Section 4 of 6
The Repertoire
A shared body of material wide enough to fill a night and standard enough that strangers need agree only on a key. What gets called, in what shape, and where it came from.
Printed collections record the repertoire. They do not define it.
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The songs everybody already knows.
Songs everybody knows
A shared body of material large enough to fill a night and standard enough that strangers need agree only on a key.
The key question
The only negotiation before a tune starts.
Standard forms
Verse, chorus, break — and the predictability that makes joining in possible.
Borrowed from elsewhere
Songs taken from older traditions and reshaped by the arrangement.
Instrumentals
Tunes with no words, used as vehicles.