How many songs do you know?

[AB Nate]

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.

Good enough

 

[ElectroVibe]

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

Okay. Well I am a better rhythm guitarist than I am a bass player. So, even though I can play a lot of songs, most bass players here would not think I am very good. Or they might say I stay "in the pocket" or something.

 

[aekisz]

Covers? About six or seven. Originals? About 300, give or take 50.

 

[AB Nate]

Okay. Well I am a better rhythm guitarist than I am a bass player. So, even though I can play a lot of songs, most bass players here would not think I am very good. Or they might say I stay "in the pocket" or something.

Lol. This thread isn’t about talent or what anyone thinks of you.

 

[Tosh]

I played in a variety band with a 300 song catalog, but I was reading a chart about 80% of the time.

I'm not sure I can actually play 50 songs from memory. 30, perhaps.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Just out of curiosity.

Type of song doesn’t matter: original, cover, jingle, whatever.

I’ve been playing a long time and I really never put much to any effort into learning covers until recently.
I regret it.

I played all originals in one band for years and we never really had that many songs.

just looking for poll stats, we could break this down further, originals vs covers in another poll thread.

EDIT:
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’ve been in bands that have collectively written 7 original albums (5 with Nephilym alone) and I remember that stuff very well. plus I know maybe 30 covers pretty well. There more that I could have ready by next weekend if I had to. So I guess somewhere around a hundred. Not really something I put a lot of focus on. More so just from playing for a long time and being able to remember my parts fairly well.

 

[JonathanPDX]

My current working band has a catalog of around 300 songs. There are a handful of them I need charts for, but on any given gig there are well over 250 songs we can recall from memory.

After 20 years working in dozens of bands, I can confidently say my personal song inventory is in the thousands.

 

[Slevage]

Just out of curiosity.

Type of song doesn’t matter: original, cover, jingle, whatever.

I’ve been playing a long time and I really never put much to any effort into learning covers until recently.
I regret it.

I played all originals in one band for years and we never really had that many songs.

just looking for poll stats, we could break this down further, originals vs covers in another poll thread.

EDIT:
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.

“With a chart” —— its endless.
That’s the point of learning to read standard notation.

 

[AB Nate]

“With a chart” —— its endless.
That’s the point of learning to read standard notation.

Sure. Not the point of this thread.

not everyone even reads charts and again, not the point.
If your known library is endless then I’d recommend checking 300+

 

[RickyRocknRoll]

Interesting question. I couldn't tell how many "songs I know"... Been playing for well over 35 years... I played mainly covers during this period of time.. Could I play them right now, on the spot? Maybe some but not all. I play in various projects - when there's no pandemic - so I tend to focus on each project, one at a time. I don't do charts - I mean pro charts (I don't read music). I do make my own annotations/charts when needed but I truly hate relying on a chart to play.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

Not enough!

 

[vvvmmm]

The answer, as to everything, is 42.

 

[Pings Bass]

I know exactly as many songs as are on the set list for a given date.

I've forgotten more songs than some of you kids will ever know

 

[jamro217]

Know as far as being able to play them in my sleep: about 100. Able to play at a gig without causing a train wreck: thousands.

 

[Bent77]

The answer is always 42

 

[butterfingers1]

About 100 mainly 1960s stuff that I go through once a week. If I stop I will lose memory, callouses and goodbye folks, I won’t start again.

 

[Rib 13]

I know hundreds and hundreds of songs. I play most of them incorrectly but close enough, sometimes intentionally changing things to match the other players in a particular ensemble and sometimes just because I just dont know the ver batim correct bassline but I know the main sauce enough. If there is a song Ive never played or sat down to learn but that Im somewhat familiar with, I can usually jam through it for a paycheck without anyone getting hurt

Of these hundreds and hundreds, I do know a much smaller fraction of them with the ver batim correct bassline that, often, never gets played because nobody (especially the drummer) isnt doing anything ver batim correct either

 

[rogerb]

I played 150 80/90’s rock and pop tunes note by note beautifully. I thought at the time I should video this so I can come back to it, well I didn’t. A few years effort. It took like a few weeks to get through them all.

Got sidetracked learning jazz walking bass and the blues. Last week decided to dust off the catalog, not as easy as I thought! I’ve cut most of the difficult weird stuff out XTC, Zappa and such, 50 tunes back to knowing the first week.

Problem is it is just playing note for note a bass line. Good for technique that I seem to have lost, and my ear, and kind of fun, but I’m heading back to jazz and blues pretty quick.

 

[dr doofie]

Knowing in the biblical sense?...
only one. At any given time.

i think that’s what I mean...

None!! None before the one I’m knowing now!!

 

[rogerb]

Interestingly note by note by memory I kind of just learn the fingering patterns of a song not necessarily the chord or note changes. I could tell you the notes or changes if I thought about it for a second, but I don’t learn them like that.