How many songs do you know?

[ElectroVibe]

I've played in the hundreds, maybe even thousands, just messing around with my acoustic.
As opposed to playing gigs.
Like others have said, I wouldn't even be able to remember them all.

 

[40Hz]

I couldn’t even guess at an actual hard number.

Because I don’t “learn a song” usually. My approach is more granular. I focus on the structure and the building blocks of songs: keys, modes, chord progressions, changes, intros and exits, genre conventions, type of song (i.e. ballad, anthem, samba, waltz, etc.) and the signature elements of popular era defining bands like the Stones, Beatles, Nirvana, et al.

Do that long enough and after awhile you notice the truth in the saying: “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Or if there is it’s pretty rare. So “learning a song” soon becomes: Yeah…so that’s the chorus from A, and almost the same melody as B - same chord progression either way but slowed down with a ska feel for the first half and a hard rock drive for the second half after the bridge which is just a I-V-vi-IV repeated four times - or however long the vocalist decides she wants to milk it - and we’re staying in A throughout right?

So…how many songs do I know?

Note for note - maybe 2.

Well enough to pass for a respectable cover version off the top of my head - a decent number.

How many songs can I play with minimal prep? A lot.

 

[Trailertrash74]

I know all the songs...I just can't play all of them!!

 

[AB Nate]

To clarify this.... it seems the question is being over complicated.

we all have a different definition of knowing, we all have different backgrounds, genres, goals, etc.

Can you get through a song to the end?

with a chart, basic progression, memory, tab, anything.

if it needs a bit of brushing up but it was there I’d speculate you know the song.
Just a simple ball park.

for those that know hundreds of songs, I don’t expect you to know how to play through an archspire album and for those than can, I imagine you don’t know “millions” more songs due to the effort/time required to learn something of that caliber.
Let’s just keep it simple here folks with ballpark numbers. No need to disassemble the question.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

No idea. Really. I'm pretty sure I know how to sing more songs than I know how to play, but the number of either, or both? I can't even guess. Rock songs, Blues and R&B songs, Country songs, throw in some American Songbook stuff (32/64 bar Cole Porter, Harold Arlen...) Gaahhh...

 

[Killing Floor]

Is Hot Crossed Buns a Song?

Jaco didn’t need to know any songs...

 

[rufus.K]

How many do i know.... maybe 3.
How many have i learned.... thousands
How fast can i usually learn one... one or two passes
How fast to re_learn or remember it after I learned it and forgot it ... in real time (well, a millisecond behind real time)
How long does it stay in memory ... as long as its in the setlist and not a second more

 

[misterCRUSH]

I play jazz, so at any given time I have about 40-50 tunes memorized. I include the melody in that memorization. I know 'of' hundreds of songs, and can play them from a lead sheet with minor glances. In this instance, I may not know the melody, but I can sight read pretty well.

 

[Jefenator]

It gets easier after the first hundred.
Instead of having to slowly trudge through every tedious new measure, you often start to realize this new song is just like another song you've already learned, with a few tweaks. (And when it isn't, your song-learning muscles will be better developed.)

 

[wpatton11]

I grew up in the 60s so I know the pop tunes, Beatles, Stones, and all those taking up room in my RAM like Dave Clark 5, etc. in the 70s I played jazz with older cats who never used books so I assimilated 100s of standards and bebop. But knowing them on bass is different than getting the melody and chord nuances correct. I used to bug my piano player -when someone requested a tune I'd say, sure we know that - - it goes [sings bass part]

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Based on my current bands' repertoires, I'd put myself at 150 - 200, even though I'd have to brush of the dust to put some of it back to memory. If I go with all the songs I have played and transcribed over the years, that would likely go into the 300 + category or close to it.

 

[StatesideRambler]

I’ll interpret “know” as being ready to play the song in a Fri-Sat gig if I’m called with a likely set list on Wed or Thu. My catalog is deep but some of it I haven’t played in a lot of years. Playing at reunions sometimes dredges up tunes I’d rather have forgotten.

 

[2112]

bout tree-fiddy

 

[MDStingray]

Hang on.... isn't every song slapbass in E?

 

[LBS-bass]

I put 300+ but the real answer is that I have no idea, because lots of songs I've played are songs I've never played before, I just have them in my head, so when someone pulls those songs out I find out that I know them.

The number of songs I've actually worked on to play is probably also 300+ but I don't keep a list.

 

[AB Nate]

That still doesn't clarify the question for me. I answered as best as I could.

Best you could is all were looking for.
A simple check by a box that vaguely represents you works just fine.

 

[ElectroVibe]

To clarify this.... it seems the question is being over complicated.

we all have a different definition of knowing, we all have different backgrounds, genres, goals, etc.

Can you get through a song to the end?

with a chart, basic progression, memory, tab, anything.

if it needs a bit of brushing up but it was there I’d speculate you know the song.
Just a simple ball park.

for those that know hundreds of songs, I don’t expect you to know how to play through an archspire album and for those than can, I imagine you don’t know “millions” more songs due to the effort/time required to learn something of that caliber.
Let’s just keep it simple here folks with ballpark numbers. No need to disassemble the question.

I feel like I could play along with any popular song that I am familiar with, if it's just within the confines of standard 3 to 6 chords. That encompasses hundreds. I might not play it the "right" way, but in a way that works with the rhythm.

 

[red_rhino]

I think some people are mistaking "how many songs do you know" for "how many songs can you get through."

Isn't that the job description for "bass player"? We tend to have very good pattern recognition. It often happens that I know a song that I didn't even know I knew; usually when a guitar player says "Hey, do you know..." and starts playing it and I realize, "Yeah, I do know that.", even if I've never played it before.

 

[Michedelic]

I know three chords, actually four, so that would be about a billion songs.

 

[Green Knight]

Assuming that learning a song means playing the bass line note for note rather than improvising through the chord patterns, I know 0 songs.