 sj |
||
|
||
how many songs in your repertoire?
|
|
|
Subject: how many songs/tunes in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 15 Jul 04 - 09:33 PM I decided to make a copy of all the songs I sing, or have sung, in the version I use, putting in the guitar chords and capo placing if any, before my memory gets so bad I can't do it right. I am at around 250 and still counting as I remember songs I used to sing with those already written into the repertory. I am 53 now, still have the song book I started as a student back in 1969 (though it burst out of its original ring binder years ago) - and the same ol' Framus 'Texan' guitar - the only neck I've found I can get my hand around to make an F chord. Is my collection of songs average? Unusual? Or do most people not bother to count? Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Blackcatter Date: 15 Jul 04 - 09:44 PM I sing, don't play guitar. And I play tin whistle. Singing: 250+ song memorized, 600 or so that I can sing with lyrics in front of me well enough not to embarass myself on stage. Whistle: 30 or so I can play well enough. I've only been playing for 4 years or so. Not much for practicing. -------------------- And I remember in college my humanities profs saying the age of bards has long past. I could safely sing for over 8 hours without anything more than a list of songs to remind me which ones I have memorized. Oddly enough my phone number is the only one I know by heart. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Blackcatter Date: 15 Jul 04 - 09:44 PM By the way, I'm 38. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Bert Date: 15 Jul 04 - 09:57 PM Anne, I have a similar song book that has just over 400 songs in it. A few of those were put in so that I would have the words to learn. But I know most of them. That does not include an awful lot of songs that I know, but don't perform and don't intend to perform. At 65 I've got a few years on you though. Blackcatter, that's an impressive tally. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Deckman Date: 15 Jul 04 - 09:59 PM About 2,800, last count, several years ago. But you need to remember ... I'm VERY old. Bob |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Blackcatter Date: 15 Jul 04 - 10:04 PM And only half of them are tv theme songs ;) |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: hesperis Date: 15 Jul 04 - 10:34 PM Not enough. ;) |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Rasener Date: 16 Jul 04 - 04:02 AM 0 I just listen and enjoy. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Leadfingers Date: 16 Jul 04 - 05:31 AM When I first started singing Folk Songs i thought that the more songs I knew the easier it would be , but realised when I started doing set lists for bookings , that the really hard part is which songs do you leave out !! I stopped counting when my list of songs topped the five hundred mark , and that did NOT include all the songs I have learned by osmosis and never actually written down. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Raggytash Date: 16 Jul 04 - 06:01 AM Like Leadfingers I stopped counting. I find that if I hear someone sing a song it will remind me of something lost in the ether of my mind, just a word will do it, and I find myself singing a song I haven't sung for perhaps 20 years. My wife of 25 years is still amazed when I pull out a song she has never heard me sing before. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Joybell Date: 16 Jul 04 - 06:15 AM True-love and I have both picked up songs by osmosis since we were first able to talk. We've both learned others at a fair pace since childhood. It's what singers do. Between us that's 125 years of picking up songs. We both stopped counting about 20 years ago. We don't dare do another count because it might remind us of how many songs we've forgotten. Joy |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: kendall Date: 16 Jul 04 - 06:47 AM 500 or so |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: curmudgeon Date: 16 Jul 04 - 07:17 AM About 25 years ago, I counted up to about 800+. I've added a few more since. Of course I can't always remember what's on the list -- Tom |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: breezy Date: 16 Jul 04 - 07:19 AM bout 200 recorded Working rep is about 75 but constantly evolving with songs being left behind that may be revisited at a later date. Latest songs are from the works of George Papavgeris from whom Andy Irvine, Vin Garbutt, Cloudstreet, Roy Bailey, Johnny Collins have dipped and Harvey Andrews wishes he'ld written. Have any of you got any of George's in your song list? if not then you aint doing your homework. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Splott Man Date: 16 Jul 04 - 08:09 AM It's funny, isn't it, about instant recall of songs long assumed forgotten. I've kept a list of just titles of each song I've learnt since the mid 60s. Some of which I now have no idea about. I remember a period back then when I would learn 3 songs a week to keep my floor spot fresh, I can't do that any more. However, a couple of years ago, a few of us in Cardiff felt we had been complacent about our respective repertoires and decided to debut a new song each per month at our local club, we kept it up for over a year. It was a really useful exercise for me as I now have 3 distinct repertoires to keep fresh. I remember a letter in Melody Maker many years ago from Don MacLean responding to a critical article about him in a previous issue, in which, as an aside, he claimed to be able to recall upwards of 6000 songs. Now THAT's a memory! