A WORD OF CAUTION ABOUT CATEGORIES
In Songbook, assigning a song file to a category will move it to a sub-folder under the default user-data location. Just remember: Deleting a category will also delete all the song files in that category. Another limitation of using Songbook categories is that a song cannot be in two categories at once.
With that in mind, categorizing songs is the primary way to organize the collection. Organizing by genre would be a good way to begin. An alternate, simpler way of creating categories is using the tag directive, e.g. {tag:New Wave}. It also allows for a song to be in two or more genre. More on tags in the next post.
Musical genre includes but is not limited to the following items:
# Rock & Roll, Alt Rock, New Wave, Soft Rock, Psych Rock,
# Pop Rock, Country Rock, Standard, Goth Rock, Oldies,
# Soul, Blues, Reggae, Show Tune
A good place to find the official genre of a song is the Wikipedia, if it is listed. While there are more items in a genre, the ones listed above represent the most common. More can be added to the list as desired/needed. Again, this category can be implemented as a tag.
Another way to categorize a Songbook Collection, would be by decade, For example,
# Oldie, Sixties, Seventies, …, Millennial
As noted, a song can only be in one category so they might be a better way to organize the collection. However, these items can also be implemented as a tag, e.g. {tag:Eighties}.
The Songbook Windows Page suggests categorizing by difficulty, e.g. Easy, Moderate, Advanced, or Beginner, etc. Alternately, they could be tagged as such or even gathered into a Playlist.
THE BOTTOM LINE: USE TAGS INSTEAD
Organizing by tags exclusively offers a bit more flexibility in the long run, as changing a song’s genre and decade becomes a simple edit within each song. You can have a song in multiple genres and decade. The only “drawback” is all songs are considered as “Uncategorized” in Songbook and they stay in the Songbook Collection main folder. However, there is nothing wrong with not using the Songbook Category feature and keeping all files in one place.
PLAYLISTS
A playlist contains a list of songs selected from the Songbook Collection. The basic functions are well-explained in the support page for the specific install. Creating set lists for gigs is an example. It is also great for identifying songs used in various group projects and bands. In the case of having hundreds of songs in the collection, they could be broken down into subsets using Playlists.
A FINAL NOTE ON PLAYLISTS
Keep the playlist names simple and consistent. For example, creating sets for the “Daze Bros. Blues Band” could be named simply “Daze Bros Set 1”, Set 2, etc. Creating a subset list of all songs, by order of entry, 20 songs per set, could be named “Rehearsal Set 1”, Set 2…
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