What Do You Do?

When practicing do you pull out all your books, sheets with songs written down, etc. and is that the way you play or do you try to learn songs to where you play them from memory? I feel kind of "nerdie" when someone asks if I can play a song and I have to say, "Yeah, wait a minute, I have to get my book".

Hell, I pull out the books, laptop, printouts, whatever - on stage. if I could have a tele-prompter I'd do that too. It would be a shame to need them, and not have them.



No shame in sheet music my friend. I usualy just use it for reference, and in the odd case that I blank on a lyric.

Eventually, you'll have a list of songs you can just play, but while they are new, having reference material is just fine.

Now I'm off to print out tonight's open mic set on company resources...

no shame in books at all - thats what they print them for!

For me - i get a four ring binder, plus a box of those thin clear plastic wallets that fit the ring binder for holding A4 paper.

Then, with a combination of websites such as chordie, Ukulele boogaloo, TUSC etc, I always print the words and chords to stuff I like. Slip them in the wallets - there you go - home made song book.

the beauty of the wallets is that if you go off a song, or find you just cant master it - pull out the paper, and you have a slot for another one.

I've done this (and gigged and jammed this way) with acoustic guitar for the last 8 years. Now doing the same with Uke. Got a folder with 50+ songs in it that I really like.

No shame in books, laptops, whatever. Unless you are getting paid mega bucks there should be no expectation of memorizing hundreds of songs. I also have some "cheat sheets", 5x8 cards with song titles and verse and chorus chords for songs I pretty much know but need a little prompt to remember.

Most of the stuff I do on my own I do from memory, unless I'm just learning it and it's complicated. My band uses simple charts for gigs, but I rarely look at them, because by then I've hopefully got it down anyway. I find that I can get more of a groove going if I'm not worried about chords & arrangements, but I do frequently look at the chart before the song starts, just to remind myself what the key is! My playing really stiffens up if I'm looking at a piece of paper.

ukestang said:

No shame in books, laptops, whatever. Unless you are getting paid mega bucks there should be no expectation of memorizing hundreds of songs. I also have some "cheat sheets", 5x8 cards with song titles and verse and chorus chords for songs I pretty much know but need a little prompt to remember.

Click to expand...

Even stars do it.

I went to a Merl Haggard / Kris Kristofferson show this spring, they used tele-prompters on every song. Merl's son ran the computers that drove them. They needed 'em too, those two are older than dirt.

Lucinda Williams plays most of her stuff from a music stand.

And nearly everyone does it with new-ish songs they are just trying out.

Use 'em if you needs 'em. Whatever works.

i try my best to memorize stuff for open mics but i can only hold so much in my head. maybe 5 songs at a time if i'm lucky. other than that, i have a songbook and a laptop full of tabs and chords that i use for practicing.

i am in awe of people like aldrine and seeso who are like human jukeboxes, playing tons of songs at the drop of a dime. i think i heard them mention once that the key was to sleep with gingko biloba leaves under your armpits. that or black magic. i forget which.

I've printed out or bought a lot of sheet music books and use the all the time I can play about a dozen songs from memory but if I don't keep playing them I loose them.

There is a reason that when you go to a Orchestra you see ALL the players have a music stand in front of them!!!!!

russ_buss said:

i am in awe of people like aldrine and seeso who are like human jukeboxes, playing tons of songs at the drop of a dime. i think i heard them mention once that the key was to sleep with gingko biloba leaves under your armpits. that or black magic. i forget which.

Click to expand...

Rofl! I will have to try that...

If I don't know the song cold, then I use sheets, tab or books! What else can you do??

Man, that sounds too much like WORK. I just pull out a uke and noodle around on it, playing whatever comes to mind.
Now, to be fair, I came to uke already knowing how to play guitar fairly well so the transition was very easy.
Like some other posters have pointed, if you learn three basic chords, you can easily play TONS of songs. If you learn barre chords, you can play them in just about any key too.

any band with a big catalogue will forget some of their own songs - thats why they do a set of rehearsals before going on tour

pauljmuk said:

....the beauty of the wallets is that if you go off a song, or find you just cant master it - pull out the paper, and you have a slot for another one.

I've done this (and gigged and jammed this way) with acoustic guitar for the last 8 years. Now doing the same with Uke. Got a folder with 50+ songs in it that I really like.

Click to expand...

