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  #16  
Old 07-05-2021, 08:34 AM
alnico5 alnico5 is offline
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Repetition. I am 69 and it is not quite as easy as it once was, but it is a good brain exercise. I still memorize everything I play and sing.
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  #17  
Old 07-05-2021, 09:16 AM
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Originally Posted by Ralph124C41 View Post
…How do you folks do that? And how do I do that?
Hi Ralph…

Repetition and practice.



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  #18  
Old 07-05-2021, 09:28 AM
columbia columbia is offline
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I don't really memorize leads (usually we would call them a break). I play some version of the melody of the song.

Lyrics I agree with the above posters. Repetition, listening to the song over and over, writing down the lyrics. Also singing in front of a mirror.

I've heard people say they're not good at remembering lyrics. I didn't think I was either but the more I did the above things the easier it got, so now I know a lot of songs.
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  #19  
Old 07-05-2021, 10:05 AM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Originally Posted by alnico5 View Post
Repetition. I am 69 and it is not quite as easy as it once was, but it is a good brain exercise. I still memorize everything I play and sing.
Me, too. And I am another four years older yet.

I consider it a good brain exercise, also.

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  #20  
Old 07-05-2021, 10:36 AM
Ralph124C41 Ralph124C41 is offline
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Originally Posted by rmp View Post
We just had this discussion,, that no cheat sheets rule? I don't buy it and nobody cares.

kind of hard for me at 64 yrs to remember every nuance of a 200+ song repertoire.

Was a lot easier at 35, but now I use them.

and no one pays you less b/c you've got a book on a stand.
I apologize if I doubling a recent post but I don't remember a recent post about this subject so I'd appreciate a link.

As for your last statement, I agree if you're at a paying gig (which the ones I'm going to aren't) you won't get paid less ... but I wonder how many return gigs you may get once the owner sees you using your book. I really have no idea. I've played gigs where singers used some tools and got invited back to repeat gigs.
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  #21  
Old 07-05-2021, 12:42 PM
Bushleague Bushleague is offline
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I find that up to a certain point you want to think about the actual physical motions that go into playing a lead line, once your fingers have a little education however, you want to think only about the sound you want to hear and just let muscle memory handle the details.

Lots of repetition like everyone says, but it helps to be in the right mental place too, and for me there hits a certain point where your brain can end up just getting in the way. Mentally micro-managing my fingers hits a point where it is no longer productive, thats when its time to back off a bit and let my ears and fingers do the work.
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  #22  
Old 07-05-2021, 12:48 PM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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Easy, I never play memorized leads!
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  #23  
Old 07-05-2021, 04:17 PM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph124C41 View Post
I apologize if I doubling a recent post but I don't remember a recent post about this subject so I'd appreciate a link.

As for your last statement, I agree if you're at a paying gig (which the ones I'm going to aren't) you won't get paid less ... but I wonder how many return gigs you may get once the owner sees you using your book. I really have no idea. I've played gigs where singers used some tools and got invited back to repeat gigs.
Why would they care? as long as you are keeping the punters entertained and buying drinks or whatever?

Incidentally, not withstanding what I wrote earlier, I'm running an open air club meeting soon (weather permitting) and I reheared the numbers I propose to do today. Although I haven't played solo for over a year, I remembered far more than I expected, althoiugh the arrangements had evolved slightly.
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  #24  
Old 07-05-2021, 07:21 PM
alnico5 alnico5 is offline
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont View Post
Easy, I never play memorized leads!
I am a guitar player who sings as opposed to a singer who plays guitar. If I like the lead and it is a very integral part of the song I am going to play it like the recording, just as I am going to sing the proper words to the correct melody.

I could never bring myself to wanker a lead to Sultans of Swing.
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I don't have a bunch of guitars because they all sound just like me.

1984 Carvin LB-40 bass
1986 Carvin DC-125 two humbucker
1996 Taylor 412
La Patrie Concert
2012 American Standard Telecaster
1981 Carvin DC 100
Harley Benton LP JR DC
Bushman Delta Frost & Suzuki harmonicas
Artley flute
Six-plus decade old vocal apparatus
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  #25  
Old 07-05-2021, 11:11 PM
Mandobart Mandobart is offline
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Ok old timers - at 57 I'm one of the youngest people at our regular bluegrass jams. I've been playing for many years with folks in their 60's, 70's, 80's...

