[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I'm 68. I run FOH sound for an open mic and showcase venue, and a lot of the folks I stick mics in front of are at least my age. I'm a singer/songwriter myself, and play both in a loud electric 3-piece and acoustic by myself, and here's my take:

Memorize it. No music stands, no notebooks, no iPads.

It's two things: 1. Mental exercise your deteriorating faculties need, and, 2. The best way of putting your performance across. I mean, how can you mean it if you're reading it?

Do the work, people.

Hi Brent…
Sounds a bit harsh (unlike you).

Easy to say, but many of us who play on church Worship Teams and are handed charts on Tues or Wed for rehearsal and playing 3-5 new pieces every week or every other week.

Most musicians prefer the security of a chart in these situations, and a tablet offers painless chart integration, including reversing the screen to black and the lettering in white to keep the iPad from turning into a spotlight on stage.

And if your brain still retains everything at age 68, good for you. Not so for everyone.

I normally have the songs memorized for our Worship Team by the second time around (we don't get new songs every week), and it's easy enough to ignore the charts I don't need - except when the leader changes 2 or 3 things in the arrangement for a particular week.

Having taught guitar and music for over 40 years, I assure you most players have not developed the skill of instant/quick memorization, and have lives outside their musical performing arena.

And when playing in band situations, it's not just memorizing charts, but also entrances, lay-out sections, solos…in other terms, the arrangements.

Five songs a week, every week begins to accumulate pretty quickly. Our teams keep a 50 song active list, which ⅓ changes out every 6 months. Pretty aggressive schedule for part time players.

Especially when the Worship Team is not their only 'gig'.