I finally did it. I've been working on it for about 7 or 8 weeks. Due to an illness that's still with me, I've been only able to put in 30-60 minutes here and there, but it's done.
To begin with, my song sheets were a mess. I had one big pile I played from mostly, with 3 smaller piles I touched from time to time. I was learning a bunch of songs, but only getting 95% of the way there. Few got comitted to memory, and some might not get played at all in a 1 or 2 month span. I had over 250 songs that I at least fiddled with, and 125 songs I intend to work on when my ear can handle. I split them up into two categories. Hard Rock or Lighter - Medium Music.
For the lighter - Medium music, I selected only songs that I've done fairly well. That brought the list down to about 105 songs. I split them into 5 "sets" of 21.
Following a different criteria, I also created a similar list for the hard stuff. The criteria here was that I did not have to have already tried them. Some I have, but most I have not. My ear and head has not taken to louder music for months, so I've been doing mostly lighter stuff for a long time. This list got up to 120 songs. I split them into 6 sets of 21. I'll be working on these, by groups, once my head heals.
So, my intention is this. Work on one light-medium set at a time. Get better and memorize the songs. Continue on to other sets doing the same thing until I've reached all 5 sets or come to an obvious capacity issue, at which time I'll re-group. Meanwhile, work on a much smaller portion of a set for the harder stuff that I still need to learn. I'll probably work on 2 or 3 at a time, eventually building up my hard rock "skill" to match my mellow music skill. I can probably do 8 of them now decently, and there are a few in the light-medium group that could probably be moved over that I already know.
Oh, and the biggest tools used for all of this were a bunch of plain file folders, a folder holder and Microsoft Excel.
Hokey Dokey, well, I just thought I'd share.
Anyone else do anything to organize their play-lists?
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
I have about 50 I know "by heart" and another 25 or so I've dabbled with. I just keep them in alpha order in a 3 ring binder. The first page in an alpha list of all the "by heart" songs. A couple of artists I have a lot of get their own section.
I often set out to work my way through the list to keep them "fresh" but usually get distracted by a new song I want to learn. I'm always kind of struggling with how big a "stable" of songs I should try to maintain playable "by heart". Sometimes I think I should drop some of the ones I don't play much, but they are kinda like prized possessions, you know.
I'm just a strummer/fingerpicker of chords no solos or anything.
Slightly different in my case - I've got my own songs to deal with!
I've written about 90 songs as a direct result of the Sunday Songwriters Forum - I always save these as text documents, with little notes as to chords, riffs, fills etc. They have their own folder on my desktop. I'm also in the process of writing them all out longhand, each on a plain sheet of A4 which go in a real folder!
There are also about another hundred songs I've written over the years - these are in a small notebook. I'm in the process of copying them to text documents and putting them in a separate desk-top folder.
Eventually, I'll get around to printing all the text docs out and keep them in one folder.
As for other songs - I just tab them out, like I would if I was putting them in Easy Songs, print them, and keep them in another separate file.
My main problem with learning songs? Chords and riffs and solos, etc, don't seem to be a problem - I can memorise them virtually on a first run-through. But lyrics - well, out of the 200 or so songs I've written, I bet I can't actually remember more than a dozen or so! Same with other songs - if I don't play something for a while, I have to look up the lyrics.
I lost a lot of stuff last year when my old computer's hard drive went - MP3's, lyrics, etc. I've managed to get most of them back - now I want at least one hard copy of everything! I won't be caught out like that again!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
aww, you guys are so well orgasnised. I have a list of song titles that I know. I generally learn them, then mess around with the arrangement or whatever. then, I hang out with mates, tell them I can play 'song x', realise I've actually forgotten half of it, and then have to practise it again. well, at least it saves me looking for new tunes to learn. :roll:
then there's my lyrics/songs. usually this consists of a scrap, or several scraps of paper, with a barely legible scrawl and notes like "riff thingy in A" or a rough chord chart at the most. even better, when I have an idea for the 'final' arrangement of a song, then I usually find a scrap of paper somewhere in my room with something utterly cryptic like "3 Small Words....WAVES!!!" written upon it.
yeah, I'm still not sure what 'WAVES!!!' means, either. :roll:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
:oops:
I have at least 5 places on my hard drive where my 'this is the final list' types lists reside. I also have a few notebooks that do the same job - one with the electric I take out to play at a mate's house, one with my acoustic (ditto). None of them bear more than a passing resemblance to any other. I wrote myself a simple WIKI to keep track, but err, it's not quite online yet. Funnily enough, this is probably the week I'll get around to sorting it all out... although I belive I may have said that on more than one previous occasion.
Feel free to use nagging, err, peer-pressure to help me help myself ;) (apart from anything else, I want to get a list of things I'm comfortable with up together soon for the UK meet, just in case there's anything there that someone else wants to do too)
Vic,
While I was reading your post I was thinking "man I hope this guy does back-ups" and then your last paragraph:
I lost a lot of stuff last year when my old computer's hard drive went - MP3's, lyrics, etc. I've managed to get most of them back - now I want at least one hard copy of everything! I won't be caught out like that again!
Ouch.
As well as keeping a hard copy, get an external drive if you can. Back-up to it and when the inevitable happens again one day it will save you a lot of time. Its also cool if you want to share your songs with friends, just take the drive with you.
Regards,
Marty.
Well, this is my first set of 21 songs to memorize & finalize. Most of these I pretty much know aside from having to peak at the sheet for a chord change or lyrics from time to time.
Last Dance With Mary Jane
Baby I Love Your Way
Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Wild Horses
Breathe
Time
Old Man
Melissa
Dead Flowers
Tonight's The Night
Mother
Folsom Prison Blues
I'm A Believer
Knocking On Heaven's Door
Ballad Of Curtis Loew
Heart Of Gold
Sister Morphine
Let It Be
Beth
Already Over Me
Hotel California
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Cool list-I have been thinking of organizing and learning a list of 80's top 40 songs to form a 80's band-just have to find some people in Ct. who are interested in doing it.--no Hair metal :D (although i do love the Hair Metal)
Is that Beth from KISS? I love KISS 8)
Are you doing it like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxNEwEVs1s
thats from the really bad phantom of the park movie :D
Are you doing it like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxNEwEVs1s
thats from the really bad phantom of the park movie :D
Close. I'm strumming (mostly)full chords instead of picking.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
cool it sounds so much nicer with the guitar. :D
ray,
Never got that organized with mine and at some point I'll stop listing them. I just list anything that I've learned at one time or another, but I only if I played the whole song. There are hunderds or half songs/riffs and things that I don't count. Or songs where I maybe play some generic strumming version of the song for the most part those aren't listed either.
But it doesn't matter because my brain is so small I can only remember a handful completely.
Trying to get this band thing going is forcing me to remember them more now though, but I think it's just cuz I play these more often now.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
