Sorting out all my old song notes for past 10 years. How many songs, do you reckon?

[solo4652]

Started playing bass 10 years ago, and have been in and out of covers bands for the past 8 years. My initial guess at the number of songs I've played is - errrm - 250.

Well, it's taken me all afternoon, and the total is 519. Blimey.

Edited January 13, 2021 by solo4652

[bass_dinger]

That is astounding.  You are your own human jukebox, and a walking iPod.

 

[solo4652]

Yes - I was pretty surprised at the total. Trouble is, I can only remember between 20 and 30 at any one time without notes, so I still need them to gig. 

Some of the more surprising songs I uncovered;

Creep - The Muppets

Kiss - Prince, with note to self: "No problem playing this - there is no bass on the original..."

A song by Celine Dion....

Most mangled/annotated notes, suggesting most used were; Dakota, Valerie, Long train runnin', Tainted Love, Superstition, Sex on Fire, Bohemian like you, and Don't look back in Anger. 

Band with most songs: Beatles with 6, Morcheeba with 6.

 

 

 

 

[Reggaebass]

It’s surprising how many Basslines are stored in your memory bank, but for me I need to play the track to recall it , I can put on a song I probably haven’t played the Bassline to since the 80s and still remember it 

[Phil Starr]

I haven't checked but it looks like I could be well over that in 13 years with maybe 10 in covers bands. Remembering is a problem, though most return fairly quickly with a couple of run-throughs so long as they were originally gigged a few times. I wondered where the saturation point comes and it is pretty severe for me at around 100 songs (down to having three bands on the go at one time). I lose them fairly quickly once I stop gigging them and always mean to keep the ones that cost most to learn going, but I don't think I could make much of a stab at Fool For Your Loving for example. 

I don't play from notes though due to an inability to play and read at the same time  For me memory is the lazy way out and it's a skill I've never learned.

[solo4652]

48 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

It’s surprising how many Basslines are stored in your memory bank, but for me I need to play the track to recall it , I can put on a song I probably haven’t played the Bassline to since the 80s and still remember it 

Lucky man!

[Doctor J]

50 minutes ago, solo4652 said:

Lucky man!

There's a time and a place for playing requests.

[Reggaebass]

53 minutes ago, solo4652 said:

Lucky man!

I don’t remember that one 😁

[casapete]

Unearthed my stash of song parts recently when I moved house. They are all the tunes I've played since the late 80's I would imagine, including proper parts and arrangements (anyone here remember Pop Plan stuff?) along with chord parts and the odd lyric sheet. There must be well over a thousand as they take up 3 large plastic tubs with the lids on. I've been thinking about getting rid as they are taking up a fair bit of space, but as soon as I do I'll probably regret it. These days (well until March 2020) I use my ipad most of the time for stuff I don't know, but must admit (as with the books / Kindle debate) there's still something good about having an A4 sized paper copy on a stand nearby when you need it.

[NancyJohnson]

To the disdain on fellow band members, I used to lump along a lever arch file to rehearsals with basic arrangements, but all of us referred to it.  This was 10-15 years ago.  We rarely recorded stuff on the fly.

I found this in a flightcase about a year ago, I went through it in awe and wonder as to all the scribblings I'd done on the fly during jams.  We were doing originals...there were dozens and dozens of pages, hundreds of ideas with just a line under each one, then another. 

I have no memory of writing down many of these or even if they developed into full songs...scant descriptions ('Fast - A/F#/D/E rptx2 into bridge/bass E over G'), but they were probably very important at the time.

[Stub Mandrel]

My very incomplete list for the last 2 years ish has 98 songs on it.

[Nail Soup]

250 is a lot for 10 years ..... well by my standards anyway.

I think If I added up all the songs i've done over 37 years (minus a few years where I didn't do any music) in a few originals bands, couple of covers bands, home recording projects , solo open mics spots and songs learned for folk circles it might just get to that number.