Remembering stuff

[mrboson]

We cover a lot of material over the course of weeks and months, and a lot of it is still relatively new. We literally have multiple dozens of songs that we pull from and I try to play the signature licks on many of them. It seems like I have to re-learn things every time a song shows up in the rotation. I really need to improve my "playing memory" in regards to lead lines and licks and riffs, etc for *a bunch* of songs.

Tabs and youtube videos help me re-remember stuff. What do others do about this? Relearn stuff over and over again like me?

[Joe-Bob]

Practice.

[mrboson]

Right. Thanks.

What about anyone else, who like me finds there is just enough time in a week to practice the 5 songs that are coming up Sunday. Not the 80 that had been done a couple of times over the course of the previous year.

[backporch guy]

The memory is the second thing to go, and I forget what the first one was.

[still_fiddlin]

Mostly, yes, it's a new song every time :). My memory is so bad, last Saturday we had gone over some stuff before the evening service (just me and the singer for this one), and decided to drop the 2nd number one key. 15 minutes later, it never happened... I'm going shopping for neon post-it stickers to put in my charts now whenever we make last minute changes.

My charts are my life. This is going to sound like overkill (and a mite AR, but hey, my brain's a sieve these days...): I make notes in the chart to help me bring something back up to speed in a few minutes, especially around some single note fills or riffs, and I have a separate "notepad/html" file for every chart, that has a YouTube link (or 2), a couple "performance bullets" , plus patch & effects settings. These are arranged in a way that I pull them in to a one page guide for the service each week. Then, even without a rehearsal, I can click on the YouTube links, follow along in the chart and read the notes, and feel reasonably refreshed in less than an hour, even if we haven't played something in a year, which happens a lot this time of year.

At this point in my life, I don't have any expectations of committing many of these to memory. There are a couple, but for the rest, there's just not enough frequency of repetition for them to stick. Might be different if it was the same 50 songs every week, but 5 songs a week, eh, I do my best...

[JHall55]

I have a hard time remembering the licks I played in the Thursday night practice by the time Sunday morning rolls around. I scratch extremely messy notes and small sections of tab all over my sheets, but the sheets get recycled after each service, so I'm back to square one each time anyways.

[getbent]

nothing beats repetition. I also have notes in my phone that when I look at the setlist, I review any song that I haven't played in awhile... but, when I'm first learning them, I immerse for a couple of weeks and play the songs many times (the signature lick and key parts) until it is 'in there'.. then I have shorthand to remind me (key, maybe some little verbal trigger that will remind me)

as an example, we do 'road scholar' by lee roy parnell sometimes.. in my note it says 'key of e' blues walkup on turnaround and 'inside out lick' mod to A for solo get to e through d' which reminds me of where I want to return the song back to e. my last note is '4 times on the outro, slow' which means play the intro lick 4 times and slow on the last one.

it is hokey, but those little notes do it for me... I read them and say 'aha!'

[horsespatoot]

I can play licks that I learned 50 years ago with my eyes closed. Stuff I work on today and finally get .... is gone tomorrow. It's pretty discouraging. Newly learned material just doesn't stick like it used to. To realize pleasure from playing I must accept and enjoy what I play today because tomorrow most likely it will have to be relearned. It's no coincidence that all the oldie bands are full of old poops.

[mrboson]

I already can't remember any of the new licks from yesterday's service. Three of the songs were from Jesus Culture, and while the signature leads are very easy, sitting here I can't even hear them in my head. Kind of frustrating. I agree with the repetitions comment is the solution. My problem is that I need so many reps to get something burned in my head, there is just not enough time in the day. I am a lousy note taker though... I really should be organizing my notes and tabs better.

[PopsCC]

Random thoughts:
First: it's a lot easier to handle as a bass player. Just follow the chart, get in a groove and let 'er rip.

Second: as an old-timer, I'm blissfully unaware of all the new P&W stuff that's on satellite, YouTube, etc. so I don't worry about what it "should" sound like. i.e., we don't do covers. Sometimes we'll come close, but more often it's our own take on the music. (I've got satellite in my car, and I'll listen to the P&W station on the way home from church; it's amazing how many times the songs we just did during the service come up on the rotation.)

Third: When we do traditional hymns in a non-traditional way, I have to un-remember 60 years worth of hearing it the old way. That's probably as hard as (or harder than) remembering something new.

[CAAD8N8]

I'm right there with you mrboson. Even with simple licks in these songs, I have to re-learn the licks 3-4 weeks later when we play the song again. Repetition is best, I agree and I play the licks often during that week that I'm learning and playing the song, but when we don't do that song for anther month or more, it makes it tough for me to remember all the little intricacies of all the licks. Our church has been doing a lot of new music lately, which is a nice change of pace, but frustrating when you're learning a whole new set every week. Hang in there!

[Radspin]

Yeah, these days it's harder for me to remember a song than to actually play it.

[praisebass]

Originally Posted by PopsCC

Random thoughts:
,,,I'll listen to the P&W station on the way home from church; it's amazing how many times the songs we just did during the service come up on the rotation.

