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Hi, @NW7! Nothing makes me clam up and forget everything I know like someone saying “play something for me!”
I have never been a great memorizer, so I play off of tabs or chord sheets a lot. And I’m hopeless when it comes to memorizing lyrics. In the last few months, I’ve started using software on my computer and iPad to help organize the music. That way I always have it on hand and it’s easy to pull up the music and play off of it.
If you look at professional orchestral musicians, they play off of sheet music the vast majority of the time and the conductor works off the score. Even if they all have it mostly committed to memory, they have the music there as a reminder. No shame in it!
To me, it’s more fun to use reminders, and I play to have fun. 🙂