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Hi @reachcast just know that you are definitely NOT alone in this regard!! I think the older we get, generally the less storage capacity we retain in the ole cloud brain.
But also, we tend to remember what we access daily… What has worked for me is to concentrate on just one song. Get it under your fingers. Learn it in your sleep. Play it every day until you have it memorized and can play it without any music or notes. Now it’s considered to be a “Back Pocket Song”. You can play it anywhere there’s you and a guitar, with no warming up or practice required. Then move on to the next song. Every time you achieve another “Back Pocket Song”, put the original music/tabs/song sheet in a binder just for these songs. The trick is to PLAY THROUGH ALL BACK POCKET SONGS ONCE A WEEK. Sorry to shout but the all caps are more for me than for anyone else. If you play through all your memorized songs a few times a month (like my guitar teacher told me to so many times), you will always remember them well enough to play them in the moment. I’ve annoyed myself countless times when I put so much time and effort into learning a song, then it sits on a shelf collecting dust and 3-6 months later when I try to play it I have to rescue it from the rust bucket. (That’s where the notebook comes in handy). It is much easier to learn a song the 2nd time around but it’s still frustrating. So every week or 2, play through all of your back pocket songs!!
Right on the music print out, I pencil in my own notes of all kinds including chord diagrams with the exact left and right hand fingering I used to learn the song. Also it’s very helpful to video yourself playing the song once you’ve mastered it. Just for your own eyes, you don’t have to share it with anyone. It’s a valuable tool for you to remember how you actually mastered all the fretboard dancing and mechanics, if you have to go back and re-learn a song.
Best wishes as you begin your “Back Pocket Song” journey!! Hope this helped a little 🙂
C