Okay folks, I just started my 4th, 4 inch, 3-hole binder for Target and TG songs. That's just ridiculous. The notebooks are so big I can't even turn the pages easily, let alone find what I want. And all songs are alphabetized!!

So I started ANOTHER 3-ring binder for just the songs I'm working on. And it has gotten huge too. I have all the TG songs, charts, tab and GP files saved on my computer, backed up on another1.5 TG hard drive and I recently put them all my Android phone. This is just nuts!!

So I am soliciting ideas. Do you copy and save all the songs? Or do you just print and save your favorites or the ones you want to learn?

And while we're at it, do you all have "Best of..." songbooks of the stuff you can play anywhere or that you've mastered (I use the word loosely!!)? How does TG factor in? I tried to put my old songs in the same master format TG uses but that is a real chore too.

Totally Guitars has grown from a little "couple of songs per month" website to what it is today. The amount of available information is staggering, even for free members. So how do we handle this massive database of information?

Thanks!!

I keep hoping somebody is archiving this for me someday. Maybe Bear is the one... thanks,

Anon

Funny you should ask. Just today, I have been adding the TG songs that I am working on to my 3 ring binder of already known material. Have consolidated several books over the years into one very large binder. A second book has songs I am struggling with or just starting to learn. My 3rd binder is for gospel music only. For the most part, each song only has a few pages of instruction, tabs, words etc. so I seem to be able to keep it together for the most part.

I really just save the the chart & the tab sheets for each song. If the words are not a part of what Neil has listed, I also find that info and add to my binder. Plus, if Neil has written out a history of the song, I print and add that too. You just never know when you might like a quick reference to that info.

That is pretty much it. I make all kinds of notes and scribbles on my printed sheets so my thought has always been that if I forget what key a song is in or I need a quick refresher on a song, I can refer to the binder and my memory will kick in.

Lastly, I have an excel spreadsheet listed for all of my song titles and artist. It is easy to add songs and reprint this as needed. I sort this song listing sheet alphabitacally (and the songs are seperated this way in the binder) but have also sorted by artist at times for a quick reference. This is really the only electronic file that I keep on my harddrive. Maybe I should rethink this but for the most part, even if years pass before I play a song again, if I see the music and my notes, it comes back to me.

For what it's worth....
Bart

Glad to hear I'm not the only one swamped with tab and chord sheets! I've got mine in several "themed" binders: fingerstyle songs, songs that I have in my repertoire, and songs to work on. Trouble is, it's not nearly as "neat" as that. For example, some fingerstyle songs are repertoire songs and some songs to work on become repertoire songs over time. I really should be more organized. But there are certainly worse things than being overwhelmed by so much good stuff! This is a great site!

Suzi

There is so much information here that I can't possibly keep track of it all. I'm just not that organized. I print out the tab or chart of what I am working on and call it good. Since I am so slow at learning stuff I don't have all that much but it's enough to keep me busy. I figure that TG will be around a long time so I can keep going for as long as I want.

Dave

Hi Bear! I saw your book(s) last year and two years ago. I know what you mean, I think you must print everything!. I only print the sheets to the songs I'm working on or PLAN to work on. I really have to ask myself, "with all of the things I have going on and the lack of practice time, will I REALLY ever sit down to learn this song?" Many times the answer is "NO" so I don't pay a lot of attention to it.
Some of the lessons are on songs I already play, some for years, but are slightly different, so I want to change some of my own fingerings, etc. I've printed out a couple of those. I have to realize I won't sit down and actually learn all (or most) of the songs on this site.

This topic reminds me of putting together set lists. We played last night (Saturday) and in the three hours, with a 20 minute break, we played 39 songs. One of the hardest parts of working up a list is WHAT TO LEAVE OUT! With so many songs (140 or so and counting) we can' possibly fit them all in so something has to go. I'll usually take the previous set list and grab a dozen or so songs to replace, depending on the venue. Inevitably someone will say "why didn't we play ---, it's a good one!" Well, they're all good ones or we wouldn't be playing them! Not that we play them "good" (well, grammatically speaking), but that they are songs we really like or that get good crowd reactions.

Anyway, the point is that I've had to realize that, for me, a lot of the songs on TG will not make it into my repertoire and I have to be satisfied with it. I do have an accordion type file that I organize the TG songs in that I keep. My binders have too many other songs from the past years!

I was thinkin to put it all on TG (tigabite) usb stick..

So how do we handle this massive database of information?

We save it all on disks and back ups ... and wait for Apple and Microsoft to up-date their OS so fast that we cant find a computer capable of running the files. Then we call NASA and ask them how they solved the same problem on the mood landing tapes!

Binders?? TAB??? Charts?? Don't need em. Once I have a tune down that's it. Never need to refer to anything ever again....and I'm COMPLETELY DREAMING.

The charts and TAB for all the tunes I have worked hard on are all over my house in various stages of crumpledom. I am an absolute, disorganised, lazy mess. An utter joke.

Bear, please prepare several binders for me with all songs neatly labeled and in alphabetical order and post them down to Australia for me. You pay the postage of course.

Thanks mate!

Well, seriously, Rick my friend, I made a pdf of all the songs I can play and made it into my songbook which I theoretically update regularly so that I'm all set if have a party to play at (like in 3 weeks at our tennis/squash club summer bash)... except I haven't done an up-date since joining TG so now I have some serious work to do! Only songs which I really can play are allowed into the songbook, the half-done ones stay in loose leaf form until I can up-grade them to the songbook.

I guess, for Neil, we could compile the existing pdfs into one document (may get too big fast) for his archive... would just take a couple of volunteers a couple of hours each if we split the task between us. Is that a suggestion worth taking action on?