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: breezy Date: 16 Jul 04 - 08:11 AM and they were are called American Pie |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 16 Jul 04 - 08:42 AM heck - half the time (or more) I don't recall that I know a song until someone else starts to sing it. There are quite a few I can sing if I have the lyrics - never counted - many I can sing along to; many more I can sing chorus to but don't know the verses. a pitful few I can do from memory |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Rasener Date: 16 Jul 04 - 09:42 AM hey Breezy, I hope you are not going to sing Georges numbers when you come up here. We don't want to hear George singing the same thing when he comes up. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Flash Company Date: 16 Jul 04 - 10:10 AM I have this sort of photographic memory for lyrics, the trouble being that it isn't selective. I remember songs I wish I could forget sometimes! They sneak back into my head and haunt me for days. If I am only counting songs that I used to sing when I had a full set of lungs, I would guess at about 300, but the others! Oh how I wish I could forget them! FC |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: breezy Date: 16 Jul 04 - 10:20 AM With some of Georges choruses your club will be grateful of an extra opportunity to get to grips with them. I do em good, better than the man hisself even, if I may be so modest |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Alaska Mike Date: 16 Jul 04 - 10:33 AM I'm not sure exactly how many songs I know. I can tell you that I once sang for over 8 hours without repeating any songs. we were enjoying some nice weather while sitting around a campfire at a music festival. But that was before I started writing my own songs, so I'm sure I could probably go for a longer period now, if I wasn't so old and in need of regular naps. Mike |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:00 PM I was a song leader for the Cub Scouts until about ten years ago. I counted up my songs one time, and was surprised to find I had about three hundred committed to memory. The Scouts got on a kick where they wanted me to center on songs from their two official songbooks, and I kind of drifted away and started singing grown-up songs. I find I'm either too old or too lazy to memorize new songs, so I use "cheat sheets" for the new ones. I'm reputed to know all 1200 songs in the oft-maligned Rise Up Singing Songbook, but it isn't true. But I was proud of those 300 camp songs, even if parents considered some of them to be obnoxious. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:31 PM I know the first line of millions ... |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Big Al Whittle Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:32 PM the thing is....to remember the one you're singing! I have found. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Blackcatter Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:50 PM That is the real trick. I can sing a song dead perfect a half-hour before a gig and may just stumble while singing it on stage. I don't know what it is - I'm certainly not nervous or anything like that. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,belter Date: 16 Jul 04 - 05:48 PM I've got a list of about 400 songs I've memorized, some of wich I've forgoten. I'm sure there's a much larger number that I could sing along with given a printed lyrics and in some cases just w/ some one to lead me. My memory doesn't really catch all the detail, and I had to work for the ones I've got down. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 16 Jul 04 - 05:51 PM Don't worry about it Blackcatter - it is the difference between performance and just singing. If you didn't react to being in front of an audience it would probably indicate a lack of something in your character - like empathy maybe. Hey - empathy isn't in the 1947 version of the pocket Oxford dictionary, it goes from empanel to emperor. Obviously not currrent English at the time. I am searching old casettes and even plotting to persuade my single speed tape recorder - of the reel to reel sort, to play my ancient, slow speed tapes - they were made from cut up conputer tape so it was good stuff even though it was cheap - it worked last time I checked and it was 20 years old then and it has lasted far far better than the cassettes, but then they were never intended to last decades. I already found Barry Dransfield's 'There's gold in the channel'- I wonder how many songs I will end up with. Wonderful thing the Human brain - that is what I say when I get back from the shops without the sugar I went down there to buy, but still managed to spend £50. