How many songs can you play? (Without help/ music/ tabs)

[Bluewine]

Probably 50 at least. Pretty easy when you've been gigging the same songs for 7 years.

Blue

[Nicko]

In a rather Donald Rumsfeld kind of way, theres about 50 songs I know I know, about 50 I think I know , possibly another 50 that I don't know that I know, and a huge list of things I know I dont know.

Put anoyther way Things I currently or recently played, things I used to play regularly (which I think I know but probably don't if I try to play them in a band), and things I have played cos I fancied learning them but have forgotten that I did.

[leschirons]

Let's face it, there's also thousands of numbers that people could play straight off having never played them before.

If you're of a certain age and have grown up listening to, and playing music and someone asks you to play for example, Wild thing or With or without you for the first time, chances are you'll be able to do it just by having heard them over the years.

[Woodinblack]

On 01/05/2018 at 11:19, Akio Dāku said:

I understand what your getting at but it is sequential memory... A pattern is a regular and intelligible form or sequence and a pattern of patterns quite is literally a sequence of sequences...  

Well, don't mean to get into a competition with your hair splitting, and if you want to call the a sequence of sequences then fine, but I couldn't remember the sequence of even one song, there are hundreds of notes, but the patterns in a song, easy, there are only about 4 or 5 patterns with a couple of extra fills, and that is easy. And the good thing is that those patterns are in thousands of songs, in various positions, so once you know those patterns, and those patterns of patterns (or sequence of sequences if you want to call them that) there are whole groups of songs that are very trivial to remember.

[dmccombe7]

I must be one of the few that just don't remember songs. I play the ones in my current band but any previous songs i generally just forget. I could maybe bluff my way thru some of them but wouldn't commit to saying i knew them if asked. Few days refreshing my memory on them and they would come back quite quickly.

I can play along with loads of CD albums without issue but i generally wouldn't count them unless i was playing them in a band situation.

Dave

[paul_5]

Enough to get me out of trouble! 

Got 3 bands on the go, and each do 2 x 45 minute sets plus encores. Not counted up how many songs I know, but there’s no overlap in material. Sometimes my brain hurts.

[dlloyd]

22 hours ago, Krysbass said:

That's how it is with me too. I seem to be able to recall melodies or even the sound of a voice quite easily.

But I'm useless at remembering how many films end; even if I've seen them a couple of times before. I'm not great at remembering faces either, so I'd be a lousy witness in court  if I was required to identify someone - especially if several weeks or months had passed since the incident.

Interesting.

Would you rather go to a museum or library, or to a party? Serious question...

[SpondonBassed]

On 01/05/2018 at 12:55, EBS_freak said:

I think the original question should be... how many songs that are not derived from a standard 12 bar blues progression can you play...?

I assumed that was what was meant.

I have about forty songs that I regularly practice on random play.  I have others that I tickle at from time to time.  Until I have a role in a band, I am reluctant to learn many more.  What a band would want from me is something I can't predict.  I'd happily be guided by the overall choice made by the band or band leader, if there is one.

The forty songs are a broad mix of tunes that I relate to.  One day I will have to play tunes outside of my personal taste but I have no way of knowing what they'd be on my own.

I don't find endless 12 bars engaging enough and the local jam is quite stale so I don't bother any more.  Too many snags.  I'll probably quit altogether soon.

[Daz39]

Play all the way through? pfft - probably only a few dozen. Most of them will be Rush songs, a few ones by U2, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and the like.

I can play bits of hundreds - probably enough to learn the whole song if I were ever in a band and it was required.

[oldbass]

Well, Ive just been given a dep in June....and they sent me 51 tunes to learn, no tab or notes. A lot of Beatles and 60's stuff which seem easy until you start to play them correctly....a lot of work and I probably only know a tiny fraction of them. Phew!

[Barking Spiders]

6 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I assumed that was what was meant.

I have about forty songs that I regularly practice on random play.  I have others that I tickle at from time to time.  Until I have a role in a band, I am reluctant to learn many more.  What a band would want from me is something I can't predict.  I'd happily be guided by the overall choice made by the band or band leader, if there is one.

The forty songs are a broad mix of tunes that I relate to.  One day I will have to play tunes outside of my personal taste but I have no way of knowing what they'd be on my own.

I don't find endless 12 bars engaging enough and the local jam is quite stale so I don't bother any more.  Too many snags.  I'll probably quit altogether soon.

That makes perfect sense although my approach is from the other end.  I know the stuff I'd like to play in a band and so have around 100 bass lines off pat. If a prospective band's repertoire doesn't include at least half them I wouldn't wanna be in it anyway.  I've no interest in playing anything I wouldn't choose to listen to. Just as well I've never wanted to pursue a career as a session player 

Edited May 4, 2018 by Barking Spiders

[tb4sbp]

I, like most of us, have learned and forgotten way too many songs

Now I just learn off songs that I want to

[steantval]

I see on the survey the greatest percentage is for fellow bass players who say they can remember 200 plus songs they would be able to play from start to finish with no errors, I do find this hard to encompass.

You could list 200 plus songs on a sheet of paper and someone could choose any at random and you could play them correctly from start to finish without any errors?

[Dad3353]

10 hours ago, steantval said:

I see on the survey the greatest percentage is for fellow bass players who say they can remember 200 plus songs they would be able to play from start to finish with no errors, I do find this hard to encompass.

You could list 200 plus songs on a sheet of paper and someone could choose any at random and you could play them correctly from start to finish without any errors?

We're presently working out a set for our group (The Daub'z...) for a gig mid-June. For various reasons, we've not been playing, nor even meeting up, for over two years. We've drawn up a list of songs to go into the hour-and-a-bit set from past repertoires, including SOAD, RATM, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Noir Désir, RHCP and many more. There are fifty or so on the list; we'll choose about fifteen or so. All of us can play any or all of these, no sweat, on demand. None of us use any support at all, neither tab, notation, recordings... They're all played solely from memory, having rehearsed them in the (sometimes distant...) past. For my part (on drums...), I've a fifty-year long repertoire of variety stuff and dance music, with songs spanning well over a century, which I played intensely for several years as a pro drummer. Believe me when I say that some of it sticks..! All in all, 200+ doesn't seem that unusual to me; if we, as a very amateur group, can collectively call up fifty or so, any half-serious player could easily beat that, as long as they've had exposure to a fairly varied repertoire over a reasonable length of time. Nothing unusual in that, for me. 

[ambient]

None. One of the downsides I guess of only ever playing reading gigs. I know a fair few jazz standards, but only the changes that I’d improvise over.

[SpondonBassed]

8 hours ago, ambient said:

None. One of the downsides I guess of only ever playing reading gigs. I know a fair few jazz standards, but only the changes that I’d improvise over.

That's very interesting.

Didn't you mention once that you perform as a solo bass player?

[RickyV]

Only been playing about 3 years but reckon on about 100 songs currently which includes 42 I learnt for a band I played one gig with last summer and another 45 or so for my current band with a few more which I have learnt just because I wanted to. 

[ambient]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

That's very interesting.

Didn't you mention once that you perform as a solo bass player?

Purely improvising though, similar to Steve Lawson.