Secret to Remembering Songs????

[rickeymike]

I now know how to play a little over a handful of songs that I’d like to play at a moments notice. However, I can’t remember how to play a song shortly after I do the challenges. Let’s say that I have 5 songs that I want to keep in my head. Do I need to play those every day or several times a week? Of course this would make my practice sessions longer….is that the key? Longer and longer practice sessions with some time devoted to playing the songs that you want in your repertoire?

For instance, take a piano player that plays background music at a lounge. How is he able to take a request and play it without having the sheet music in front of him? Is it more of a musical gift that hard practice?

[Andrew]

It’s always best to continually practice songs. It not only helps you retain them in memory, but importantly, it helps you keep them at a performance ready level.

For your second question, when your career is performing, your repertoire consists of standards, aka the most popular requests. Knowing a lot of tunes means a better tip PLUS you make folks happy when you perform their request 🙂

[lisadmh]

I’ve been wondering these things too. I learn so many songs and forget them. I get continually practicing, but time!

Should I be practicing 20 songs every day plus learning new ones and new techniques? I’d have to quit my day job. I get that this is a career for peoplewho can do that, but what’s a reasonable target for the rest of us?

Thanks for the question Rickey, and thanks for the help, Andrew.

[ukukelley1]

I have the same question. I LOVED Red is the Rose, and had it down pretty smooth last month. I enjoyed it so much that I played it a lot. And after a month of mostly focusing on A Thousand Years, even Red (and certainly things like Moon…) has lots of stutters and misses. I know repetition works — there are a couple things I play almost every day of my life — one of your fingerpicking etudes, and the first Arpeggio Meditation in Daniel Ward’s book — and those are both always as close to perfect as I get and completely from memory. But does that work for 30 or 40 songs? Time… Maybe the answer is to develop a play list, starting small (5 songs) and adding one when the first is solid.

[robinboyd]

I’ve been going back and working on Moon and a few other things lately. I’ve found I can only keep about 5 songs in my head at a time to any decent standard. I’m trying to extend that, though.

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