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Serious question about what to play

#21
Learning a crap ton of easy songs will make you more employable for the bar band scene. Learning more complicated stuff will improve your musicianship and make you more employable for other opportunities. (And make it even easier to learn another crap ton of easy songs!)

If you don't care about employability, then do what pleases you.
 
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#22
either/or?

00 images2b3.png


both/all!


good luck! :thumbsup:
 
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#24
Ironbar said:
Is it better for me musically to know / play proficiently, a crap ton of easy songs, or to learn fewer, harder songs?

Which is better for me?
Click to expand...
Both. IMO, Farmers rotate crops to prevent soil from becoming sterile and nutrient deficient. Helps ensure productivity of there farms. Some plants take out/use certain nutrients that other crops replenish. Diversity helps helps to ensure yield(s).
Learn as much as you can, or tolerate at any given time, and your overall musicianship will improve, and helps to ensure your viability and professionalism as a player.
...I've even played Bon Jovi covers! ...just sayin'.
:)
 
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#27
Ironbar said:
Is it better for me musically to know / play proficiently, a crap ton of easy songs, or to learn fewer, harder songs?

Which is better for me?
Click to expand...
The repetition of stuff that's "easy" is great for muscle memory, technique and endurance but you should also be stretching your abilities with increasingly challenging stuff. It's a journey with no destination :)
 
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#28
What's your goal? If you want to get out playing as soon as possible, learn lots of songs. If you plan on playing at home for years, work on harder stuff if that's what you want to do.

When you get as old and cranky as I am, you do both...work up new songs for upcoming gigs and shed on other songs that you won't be gigging for improving technique.
 
#30
Obsessively play/practice for hours on end until you can’t hold your head up and your fingertips start to crack. Forget eating, going out or having relationships. Disconnect the phone, quit your job, tell parents you’ll see em’ during the holidays(maybe).
 
#31
The most important thing for a developing musician to do is to play music together with other humans. Join a band, sign up for an ensemble at school, play at your church, whatever.

Whatever you're doing at home is practice. It's hitting the punching bag. Playing with other people is actual boxing.

It's also a lot of fun and very addictive.
 
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#32
Both, if you are bootleg playing, you do not know what song will be next. I guarantee who are playing with will go to a easy 3 chord song then play some song that is all over the place. Learn 'songs' but also learn the similar patterns, note progressions. You will see that songs sometimes are similar. Also, don't practice or play the same stuff over & over. Learn something new.
 
#34
fearceol said:
You will not make any progress playing songs you already know. You need to keep challenging yourself by working on new material.
Click to expand...

If you're just playing them the same way each time, I would agree with this. However, I play in churches, where we do the same material a fair amount. Most weeks, I'm playing mostly stuff I've played before, with one or two new songs. Revisiting something you have played before, but in a different key, or a different arrangement, or with a different singer, or just with a fresh outlook, you often come up with new twists on the thing - at least I do. Being able to do a song in different ways/different feels is a skill that's nice to have. Sometimes I hear something in a track that I've heard dozens of times before, but apparently ignored, and now, there's a challenge.

Playing stuff you've done before allows you to work on musicianship, phrasing, etc.if you focus on that. If you're going to do that, I also recommend working in different keys, as that helps you get out of the mental box of simple repetition.

All that said, learning new stuff is definitely helpful to challenge you and build new patterns. I would certainly advocate you continue to learn new stuff.
 
#37
I would advise doing whatever needs to be done to play whatever you're called on to do. Having technique allows you to play without physical limitations impeding your performance. In my career, I worked at technique in addition to gigging 7 days a week 4 sets a night for 3 years. I played blues and R&B consistently for 20+ years. What I'm trying to say is...

Just get out there and play... As often as possible, in addition to practicing, asking questions, and being inquisitive about music in general.

If you're hungry, you'll become the best "you" and find your way through it all.

And there will be people out there to help, just seek and you'll find...

IMO.
 

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