New gig, need to learn 40 songs pretty quick!

Curtis E. Flush

Junior Member
Hi there. I mostly lurk.

I got a new gig playing for a local Irish/Celtic punk band (think Pogues, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy's, et al). Anyway I have 40 or so songs to learn in a month. Doesn't sound to bad right? Complicating matters though is the fact that I have a job that has me working lots of hours and a family that I can't really abandon on weekends lol.

I already know about 15 of them from the audition so we're actually talking about 25 songs.

A lot of these songs are similar to each other. Paddy shuffle, medium fast punk beats, quarter note kick drum during the Irish shout breaks lol. You get the idea.

I'm thinking I'll take a few of them at a time per practice session. Work one song to death, make small notes that I can take to gigs, etc. then at the end of the practice session see if I can play through all 5. Then do the same thing with another group of songs.

So this isn't some insurmountable task but I was wondering if any of you guys have had to learn a lot of songs in a short amount of time and how you went about it?

Thanks.
 
If you can play guitar, learn the basic chords and the lyrics, that helped me a lot to really get to know the structure of the songs. There was a great thread about this a couple months back but I can't remember what it was called, maybe someone else will.
 
I couldn't tell you if this is a good answer, but if you know the basic flow of the song and where all the breaks are, you can fake it a little with just your natural ability. I listen to the song to get the vibe of the drummer and the style of his fills and chops. i know I'm not gonna play it exactly the same, but it will be tastefully done my way with that drummers feel. That's the best I can tell you because nobody's really complained.
 
Not a problem! I'm in exactly the same position - I have 35 songs to learn for a gig on March 3rd. Piece of cake! I also have a family and work, but it's managable.

I've been listening to them at every available opportunity to familiarise myself with the feel and the lyrics. I've then been grabbing ten or fifteen minutes where I can to pull off the lyrics from the internet and print them. I grab a red pen and make notes around certain phrases and add intrustctions like "Guitar solo - revert to verse beat half way". Then I've printed a set list with basic notes like "Intro - Drums/Guitar. Outro - Vox only. Tambourine needed".

Then whenever I get to my kit I'll run through each song and play it til I get it right. If I cock up half way I'll stop it and start again and note what I should do - repeat rinse!

Works for me, anyway.

Good luck - you'll nail it!
 
Whenever I've had to do this I make sure I hear the music as mush as possible even if I'm not playing drums to them, I put CD's in the car and play them on the stereo at home or if you go running or whatever you do stick them on your ipod (if you have one).

Nothing will beat time actually playing along to them and making notes but there are some songs that I've loved but have never played drums to them but know them so well I could probably play them virtually note perfect straight out of the box.

Familiarity with the song and knowing where the breaks arte is a huge part of it.
 
Not a problem! I'm in exactly the same position - I have 35 songs to learn for a gig on March 3rd. Piece of cake! I also have a family and work, but it's managable.

I've been listening to them at every available opportunity to familiarise myself with the feel and the lyrics. I've then been grabbing ten or fifteen minutes where I can to pull off the lyrics from the internet and print them. I grab a red pen and make notes around certain phrases and add intrustctions like "Guitar solo - revert to verse beat half way". Then I've printed a set list with basic notes like "Intro - Drums/Guitar. Outro - Vox only. Tambourine needed".

Then whenever I get to my kit I'll run through each song and play it til I get it right. If I cock up half way I'll stop it and start again and note what I should do - repeat rinse!

Works for me, anyway.

Good luck - you'll nail it!

I just about did this here. I had 6 days to audition for 5 Christian Rock songs that I had never played to before (Thank God it wasn't 25!). I HAD TO use the sheet music with lyrics and lots of red ink for "Breakdown", "Snare solo", "Crescendo", etc.

I nailed the songs at a pace of about 1-2 a day and had 3 days to do final runs. This too with multiple businesses, and a single Dad driving 2 kids to school everyday...etc...etc.

Get your music stand and let 'em rip!!
 
That's normally the kind of thing you're supposed to just walk in and play- kind of like a country gig. Usually the bands are used to working with people who don't know all of their music, so they're good at giving cues and letting you know the feel. I'd just skim the recordings looking for anything very unusual, or difficult enough that you're going to actually have to work on it, but most everything should be obvious. You'll be doing well if you can associate a feel/style with a title. When you get on the gig, use your ears and eyes, and ask whichever musician you have the most rapport with if he can give you a little nod on some of the big things.
 
Curtis hi!

What worked well for me was writing a simple chart for each of the songs before even playing it. That way you check out what the breaks are, any bits the drummer plays which you may want to keep, etc. Once you have this simple chart it will be easy to play with the songs more confidently. Then you could play each song 3 times before moving on to the next, and eventually before the gig be at the point where you can play all of them once each.
Good luck!! :)
 
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