Pruning One's Repertoire

Subject: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 08:56 AM

With the emergence of virtual singerounds, I started looking through my 'repertoire' book, and I am finding myself asking 'Did I really learn that?' Where 'that' is more akin to stamp clubs - concentrating on quantity rather than quality.

A lot of 'that' for me are songs that I picked up from records or radio programmes, with little effort to research beyond the sleeve notes.

I want to get out and about again when the pandemic is over - although there is a lot of competition (non folk/music) for my time.

As far as see, there are two genres that I ought to focus on sea songs and music hall, both of which I have spent decades studying as well as performing. I have an interest in Bohemian and Moravian traditonal music, neither of which I have practiced up to a level to perform, everything else I find myslef asking myself what the reason for performing it would be.

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: cnd
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 09:27 AM

An important part of it is making sure you know the songs, and know the songs really well, both history and playing. I would recommend just playing through all your songs once or twice, picking out your favorites and sticking with those to perfect.

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 09:30 AM

To those who use Tablets, I-Pads, Smart Phones. Do you have a repertoire or do you have a reading list?

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 10:32 AM

My repertoire are those that I, for some reason or other, learned at the time. In addition, I have thousands of bits of paper. Of about 300-400 I learned over 40 years there are probably only about a couple of dozen I can still remember all the way through.

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 01:55 PM

Boot out the lot, and learn some classic Glam Rock songs..

That's what the world needs right now to cheer us all up...

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: Mo the caller
Date: 15 Apr 20 - 09:44 AM

Sounds like my collection of dances. I have a couple of boxes of cards that I call from at dance clubs. The ones I call at barn dances are just a list, a few short notes but mostly completely memorised.
I need more of a variety for a club evening so learn dances that I like the tune of, or found interesting when someone else has called them, or (pride) thought 'oh, I know how I would explain that'. And a lot of them are dances that I've called once or twice then haven't bothered with.

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: JHW
Date: 15 Apr 20 - 09:49 AM

Well I've plumbed me prunes, pruned me pears and paired me plums. Any more garden tips?

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Apr 20 - 09:50 AM

spb , school report must work harder

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 11:18 AM

Songs to prune out:

those that seem rascist, mysogynistic, unfair or otherwise offensive to you

those that go too high or too low for you

dated protest songs that will bore your audience

those whose tune you just don't like.
=====================
That ought to be a good start.

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 11:25 AM

My father learned a lot of songs over the years, and in order to remember which songs were in his head, so to speak, he typed up a long list and literally papered the back of his guitar with it. I was at a Song Circle one time when one of the performers remarked about his memory and another one picked up his guitar and turned it so the rest could see the long long list. I think he went through them routinely to be sure he did remember them. This is back pre-tablets and such (and he hated the use of Rise Up Singing when people stood and sang out of the book, not knowing the song or making eye contact with the audience. If you didn't know it well enough to sing without the book, you didn't need to be singing it publicly yet.)

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 17 Apr 20 - 03:24 AM

Sometimes it is just the case of a song not suiting the singer, what one person can perform OK another, although a good singer, just fails to put across.

There have been a few that I have learned, performed and abandoned as the audience reaction has shown that they don't work for me.

Robin

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Apr 20 - 03:50 AM

One of the few welcome aspects of the ageing process is that, while ou my forget what you had for breakfast, ou start remembering things you though you'd long forgotten
I can now sing my way though songs I haven't sung for nealy half a century - even ones I can't remember having learned
I had far too large a repertoire for various reasons - I pruned it many times
I knew 300 when we movd here - I've added 25 without having to sit down and learn one
Very odd and somehow disturbing, especially when I find myself singing crap pop songs about tooth brushes
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: CupOfTea
Date: 17 Apr 20 - 12:59 PM

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

Subject: RE: Pruning One's Repertoire
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 20 - 01:18 PM

"No, nay, never!" I agree.