Any tips on how to remember your songs.

[Highfox]

Anyone else out there have trouble remembering what you play?
We have about 40 of our owns songs and it seems every week at rehearsal I forget some parts of the songs I'm getting stressed with this as it makes me feel I'm letting the other guys down.

I'm ok with the charts but like to ween myself off them.

Must be the age I know... Just wonder how you guys do it?

[Bilbo]

Learn to read music. It not only helps you to get through a reading gig but also helps you to learn songs (I remember riffs/lines etc as visual images of staves, not as sounds)

[BassBus]

Relax! If I were you I would just keep using your charts at practices all the time. When it comes to gigs you'll know the stuff. Just relax and don't worry about it. The more you fret the more you'll tense up and forget things. Jazz players often use charts during performances, even John Patitucci and you don't get much better than him.

[bigd1]

I've never understood the "No Music" unwritten rule that is around popular music. It seems to me it is the only form that thinks you should remember a full set.
I play Tuba in brass bands they would never do a gig without music, so why is it as a rock bass player I'm expected to do this ?

???? BIGd

[seashell]

If we come up with anything original in rehearsal , I record it on a little dictaphone. The quality is crap, but it's good enough to jog my memory as to how the song goes.

[Jacqueslemac]

I start off the with the full charts in front of me for every song.

Little by little I stop looking at them, but they're there if my memory fails.

Then I progress to just having the bits I find difficult to remember on the page.

The last gig but one I had just one piece of paper with reminders for about five songs.

The last gig I found I didn't need anything.

I'd prefer not to have to refer to anything as it means I can move around a bit (maybe join one of the guitarists for a bit of backing vocals) and can be more animated.

[Lord Sausage]

I can't remember what songs we play, the names of songs, the names of our originals.

So no tips really

Edited November 26, 2012 by Lord Sausage

[SteveO]

My memory is terrible. I usually have a few reminders on the setlist - things like whether to come in at the start or if there is a guitar intro, what the first note is, any riffs that the song depends on, any cues that I play that others are listening for, etc.

The thing that I've found the best help is the ability to 'busk' the song. if it all goes blank (at least once per gig) then i'm watching the rhythm guitarist's hands to get the chords and listening intently to everyone for any clues about breaks, choruses etc. Usually I can get back on track after 2 or 3 bars when the grey matter starts working again, and most of the time only our drummer notices.

[paul torch]

I use a crappy quality recording device and make notes of any key areas I may have trouble with.

My memory is like Swiss cheese.

[xilddx]

[quote name='bigd1' timestamp='1353930422' post='1879771']
I've never understood the "No Music" unwritten rule that is around popular music. It seems to me it is the only form that thinks you should remember a full set.
I play Tuba in brass bands they would never do a gig without music, so why is it as a rock bass player I'm expected to do this ?

???? BIGd
[/quote]



Yeah I can imagine seeing Van Halen with sheet music and stands onstage

[WalMan]

This week's problem...remembering the words.

Depping with a band I work with fairly frequently doing classic rock covers and I started to do vocals on one song, which I don't have to play bass on for the verse part ([size=2][i]can you guess what it is yet?[/i][/size]). I know the words, [u][i][b]UNTIL[/b][/i][/u] I get on stage and need to actually need to sign them, then almost without fail they completely escape me. Current plan is a piece of paper on the floor with salient memory jogging words for each line, but it'll have to be out of sight - quote from the bandleader "[i].............Erm ....music stands are not allowed !..........Not cool !.. [/i]"

Otherwise it's not too bad. Occasionally we start up something we haven't played in years at r/h & drummer and I usually manage to blag out way furthest through. Then again he'll often say (as he did on the curry run on Saturday) "Do you remember...[i]enter memorable event such as the van catching fire.[/i].." and I draw a complete blank.

[SteveK]

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1353934746' post='1879847']


Yeah I can imagine seeing Van Halen with sheet music and stands onstage
[/quote]
Yup! In a rock context sheet music on stands would, and does, look seriously uncool. IMVHO of course.

EDIT: Forgot to add a tip .
I don't really have a tip , but IME the louder a band plays at rehearsals the harder I find remembering stuff. Can't offer any scientific explanation as to why that might be, other than... after an hour or so of fairly loud [s]noise[/s] music my brain becomes addled . Maybe trying to get the guys to turn down a bit might help.

Edited November 26, 2012 by SteveK

[thepurpleblob]

My memory is absolutely terrible but I'm not that bad at remembering songs. I forget them completely after a couple of months of not playing them though. Couple of things...

- make sure you actually know the song in the first place. Practice until it's mindless
- Getting stressed out, makes me forget my own name. If that's you then do something about it. Learn relaxation, take Kalms, get stuff from the doctors. Whatever it takes.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1353935373' post='1879861']
Yup! In a rock context sheet music on stands would, and does, look seriously uncool. IMVHO of course.
[/quote]
Definitely. I find myself heading to the bar if I see a popular beat combo with music stands on stage.Looks really bad.