Its amazing how often I hear the songs we're going to do the upcoming service on the radio. One of our band mates is station manager for the local Contemporary Christian radio station so that may have something to do with it. It solves the remembering problem pretty well.

[mtown]

I don't even know what songs we're playing until the Thursday evening before the service on Sunday. If I have a busy weekend it makes it all the worse. Any more I just try to learn the signature riffs and improvise the solos. I don't always feel I do the song justice but since I'm given the music only 2 days before it will have to do. We do repeat songs but they're so far apart remembering them would be hard. I try the best I can and don't sweat it.

[JHall55]

Originally Posted by mtown

I don't even know what songs we're playing until the Thursday evening before the service on Sunday. If I have a busy weekend it makes it all the worse. Any more I just try to learn the signature riffs and improvise the solos. I don't always feel I do the song justice but since I'm given the music only 2 days before it will have to do. We do repeat songs but they're so far apart remembering them would be hard. I try the best I can and don't sweat it.

Sounds EXACTLY like my situation.

[bear04]

I wish I was good enough to learn a signature lick properly the first time, never mind remember it later. I just make stuff up and then tell everyone I'm "making the song my own". That seems to work...

[soundchaser59]

Originally Posted by mtown

I don't even know what songs we're playing until the Thursday evening before the service on Sunday. If I have a busy weekend it makes it all the worse.

This is a real peeve of mine. I have scratched and clawed trying to get the director to give us the practice tracks a week before rehearsal, but it aint n e v v v a gonna happen. I decided to have a little talk with the guy one day after I literally got the practice cd out of my mailbox as I was walking to the car to go to rehearsal. That aint gonna cut it. Now it hasn't changed much, we are lucky to get the songs the Sunday night or Monday before rehearsal on Tuesday. I went thru jazz groups in college, and I told him the object of rehearsal is not to learn the songs, but to learn to play the songs as a band. Each person is supposed to know the songs before they get to rehearsal. If we showed up at jazz group rehearsal and it was clear that we had not practiced the songs on our own, we could be asked to drop out and take Sociology classes instead.

I guess he doesn't see it that way, and the way we play on Sunday mornings shows that we are not given the opportunity to give 100%. Unfortunately, most of the musicians we have operate on the "it's good enough to get by" philosophy, the people in the crowd dont care or wont notice, etc. Sorry, but yes they do notice and they can tell the difference. It's wrong to underestimate the perspicaciousness of the audience. Besides, we the players can tell the difference, shouldn't that matter?

My solution is I started saving the MP3 files in a folder on my studio computer. Then once a week or so I will select 20 or 30 of them and let them play in media player while I play guitar along with. Keeps it fresh enough in memory that when the songs do come up in rotation I dont feel like I'm relearning from scratch every time.

[Wrong-Note Rod]

Originally Posted by mrboson

We cover a lot of material over the course of weeks and months, and a lot of it is still relatively new. We literally have multiple dozens of songs that we pull from and I try to play the signature licks on many of them. It seems like I have to re-learn things every time a song shows up in the rotation. I really need to improve my "playing memory" in regards to lead lines and licks and riffs, etc for *a bunch* of songs.

Tabs and youtube videos help me re-remember stuff. What do others do about this? Relearn stuff over and over again like me?

thats one of the more difficult aspects for me personally, playing in a four set cover band... all the memorization.

I have a computer hooked up to my PA, and I load up a bunch of songs I'm supposed to know, and play along, with my amp and the pedalboard I'm going to be using. I constantly go over this stuff, at least three times a week, often more, and in the couple of weeks before a gig, every night.

I'm old and my cerebrum tires easily.

One thing I did that was REALLY helpful, was, I recorded our band playing all the songs.. then I zeroed out my guitar parts and made soundfiles of the band playing the songs, without me. Then put those thru the PA and played along.

[jimbo735]

Vitamins and minerals help me, therse alot of info on it on the web.Im 50 years old not get any young.good luck.

[mrboson]

Originally Posted by soundchaser59

This is a real peeve of mine. I have scratched and clawed trying to get the director to give us the practice tracks a week before rehearsal, but it aint n e v v v a gonna happen. I decided to have a little talk with the guy one day after I literally got the practice cd out of my mailbox as I was walking to the car to go to rehearsal. That aint gonna cut it. Now it hasn't changed much, we are lucky to get the songs the Sunday night or Monday before rehearsal on Tuesday.

Yikes this is a whole nother story... We're lucky if we get the set list a few days in advance of Thursday's rehearsal. There have been times I have showed up Thursday and been *introduced* to a new song, and told to try and get some intro lick down by Sunday morning, then Sunday warmup is the first time I get to try the lick with the band. I can say this is pretty scary, but on the positive side, I have had to really improve my playing to be able to pull it off so I am not complaining. There is enough time to learn it for the purpose of Sunday, but not enough to have it down for the next time it comes up in the rotation. So I end up starting over.

But lots of good advice posted in this thread, and I am gonna seriously try and get better organized with my notes and my mp3's, and start recording our rehearsals again