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Double Bass How Many Tunes ?

G

godoze

Oct 21, 2002
3,890
10
#1
I can count on one hand the number of dates i do each year that are strictly outta da book tunes. Most of the gigs i get are original stuff or fre.

I am just wondering on average how many tunes you giies have memorized ? I think i know about 100..which i know is a drop in the bucket.
 
#2
I really can't give a number other than '****-load'. My dad's a tune-ologist and my training is in this, so it's really hard to tell. There's also the effect that there are so many similarities between tunes and then when you hear things other places they tend to creep into your brain and you might 'know' a tune although you've never played it.

I could probably in short order jot down quite a few hundred tunes that I know, and if someone were to mention some others I would likely respond, "Oh, yeah. Forgot about that one."
 
#5
I'm kinda like Ray, there's a small number that I know so well I can teach'em to folks who don't know'em. There's a bunch more I know pretty well (can play all or part of the melody, can transpose with no prollem etc), a bunch more I kind of know pretty good in one key and a whole bunch more I can "remember" by the second chorus.

But, like Ray intimates, at some point you aren't trying to "remember" tunes, you are playing what you hear going on. And the number of tunes I can hear my way through, if somebody tells me the key, the first chord and wheer the bridge goes keeps getting bigger and bigger.
 
#12
I'll bet that's true...I often have guys say "Marcus knows all the tunes" but that's not true when you compare what I know to guys from Paul's era.

Paul, do you know Barney McClure? I did a three week run with him, and I swear he didn't repeat a tune until it was almost finished. He apologized for putting me through the ringer (lots of unnanounced modulations, to boot), but I just said "keep 'em coming". I like that s**t.
 
#13
Marcus Johnson said:
I'll bet that's true...I often have guys say "Marcus knows all the tunes" but that's not true when you compare what I know to guys from Paul's era.
Paul, do you know Barney McClure? I did a three week run with him, and I swear he didn't repeat a tune until it was almost finished. He apologized for putting me through the ringer (lots of unnanounced modulations, to boot), but I just said "keep 'em coming". I like that s**t.
Click to expand...

No Marcus, I don't know Barney. Sounds like my kinda cat.
Between working with many, many old singers and many, many old piano players, i'm fairly well armed.
One of my heros in terms of tune knowledge was a piano player named Al Green. The great trombonist Urbie Green's brother. This cat knew 'em all. He knew all the tunes and the lyrics to go with.
I better be careful....remember the last time I started bragging abour all the lyrics I knew? No more.
 
#14
I know enough tunes where I can show up at a casual gig without the damn Real Book anymore. By that I mean I probably know about 150 Standards; jazz tunes are another story. I get nervous if the leader starts calling out Wayne Shorter tunes.

I'm also bad about remembering which bridge goes to which tune. An older cat I know said they used to have two generic bridges as a "back up" in case no one remembered the real one. They called them the "Sears-Roebuck," which started on the sixth, and the "Montgomery Ward," which started on the fourth.
 
#15
Mike Goodbar said:
I know enough tunes where I can show up at a casual gig without the damn Real Book anymore. By that I mean I probably know about 150 Standards; jazz tunes are another story. I get nervous if the leader starts calling out Wayne Shorter tunes.
I'm also bad about remembering which bridge goes to which tune. An older cat I know said they used to have two generic bridges as a "back up" in case no one remembered the real one. They called them the "Sears-Roebuck," which started on the sixth, and the "Montgomery Ward," which started on the fourth.
Click to expand...

Those are usually: I Got Rhythm or Honeysuckle Rose.
The most common disagreement, IMO, is... does Scrapple From the Apple have Honeysuckle or Rhythm bridge?
I agree, Mike, about the Real Book. As i've said many times before, if a cat can learn some lyrics, especially on the War Horses we have to play, that'll help clear up that 'which bridge belongs to which tune' issue.
 

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