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nylenny
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291
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 Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:36 am Post subject: Maintaining Repertoire |
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| I try to maintain a database of the tunes I know, and review them from time to time. Still, I forget a lot of stuff. Does anyone have suggestions on how to maintain repertoire? |
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corky4strings
Joined: 21 May 2008
Posts: 109
Location: plain, pa.
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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how about starting a jam session with friends that have the same influences as you
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corky
let your fingers do the walking i do |
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Mark
VM Coach
Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject: Re: Maintaining Repertoire |
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| nylenny wrote: | | I try to maintain a database of the tunes I know, and review them from time to time. Still, I forget a lot of stuff. Does anyone have suggestions on how to maintain repertoire? |
Len,
It's the "from time to time" factor that will determine whether you truly stay on top of your repertoire or not, as opposed to forgetting it. As time goes by and assuming that you are involved with quality projects based on something you really do want to perform for someone, the responsibility of maintaining repertoire grows right along with the volume of material that you acquire. For me, it took all of my organizational skill to continually "massage" my daily, weekly, and monthly review.
As one example, I can remember a time when I had arranged about 19-20 standards for solo guitar, and I really understood the need to both arrange and build repertoire. I'm a goal-driven individual, so once the quality was established it was time to deal with quantity. Before long I had arranged hundreds of tunes and had no choice but to organize them according to category or artist (e.g. latin, pop, jazz, Beatles, Ellington, Jobim, Stevie Wonder, Gershwin, etc, etc), then practice about 15 tunes in a 30 minute time period. Not full performance, mind you. Just enough to retain memory and the essence of what I had accomplished for recall when playing. Otherwise all you have left is a memory of the fact that you practiced, yet you have nothing tangible to show for it.
Long story relatively short is that I did likewise for my classical repertoire (250+ works), over 200 bebop and blues heads done on the bass, many original compositions, and my entire lick book comprised of perhaps 2,000 or more clichés. The licks were the only part of my practice review that required notational viewing, but just as a quick reminder of something that I had memorized. All in all at one point my review totaled a whopping THIRTY hours, so it took me an hour a day for thirty days to do a full rotation. Amazingly, I was still able to retain memory and even see marginal progress. Btw, this was many years ago and during our "B.C." (Before Children) time period. 
Bottom line is that this is all about memorization and organization, regardless of how small or large your repertoire happens to be. All for now...
- Mark
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple" - Mingus |
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nylenny
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Not full performance, mind you. Just enough to retain memory and the essence of what I had accomplished for recall when playing. |
Mark, Thanks for mentioning the point about not doing a full performance. It's one of those little things that is simple, but bears repeating from time to time. Sometimes my best review is when I ask myself, "what are the things in this chart that give me the most difficulty?"
Focusing on aspects of a tune can not only save time, but also yield a better practice experience. |
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Mark
VM Coach
Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject: Re: Tune Essentials |
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| nylenny wrote: | Mark, Thanks for mentioning the point about not doing a full performance. It's one of those little things that is simple, but bears repeating from time to time. Sometimes my best review is when I ask myself, "what are the things in this chart that give me the most difficulty?"
Focusing on aspects of a tune can not only save time, but also yield a better practice experience. |
Len,
Sure thing, my friend. When it comes to jazz-related standards, the most important thing to keep in mind is the actual essence of a tune. That, of course, is the melody itself, followed by the chord progression. When the average listener thinks of "Misty" or any other standard we could name, they're not thinking about some elaborate, stretched-out performance with sophisticated intros, solos, endings, etc.
So as far as maintaining repertoire goes, unless you've got an upcoming gig or recording session, I see no reason to review anything other than the basic "framework" for the song. You can always fill in the creative blanks later. 
- Mark
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple" - Mingus |
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