Learning a new song... what do you do?
- Thread starter OldTelePlayer
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trapdoor2
Poster Extraordinaire
Gaak. Musicals. 
They are such great sources for fun tunes. I've had "All I Do is Dream of You" from "Singin' In The Rain" stuck in my head for a week. Maybe I'll make it into a banjo tune...
I tend to look for a chart or tab or chord-sheet. I enjoy learning tunes in unfamiliar keys but I have limits. If it looks too odd, I'll transpose it. If I'm backing a singer (I'm not one), I'll suffer with whatever key they need.
A familiar melody like "I could have danced all night", (too bad Audrey didn't get to actually sing in the movie, she had a fine voice) makes it all the easier. I'll be able to play the melody line almost immediately. If I'm serious, I'll tab out the melody and then add the underlying structure from the chart (a good chart will have all that to begin with).
If I'm just having fun, I'll make it into a solo piece, altering it, jazzing it up, etc. If I'm backing a singer, I'm gonna stick to the chart. I'll add runs and fills as needed...but concentrating on supporting the singer.
They are such great sources for fun tunes. I've had "All I Do is Dream of You" from "Singin' In The Rain" stuck in my head for a week. Maybe I'll make it into a banjo tune...I tend to look for a chart or tab or chord-sheet. I enjoy learning tunes in unfamiliar keys but I have limits. If it looks too odd, I'll transpose it. If I'm backing a singer (I'm not one), I'll suffer with whatever key they need.
A familiar melody like "I could have danced all night", (too bad Audrey didn't get to actually sing in the movie, she had a fine voice) makes it all the easier. I'll be able to play the melody line almost immediately. If I'm serious, I'll tab out the melody and then add the underlying structure from the chart (a good chart will have all that to begin with).
If I'm just having fun, I'll make it into a solo piece, altering it, jazzing it up, etc. If I'm backing a singer, I'm gonna stick to the chart. I'll add runs and fills as needed...but concentrating on supporting the singer.
LOL, 20-odd years ago in an online Fountain Pen collector's forum, we were challenged to "alter" song lyrics to make them Fountain Pen lyrics. I changed "On the Street Where You Live" to "A Pen That Leaks Like a Sieve".
tubedude
Friend of Leo's
I listen closely, playing it twice to nail the form in my mind. Then find the key and work out the chords and melody. The rest then falls in place. Easy Peasy.
I try to get band members to do the same with new songs but they can't.
After the first bar they start trying to work it out on their instrument. They ignore the song while trying to work out one part. Inevitably it takes them three times as long to learn it, as they focus on one tree at a time without ever looking how the path leads through the woods.
Old habits die hard with the hypocognitive.
I try to get band members to do the same with new songs but they can't.
After the first bar they start trying to work it out on their instrument. They ignore the song while trying to work out one part. Inevitably it takes them three times as long to learn it, as they focus on one tree at a time without ever looking how the path leads through the woods.
Old habits die hard with the hypocognitive.
I have a pretty good ear. Our band learns new tunes from whatever we have at hand, full charts , tab, lead sheets, barely discernible scratching on cocktail napkins, etc., and we frequently find that there are mistakes where chords are placed, or there are wrong chords altogether. I rather enjoy the challenge of sorting it out and making it right. It works and it’s fun at least I enjoy it.
If it’s a cool song I’m probably thinking about it a lot anyway. But even if it’s not a cool song I’m a bar at a time learner if I’m trying to really learn it. I can read fine but with pop and if I’m singing I like to reconcile any chart or tab I download with what I’m hearing. Bite at a time.
Happy Enchilada
Poster Extraordinaire
Since I find myself newly "retired," I need a way to stay sharp mentally.
Going to the gym helps the body, and prayer the soul, but the mind ...
Most of the music I'm busy learning nowadays is the kind you hear at smaller venues.
Folk/Country/Blues type tunes. Nothin' fancy. Mostly 3-5 chords.