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Joybell Date: 16 Jul 04 - 06:52 PM Oh yes, Flash Company, it is the ones you can't forget that cause the biggest problem. "We're happy little vegemites..." "I like Aeroplane jelly" "Be a clown be a clown..." Do you get triggered by things people say, just single words sometimes, and sign posts and experiences? True-love and I trigger songs in each other's heads all the time too. It's Bedlam inside my head sometimes. Most times! I was 2 when I first noticed. Ran about the house for days with my hands over my ears screaming "Make them go away!!" Luckily my mother hadn't had a two-year-old before and was too afraid of me to do anything about it. Joy |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Tattie Bogle Date: 16 Jul 04 - 07:05 PM I "know" thousands of songs, but like Mmario, there are precious few that I can sing from start to finish without consulting the words or forgetting any. The ones in my performance repertoire rarely have more than 5 verses! But if someone else is singing/leading the song, I can usually sing along. Learining words by heart, even of those I have sung for years, is my problem. Whereas tunes....different story, no problem, so I reckon I have an audiographic memory, but definitely not a photographic one! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Cap't Bob Date: 16 Jul 04 - 07:44 PM My problem is that I can't seem to remember what songs I know. It's a whole lot easier to remember the words and tunes than their names. I made up a master list of songs and tunes that our band plays on a fairly regular basis and that is around 125. Think I'll start a tunes/song folder on the computer and include the key. In a year or so I'll check back with you.... Cap't Bob |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Mudlark Date: 16 Jul 04 - 08:18 PM Like the aging druggie, when asked just how many drugs HAD he taken, after a long, thoughtful pause said...."LOTS." I've been singing folk songs for about 40 years, and 30's-40's tunes for longer than that (altho rarely, with my folkie chords, can I accompany myself). I have no idea how many songs I know, but I'll bet half of them I'd not be very interested in singing any more. Just because I know tom Dooley doesn't mean I want to sing it any more! I do find it harder to memorize, these days, the only way I really like to sing...so like Splott Man, I've been making a conscious effort to learn 2-3 new ones/month. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 16 Jul 04 - 08:42 PM Ah now the ones I know are a different matter - the first thing I ever recorded on the 4 track stereo reel to reel tape recorder was by Jo Brown and had the refrain 'concerto in you for comb and cazoo'- ARGGG!!! The second thing was Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf. Then there were all the old records on the wind up gramophone - after the ball is over, When father papered the parlour, Blue Danube by Spike Jones and the City Slickers. (Oh the Danube is not blue - it's green!!) I have learned avoid the Eurovision Song Contest - but an erase button would be a blessing - the first to go would be 'We are the Ovaltinies' closely followed by the version of 'Abdul the Bulbul Emir' I know. It was only recently that I discovered that there was a version of the latter which wasn't rude. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Cap't Bob Date: 16 Jul 04 - 09:20 PM ".....the Danube has another hue - who me you - its time we all came clean --- B O --- Oh the Danube isn't blue - it's green". Darn, now there's another one... Cap't Bob |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Bert Date: 16 Jul 04 - 10:17 PM 'We are the Ovaltinies' You must have listened to Radio Luxemburg. Where's our CD reviewer Mike? He claims to know all the songs there are except two. (And I think he does) |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,By title, by hour, by GB...? Date: 16 Jul 04 - 11:19 PM Couldn't resist this thread as I update my PalmPilot for Pinewoods Folk Music Week ;-). I started a FileMaker database back around 1991 as an index to a shelf of looseleaf notebooks that was getting out of hand. The current version is a master lyric DB of 1275 songs (as of this instant), linked to around 20 individual set lists with an additional several hundred titles, so that I can quickly add new songs and check to see if I've already got the lyrics. Over the years I've geeked it up with maintenance macros (duplicate check, spell check with custom dictionary, Need Lyrics search and sort), page layouts, custom songbook-merge templates in Word, and most recently a link to the most recent export of my iTunes XML file (3718 songs, 39.1 days, 22.7 GB). Ah, you say, but how many of those can you actually SING? From memory? Probably 400-600 at any given time. Some recent metrics: * at Old Songs 2004, I and my duo partner Ken Mattsson sang for nine hours straight with Jim Pfau and Denise Kania, repeating only 3 songs (and yes, that was one song after another, not workshop-circle style, though we were pulling from 4 people's reps) *My ex-husband and I used to play "Song Geography" in the car: one would sing a song with a place name, the other