics, joined with plastic comb binding. In growing my repertoire, I started to think of it as my "workbook" and included things I didn't know, but wanted to learn.

By about the 6th or 7th editions, I started pruning (to make room for the new) songs I had fancied, but found I never worked on. Also pitched songs that I felt I prefered be sung by a man. Got rid of songs I couldn't get right with lots of dialect necessary to the rhyme scheme. Some songs got dropped because they were pieces that were strongly associated with a friend's performance, and others abandoned because they became overplayed cliché (no, nay, never!)

By reworking the book every couple of years, I was required to examine my repertoire and put some in digital storage. The last two, 9 & 10, are digital editions done as PDFs on my ipad. Most pages hold just lyrics with chords, (dispensed with the dots, but have trouble recalling chords). When I started doing open mics, I started keeping lists of which songs came under which headings, that gave me an idea of strengths and what sort of repertoire I did have. This also helped me focus where my energy goes. I think it was Judy Cook who introduced me to the concept of "active repertoire" - ones you can pull out any time and have complete, as contrasted to ones you KNOW, but might need some brushing up on verse order, key, or tune. The "active repertoire" only gets pruned by memory loss.

Joanne in Cleveland, now increasing her dance tune repertoire