So musically it's no big deal after 60 years of pickin' and grinnin'.
What's a challenge to me is learning lyrics well enough to sing in public.
I leave lyrics sheets in a 3-ring notebook open on my music stand.
Whenever I pass by that room during the day, I pick up an acoustic and go through the songs.
They say the average human needs to do something 21 times before they know it.
So I do this maybe three times a day, so in a week or so, I can learn a new song.
Then I go to the weekly open mike every couple weeks with new material.
Some guys do crosswords to stay sharp - I do this.
Figure it's much better in the long run.
Goal is to get to where I have a couple three "sets" that are all from memory.
Then I can entertain people for hours on end.
Try that with your soduku.
Going to the gym helps the body, and prayer the soul, but the mind ...
Most of the music I'm busy learning nowadays is the kind you hear at smaller venues.
Folk/Country/Blues type tunes. Nothin' fancy. Mostly 3-5 chords.
So musically it's no big deal after 60 years of pickin' and grinnin'.
What's a challenge to me is learning lyrics well enough to sing in public.
I leave lyrics sheets in a 3-ring notebook open on my music stand.
Whenever I pass by that room during the day, I pick up an acoustic and go through the songs.
They say the average human needs to do something 21 times before they know it.
So I do this maybe three times a day, so in a week or so, I can learn a new song.
Then I go to the weekly open mike every couple weeks with new material.
Some guys do crosswords to stay sharp - I do this.
Figure it's much better in the long run.
Goal is to get to where I have a couple three "sets" that are all from memory.
Then I can entertain people for hours on end.
Try that with your soduku.
2HBStrat
Poster Extraordinaire
Nothing like that.
SuperFifteen
Tele-Meister
I’m starting over fresh in my late 40s. So I’m starting at the beginning assuming I really don’t know what I’m doing, and going from there. Safe bet. I don’t read sheet music and I often need “show don’t tell”. I really like JustinGuitar on YouTube.
But video alone is not enough, and I don’t trust electrons, so I download and print tabs, or buy the sheet music (and print it). Tabs are pictures so they work well. Since I’m doing this just for me, they’re all songs I love and want to play. Some stuff I can work through from just the tab and listening to the song, some I need the video. Some stuff I have to put down and come back to later.
But video alone is not enough, and I don’t trust electrons, so I download and print tabs, or buy the sheet music (and print it). Tabs are pictures so they work well. Since I’m doing this just for me, they’re all songs I love and want to play. Some stuff I can work through from just the tab and listening to the song, some I need the video. Some stuff I have to put down and come back to later.
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macanoodough
Tele-Meister
I can only learn songs I want to play, and I love a lot of music I don't ever want to play. So I don't have that muscle or professionalism to sit there and work things out on a song using some disciplined approach. If I want to learn a song, the last one was the acoustic version of The Rain Song, I learn the tuning & chords, watch the videos (tutorials and live performance from the artist), then go to work. Play it through, no stopping and starting over unless I'm really screwing the pooch, then play it again. Then play it again, then play it again, like +15x a day for a couple three days, then don't play it for a few days, then see where I'm at. Transcribing as I'm playing sort of, but never properly sitting down with the guitar. And with this song I started on the 6 the first day, but was playing it on the 12 for weeks just to build up muscle. When I go back to the 6 I'll have the dexterity to actually do some of the things I'm thinking about doing while playing. Before the land of youtube tutorials and sites like Lick Library, I would go down to Colony Music store in Times Sq. and buy the notation straight from the publisher. It often came with tablature just below the notation, but also had chord charts, etc. Way easier than transcribing if you're a hobby player who works 70 hours a week. If I were in a band I think I would sit as you do though. It is very helpful, not just for the song you are transcribing but in general. I don't really play with others so I'm lazy, and the interweb makes it sooo easy to be lazy...
String Tree
Telefied
I
Just PLAY the DANG SONG.
YEP!!!
I have an Attention Deficit that could swallow the National Debt.