They don't use any sheets at all for chords, melody or lyrics. That's just how they do bluegrass and old-time music. Now they don't always remember every note or word, but it's a staple of bluegrass jams, contests and performance, at least in the Pacific NW region of the US.
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  #26  
Old 07-06-2021, 12:12 AM
SongwriterFan SongwriterFan is offline
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It's supposedly "not professional" to use iPads/etc for lyrics.

I consider it far more unprofessional to mess up the lyrics (or forget for even a split second, which still screws things up), so I have resigned myself to bringing my iPad.

I've written a grand total of 11 songs now, and I don't play covers. But I don't play enough open mics to play through even all my songs once a week, so there's no way I can keep them all "fresh enough" to remember all the lyrics and chords.

On some songs I don't seem to need the chords written down. But on others, I do.

On the one song that I play every time I am an at open mic, I don't really need the lyrics in front of me. But since the iPad is there, I go ahead and bring them up.

I tried for a while not to use an iPad (except on songs that were only a few weeks old), but as I have written more and more songs, it is simply impossible to remember them all well enough to sound professional without the iPad.

I was horrible at memorization in school, too. Though I still had a 4.0 . . . how? I learned how to DO things and think problems through. But if forced to memorize stupid things (like state capitals) for a test, I would memorize them and then do a brain dump.
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  #27  
Old 07-06-2021, 01:15 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Not sure why it is so many players want to memorise an instrumental lead, my problem is the opposite that is not having enough variety and playing the same phrases over chords in different songs.
Eric Clapton said in interview that he used stock phrases and a lot of players do this, you just have two or three phrases you play over a chord shape and for variety you change the chord shapes , rythmn and speed .
Patti Smith I remember once complained that her lead guitarist on tour had played the same lead over a live song twice in a row.
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  #28  
Old 07-06-2021, 10:51 AM
Ralph124C41 Ralph124C41 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mandobart View Post
Ok old timers - at 57 I'm one of the youngest people at our regular bluegrass jams. I've been playing for many years with folks in their 60's, 70's, 80's...

They don't use any sheets at all for chords, melody or lyrics. That's just how they do bluegrass and old-time music. Now they don't always remember every note or word, but it's a staple of bluegrass jams, contests and performance, at least in the Pacific NW region of the US.
I agree. At acoustic jams, yes, but not at "true" bluegrass jams and also, more or less, at the somewhat similar "old-time country" jams. It just wasn't done.
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  #29  
Old 07-06-2021, 12:12 PM
alnico5 alnico5 is offline
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Originally Posted by Ralph124C41 View Post
I agree. At acoustic jams, yes, but not at "true" bluegrass jams and also, more or less, at the somewhat similar "old-time country" jams. It just wasn't done.
I live near a small town known for folk music on the square. While walking through the various groups of people playing old time folk music acoustically, I was surprised to see i-pads on stands.
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I don't have a bunch of guitars because they all sound just like me.

1984 Carvin LB-40 bass
1986 Carvin DC-125 two humbucker
1996 Taylor 412
La Patrie Concert
2012 American Standard Telecaster
1981 Carvin DC 100
Harley Benton LP JR DC
Bushman Delta Frost & Suzuki harmonicas
Artley flute
Six-plus decade old vocal apparatus
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  #30  
Old 07-06-2021, 06:49 PM
nightchef nightchef is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alnico5 View Post
I live near a small town known for folk music on the square. While walking through the various groups of people playing old time folk music acoustically, I was surprised to see i-pads on stands.
Maybe people feel like they can get away with iPads because they’re, you know, tech. “It’s part of my rig.”

I stopped worrying about it a long time ago (I’m 63). I don’t usually need… let’s call it “documentary assistance”…for musical info. Remembering chords is usually not a big deal, and if I have a solo where I want to reproduce what’s on the record, I memorize as much of it as I can and improvise the rest, and it generally works fine.

Lyrics, though? I’ve long since passed the point where I can reliably remember lyrics unless they’re so good that they really capture the attention of the relevant part of my brain. I can’t memorize a lyric by trying to; either it sticks or it doesn’t. So for cover gigs, lyric cheat sheets are just a fact of life, unless I want the audience to hear me shuffling frantically through cerebral cue cards. If that means they don’t want me back, so be it. In most contexts I haven’t found it to be an issue. People respond to energy and musicianship — if those things are there, the presence or absence of a music stand doesn’t matter.
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