I will admit to having the odd 'blank' when gigging. It's usually one of the buggers I've written too!
These days I add a note or two to each song on the setlist. 'Starts in B,verse is E-A-D, chorus starts when he sings have a banana' or whatever will help me remember.

Joe Strummer used to forget songs (ganja is bad) so his set list was the first line or two of each song. Watch any live Clash video.
"This next song is 'Midnight to six man' You may know it better as White Man In Hammersmith Palais"

[ezbass]

Rawk bands tend to have set lists/crib sheets attached to monitors or on the floor (sneaky lot). I often have notes against songs on a set list where I need a prompt, but I'll start with full charts in rehearsals.

[Doddy]

I often read on gigs-even pop/rock gigs-because the bandleader often gives us new charts on the
night. So,I read them on the first gig (maybe the second),then I just go bareback. One of two things
will happen-it'll either be right or wrong.More often than not,it's right. You just have to do it.

Edit...40 songs isn't bad. Problems start when you have to remember about 400.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Doddy

[essexbasscat]

Just for comparison. The musicians on the Titanic had to remember over 150 songs (not reading sheet music) and were expected to perform any one of them on request from the audience

Edited November 26, 2012 by essexbasscat

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1353929357' post='1879742']
Anyone else out there have trouble remembering what you play?
We have about 40 of our owns songs and it seems every week at rehearsal I forget some parts of the songs I'm getting stressed with this as it makes me feel I'm letting the other guys down.
[/quote]

I find that I need to apply a little discipline to the actual process of remembering/learning. Playing till it's mindless, a bit like riding a bike with no hands, it's ok til you wonder how you're doing it and then it goes wrong! Paying attention to where I make mistakes (it's not usually random in my case) makes me focus on actively remembering what happens just that part. I can use this as a backup to the mindless playing!
Does that make sense? Probably not... I think I mean target your memory where it's needed, makes it much more efficient.

[Highfox]

Thanks for all you input so far
It's nice to know I'm not alone.

I do wonder why it's so hard, they are all my basslines after all

[Highfox]

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1353941215' post='1879972']
I find that I need to apply a little discipline to the actual process of remembering/learning. Playing till it's mindless, a bit like riding a bike with no hands, it's ok til you wonder how you're doing it and then it goes wrong! Paying attention to where I make mistakes (it's not usually random in my case) makes me focus on actively remembering what happens just that part. I can use this as a backup to the mindless playing!
Does that make sense? Probably not... I think I mean target your memory where it's needed, makes it much more efficient.
[/quote]
Actually that makes complete sense to me.

[SteveK]

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1353939989' post='1879952']
I often read on gigs-even pop/rock gigs-because the bandleader often gives us new charts on the
night.
[/quote]
I think our ideas of what constitutes 'rock' music differ somewhat.

[Doddy]

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1353941848' post='1879981']
I think our ideas of what constitutes 'rock' music differ somewhat.
[/quote]

I'm guessing that it doesn't as much as you think.

[Jayben]

I only really have trouble remembering a tune if I've not practised it enough.. Most of my bands' songs are completely second nature to me, so I can concentrate on the stage show and not worry about whether I'm going to change to the right riff or not because it just happens automatically.

If we've not played a particular song for a few months then I'll need a bit of memory jogging though..

I guess it comes down to how often you play the songs and how you mentally approach the song and the composition of the bass line. So for example, as opposed to having a riff 8 times with 8 different variations, have maybe 3 variations, and have them in an order that makes it easy to keep track of where you are, so for example
V1-V2-V1-V2-V3-V1-V2-V3

... If that makes sense?

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1353942133' post='1879985']
I'm guessing that it doesn't as much as you think.
[/quote]

Hmm, gigs with a 'bandleader', that's already pretty far out in rock terms surely?! (not that I'm a rock fan). There's a difference in expectation between reading gigs where the line-up is fluid, and the kind of work where a stable line-up are expected to 'perform' a stable set beyond the playing of music, especially originals.

But the OP was asking for ideas on how to aid memorising music, not the 'reading or not' debate. You play an awful lot, so must be a pretty efficient learner when you need to with ways of streamlining that process, no?

[MrTaff]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1353939555' post='1879944']
Rawk bands tend to have set lists/crib sheets attached to monitors or on the floor (sneaky lot). I often have notes against songs on a set list where I need a prompt,
[/quote]

I play with lots of different bands so I always have crib sheets taped to the floor, I generally note stuff like the tuning, which bar the bass starts on, how many bars the bass stops for in the middle, patch changes, for a song like "killing in the name of" I note where that extra fill is.

I couldn't imagine standing behind a music stand in a rock gig, I certainly wouldn't pay to watch one.