The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: On average, how many tunes do you play a day

Voters
105. You may not vote on this poll
  • 2 or less

    28 26.67%
  • 3-5

    38 36.19%
  • 6-10

    22 20.95%
  • 11-20

    10 9.52%
  • 20-30

    3 2.86%
  • More than 30

    4 3.81%
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  1. #1

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    I'm curious regarding the answer between a giging and non-giging musician.

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  3. #2

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    6-10. I'm a non-giging musician.

    So far today I played: Footprints, Li'l Darlin, Look to the Sky, Mercy Mercy Mercy, My One and Only Love, One Note Samba, Route 66, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, All The Things You Are.
    Last edited by fep; 02-21-2010 at 07:26 PM.

  4. #3

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    i put 6-10, but the day before a solo gig i'l run thru at least the head of 15-20 tunes...

    there's about 40-50 songs I can pretty much pull off at anytime, but I ike to go over them now and then and twaek things too...no sense in getting too complacent...

    here's what i've run thru today and spent some time on (so far, IIRC)

    my one and only love
    peace
    all across the city
    alone together
    wave
    and 3 originals...so that's 8.

  5. #4

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    I'm also technically a non gigging musician. As mentioned before, I play at one nursing home once a week for about an hour and a quarter. When I do practice, I play pieces of songs to perfect certain chord substitutions and to find the best voicings for a particular tune. It helps me to better prepare for chord melody solos on the fly. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a good on the fly soloist so that's when I tell my captive audience to turn down their hearing aids. They don't hear my clinkers and my solos sounds better that way.

  6. #5

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    I gig 3-4 nights a week in these quiet months-6-7 nights after Paddys Day and Easter through the Summer. Not jazz-pop/country/pub/wedding stuff. During the day I'll run through maybe 20-30 jazz songs, practicing for the jazz band. I'll never practice the stuff we do out for the pubs and clubs-I've been doing that all my life. Jazz NEEDS practice, though-at least I do!

  7. #6

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    Although gig opportunites are slowing down with the bad economy, I am currently working 2 nights/week doing old standards and some jazz standards with my trio (Vocalist, Keyboard & guitarist). I usually work on 20 - 30 preselected songs to get ready for the week-end gigs. We have about 200-250 songs we can pretty much do without much effort but we alway change our mix on a weekly basis to provide variety and danceable tunes. We try to do at least one new song every week to keep the learning process going. We have a 2- 3 hr rehearsal on Thursdays to get ready for Friday and Saturday jobs. During our rehearsals we work on intro's and endings to make sure we will all be working from the same page. I know this sounds like a busy week but truthfully, We are all retired and we have plenty of time for our music activities and we enjoy every minute we spend on them.

    wiz

  8. #7

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    Like wizard...20 - 30 tunes a day...the real real good ones that I can play blindfolded (so to speak)...a learn at least one new one per day..or two...

    I have been playing a long time and learning a new tune is not much trouble for me...I play the 100 every jazz musician should and about 500 or so more..I fact with all my lifes playing I have learned a thousand or two songs...but from other genres...classical (segovia influenced on that) and I play charlie byrd style...rock from the 50's till late 80's...country from 40's to about mid 70's...folk songs from around the world...etc..

    sorry I got carried away..

    time on the instrument...pierre

  9. #8

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    i wish i had time to play every single day. on 'normal' days i might play five or six songs, but on days i'm working on an original i might work on that for several days or up to a week until i get it right.

  10. #9

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    On a good day about 15 (2 sets). On a not so good day 6-10. Depends on what else I'm working on.

  11. #10

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    I clicked the wrong vote but I play probably close to 20 seperate tunes a day depending on who many students I have that day. All my students work on different tunes at the same time to help me keep up tunes that I perhaps learned 5 years ago that you know are important tunes.

    Plus in my practice I work on the changes to my own compositions. So 15 to 20 yeah.

  12. #11

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    I put 6-10 because on days when I don't gig, I usually play just 1 tune all day. In addition to what my students are doing. But I should have put 30+ after thinking about it, I rehearse with different bands every day so thats at least 5-10 right there plus students (6 days a week) so thats another 5 or so, then if I'm gigging (3-5 nights a week) thats another 10-15 on top of that. and if it's a jazz gig playing standards thats more like 30 in one gig.

    But I really don't practice tunes very often, mostly just changes and trascription, or technical stuff.

    now, if we counted blues as a tune.... I'm always playing, I just cant get that shit out of my head and I sing lines constantly, I probably play at least one chorus of blues every hour of every day without fail, on whatever instrument is closest to me at the time. it's like cigarettes for me, I'm playing it right now.
    Last edited by timscarey; 02-22-2010 at 07:57 PM.

  13. #12

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    When you ask how many tunes you play a day, are you talking sitting down by yourself and playing through the head alone, then the changes, or like a chord melody type thing? OR, do you mean playing with a combo?

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by BillyC View Post
    When you ask how many tunes you play a day, are you talking sitting down by yourself and playing through the head alone, then the changes, or like a chord melody type thing? OR, do you mean playing with a combo?
    I'll leave that up to your own definition, and I suppose it depends on what your goals are.

    For me, I'm trying to build a repetoire of memorized tunes. So at a minimum I play the melody and the chord progression, so that's two choruses. Usually I improvise over the chord progression also. I'd say on average, I spend about 5 minutes a song... but if I was in a hurry and doing just the minimum, it could probably be done with 2 minutes a song.

