How do you remember how to play all your music? (1 Viewer)

[chris d]

Whether it's age, covid brain or not getting together to practice enough, but I have now started to tab out the middle ages guitar parts. Starting from most recent and working backwards. Had a look at Anto's first solo release the other night and there are song titles on there I don't even remember let alone riffs.

It's a long aul road.

 

[Space]

Nope. I sometimes need someone to show me my own riffs.

 

[Anthony]

Mussle memory. But it is difficult. I generally only play unrecorded stuff at home. And I play them all the time. As soon as it's banked it's gone.

 

[ann post]

Hard no.

 

[egg_]

Hard no here also. I've also come across songs I've written myself that I had no recollection of ... in fairness I've been writing songs all my life, and I'm 51 years of age

 

[chris d]

half assed the middle ages tab book coming on sale soon.

 

[taubstumm]

I had a rehearsal earlier today. at the end, I did a voice note on my phone, for the benefit of future me. I walked through one of the songs, part by part, explaining the various bits of info (partly the riffs but also stuff like which pedals are turned on at which points). I know that we won’t be able to rehearse again until some time in late august, so I’m hoping that this will work as a way to hack my brain and not have that current familiarity just evaporate. the struggle is real.

 

[Anthony]

I send the lads short videos of me going through riffs and fret positions for made up chords. Sometimes I have to refer to those videos.

 

[ann post]

Most of what i've done has been straight to studio with no inclination of it being a band / live thing. I was essentially voluntold into playing live at all so it's nearly always reverse engineering.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Most of my band’s existence was playing improvised music so it was gone into the ether within minutes. Beautiful while it lasted and we got to a level of synchrony that was unreal, closest thing to a psychic connection outside of good sex. I miss my friends.

 

[seanc]

This thread is heartening. I don't remember anything in full, but I've not played with anyone in a decade. I did always write everything down. Recording helped as well, as in, once you've eviscerated a song and then put it back together again you tend to remember it better.

There was a yoke on Sky Arts ages ago where Ronnie Wood and Paul McCartney were just sitting there going through old rock-'n'-roll and skiffle tunes.
One song was something like"Ooh baby it's alright, ooh baby let's dance all night".
The next song was "ooh baby let's dance all night, ooh baby yeah it's alright".

But they knew every single one and the differences between them. I find that hard to imagine.

 

[xsteox]

There's only two of us in the band right now, and practice is sparse, so it's always slightly (sometimes very) different every practice, but, that keeps it interesting.

 

[ann post]

One song was something like"Ooh baby it's alright, ooh baby let's dance all night".
The next song was "ooh baby let's dance all night, ooh baby yeah it's alright".

But they knew every single one and the differences between them. I find that hard to imagine.

I'd think that would sit somewhere in the 'play wonderwall' bracket. Everyone of a certain age who was learning guitar can rattle off that and about 3-4 others from the era that will be equally forgotten to the masses in time.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

I could never remember lyrics, so they evolved over time, as did the songs as both were in my head

Then I did a @ann post on it and wrote and recorded an album entirely on my own more or less. For the first time i actually wrote the lyrics down.

When I went to put a band together to play it live the music went in all sorts of interesting directions, but the lyrics remainded exactly the same as on then record.

 

[ernesto]

I had to rewrite/learn all my guitar bits because I wrote most of them in the studio on the day or recording. Then Covid hit and id not an iota what id done in over two years between recording and album launch

 

[seanc]

I'd think that would sit somewhere in the 'play wonderwall' bracket. Everyone of a certain age who was learning guitar can rattle off that and about 3-4 others from the era that will be equally forgotten to the masses in time.

I thought someone would say that but no, it wasn't like that. They knew all the tiny differences.

There's a chap that gigs around here, he's autistic apparently. But my god he's a human jukebox for that music. I've seen him take requests for a song that got to #26 in 1964 and it barely fazes him. And again he knows the difference between all these basically identical songs. He's also extremely entertaining.

 

[snakybus]

I had to play a series of 3-hour gigs recently. A good exercise in remembering stuff. Take that, Alzheimer's!

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

I just wing it

 

[rettucs]

Most of my band’s existence was playing improvised music so it was gone into the ether within minutes. Beautiful while it lasted and we got to a level of synchrony that was unreal, closest thing to a psychic connection outside of good sex with my friends.

fixed that for you

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

fixed that for you

I think the rest of the band were the only people the drummer didn’t ride back then.