How many songs can be reasonably expected to have learned to play on command at any one time?

MentalSharps

What kind of numbers are common for people who play live to have memorised at any one time? Is there any science to it concerning "ideal" amounts, possibly in various states of learned/lapsed?

octatonic

How long is a piece of string?
As many as possible really- the more songs you know the easier it is to learn more too.

Most wedding bands play 35-50 songs per night.
If you want to dep in the wedding band circuit then you probably need to know 4 times that and be able to learn more at short notice to just slot in.

phil_b

my uncle knows so many songs that guys in the local where he plays try to think of songs he doesn't know. they call him the walking duke box.

the science to his secret is he has been playing for about 50 years and prides himself on learning popular request if he does not already know them. and has been doing this for a long time

Musicwolf

Last Friday's club gig was 33 songs.  That's from a pool of probably about 45 that we have performed in the last year although there's a couple in there that I'd want to run through before gigging them again.  Then I've just pulled up the previous band's set list, which I last gigged about 2 years ago, and there's another 30 songs (not including the ones which have carried over) plus all the other stuff from over the years.  Add to that various other standards, personal favourites and stuff I've gigged over the last 500 years and we must be at well over 100 that could be gig ready at very short notice.

Learning songs is something that gets easier the more you do it.  It wasn't something that I could 'always do' but nowadays I find it easy to remember structures.  It's just where I left my keys that I can't remember.

Danny1969

Hundreds basically, sounds hard at first but after 20 or more years of giging you will generally know hundreds, especially if you play across a lot of different bands. 

Rather than learn songs in terms of chords and notes it's far easier just to learn your intervals and apply that to the song as you hear it in your head. Take something like Summer of 69 ....  verse would be 1, 5, 1, 5 etc. You can then apply that to any key as some singers won't reach it in D so you might need to do it in Db or C. 
Moving Riff based songs dependent on open strings can be trickier but that's generally that's how you do it ... you don't need to remember the chords to a song you only need to remember how the song goes in your head. 

At the mo I'm only gigi'ing in 3 bands so regularly doing about 175 different songs  but in 2017 I was playing in 8 and had to be able to play over 400 songs ranging from Thin Lizzy to Kate Bush. Like anything the more you do it the easier it gets

p90fool

At a pure guess between all my regular gigging projects, I'd say I could play around 300 songs with zero notice onstage in front of a paying audience, and about the same again to a standard which I'd get away with, but would rather have had a few minutes prep time.

I'm not including 12-bar blues in that, for obvious reasons. 

It gets easier the more you do it, like everything else. Most punters think I'm an ok guitarist, but have absolutely zero idea about what's really involved in being a great asset to a band. 

Roland

As above, although three chord tricks are a lot easier to remember than on of Mr Fripp’s note perfect renditions in 15:16 time

MentalSharps

Wow, this has kind of blown my mind quite frankly. I was thinking 50 would be the high end. The intervals thing makes sense, right now I'm just playing along with songs so I guess just rote learning, time to crack onto some theory I think!

maltingsaudio

What @Danny1969, said in essence if you know a song and can hear in your head, the chord sequence, or in Danny speak the intervals you should be good. This  in my head is the c am f g  base of most songs. Learning lyrics is a different thing the. It’s strictly first verse and chorus!

stickyfiddle

From the thread title my instinct was "a couple of hundred would be a starting point". I could probably do much more if moderate busking/blagging alongside other decent musos is permitted, rather than fully-rehearsed-and-polished with vocal harmonies etc. Good to know that seems about right despite my serious lack of gigging in recent years.

I certainly have a good handful of favourite records I could play start to finish without much thought, so that's easily 100+ before I start counting songs other people might want to listen to on a night out.

bbill335

I learnt 2 hours of ska in a week with 1 rehearsal to dep for a ska band once

ESBlonde

Oddly enough I counted the set list of my old 9 piece some band last week. Over 100 songs learned, but not all in rotation at once. Current function band probably nearer 50+. I'm depping in one band and play in two others as well. It's lyrics I can't learn fast enough so I no longer try.  After all these years I tend to retain songs fairly well but recognise my memory finds it harder than it once was.
Just found out our country band singer  can't make a gig on 9th Nov. I just made up a list of songs I could sing and play on my own if I had to at short notice. It's 49 possibilities before edit. 

p90fool

MentalSharps said:

Wow, this has kind of blown my mind quite frankly. I was thinking 50 would be the high end. The intervals thing makes sense, right now I'm just playing along with songs so I guess just rote learning, time to crack onto some theory I think!

50 is perfectly adequate for someone in one band gigging in different venues every other week or so, don't overextend yourself. 

I'm in three different bands and gigging two or three times a week, but some of those are unofficial three-hour residencies, so we need a lot of songs on rotation at the drop of a hat. 

I have endless folders on tablets and laptops and can tell you which 50 songs we played at any venue on any night, which enables me to customise setlists for the next one. 

I also don't do a lot else, just working a handful of hours a week in a "straight" job, so I can do a lot of prep. 

If you play 2x45s in a different town every week you only need 30 songs. 

Grocer_Jack

When I was in a covers band (2010-16) we had about 250 songs (mainly 60s & 70s rock, beat, psych, garage, punk, rockabilly etc). 

All those are in in my head and I think I could play 150 straight off. The other 100 I’d need to hear the song once to get them. 

My current originals band has approx 40 songs and I think I probably have another 70 covers or so that I just play on my own for fun, or occasionally with others. 

So I reckon I have 300-360 songs to hand. All from memory - nothing written down. 

hotpickups

I’ve been thinking about this too lately. As well as my band I’ve joined another band - Elton John tribute band. So very different from what I’m used to so have to learn a shed loads of songs for that set too. Trying to memorise them all is tough at the moment but I’ll have to coz I hate relying on chord sheets when live

Revolting1

Can't help with how many-

my longest solo gig was about 5 hrs with a couple of short breaks.

Remembering lyrics is my bane.

Mark1960

If you are playing in a covers band regularly, then most have a total set list of around 50  songs, with 35 ish used for a standard gig. we have someting similar with around 12 as backup if we need more. So in answer to the question 50 would do it. I and most experienced guitarists could probably play a lot more with a little thought (depending on how complex the song was), but 50 would be fine for 1 band

Fez

Mark1960 said:

If you are playing in a covers band regularly, then most have a total set list of around 50  songs, with 35 ish used for a standard gig. we have someting similar with around 12 as backup if we need more. So in answer to the question 50 would do it. I and most experienced guitarists could probably play a lot more with a little thought (depending on how complex the song was), but 50 would be fine for 1 band

That is pretty much what I do with my band.

digitalscream

For what it's worth...I'm in two bands, and my limit is around 30-40 songs. The difference is that they're both originals bands, and heavily riff-based to the point where learning standard chord sequences would probably help you with about four of them.

I also have some awkward memory problems, but then...I'd never have to play more than 10-11 of those songs in a night, so that makes it somewhat easier.