    So far today: So What, Straight No Chaser, Sugar, Summertime, Take Five, Topsy, Tune Up, Turista (a Howard Roberts tune?)
    Last edited by fep; 02-23-2010 at 04:25 PM.

  15. #14

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    Usually 6-10 but less the past few days as I've been working on 2 new tunes. I usually play others if I need a break. I can pick up a tune basically in a day or 2 if it's not something really complicated (bebop head or such), but I like to spend a few days and learn:

    1) The melody in a couple of octaves
    2) Chord melody (if applicable)
    3) Memorizing the progression
    4) Improvising over the progression
    5) Listening/transcribing different versions
    6) Sometimes the lyrics

  16. #15

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    I play at least 5 gigs a week... some weekends two gigs on sun. I don't go through old standards except at gigs or if I'm writing out an arrangement. Today I've gone through, "Slings and Arrows", Brecker, "By Any Means Necessary", Florian Ross, " Come Escape With Me", Amina Figarova, "King Kong", John Patitucci, "Paladia", Steve Masakowski, "An Afterthought" Michel Camilo, "Big P", J. Scofield, and "The Beauty Of All Things", Laurence Hobgood. There newer tunes that are more difficult. Have gig tonight... probable 15 or so tunes. Have a rehearsal this afternoon... another 10 that's 30+... pretty standard day. When I have time I read through standards and and play them solo.. I don't like to work out parts or memorize, it's like improvisational sight reading. Reg

  17. #16

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    I clicked 6-19, but I'm looking forward to knowing enough tunes to be able to click 30+... ;-)

  18. #17

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    I don't gig. I can't even play with anyone. But the songs I have learned took time to learn. So it seems they are hard to forget also. The more I play the more the songs i've learnd come back to me. Even Chet Atkins practised hours a day all through his life, but he also enjoyed holding a guitar.

  19. #18

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    I'm currently trying to work up a set of thirty songs to have in my head if I can get a gig or two in the future. It's tough since that is a lot of work to build up the memory and then maintain it. I've found that if I do at least five a day and rotate them around a bit, I get pretty good retention and can still "work" the song not just memorize.

    ~DB

  20. #19

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    2 a day? What? I can't cope with 2 a year! (no, unfortunately, I'm not kidding, for once. 'Misty'; incomplete, and a great song by a former band mate Alan Sterling, never recorded...)
    It just doesn't stay in my head; God knows what I'm doing wrong (but he's not saying...). I make up my own tunes, using the American colour television system, NTSC (Never The Same [Color]...). Doesn't bug me too much, but I'd like to finish Misty one day.

  21. #20

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    On a gig day/night, over 30 tunes. Other days it can be one or ten or sometimes not even a single note.

  22. #21
    I do not gig, and I've voted 2 or less.

    Quote Originally Posted by Reg View Post
    When I have time I read through standards and and play them solo.. I don't like to work out parts or memorize, it's like improvisational sight reading. Reg
    You mean your improvising the harmony to the melody, right? Sort of like how keyboard players read figured bass charts?

  23. #22

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    I practice a standard every week, mastering it. I memorize the chord progression, the melody, then I practice soloing over the tune with my loop station. For example, this week I'll be working on "Round Midnight" and next week "Footprints", and then I'll do something a little more challenging the week after and do "Joy Spring"

    If anyone feels like this is a bad approach to learning, feel free to tell me, I could use some criticism.

  24. #23

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    sounds like a good approach. do fit review time into your schedule. if you will be "mastering" round midnight in a week, you are a great talent, indeed .

  25. #24

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    This poll comes back from the dead...

    I wanted to discuss why I was curious and why I orginally posted this poll?

    I've noticed that with the musicians I run across there seems to be a direct correlation between how many songs they know and how well they play.

    Many of the average players and amatuers I know play maybe 10-20 tunes or so and some are still using charts to get thru those tunes. I suspect these players play very few tunes per day. It's easy to practice what we know really well, but practicing what we already know is not very effective use of ones practice time.

    The really good players and pros I know... they know and can play tons of tunes, perhaps a thousand or more and they seem to be able to play them without using any charts.

    So my guess is one of the best ways to go from an average player to a good player is to play lots and lots of tunes.

    My current guitar teacher says the first one or two hundred are the hard ones to learn. After that tunes become much easier to learn and remember

    My past guitar teacher wrote: 3,000 "barely-correct" tunes are much better for your musician's "ear" than two dozen memorized show-off pieces.

    What do you think?
    Last edited by fep; 12-23-2010 at 12:30 AM.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by funkyjazz82 View Post
    I practice a standard every week, mastering it. I memorize the chord progression, the melody, then I practice soloing over the tune with my loop station. For example, this week I'll be working on "Round Midnight" and next week "Footprints", and then I'll do something a little more challenging the week after and do "Joy Spring".
    This is pretty much how I do it but I keep practicing it till I feel I know it and not give it any time frame. I'm an amateur but I do gig occasionally with one of the 3 band I play with. If we have a gig coming I will go through all the tunes we play so on the week prior to the gig I would practice about 20 - 25 tunes a day on other days It one tune at a time until it's internalized. currently I'm working on "Scrapple from the apple" which Is my favorite Parker tune