How many songs can you play really well?

pixiepurls

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I am curious.. and how long have you been playing?

How many songs could you play really well when you get been playing a year? 3 years? 5 years?

I still can't play any songs, and I'm still having a blast but I wonder how many songs I'll ever be able to play really well.

Do you reach a point at which you can play almost any song easily? or does that not happen?
 
Depends.... If you're playing songs that use 4 chords, the list would be quite long. Fingerstyle arrangements of the same songs could be much more difficult to play well, depending on the complexity of the arrangement.

I know a couple of pro level classical guitarists, and they say it takes about one year to really master a composition. Songs on a ukulele could take a day, week, or much longer depending..... ;)
 
If you're playing songs that use 4 chords, the list would be quite long. Fingerstyle arrangements of the same songs could be much more difficult to play well, depending on the complexity of the arrangement.

Exactly - if we're talking a 12-bar blues or a I-vi-ii-V progression then I can play *hundreds* of songs well :) But since I'm not a singer, I focus mostly on fingerstyle arrangements and after 5 years of playing, I still don't think I can really say I play more than 20 or 25 songs "well."

I am curious.. and how long have you been playing?

How many songs could you play really well when you get been playing a year? 3 years? 5 years?

I still can't play any songs, and I'm still having a blast but I wonder how many songs I'll ever be able to play really well.

Do you reach a point at which you can play almost any song easily? or does that not happen?

It's hard to really answer these questions without knowing what kind of playing you're talking about. By ear? Jamming? Playing with a chord chart in front of you? Playing while reading tab or standard notation? It really depends on one's musical knowledge and background.

Speaking for myself: I was able to strum a song competently from a simple chord chart within a couple weeks, but I played uke (badly) as a small child and had also been exposed to guitar, piano, and bass, and could read standard notation. So I had some rudimentary knowledge of theory - not much, since as a kid I was never a good student (too impatient and gave up too easily!). I started playing fingerstyle almost from the beginning, and took on some pretty challenging stuff (i.e. John King) that 5 years later I *still* don't play well. Less challenging stuff now takes me about 2 weeks to play passably well, but months and even years to refine to where I'm really happy with it.

Thinking back, at 1 year I could follow a chord chart, play melodies from tab, and sort of pick melodies out by ear. At 5 years, I am only now starting to be able to hear chord changes well to the point where I don't always need to be staring at a piece of paper. Melodies and rhythm have always come pretty easily to me, but my particular challenge is with chords. Others I know have trouble with rhythm, others with hearing intervals, and then some other lucky individuals seem to have no trouble with *any* of this.
 
Hey Pixie


To address your final question the simple answer is yes. As your ear becomes more attuned and your understanding of the fretboard and song structures develop, you will find you'll be able to pick up things VERY quickly and even start to decipher chord progressions aurally, free from tab and chord sheets. Very satisfying when it starts to happen.

this sounds mystical and amazing, I hope it happens :D
 
Exactly - if we're talking a 12-bar blues or a I-vi-ii-V progression then I can play *hundreds* of songs well :) But since I'm not a singer, I focus mostly on fingerstyle arrangements and after 5 years of playing, I still don't think I can really say I play more than 20 or 25 songs "well."



It's hard to really answer these questions without knowing what kind of playing you're talking about. By ear? Jamming? Playing with a chord chart in front of you? Playing while reading tab or standard notation? It really depends on one's musical knowledge and background.

I don't mean a 2 or 3 chord song.. I mean something withs some depth to it and some complexity beyond 3 strummed chords. Def not reading off tabs, I mean a song you KNOW and play well, memorized.

Your last paragraph was very insightful :) thx!
 
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I've been playing for eight years and could probably do an hour and a half worth of solo instrumental arrangements on the spot. I also have 45 minutes of complex band material with Anthrophony. ...And if I sang I could squeeze out another half hour (got to work on that!). That said, it's never all really polished and suitable for live use at the same time. Give and take.

