how many complete pieces in your repetoire?

[Darren Bailey]

1 Counting songs and instrumentals, how many do you have to fall back on?
2 Roughly how long on average does it take you to add another?
3 If you counted the years you've been playing, how many pieces have you learned for each year of playing? (slightly different to number 2).

The reason I ask, I'm wondering if the amount of time it takes me to learn a new piece is normal, I feel like I'm a slow learner. Perhaps it's the number of hours that is really the key rather than days, but I'd be interested to hear people's answers. Thanks.

[Denny Gies]

1. Probably somewhere north of 100
2. This varies, some come quickly and some it takes literally months to master
3. The per year number has varied over the years so it's hard to say. Some years it seemed as though there were 2 or 3 every month. Other years it was probably more like 1 per month.

Good luck with the learning and remember, it is all fun.

[Matt DeBlass]

Interesting question, it makes me think of some fiddle players I've sessioned with who seem to know every tune ever written.

1. A bit over 100 as well, mostly songs
2. If I really buckle down, I can learn the chords and lyrics to a song in an afternoon, instrumental tunes usually take me a few days of focused practice, or a week and a half of unfocused practice, to get playable. I use cheat sheets with words and chords for new songs sometimes, but I can't read notation or tablature fast enough on the fly to play instrumental stuff that way.
3. I think the number has remained pretty constant for a while, it's hard to say because I've dropped some, added some, and reworked some as I improved or learned a new instrument. Also, I sometimes learn songs for certain occasions, like weddings or holidays, that I'll play or sing once and never come back to.

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

i may not have the answer to your question, but i keep 50 +/- songs well practiced on tap for myself solo, 100+ with my main band (90% different material), 50 +/- with my alternative country rock band (100% different material), !00+ (guitar - and again, totally different material) with my cajun band.
i put in 8 - 40 hrs. to add a song for my own purposes. once in a while, for a special one, it can approach 100 hrs to get it just right. in the bands, it usually takes me 8+, depending on the song and the demand made on my part., although with the cajun music it's less. (after an initial learning/reinventing process re: cajun guitar.)
hard to say how many per year, but on average 1-2/week is the way it usually goes. some songs fall by the wayside, some just atrophy. and the bands always keep resurrecting those forgotten.
so i guess i carry around about 400 stage ready, and another 100 flakey add ons. i do recognize quite a few hundred others. in the right jam, where no one (overtly) cares that i improvise, i am at home.

[abuteague]

1- I have maybe 10 or so memorized instrumental tunes. A few of those have 4 or 5 parts.
I'll add 8 or 10 this fall and of them I'll memorize a couple and let the rest go.
Some tunes stick and some are elusive. I'm motivated on some and so so on others.
2- If I have to add another memorized piece and I'm performing it for an audience, it will take a few days to get it down, but a month to feel ready and confident to share it.
3- I've got about a half a tune a year.

You think you are slow? I played for years and never memorized a thing. I would read notation slowly. I'm self taught. I never had a reason to really improve until I joined a local group.

Here is my method for repertoire building:

I listen to a tune about 30 times before I even play a note.
Then I play it through reading notation a half dozen times.
Next I play it with my eyes closed even if it takes me a while to get through it. I have it playing in my head because I listened to it so many times.
After that, I just go back to the notation if I need a refresher.
Then I play it from memory every single day without fail until the performance.

I feel like I could build my repertoire pretty fast now, but I'm more interested in improving my playing.

[Matt DeBlass]

I should mention that when I play shows I can go for 3-4 hours of music, but when I'm just hanging around and somebody says, "hey Matt, play something" the number of songs I know temporarily drops to zero.

[allenhopkins]

Couldn't begin to guess how many songs and tunes I "know." I put the word in quotes because I don't know if knowing the guitar chords to a fiddle tune constitutes "knowing" it. (Have I used the word "know" sufficiently in the last two or three sentences?)

I have no (hey, a homonym for "know"!) trouble picking up tunes and songs. I learned a little ditty last night to play today at a school assembly, an anti-drug song called Our School Rocks Drug Free. The school is having "Red Ribbon Week" which is some sort of anti-drug campaign. It was an easy-to-memorize, fairly disposable tune that I probably will have forgotten in a month. On the other hand, I spent a couple of days working on the Woody Guthrie song Peace Call because I intend to add it to the long-term repertoire.

