How do you guys document the songs your band plays?

Google Docs, IME.

 

For a newbie, the easiest way is to make sure the band does the tune like recordings availbable on Youtube, or your own recordings of the band. Assemble the tunes into yoru own Playlist on Youtube using Youtube;s playlist feature. Send a link to the playlist to your newbie so s/he can listen to the playlist and come prepared to the gig without rehearsal. Or with minimal such.

If you have originals, upload them to Youtube and include them in your playlist.

 

We keep em on a spreadsheet.

 

Email me a song list with the REAL names of the songs, the version you’re covering -see Eric Clapton and just about any of his covers fo multiple examples- and, best of all, links to the best versions on youtube.com. I’ll have that list ready to go before you know it. Finally, if you have working set lists, that’s a plus too, but not required. That’s what I like to see.

 

I manage a Word document with lyrics, chords and song structure for every song. This way it's easier for a new band member to catch up and for all of us to update what is the officiall song list.
Off course, managing that document gives me small opportunity to push some songs that I prefer more than others ;-)

 

Yea. Google drive. Share a spreadsheet for your song list. Column for song title, tempo, feel, and key. Super helpful for shaping effective setlists.

 

One of the guys I play with occaisonally has a Word doc on Googledrive - he's got title, artist, key, performance notes and embedded links to either audio or video on the web in various places. Makes it super easy to onboard new stuff. I then print out the Word doc and bring that to rehearsal. Makes a good memory jogger for unfamiliar tunes (or originals).

 

I play in a blues "project". I guess I'm the leader since it's at my house. Anyhow, I put it all in a spreadsheet. With keys since the usual bass player never remembers. Since a lot of this has many versions, I'll note the version we're following and the original version (if I know) so to allow folks to go back to the basics if need be.

We have a few originals. I capture those via a recording and have a separate box folder of those recordings. We haven't had much turnover, but did have a guy sub on bass so I sent him the list.

 

clear recordings along with some basic "cheat sheet" if you're doing originals. if they are covers, all I ever ask is the basic notes - 1. do you do the song in the recorded key? 2. If there are any deviations from the original - recordings helps both.

 

Assuming you're talking about reading musicians, you can't give them anything better than sheet music.

If that's too much effort (and I can totally understand that it would normally be), see other posts in this thread. But from my own experience, just glancing over written music tells me more, and in a much simpler way, than having it explained or having to listen to playlists first. Plus, no rehearsal required.

Well, you did ask for the best way. I've been in a situation recently where I had to fill in a temp position in a classic rock band that plays the lesser-covered minor classics (to set itself apart from the same old, same old). They gave me a giant list with artist names, song names, version covered. I wish they'd just given me a stack of dots.

 

Be aware that for YouTube some videos are converted to the wrong key to get around copy-write violations, so make sure you're all using the same link and charts are for that link, (maybe not the original).

 

i use charts and recordings, but the charting is more important if you can't record. the two together = no excuses.

good luck with your band!

 

I second the Google Drive suggestion, but bear in mind there's always going to be one luddite who is technically challenged and will ask you to hold his hand and send everything via email by attachment. We keep a song list on a spreadsheet and we have various recordings of our originals that can be listened to, along with chord charts for those. We expect everyone to be skilled enough to chart covers on their own but when one of us does it we'll usually put that online, too.

 

We put audio files of the versions we play in Dropbox. Along with the songs, a spreadsheet of the setlist is in there with the running times of the songs, who's starting the song, and who's singing lead.

 

I joined a working cover band back in '03 that had been around for a long time. In fact, they still are today. The BL gave me an Excel spreadsheet with one page of currently active songs, and an archive list on another page. It was freaking huge. I don't even remember how many songs they had listed (300+ -ish, maybe?), but I do remember that he also gave me a bundle of three CDs full of MP3s of every song on both lists. As new tunes were added, the package was updated and redistributed. Every band member had this stuff, as did any regular fill-in musicians, so there was never any reasonable excuses to show up not knowing a song. Made it very easy for me to get up to speed as well when I was new.

 

I keep everything on an excel spreadsheet. I have columns for song name, original band name, tuning (we use 3 as well as several songs in drop d), a spot for each member to list what bass or guitar they are using (makes it easier when trying to arrange set lists), and an empty column for new members to track which songs they learned and are ready to play. Possible new songs are listed at the bottom and songs we are working on are highlighted in yellow. Songs that are stage ready are highlighted in green.

 

Same here

 

I kept a typed list for a while, and added stuff by hand. I've kept most of the setlists the drummer has made so now that it's getting out of control I recently compiled it all into a spreadsheet with the new potentials that we seem serious about adding.

I made myself a mp3 disc to practice along to when i first joined these guys. (pitch corrected) . When we've added any members i make them a copy,

and tell them about UltimateGuitar.com