Soloing Vocabulary - How Many Solos or Songs Have You Memorized?

It's common to have a new student that's been playing for a while come in for lessons and state that they're not where they would like to be in regards to their improvising skills. The first question I ask is, "How many harmonica instrumentals or solos have you memorized?" 90% of the time I get a quizzical look back, as if that were a completely foreign concept. When someone asks me what Little Walter, Big Walter Horton or "insert great artist's name here" songs I've studied, my answer back is, "It makes more sense to ask me which songs I have NOT studied," because I've pretty much studied them all. I haven't memorized all of them, but I've gone through each one at some time in my journey as a player, and could pretty much play along to any of them right now after a refresher listening. For the ones that really inspired me I put the time in that was required to learn and play them from memory. This is common to all great players... great players have a veracious apatite for learning songs and this is of primary importance in develop a soloing vocabulary base for your improvising.