For me, gigs are the reason for knowing lots of songs. I haven't been gigging too much lately so my numbers are down. If I was playing more gigs I'd have more songs memorized. Simple as that. Unless you are the sole song leader of epic jam sessions, you don't really need to know a whole ton of songs unless you are performing. I wouldn't stress about it. Learn a handful of songs really well so you've got something to show friends and if you need a set, go back and re-learn the tunes you've forgotten (play long enough and you will forget some :D)!

If all you work on is learning and remembering songs then you could play literally all day, but I don't know why you'd ever want to do that... :confused: Life's too short. Learn whatever you need to enjoy music. Everything else is just extra.
 
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Really well? Exactly zero.

That said, I can play most anything well enough to accompany a vocal provided that I have a lead sheet with the lyrics and chord changes. If you're asking how many songs I have memorized so I can play them without a lead sheet...probably less than ten though I've only recently started making a concentrated effort to memorize songs and get away from lead sheets.

Been playing uke for about four years now and guitar and bass for years before that.

John
 
I played guitar very sporadically for 10+ years but I was not even remotely accomplished. I've been playing uke, much more regularly, for about 2 years and have totally abandoned the guitar.

I'm not sure how to define "really well". Good enough to be recorded? No. Good enough where someone would want me to join a band? No. Good enough that I (or others) can sing along, it sounds pleasing and I'm not having to stop or hesitate for chord changes? Yes, for a lot of songs. I could do so very shortly after picking up the uke but my guitar experience made that possible. The thing with me is, I'm dependent on a song sheet with lyrics and chord changes. I haven't really tried to memorize songs, I've just enjoyed playing them. If you handed me a uke and asked me to play a song, I could probably only do 1 or 2 songs from memory. Maybe I should make it my goal to memorize more songs.

I don't know how you feel about country music but if you like it, you'd have an endless supply of 3 and 4-chord wonders using very basic chords.
 
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I am pretty good at picking up almost any song after hearing it a couple of times (I don't know about well haha) but iI only have a few songs I can play from memory, or that I would say that I play "well". I keep a notebook with me wherever I go and write down chord progressions. I need that piece of paper.
 
looking at the chord sheets of a song I know, is easy to play , but Ive been playing guitar for almost 30 yrs. banjo past five. As Ive just got back into uke, Im trying NOT to take it seriously. Ive done the serious thing with other instruments, and it can kill the fun. with uke now,, I can strum & sing 4-5 by heart. and fingerstyle a few.

I love to learn , but the play part is what is fun, and what draws you to something in the first place. Im sure there are folks who only know 3 chords and a couple of tunes,,,, that have as much,, or more fun than some folks who know a lot. ymmv
 
thanks for the replies everyone this has been an encouraging and fun read. I think in our mind we think well "if you play for 5 years and play well you can play 100 sounds easily" ya know its like ASSUMPTIONS.. so this makes me feel better in my own progress and whats reasonable to expect. I am not in a rush just curious. I am a person who in general asks lots of questions and likes to really understand the why and depth of anything that I do!
 
pixie ,, me too. when people tell me to do something,, I want to know why? not cause Im hard headed, but if I know why,,, then my mind can wrap around it, and extrapolate. sp?? have fun,
 
I've been playing about a year and three months.

Strumming I can play quite a bit.

Memorized, I have about 5 or so songs that I really love.

Finger picking with melody and harmony, none. I'm trying to learn more about that.
 
I am curious.. and how long have you been playing?

How many songs could you play really well when you get been playing a year? 3 years? 5 years?

I still can't play any songs, and I'm still having a blast but I wonder how many songs I'll ever be able to play really well.

Do you reach a point at which you can play almost any song easily? or does that not happen?


