Questions about learning songs thread | Fab forum

GniknuS said:

And thanks for the tip paulsbass, I think I remember you saying you knew over 200 songs by memory which is just insane. I'm always looking to learn new songs, so do you have a few that you just completely love playing that would be worth learning? They don't have to be Beatles tunes.

Welcome!

To be perfectly honest, the 200 songs from memory – that's just my GUITAR repertoir. Of course there are more songs I know on the PIANO…

Did that sound a tiny little bit like bragging? I'm not totally sure…

To your question:

I'm giving away some quality information here, but since I don't expect you to show up in my hometown, taking away my most successful street music spots, here are some sure-fire song picks:

First some general thoughts.

When I started playing in the streets I thought "People don't want to hear the old stuff again like Streets of London, Lady in black etc.", so I did some lesser known songs, like "Blackbird". And one day two 14year old girls with pink hair approached me, asking "Do you know Streets of London, or Lady in black, or Hey Jude?" Then I realized: People DO want to hear the old stuff, it always works best everywhere (sometimes AFTER getting the folks started with some more recent songs).

So that has always been the key to my success, knowing all the "campfire" songs. SOme of "my" best songs:

Father and son (Cat Stevens) – I started my "guitar/singing" career with and due to this song (I sang and played the bass and the piano before) because I realized this one fits my voice really well, with the low father part and the spectacular high son part (people keep turning their heads when I go into that one), and seriously EVERYBODY loves it and everybody knows the first verse. So I thought "Well, I have THIS song, so I'll never COMPLETELY suck and people will like it" so I started playing in the streets with Father and son as the forerunner – and it ALWAYS worked extremely well.

Anything else by Cat Stevens (Wild world, Morning has broken…)

Penny Lane – Everybody knows and likes it, joining in at the chorus, and it's not totally overplayed like Hey Jude (which most people STILL love to hear).

Country roads (John Denver)

American pie (DOn McLean) – Some work to get the lyrics right, but always working for getting the crowd to join in

The Boxer (S & G) and even more Mrs. Robinson

Wonderful tonight

San Francisco and It never rains in Southern California

King of the road

All I have to do is dream

Wonderwall

Wonderful world (Don't know much about history…)

Stand by me

Those were the days

Que sera?

Of course there are a lot more songs I do, but these ones will work whenever you play them to people from 4 to 80 years.

Most recently I learned "I still haven't found what I'm looking for", "Stay the night" by James Blunt, "You don't know" by Milow and a German song called "Zu schnell vorbei".

I don't know if there's a secret for learning lyrics.

The rhymes help a lot, since you always have some reminder for the next line.

It also helps to picture the "story" of the song and how it progesses. I find it difficult to learn songs without a story. I will NEVER be able to do "Mr. Tambourine man" due to that reason.

And most often, if you know the chorus, you've got 50 percent of the song. Adding three verses is not that hard in most cases.

I noticed most people are just too scared to sing or play songs by heart. They think they need their sheet music or songbook, and so they sit or stand there, playing, staring at the pages, although they do it for the 50th time and could do it by memory easily!

So, my advice, just DO it, start singing/playing without the sheet, if you get stuck, just a quick look, and then without the notes again, until it's "saved".

I do have the huge advantage of playing live very often, so I might have played a song like Father and son literally several hundred times, and that's a lot of practice, obviously.

And it is something different, playing a song at home or in front of an audience. THAT'S when you notice which parts are not memorized so well. And you'll need that experience to "save it", to get over the weak spots – for ever!

Thanks for reading!

Edit: After having rambled on for 15 pages – BACK AND FRONT! – I realized I might haven't answered your question perfectly well. These songs are not necessarily the ones I "love to play" most, but they are "worth learning" in terms of having success with an audience.

If you're still interested I might add some "favourites" in another post.

Holy shit, that's a long post, but a great one. Do you ever do any Elton John? I seem to remember you saying you liked him.

 

I'm proud of doing a very nice guitar version of "Your song".

I also do it on the piano, as well as "Don't let the sun go down on me" and "Crocodile rock".

One of these days I'm going to start doing some stuff on youtube…

GniknuS said:

Awesome post, thanks a lot. I've also noticed that when playing in front of people, even though they are usually just friends and family, that certain songs that everyone knows and can join in on often get the best reception, even if they aren't even close to the best thing you can play.

Indeed.

And these songs don't even have to be played perfectly, not even with the correct cords, most people will never notice (it bothers ME a lot, but that's my problem), as long as the words of the chorus are there, along with the right spirit.