When I was performing at coffeehouses and clubs I had a songbook done up exactly that way (only with a 3-ring binder, 8.5x11" paper, plus the "page protector" wallets). The added beauty is that you can rearrange the songs in order of the night's setlist or practice schedule.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your rsponses. Makes me feel a lot better. This is the only melodic instrument that I can play. I've beeen a drummer for almost 50 years, so do you know how good it makes me feel to know that I'm not the only one who uses "cheat sheets"? Thanks again, Mangogrockfish.

If I plan to play a song out live, I will memorize it. After going to open mics, playing in bands, and playing at parties, I have built up a catalog that just lives in my head.

I'm really hard on myself when it comes to learning a song. If I have to look at a piece of paper, I won't play it out. I feel it disconnects me from the audience.

I've built up a couple of memorizing tricks here and there... Nothing spectacular though. For "The Weight," I just memorize "Nazareth, bag, Moses, Chester, cannonball." Once I get started on a verse, I can remember the rest of it.

I just play it over and over until I remember it, weaning myself off the page with every iteration of the song.

Even for YouTube covers, I'll memorize the tune.

GrumpyCoyote said:

Hell, I pull out the books, laptop, printouts, whatever - on stage. if I could have a tele-prompter I'd do that too. It would be a shame to need them, and not have them.

[snipping image to save a little space, but cool pic!--CM]

No shame in sheet music my friend. I usualy just use it for reference, and in the odd case that I blank on a lyric.

Eventually, you'll have a list of songs you can just play, but while they are new, having reference material is just fine.

Now I'm off to print out tonight's open mic set on company resources...

Click to expand...

I am SO GLAD to hear you say this! I always feel so weird when I do videos, and it's so obvious that I'm looking at words & chords. Unless it's something I've known for years, I just can't get through a song without help. I thought it was 'cause I was a newbie and that somehow magically I'd get everything crammed in my head eventually and not need my sheets of paper, books, etc.

Thanks!!

CountryMouse

for me, when practicing I have a 3 ring binder with the tabs in alphabetical order or if I'm playing at my comp I use my tabs saved in notepad with all my notes and extra parts I tabbed out, also I'll play along with guitar pro.

The binder helps a lot if your playing for friends and you wanna take requests and you don't want them shouting like 30 requests out and you only know 1, better to have them look through the book and pick what they wanna hear, beats having to list all the songs you know. Also don't feel bad about having to look at the book, I bet the person requesting it/singing along knows the first verse and chorus and can barely get the rest of the words.

I'm now starting to prepare for a weekend with some friends in the poconos,pa by little by little practicing each song and then moving it to a separate binder for songs I can definitely play. I suck at memorizing songs and have a hard time just looking at chords to a song and being able to play the strum pattern by ear and pickup on any diversions from the normal pattern. So ya I backed out of playing last roadtrip, this time I'm forcing myself to do it, it will be first time in front of crowd. I'm always so nervous people will recognize something like "thats not how that part goes" but then again none of my friends going play an instrument or are the type that just "get" music. anyways didn't mean to hijack, gl with the songbook, it will grow in no time.

People call it "cheat sheet", but I have an extensive list of songs and I can't remember all the words to every song. So yes I do use it. But then, I also have songs that I've sung often enough to know the words. I have 3 big binders of just songs with chords that I practice with, what is important to me is memorizing the chords. If you can memorize the chords of a song in the key of "F", Then for example, changing up the keys to "G" in the last verse, shouldn't be a problem.

I've had friends sing a song and they'll remember the words for the first verse and/or the chorus but can't remember the other verses, so they end up repeating the first verse again. I'll catch it , and laugh at them. If I remember it, then I'll jump in and sing the other verses. Its all fun.

I too have a couple of song books for the songs our band play, but I take one song a day and practice it till I know it by heart. Especially the songs I'm singing. I agree with Seeso about how looking at your song sheet disconnects you with the audience.:2cents:

russ_buss said:

i try my best to memorize stuff for open mics but i can only hold so much in my head. maybe 5 songs at a time if i'm lucky. other than that, i have a songbook and a laptop full of tabs and chords that i use for practicing.

i am in awe of people like aldrine and seeso who are like human jukeboxes, playing tons of songs at the drop of a dime. i think i heard them mention once that the key was to sleep with gingko biloba leaves under your armpits. that or black magic. i forget which.

Click to expand...

Black magic, maybe. But the gingko biloba leaves under the armpits doesn't work....I've been trying that for years without success.