had to sing a song with a place name that had the LAST letter of the first song's place name (any place name was fair game)--we did this for a 2-hour drive each way once a week * On an all-night drive from central Saskatchewan to Calgary, I kept myself awake from midnight to 7 am by singing anything I could remember, no repeats allowed * Gloucester Hornpipe & Clog Society performs from a repertoire of 75 songs and 100 tunes * our monthly whisky and singing circle, the Single Malt and Song Society, has a songbook of 110 songs, almost all of which I can sing from memory at 3 am not sober * every year I dust off all 42 verses of Tam Lin at midnight on Hallowe'en, no cheat sheet Sounds like I'm boasting here, but actually it's kind of fun to tally it up. I've always suffered from Velcro brain, and it's a treat to meet a new friend that can sing me under the table with something I've never heard. David Parry was famous for that--at the dog-end of an all-night sing, while the rest of us mumbled through Bright Morning Stars Are Rising, he could pull out The Cruise of the Bigler word-perfect and at speed, and not on his first pint either. Boy, do I know the "song trigger" phenomenon! The inside of my head has a sound track. What's often amusing is that the trigger will be subconscious, for example a street sign, that I won't notice but that will set off a tune in my head. By the time the words surface, I'm into the second or third verse and wonder why I'm humming "Fennario," because somewhere back there I saw a turn to Peggy Lane. I do notice I'm slipping as I cross the mid-latitudes (coming up on 45 degrees, heading south...) It does take more conscious effort than it used to. But the brain is a curious thing for storing songs. They do fall in one ear and out the other... Lynn Noel www.lynnoel.com |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 17 Jul 04 - 09:18 AM My mum was an Ovaltinie - she used to sing 'Dashing away with a smoothing iron' 'Johnny's so long at the fair' 'Linconshire poacher' and her mother used to sing 'do not trust him gentle lady' and the suffragists 'hymn' - I wonder it there are the words anywhere. My mother's father used to sing rude soldier songs when in his cups, but anyone who heard them will not repeat them - he died back before WWII. I must one day write a song about a drunken Irish milkman who only delivered to the right houses because the horse knew where to stop. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Mudlark Date: 17 Jul 04 - 01:19 PM Anne...I have the words to Do Not Trust Him, Gentle Lady....called The Gypsy's Warning. My mom used to sing it too and I got all the words from her. PM me if you want a copy. Reading thru all these threads makes me realize, yet again, my natural disorganized state. Just the thought of trying to list all the songs I know, let alone breaking them into categories of known but not memorized, unaccompanied, etc. fills me with a dull, yet frantic, sense of ennui. How I wish I had that kind of mind...then I'd be able to find things in my office. I do look through all my songbooks occasionally, just to remind me of songs that have sifted too far to the bottom of the heap. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 17 Jul 04 - 03:46 PM Thankyou mudlark, but I have words - it was a case of humming the tune and they just apeared from where ever they had been waiting to be called up. It was only the realisation that my memory was going - I found myself on the wrong road going to a place I have known the way to for over 20 years - and it suddenly hit me like a wall that one day I might not even remember who I am. That was the day I bought the big note books and started to write. They are actually out of date diaries - dead cheap at 50p each, on my birthday page I wrote the poem 'Warning - when I am an old woman I shall wear purple' and on the last page I wrote Kipling's 'If'. I thought I might spend some my time writing several copies and then leave them at Sidmouth (this was before its future was in doubt) with an explanatory note that I had no one to hand then on to. I did think of adding a couple of cds of the less well known ones, the ones I made up a tune for, the ones I made up entirely, and maybe a few more - so maybe in a few decades I'd have reserchers visiting me in the nursing home to ask questions and smuggle in rum. I want to be a legend in my own lifetime, but not make it too obvious - let them think they discovered me and my liking for Lamb's Navy and coke - that is, I mean, cola - I plan to live to be at least 150 and make up for the sobriety of my youth. If only I could update my own RAM as easily as that of a computer, and install a new hard disk. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Genie Date: 17 Jul 04 - 05:02 PM If we're just counting songs where I know the melody and lyrics by heart, my repertoire's easily over 25,000. (There was a time I knew pretty much all verses of all the commonly sung hymns in the Baptist hymnals, plus quite a few not so common ones, in addition to pretty much everything I heard from about age 5 to age 10. But -- fortunately? -- time does dim some memories.) LOL If we're talking about songs I can at least chord skillfully enough to perform them or jam with them, the list probably shrinks to somewhere between 500 and 1000. Of course, the 30 to 50 I've written are the hardest for me to remember if I haven't sung them recently. ;-D But as has been said above, I'm not sure a lot of the songs in my repertoire are anything I'd wanna do in concert. LOL Genie |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Joybell Date: 17 Jul 04 - 11:32 PM Dear Friends-who-like-The-Gypsy's-Warning. Anne and Mudlark. I feel much better now. Not so alone. My True-love hates this song with a vengeance. Don't quite know why. I have always loved it. It was the first song sung over the telephone! Can't remember how I know, but would anyone lie about a thing like that. The tune seems to me like it's pinched from the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor . Joy |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 18 Jul 04 - 12:58 PM Tunes seem to develop a life of their own almost as soon as they are played - like some chicks they flee the nest and go off into the world as soon as the ink's/feathers dry. I think that Gypsy's warning is one of those songs which you can't be indifferent about, you either love it or hate it. My mother's father had a good singing voice in his youth, as far as is reported he was an Irish tenor, and sang Endearing young charms and the like with great effect - he sang Dolly Grey to my mother - He called her Dolly Grey-eyes. One song I sing is a Bob Copper poem, I am not sure of the title but it starts 'Oh you can moan with plaintive tone' - it does have a tune, but as I can't turn dots into a tune I was stuck. I read that Bob had intended to have verses from various songs between the verses of his poems - and I didn't know them either. Then I realised that the first verse of the poem would fit the Song of the Western Men (Trelawney), the second, concerning threasher men, would fit 'Farmers Boy' and the third about drinking fits 'John Barleycorn' and for the last verse a tune simply appeared - it fits a morris dance I was taught at school, but we used to dance that to Nellie the Elephant on the gramophone - maybe it is something I heard once. It is too good a poem not to make a song from it. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: kendall Date: 18 Jul 04 - 04:31 PM My Mother used to sing The Gypsy's Warning. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Mr Happy Date: 18 Jul 04 - 08:25 PM I've got piles! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 19 Jul 04 - 12:41 AM There IS no limit... BTW I hope your piles get better soon Mr Happy! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST, Hamish Date: 19 Jul 04 - 03:07 AM I baffled by these responses. Maybe what you mean by "know" isn't what I mean by it, but my list is a paltry 200 performed over the last five or so years, at least half of which are now (were always?) way off gig standard. I did a gig last Thursday where my list of battle-hardened and up to scratch numbers was between 20 and 30. Right now, I guess I've maybe 80 to 100 which I could do off the top of my head right through with any confidence and probably get all the words and chords right: but only at a singaround. I have to have run through a song a few times in the week before a proper headline gig to know it's still bedded in properly: and it will have taken usually weeks if not months for it to get to gig standard in the first place. I *do* like to have my own edge to a song, however, and I *do* like to have something of an arrangement to it. I like to know the words and arrangement well enough to be able to "live and breathe" it. I once said that "I don't do karaoke", and I guess that's true: I like to think I don't just go through the motions, but I've got inside a song before gigging it. (Okay, fair enough, I have been known to throw something together for the odd occasion, before those who actually know me put their tuppence worth's in!) But the title of the thread is "...in your repertoire". So I'd have to say it's about 20 to 30 at any given time. But that that 20 to 30 is drawn from up to 200 which do expand gradually, slowly and painfully. So I'm not sure if I view the claims of 400, 500, 600+ with humble respect or scepticism. Mostly bafflement, I think. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: erinmaidin Date: 19 Jul 04 - 03:30 AM repertory: A stock of pieces that a person or company are prepared to perform. I'm having a difficult time, in view of the above definition pulled out of one of those dusty old tomes referred to as dictionarys...that anyone is "prepared" to perform all of those songs! I would hope that the standards of singing because one can, and performing to an audience are two entirely different things. I can remember hundreds of songs but would never trot one into public without first taking it out and shining it up a bit....okay....nearly never. And before someone corrects the spelling of "repertory", I'm only citing what was printed in the dictionary. It seems that a repertory was a storehouse or repository in which a theatre company would keep the pieces the troupe were prepared to perform. Repertoire is just a fancy way of saying it... |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Sooz (at work) Date: 19 Jul 04 - 08:11 AM My score is very similar to Hamish's and for similar reasons. I was so glad to read his post as I had felt quite inadequate having read the previous claims! