How do you learn songs?

[cdog]

Hi,

After playing in an original band for a few years I've just joined a covers band and had quite a few songs to learn. 

I developed a method which is helped me to learn them really quickly which is 

1. Listen to the song and write down the arrangement on a sheet of A4.

2. Find somebody playing the song with bass tub on YouTube and make a note of the chords and any key rifts that are important to the song. Look for repetition of key riffs or phrases on the bass and write this all down in tab alongside the arrangement, see below 

3. Once my sheet has got everything on it then I play along with the tab video a few times just to make sure I've nailed the timings 

4. Find a version of the song on YouTube that has the base removed and then play along with the record like that referring to my sheet 

5. Play along to the recording without the sheet. 

 

Has anyone else got a systematic approach that they use? I have found that I can learn multiple song in a day relatively easily doing this which is much faster than just playing along to the bass tab for me. 

Chris 

[BabyBlueSound]

If it works for YOU, then it's a great method! But you don't need to find a "bassless" version on youtube any more. There are many simple services like Moises that can just mute the bass track for you on any mp3 you upload. Some DAWs and their plugins are catching up to this as well, but I just use Moises, so simple, AND you can loop specific parts natively that you want to practice! 

 

It allows you to change the tempo, tell you AND change the key, show you the chords, etc. Just try it 😁 

 

Edit: it works both as an app and in your browser on a computer

 

 

Edited Friday at 07:34 by BabyBlueSound

[cdog]

Wow, that sounds like a really useful tool. I'll try it later, thanks.

[Stub Mandrel]

My approach varies depending on how well I know the song (in a general sense).

 

I recently learned Jean Genie. I've busked it at jams a few times and know the structure simply from having heard it a lot. I had to learn the proper details, especially around the chorus but it was fairly straightforward.

 

On the other hand although I 'knew' keep on running it was not well and I was surprised by the complexities in the verse and chorus... especially the changes in syncopation. Plus there were several different tabs so I had to decide which was most accurate.

 

I broke it down into sections. I did one ir two play throughs at half tempo to make sure I had the rhythm right. Then it was brute force... start at the beginning and see how far I could get.

 

My two rules... 1) if I keep making a mistake stop,  slow right down and get it righ. Practising a mistake is never a good idea. 2) walk away, ideally sleep on it. You will always be better on returning to .

 

Combine the two approaches. Accuracy at the expense of speed, plus a chance for your brain to process the learning = much faster and more accurate next time around.

 

So my learning is usually many songs in parallel, rather than one at a time.

 

Currently learning 34 songs - a soundcheck, two 15 song sets, and 3 encores. Luckily most I already know or am familiar with and many (but not all) are reasonably straightforward.

[cdog]

Totally agree, don't practice mistakes, and sleep is the magic sauce. 

I realised I missed out step 0: make a playlist and listen to the songs as much as possible. 

Timings are interesting: I've found it quite easy to intellectualise harmony as it is lots of number relationships and I've learned about the theory, but I've not gone through that process with rhythm, probably because I've never been through formal training. So I don't have a clear mental model to slot timings into, I tend to learn through repetition. My plan is to learn how to use music notation for timings so that I can map what I'm learning onto that, like I do with harmony. I think I'll be able to remember timings much more easily when I've mastered that. 

[BabyBlueSound]

Check out some videos that teach you how to read/write proper drum notation using simple rhythms. I got my "mental grid" through that!