A trick memory helps. I have apparently permanently incorporated TV commercials etc. from my formative years; today I recollected a novelty number called Greasy Kid Stuff from the early '60's, and I was able to resurrect Purple People Eater for Halloween.

I learn faster by ear than by music notation. I learned Flatbush Waltz for a wedding two weeks ago, from the sheet music, but I have to go back and play it a few dozen more times to have it permanently. If there are lyrics, it helps to listen to them, then write them down line-by-line.

I have pretty easy access to several hundred songs and tunes that I play in my various musical involvements, and can reach back for others if called upon. A few months ago at a seniors' program, someone asked for Que Sera, Sera, the Doris Day hit from the '50's, and surprisingly I could pull it out immediately, complete with ukulele accompaniment. Ya never know*...

* the word pops up again!

[EarlG]

It took me over 20 hours of practice on Blackberry Blossom on guitar to be able to play it.

I have more time than that on Whiskey before breakfast on mandolin and I'm still not sure I can play the B part every time.

But, some tunes I can play by ear like Unclouded Day, zero time invested.

I finally learned that listening to the tune like is posted above maybe 30 times will cut the learning time.

I probably can play around 15 tunes out of my head unless someone asks, then it drops to around zero.

[OldSausage]

I think days is a good way to count it, because often the biggest improvement seems to happen overnight while asleep. When I first started playing mandolin, it would take me about a week to learn a tune, and another week to get it to the point where I could play it in front of my teacher without making a terrible mess. These days it varies widely depending on the complexity of the tune (by which I mainly mean how similar it is to other tunes I know). A fiddle tune I can usually get to where I can play it pretty well the next day. But for example I recently spent about 3 months working on Adam Steffey's version of Salt Creek from the Clay Jones album, and I still can't play it up to speed. So there are tunes, and there are tunes.

[mjpetrie]

I've probably committed to memory 200+ Irish fiddle tunes (performing moved that genre right along), probably about 20 traditional/ Bluegrass instrumental tunes, and then another 15-20 jazz standards. With exception to the later, it's gotten to a point where I just need to visit the source of the tune long enough to get the melody in my head. I have found it gets easier the more I do it, there usually appears a predictable amount of redundancy. Of late my attention turns to jazz standards/chord melody arrangements. I do not yet possess the ears to hear the progressions as I would like. But, familiarity will surely take over at some point.

[farmerjones]

I make a fresh fiddle tune list every four or five months. Last one had just under a hundred tunes. Maybe 87 or 97? Funny, because i've made lists with 180 tunes. Was i kidding myself, or am i getting dumber? For me it's apathy more than atrophy. I've learned from more senior counterparts, sometimes all it take is a notion of a song or tune, and you can bring it back in a few go-arounds. Tunes that we play out at gigs or jams don't seem really worth remembering. Maybe that's sort of where improv comes from? Otherwise i'm always working on a rediculously difficult hornpipe. It takes me years and there's nowhere to play them. It's like a big jig-saw puzzle. It may be good for the brain, but who knows? I depend upon my vocabulary, and better musical grammar, more than my story telling ability.
Some folks are great story tellers. They can repeat a story (song/tune) note for note. Some folks are better at discussions.
I'd say figure out what your good at; If you've got a good deep memory, capitalise on that. If you're good at site reading, or if you're better at tactile/dexterity, or whatever.

PS - i've always got enough prepared for two full 50 minute coffee house sets, besides the fiddle tunes.

PSS - i've been at this since '03. About 1000 hrs. a year.

[JeffD]

If a complete piece is a jam ready or audience ready fiddle tune, played from memory, without prompting, then I would say one or almost a couple of hundred. If you allow prompting or sheet music, more then several hundred.

I don't go about learning new tunes in a systematic way anymore like I used to. I just hear stuff I like and if I still like it second time I hear it I will try it out, and if its fun to play, I will work on it.

Well thats not enirely true - one of the great joys of my life is to acquire a new tune book and to sight read through it looking for precious and semiprecious stones, and then introducing them at jams.

[Jill McAuley]

About 200 tunes and growing (irish trad), but some of those would be simple beginner tunes that I rarely if ever play nowadays, and some others would be more obscure tunes that only see the light of day every so often. I try to learn 1-3 new tunes a week, depending on my schedule. Those will be learned by ear/ABC's. It generally takes me a day or two to commit a tune to memory, and then another few days to introduce ornaments to it, or work on variations.

Cheers,
Jill

[Darren Bailey]

Thanks for these replies, both inspiring and ecouraging.

