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Day 57 of the Day Challenge
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Your challenge is an excellent one if it spurs you to commit more music and things to memory. I don’t make all the open mics due to work, family, etc. But I participate as often as I can because they are an absolute hoot! The variety of music that is shared is amazing and most of the players are very talented. Friday VOM is my most consistent one to attend so that is probably why I don’t think of you as a regular player.
I am not sure if you already do this but start a 3 ring binder to keep all your song lead sheets in. There are lots of folks that try and manage this electronically, but I think the binder is the easiest, best and most accessible way to go. Over the years I have learned most of my songs by ear, trial and error, etc. I write down the words and create lead sheets by writing the chords over the words where the chords change. I have checked out Ultimate Guitar and even Tony’s Song Vault (no longer part of the website) and I find that others don’t play the songs the way I hear them anyway. And the shortcuts seem to be a hindrance to my learning style. By learning this (hard) way a lot of the memorization is already ingrained. And when I took up guitar again after roughly 35 years off I still had my trusty binder with 50+ songs in it all ready to dust off and start playing and singing again. It didn’t take long to commit many of them to memory again. When I play for the VOM I usually have my lead sheet open on the music stand but only for occasional reference if I get fuzzy on which verse goes next, etc. I am, after all, a geezer. But I don’t play while reading the lead sheet. It is just a kind of security blanket that is easy in a VOM.
My long winded point is that if you are not working on a songbook, I strongly urge you to start today!
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You’re right @PhilBarru . The old school songbooks are best! I have them started and just about filled – one for guitar and another for ukulele. I appreciate your long winded point! Thank you!
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