#16
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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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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 |
#18
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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. |
#19
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I consider it a good brain exercise, also. - Glenn
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My You Tube Channel |
#20
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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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Martin X1-DE Epiphone AJ500MNS Alvarez AD30 Alvarez AD710 Alvarez RD20S Esteban American Legacy Rogue mandolin |
#21
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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. |
#22
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Easy, I never play memorized leads!
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#23
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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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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#24
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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 |
#25
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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. |
#26
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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. |
#27
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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. |
#28
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Martin X1-DE Epiphone AJ500MNS Alvarez AD30 Alvarez AD710 Alvarez RD20S Esteban American Legacy Rogue mandolin |
#29
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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 |
#30
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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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Martin HD-28 Eastman E10OM Guild D50 Martin D12X1AE LaPatrie CW Concert |