Learning Songs

JDOD

JDOD

therecordingrebels.com
I'm busy learning a set at the moment and I'm starting to find it a bit stressful.

I have 15 songs to learn the lead guitar for.

About 5 done, 5 where I still have to remember how to stick them all together and learn some intricate bits and 5 that I haven't started on.

Problem is, I am running out of time and I don't seem to be able to learn fast enough. Has anyone got a good technique for learning songs.

My main problem is solos - I learn parts of them, memorise the bits etc and get so I can play along with the recording, but then its like my brain is full and I can't add any more to what I've just learned. When I try again the next day I can then go over what I did the day before to check I can still remember it then start adding new bits. If its a long piece of lead it could take me 3 or 4 days to learn a solo.

I have similar problems with normal song structures too. Its like I get to this point where my brain is full and I just can't absorb anymore in one sitting. At this point I just play through over the stuff I already have to muscle memory for practice.

Anyone got any tips for absorbing more information in one sitting without having a brain-melt-down?

Anyone think there is actually a fast track for this or is it just limited by memory capacity and talent?
 
JDOD said:
I'm busy learning a set at the moment and I'm starting to find it a bit stressful.

I have 15 songs to learn the lead guitar for.

About 5 done, 5 where I still have to remember how to stick them all together and learn some intricate bits and 5 that I haven't started on.

Problem is, I am running out of time and I don't seem to be able to learn fast enough. Has anyone got a good technique for learning songs.

My main problem is solos - I learn parts of them, memorise the bits etc and get so I can play along with the recording, but then its like my brain is full and I can't add any more to what I've just learned. When I try again the next day I can then go over what I did the day before to check I can still remember it then start adding new bits. If its a long piece of lead it could take me 3 or 4 days to learn a solo.

I have similar problems with normal song structures too. Its like I get to this point where my brain is full and I just can't absorb anymore in one sitting. At this point I just play through over the stuff I already have to muscle memory for practice.

Anyone got any tips for absorbing more information in one sitting without having a brain-melt-down?

Anyone think there is actually a fast track for this or is it just limited by memory capacity and talent?
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Is having a lead sheet not an option?
 
Just play the important parts and wing the rest. Or do you have to cover these songs perfectly note-for-note?
 
DM60: Lead sheet? You mean have the tab in front of me? That would probably cause more problems than it would solve.

Greg: Possibly a little but it took the singer a few years to get the album made and she really wants it to be as accurate as possible which I can understand - I'd be the same - but about 5 different guitarists contributed to the album all with slightly different styles! One of the solos is fucking double tracked by 2 different guitarists recorded weeks apart!

So basically, you're both saying no, the only thing that works is time and practice.
 
JDOD said:
Yes! I'm generally spending 2 - 3 hours a night on it and 5-6 hours a day on the weekend.
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Okay. That's a lot of time. Are you maybe in over your head? Or are the songs easy and you're just having trouble memorizing them? Do you even like the material?
 
Greg_L said:
Okay. That's a lot of time. Are you maybe in over your head? Or are the songs easy and you're just having trouble memorizing them? Do you even like the material?
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A little maybe - I didn't expect them to be this intricate. They're not difficult songs as such, none of them are difficult to play (aside from some of the lead is tricky) but I can't think of a single one that has a single repeating sequence for the verse or chorus. If a verse has four sets of four bars, it will generally be a slightly different sequence of chords for each set of 4 bars. As I said, its not that its difficult - its just a huge amount to commit to memory.

Yes, I quite like most of the material.
 
Man, I know what you mean now. Fucking songwriters. Some of them just can't write a fucking song that doesn't try to be cute or reinvent the wheel. It's like they never think of playing it live. Sure, they can do it because they wrote the piece of shit, so it's nothing for them to remember it. But when someone else has to learn that crap, it just becomes a memory exercise instead of being able to flow.

I think you're just gonna have to memorize that shit dude, like memorizing a poem for grade school. Which means more time.

If you haven't done this already, try more listening to it without trying to play it. Get it so you know what's coming next all in your head. Then you won't have to think about it.
 
Cool. You understand the problem then! There's another one I was learning the other day which has 4 choruses, but each chorus has a different ending. It's only a set of 4 power chords but they're either different or in a different order for the last line of each fucking chorus.

Yeah, I listen to the album a couple of times a day at my desk in work. The cool thing is I find that if I concentrate I can "practice" just by listening and thinking about playing. I even managed to practice the solo where I had to cobble together two guitar parts by just thinking about it and concentrating and imagining it without even listening to it.

If the easy stuff just the song structures and sequences were more straightforward it would make it far easier to concentrate on the tricky bits.
 
JDOD said:
Cool. You understand the problem then! There's another one I was learning the other day which has 4 choruses, but each chorus has a different ending. It's only a set of 4 power chords but they're either different or in a different order for the last line of each fucking chorus.

Yeah, I listen to the album a couple of times a day at my desk in work. The cool thing is I find that if I concentrate I can "practice" just by listening and thinking about playing. I even managed to practice the solo where I had to cobble together two guitar parts by just thinking about it and concentrating and imagining it without even listening to it.

If the easy stuff just the song structures and sequences were more straightforward it would make it far easier to concentrate on the tricky bits.
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Yeah dude, I do not envy you. :D
 
Hope they're paying you well. 35 hours a week of practice X $20/hour - $700 a week just for your practice time.
 
LOL, nowhere near. I (like most musicans I assume) are doing this mainly 'cos I actually enjoy playing music and, while a touch stressful, this is an interesting challenge. Being a geologist pays the bills so I can spend my spare time playing music.
 
Greg, as predicted, I'm already getting enormously pissed off. At the moment, if I had a soul, I would give it to play some power-chords.
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. Damn dude, how many fucking songs do you have to learn?
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15. None of which have a typical 4 chord repeating pattern for either verse or chorus, all of which have a random middle 8 or bridge which generally doesn't have a repeating pattern. About 1/2 of them have solos, one of them is lead all the way through from start to finish.

One good thing though is that I am playing the guitar better than I have for years, and its got me in the habit of actually writing solos and learning them as opposed to just adlibbing a few times and going for my favourite take.

I just really want to play some heavy rock/grunge now.
 
Greg_L said:
You have more patience than I do. I wouldn't have even taken on this project.
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I think, given that I've not been active in a band for about 10 years, I completely underestimated the time it would take me. Its not that its hard - its that I work 8:30 till 5:30, so I am practicing early in the mornings and in the evening/weekend which means that I never get any downtime.
 
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