[JeffD]

I feel like a slow learner every time I go about deliberately learning a tune.

Truth is, once you have a lot of familiarity with the genre, learning another tune of the same kind becomes easier and easier. I haven't analyzed why, but I know its true. I can learn a totally new obscure 9/8 jig in a few hours, an old timey tune with a crooked part I can learn in a day or two, while a new Scandinavian fiddle tune will take me two or three, and this ragtime stuff is taking me for ever.

Oh, and I need to add to my earlier post - if you want me to remember the names of the tunes, the numbers are lower.

[Jill McAuley]

Another thing that comes to mind is that for me, if I learn a tune by ear, I tend to learn it quicker than if I initially had to go by the ABC's - for some reason it seems to stick in my head better, maybe because I'm not depending on a visual prompt via ABC's or tab. And the better I know a tune (i.e. being able to hum or whistle it) before attempting to learn it, the quicker I pick it up as well.

Cheers,
Jill

[JeffD]

Once I learn a tune by ear, to the point where I can remember how it goes and do those notes, (but it ain't purty), what I do then is write the tune out in notation. That way I know its there for me to work on. I can relax a little, the tune has been captured.

[Darren Bailey]

And no one was pedantic enough to mention I'd left the "r" out of "repertoire" - and to think they pay me to teach kids (shocking).

[EdSherry]

I've been at it since 1968. Back when I was actively performing a lot more than I am now (20+ years ago), I had an active repertoire of about 900 songs/tunes. Since then, a lot of them seem to have disappeared into the mists of time, though they keep popping into my head at the strangest of times. (I just pulled out "They Call The Wind Maria" last night at a session, though I haven't sung it for about 15 years.)

I probably know 200+ Irish/Celtic fiddle tunes to play along with, though getting from one tune (or part) to the next ("how DOES the B part go?") can be a challenge.

I certainly used to learn tunes/songs a lot more quickly than I do now. (It must be this 'you're getting old' @#$%).

[EarlG]

Ed, that's a cool tune (Mariah). I love that movie "Paint Your Wagon". I'd love to hear it on mandolin.

I'm sitting here trying to pick it out now.

[Ivan Kelsall]

After 4 years of playing from scratch - maybe a dozen or so that i'd be happy to get up & play with a band. Having spent more years than i care to remember,learning Banjo tunes & then forgetting them as i moved on to others. I once spent nearly a month learning Bill Keith's 'melodic' version of Sailor's Hornpipe ,only never to play it anywhere, now it's totally forgotten. My Mandolin goal is to be a good 'band player'. Able to improvise good,well constructed intros.& breaks.
The chances of me ever playing with a band in the UK, are only slightly more than that of me going to the Moon,
Ivan

[Richard Moore]

1 Counting songs and instrumentals, how many do you have to fall back on?
2 Roughly how long on average does it take you to add another?
3 If you counted the years you've been playing, how many pieces have you learned for each year of playing? (slightly different to number 2).


I've never actually counted or listed them. Whilst I keep files of songs, tunes are almost all in my head. Perhaps around 600 overall? (certainly in the several hundreds anyway).

Adding another can be from five minutes to five months! I primarily play by ear and can often play back a tune pretty closely after hearing it once or twice. Complex pieces or the occasional one where I get a complete mental block (does that happen to anyone else?!) can take longer. There are a couple of (relatively simple) tunes where something has gone in the wiring of my brain and I have trouble even after 45 years.

Some years, relatively few. Others, like this year... a couple of new pieces most weeks. Often, things will surface during a jam or session that I haven't played in 25 years.

[Randi Gormley]

Our band plays a set list (it's been set for nearly 5 years. we're not what you'd call flexible!) for performance of about 80 pieces which, after all this time, I actually know; we've been introducing new stuff a tune at a time over the past two years, stuff picked up from Catskills Irish Arts Week and (dare I say it?) session tune books about one every two or three months. As JeffD said, tunes in a certain genre become easier to learn once you're steeped in the traditions. I can learn a new Irish tune in about three days if I like it, well enough to play at session speeds.

However, I've been branching out into classical mandolin, and it's taking me forever even just to sight read the stuff correctly from sheet music. I've been working on three Bach pieces since early October and I'm not even past the first two pages in most of them (that have more than 2 pages) and I can't even say I can play phrases correctly with any ease on one of them. So don't get discouraged if it takes time to get things right. It's mostly a matter of working on stuff regardless, I've found.