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: vectis Date: 19 Jul 04 - 11:35 AM I think I can do about 150 at the drop of a hat but I do need to go through them occasionally or huge chunks of the words just drop out of my memory. Learning new ones is getting harder and I'm convinced that as a new one goes into the working memory an old one drops out; maybe I've reached capacity. I'm re-learning some that I wrote out (but never really learned because others were doing them so well) 30 years ago and I haven't heard for years so I reckon they need reviving. The annoying songs are the ones you learned but never really liked that much. They just stay and stay and will not go away; cluttering up brain space you need for new, quality songs. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 19 Jul 04 - 03:26 PM I regularly sit down and open my songbook at random, or the separate index, and play - either song titles all starting with the same letter or go on from the place the book opened. The 250 are songs I can perform with my own acompaniment or ones I sing alone, not ones I can join in with. After practising in the same sort of way for about 35 years I think it is not an unreasonable number, though I can no longer sing/play some of them from memory - Tam lin now, no problem, some tiddly thing with 4 verses, no chance. Weird thing, memory. Anne |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,belter Date: 20 Jul 04 - 02:18 PM The 400 or so I was claming do seam to be sliping away. It takes me months to practice them all once, and if I try to learn a new one, I'll forget it before it comes around on my list again. Recently I was at a sesion were people were playing a game of doing a song that would seguay from the previous song. It kept things moving in unexpected directions, but it was imposible to practice for. The few times I thought I had just the right song to go next, I stumbled through. So no I don't really have 400 songs down. Thats about how many I could come up with most of the words to if given a bit of time to sit and think. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST Date: 02 Sep 04 - 11:26 AM Stumbled into this forum, through a search on the net... I suffer from an affliction that most of you apparently have never had to deal with. I don't know if memorization and recall is a genetic thing - or a technique I was never made aware of or - at best unable to master on my own. Having read a number of the messages posted here - I have to say, you guys have impressed me, and rekindled my hope. Now, don't disappoint me. Help me discover how to memorize and recall the words to the songs I want to learn. The silly grin I have mastered when I forget the words does have entertainment value in that it seems to make people giggle. But it has never been able to give me any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction. ok ...your turn. What's your secret? And thanks for any responses. Tony |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 02 Sep 04 - 12:02 PM Tony - hope you stick around - there's a lot of discussion of 'CRS' (Can't remember For me the big thing is if I flub lyrics or forget a verse - just keep on going! in the immortal words of my theatre group motto 'Dare to Suck!" |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Dani Date: 02 Sep 04 - 12:30 PM I've had that disease all my life. I learn a song, know it, sing it, then promptly forget I've ever heard it until someone else starts it! It's tunes I remember, from deep inside, but words must be written in front of me. That must be why I have a hard time singing 'to' people rather than 'with' people. So today I started a notebook. Thank for the inspiration! Dani |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 02 Sep 04 - 12:42 PM it seems I know a lot more songs then I actually sing - mainly because when it is time to sing I can't remember ANYT of the suckers... - but in the car - I can whip them off left and right. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: dick greenhaus Date: 02 Sep 04 - 01:23 PM My songbook is rapidly approaching 10,000. And it's available to anyone that wants it. It's called The Digital Tradition. I think it would be nice if some of y'all would also share the contents of your own private collections with the rest of us. