A question about repertoire!

[jthorpe]

Since purchasing my first acoustic guitar in January this year, I have dropped the flatpick (hybrid) style that I favoured on my telecaster and have adopted a bare fingertip approach to fingerstyle solo guitar!

I'm working on learning (and converting) as many tunes as I can so that I have plenty of tunes to play (for both myself and family and friends).

My question is, how many songs do you REALLY learn at the same time? How perfect would you like them to be before considering them added to your repertoire and starting on a new one?

I am never working on more than 2 new tunes at any given time, of course I stated 'new' as just because I say I've 'finished' learning a song in its entirety, it's far from perfect and polished. I tend to run through familiar tunes at a slow tempo as a warmup and find my proficiency does improve this way also!

Anyone approach this differently? I don't really practice scales/modes/chords or anything - I just learn the theory and notes behind any given tune that I'm playing (this helps me understand theory and things in a musical way that is more easily applied).

Cheers

J

[HHP]

I only work on one new tune at a time. I get it to a point where I can play an acceptable performance level version of it and add it to my repetoire. Once in the rotation, I modify, adjust, come up with variations, along with all the others.

[Nailpicker]

Originally Posted by HHP

I only work on one new tune at a time. I get it to a point where I can play an acceptable performance level version of it and add it to my repetoire. Once in the rotation, I modify, adjust, come up with variations, along with all the others.

That pretty much sums it up for me, but sometimes (if I'm really bored &/or have some xtra time on my hands) I'll work on 2 songs, on rare occasions 3 songs at a time.

[stanron]

This answer is less about repertoire than about practice procedure. I have three different stages of material preparation. First is deciding what to play, second is figuring how to play it and third is actually learning to play what I've decided to play in the way I found works best. I can have at least one piece in each of these stages. If I am remembering stuff I used to play I can have up to ten tunes on the go at the same time.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by jthorpe

…My question is, how many songs do you REALLY learn at the same time? How perfect would you like them to be before considering them added to your repertoire and starting on a new one?

Hi jt...

I work on three or four at a time sometimes, and just because they are performable doesn't mean they are 'finished'. I often tweak songs for months or years, and sometimes improvise changes while playing them for others if I get inspired.

Only you know your boredom level, perfection expectations, and how locked in an arrangement will become. I'm not going for a note-for-note arrangement since I arrange songs myself, and I try to build the kind of variety in an arrangement so it's distilled to a good point of simplicity with enough variety to keep the listeners listening.

[posternutbag]

I am pretty much constantly working on my entire repertoire. That being said, I typically actively work on two or three at a time. I try to play through my entire repertoire at least once a week (usually over a day or two) to stay sharp, but I typically actively work to improve two or thee during a given week.

[Nailpicker]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

I work on three or four at a time sometimes, and just because they are performable doesn't mean they are 'finished'. I often tweak songs for months or years, and sometimes improvise changes while playing them for others if I get inspired.

Only you know your boredom level, perfection expectations, and how locked in an arrangement will become. I'm not going for a note-for-note arrangement since I arrange songs myself, and I try to build the kind of variety in an arrangement so it's distilled to a good point of simplicity with enough variety to keep the listeners listening.

Yeah, I think this really explains it best for me as well. Thank you lj. Sometimes someone else can explain ones thinking or processes better than the person himself.

[creamburmese]

I'm a relatively new player and it takes me a long time to learn a new piece (particularly as my brilliant teacher keeps giving me things that involve learning something new) - so if it was just one piece I think I'd get bored over the weeks I might be working on it. Not to mention frustrated if it isn't progressing as fast as I would like. Thus for me it's helpful to have several pieces including one which is relatively easy to learn so I can get some sense of achievement. in fact currently I have 3 pieces I'm working on (two are almost there, one I'm still on the first page) plus one I've put aside for the present because my thumb is grumbling on account of one of the barre shapes.... sigh.