Great question and the one that has constantly been on my mind since I picked up the Uke at 60 about three months ago. (I have no real prior musical background). This gives me some idea of what is possible and when. I can set my expectations accordingly. I can't of course play any songs well but I can somewhat smoothly play and sing a couple of four chord songs. I currently practice with a friend about 1-3 hours a day. I feel satisfied with my progress so far but I really wanted to know what might be going on a year from now. Anyway it's really great to hear from some of the more long term players. Knowing that they still have to work hard at some things takes some pressure off for me. I can more easily accept where I am and not worry about my own struggles. So Thanks for asking this and thanks to all who have answered in some detail.
 
Great question and the one that has constantly been on my mind since I picked up the Uke at 60 about three months ago. (I have no real prior musical background). This gives me some idea of what is possible and when. I can set my expectations accordingly. I can't of course play any songs well but I can somewhat smoothly play and sing a couple of four chord songs. I currently practice with a friend about 1-3 hours a day. I feel satisfied with my progress so far but I really wanted to know what might be going on a year from now. Anyway it's really great to hear from some of the more long term players. Knowing that they still have to work hard at some things takes some pressure off for me. I can more easily accept where I am and not worry about my own struggles. So Thanks for asking this and thanks to all who have answered in some detail.

exactly! :D
 
Since taking up the uke (my first stringed instrument) about 7-1/2 years ago, I've memorized a lot of songs.

The first year or so, I probably memorized about 15-20 songs. At this point, I've got about 90 "off-book" songs. But I work at it pretty hard.
 
Since taking up the uke (my first stringed instrument) about 7-1/2 years ago, I've memorized a lot of songs.

The first year or so, I probably memorized about 15-20 songs. At this point, I've got about 90 "off-book" songs. But I work at it pretty hard.

dang you have a good memory!
 
I currently practice with a friend about 1-3 hours a day. I feel satisfied with my progress so far but I really wanted to know what might be going on a year from now.

When I first started playing, I played for an average of 2 hours a day (still do!) and if my failing middle-aged memory serves correctly, in my first year I went from strumming three-chord songs and knowing nothing but a C chord and how to play a scale on each string, to playing melody/fingerstyle arrangements from tab arranged by others. Probably soon after my first year I started trying to work out my own arrangements - my instructor would tell me the chords and I'd find the melody and decide which inversions worked rather than relying on simple first-position chords. If you're at all interested in playing instrumentals, I'd recommend trying that approach; I've learned far more about music from trying to work it out myself than I would have if all I did was play arrangements by others that i found on the web or in books.

Five years later, I probably have to actually work harder than I did in the very beginning, in part because I want greater challenges, and in part because I know where I want to be, skill-wise, and I understand that there are no shortcuts to getting there.

I know a lot of folks come to the ukulele under the impression that they can "learn to play in a day!" or other marketing lies that I see in books and on the web. (Um, no, no you can't, not unless you're either a prodigy or you have very, very low standards of what "playing" means :) ) Some people are happy enough to strum simple songs and that's fine; I still don't think it can be mastered in "a day" but between that and, say, Jake, there are many levels of progress one can strive for. If you enjoy it and it makes you happy and you keep at it, you'll eventually get where you want to be, but probably the worst thing you can do to yourself is compare your progress to that of others - your mileage may vary!
 
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I play basically instrumental-only arrangements of songs, preferring the challenging over the simple. In that vein, I'd say I can play a grand total of 4 songs well. So I still have a ways to go. ;)
 
GREAT question.....and terrific responses. Thanks to all!!!!

As a newbie of only a few months I have wondered how well I am really progressing as I am still not to the stage of playing songs by memory. Geez, I only finally got the Bb and E chords down and chunking is finally much more consistent. Uncle Rod's bootcamp has helped a lot with getting the chord progressions a lot smoother for sure and picking, well I can do the intro to Mr Sandman ROTFL. But I am having so much fun learning and training my ears that I am not stressing out too much but sometimes doubt creeps in when people say they learned to play in a day. It is great to get the input from others on how long things "really" take - very encouraging and a strong motivator to just keep practicing.
 
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