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: PoppaGator Date: 02 Sep 04 - 02:19 PM When I was in school, I did well in subjects where I could figure out the answer on the spot (e.g., math), but was terrible at memorizing (poems, dates in history, etc.) When I finished school, I spent several years trying to become a professional singer, and eventually developed a repertoire of 200-300 songs, all of which I could almost *always* sing correctly and completely, with all the verses in the right order, etc. Plenty of my songs were short, simple and/or long-familiar, of course, but a good number of others were long and wordy (e.g., Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues," "Like a Rolling Stone," etc.) My newfound ability to learn by rote must have been partly due to a better attitude -- doing something I enjoyed rather than being coerced to learn -- but *repetition* had to have been the key -- just doing a lot of singing, hours and hours every day, every song I knew over and over. Also, of course, I didn't learn all those songs at once, but gradually built up an ever-larger repertoire. I was working almost exclusively on streetcorners -- busking -- plus one or two evenings a week at "basket clubs," and I was putting in *long* hours. As soon as I felt completely confident that I had learned "x" number of songs, I couldn't wait to add a few more, just to avoid boring myself. I was more-or-less driven to become able to go for longer and longer periods of time without repeating myself. I would put in close to 12 hours (noon-midnight) some Saturdays, repeating only a few favorites. Even though I haven't done it myself for years (or, indeed, done much public performance at all), I still recommend streetsinging as an ideal way to develop one's skills as a singer, player, and performer. Once you get over the initial "stage" fright, it's a very low-pressure context in which to practice working in front of an "audience." If you forget a line or get some verses out of order, who will know or care? Just do it over again until you get it right! (Inasmuch as I even *have* a current repertoire, it's still heavily skewed towards 60s/70s hippie culture, and consists of no more than half the numbers I once had at my fingertips, plus a very few additions since 1973.) |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Bert Date: 02 Sep 04 - 02:25 PM You rotten sod Dick! *GRIN* You probably sing most of that damned things too. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: dick greenhaus Date: 02 Sep 04 - 05:51 PM Words faileth. As does memory. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Ebbie Date: 02 Sep 04 - 09:52 PM Tony, I tend to memorize any particular song by context. (The most difficult type for me to learn is the kind of song where any one of the verses can be plugged in at any spot. But that type is not typical.) The first verse presents the introductory idea- that's an easy one because it tells you what the song is about. Many songs develop their themes line by line. Memorize the very first line and when you sing it, "read along" in your mind's eye. See how it develops in the next several lines. The chorus often repeats the essence of the theme, and it's often lively or perhaps mournful or just fun. In any case, it's an interesting four (or whatever) lines. Then go to the second verse. The first line will often let you know in which direction the song is going. Read the next lines as though they were telling a story. Because they are. Rhymes help tremendously in memorizing and most songs use rhymes a lot. Notice how many lines rhyme at the end- sometimes first and third lines or second and fourth lines or sometimes all four lines. Or sometimes they have internal rhymes instead of or in addition. For example: "Beneath the light of a bright starry night Sat a lonely little Indian maid "No lover's sweet serenade has ever won me" As in a dream, it would seem, down the stream Gaily paddling his tiny canoe A chieftain longing to woo sang her this song:" Or they may have no rhymes at all or very few or just rhyme vowel sounds and be pretty hit or miss about it. Take 'You Are My Sunshine". (Incidentally many people think of it as a happy song but if you read the words, you'll see that it is not. First verse The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping I dreamt I held you in my arms When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken And I held my head and cried. (Some sing "I was peeping through the bars." Wrong song imo.) Chorus: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are grey You'll never know, dear, how much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away Second Verse: I'l always love you and make you happy If you will only do the same But if you leave me to love another You'll regret it all some day Third Verse You told me once, dear, you'd always love me And no one else could come between But now you've left me to love another You have shattered all my dreams. That is basically the process I use. Hope I haven't used a bludgeon when a teaspoon would do! Ebbie |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Cluin Date: 02 Sep 04 - 11:48 PM You mean the ones I already know cold, or the ones I don't know I know yet? Seems like every night we try 1 or 2 new ones that are requested and we've never done before. We give `em a shot anyway and never had an audience react badly to our attempts yet. Sometimes they even sound pretty damn good first time out and we end up rolling them into our regular sets. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Cluin Date: 02 Sep 04 - 11:50 PM Oh, and as far as ones I've figured out and done before at one time or another, I have several big binders full, plus many in my cranium. Tons of 2 and 3 chorders especially. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Shimbo Darktree Date: 03 Sep 04 - 11:39 AM I'm on Hamish's side. I was out of the folk movement for around 30 years, so I have only had about 10 years plus childhood active. Yet I can sing hundreds of songs if I have the words in front of me. Not remarkable, when you consider a competent chorister can sing anything at all, provided the words and music are available. Memorised for instant performance? Probably less than 100, and I find my memory lets me down these days on songs I thought I would never forget (and I haven't hit 60 yet ... quite). Also, my guitar work is best described as "basic" (and that by folk who are being kind) which means I don't have to remember intricate accompaniments. So I am also envious of those who can sing hundreds of songs from memory. Maybe I should put in a bigger effort at learning? Nah ... bad idea! Shimbo |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Russ Date: 03 Sep 04 - 12:16 PM Two. The one I can always remember and the one I can never remember. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: dick greenhaus Date: 03 Sep 04 - 01:10 PM "..Soaring from Earth like a fly in molasses Take to the skies like a slug on the wing; Seen only dimly through mists as time passes Where are the words I am trying to sing? Almost remembered. Almost remembered. Almost remembered from what I have sung.. La da di da di di da di di da da Almost remembered from what I have sung." |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Crystal Date: 03 Sep 04 - 05:45 PM Erm... 46 which I have been able to pin down on paper. at least another 50 which I havn't either due to lazyness or not knowing/remembering all the words (or indeed the tune)! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: jack halyard Date: 04 Sep 04 - 08:35 AM After verse one comes that miserable feeling, I grit my teeth and I look to the ground, I mutter "Shit" and look up to the ceiling, It's odd that in neither place words can be found. Only remembered, only remembered, Only recalled when the crowd has all gone, This ballad only has 96 verses, Only remembered, the chorus and one. Who'll sing the anthem from start to conclusion, Who will advance old Australia fair, Memory for me is a wispy illusion, I grasp for words, but the buggers ain't there. Oh Jack Halyard seems to know about 500 songs, and seems to be able to recall lines from ones he didn't know he knew, which makes him a pain in the butt at sessions, since he tends to help people out who are looking dazedly at the ceiling. This is not always a desired outcome for the memory challenged. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Eric the Streetsinger Date: 11 Sep 04 - 11:02 AM I don't know the actual number- but as a street singer I play an average of 8 hours a day- a few years ago a friend of mine challenged me to play a full 40 hour week without repeating a single song, and I did it with many songs to spare! I think the count is around 1000 (in easy access memory) and another 500 or so that I can dredge up, if I have a half hour to think about it! |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Clinton Hammond Date: 11 Sep 04 - 11:17 AM "how many songs in your repertoire?" Too many... if that's possible... There's not a gig that goes by where I can play everthing I want to... not even the St Pats day marathons are long enough for me to get it all in... I always think of something (usually a LIST of somethings) in the car on the way home that I meant to play but didn't get to... |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Keith A of Hertford Date: 11 Sep 04 - 12:06 PM I used often to struggle to think of a song to do, and would overdo some, so a couple of years ago I made a list of songs. It took a while before I stopped thinking of more to add. I have about 200. |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Mike, Halifax UK Date: 11 Sep 04 - 01:35 PM Oh dear.... why not discuss quality not quantity |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: Clinton Hammond Date: 11 Sep 04 - 04:55 PM Aren't you capable of both Mike? |
|
Subject: RE: how many songs in your repertoire? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 11 Sep 04 - 06:03 PM Well I only asked. By songs I sing I was meaning the ones I can do well enough to leave on my cassettes when I am checking up on what I sound like. I find that the humble cassette is a great help in getting a song to sound right when acompanied. I gave up recording songs I sing without the guitar as it seems they always work, but with the guitar they require a bit of tweeking to atain the level of perfection I require. One of these years I must get suitable equipment and go digital. Having found casettes from a few years ago which are all gone strange - and recordings on casettes from commercial sources which now sound really dreadful after a few decades - they really don't make things to last - so digital is the only option. Anyway - cassetttes will probably be obsolete in my lifetime. My DH brought home one of those little memory plug ins - about the size of a dufflecoat toggle. Amazing. Wish I could interface. Anne |
| Share Thread: |