Just PLAY the DANG SONG.
YEP!!!
rand z
Poster Extraordinaire
I keep rehearsing and playing it over and over...
...until it becomes my own.
And, if that doesn't happen... I drop it.
imo.
...until it becomes my own.
And, if that doesn't happen... I drop it.
imo.
First: find a song that moves you.......And As said before....Find the Lyric's and chords online.. Listen to the song over and over to get the melody planted deep into your head, and then never listen to it again as your going to change it to your way...Find the key you can do it in.
And work on it... line by line on hard ones or verse by verse for the easier ones.
I worked up a LAdy Gaga song from the movie she was in no more than a day...easy, it was her vocal gymnastics that took that long.
I just finished "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys in couple of days...but the guitar playing is taking longer as I've always been a rhythm player...until now. I'm learning lead to make my songs more interesting.. and trying to do it right
Also I learn better in short burst....
And work on it... line by line on hard ones or verse by verse for the easier ones.
I worked up a LAdy Gaga song from the movie she was in no more than a day...easy, it was her vocal gymnastics that took that long.
I just finished "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys in couple of days...but the guitar playing is taking longer as I've always been a rhythm player...until now. I'm learning lead to make my songs more interesting.. and trying to do it right
Also I learn better in short burst....
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I listen to it. Then I listen some more.
Brent Hutto
Friend of Leo's
In a recent guitar lesson, my teacher and I were talking about how for someone like me (as opposed to a working professional musician) it's nice to be able to make up a tune and play it without that sneaking feeling that it might actually just be a tune I heard last week, dredged up on some TIDAL playlist or another. It isn't like I'll be sued for plagiarism for playing something that's too much like a Tom Petty song's chorus.
I find the lyrics and print them. Next I listen to the tune and figure out the chords and the arrangement, and add that to the chart. Then I work out fills and breaks. I make annotations on the chart and I'm done. Then I use the chart to practice the thing.
I don't use TAB. The only time I look up chord changes online is if I get really hard stuck. I can pretty much always figure out the chords, but sometimes what the bass player's doing can mess with what I'm hearing from the guitar or piano, etc. Once in a while an alternate tuning used in a recording will throw me for a loop. But I refuse to quit and take the easy route and look up the changes.
A lot of what's online is wrong anyway.
I don't use TAB. The only time I look up chord changes online is if I get really hard stuck. I can pretty much always figure out the chords, but sometimes what the bass player's doing can mess with what I'm hearing from the guitar or piano, etc. Once in a while an alternate tuning used in a recording will throw me for a loop. But I refuse to quit and take the easy route and look up the changes.
A lot of what's online is wrong anyway.
memorex
Poster Extraordinaire
If it's a simple chord structure, I can usually play it after hearing it once. If it's more complicated, like some Steely Dan tunes, I have to practice it repeatedly or I'll forget it after a few days of not playing it. When it comes to singing, forget about it. I need an iPad in front of me to remember lyrics anymore, even if I've sung the song hundreds of times over 50 years.
Dguidry
TDPRI Member
45 years of performing in various venues and genres.
1. For singers, the best performances come from those who know the lyrics and don’t use any prompts.
2. For guitar players, best performances come from those who know the material without prompts.
3. Anything short of 1 and 2 sucks the life out of a performance. Leaves no room for engaging the audience.
4. The iPad has become the devil for performers and the audience.
5. If you can’t do 1 or 2 you can get by but it just won’t be as good.
6. You have to force yourself to not rely on charts/iPad even as an emergency backup. The pain of f…ing up will be enough motivation to work harder. After you’ve f….up enough times you’ll become a great performer. This is called experience.
1. For singers, the best performances come from those who know the lyrics and don’t use any prompts.
2. For guitar players, best performances come from those who know the material without prompts.
3. Anything short of 1 and 2 sucks the life out of a performance. Leaves no room for engaging the audience.
4. The iPad has become the devil for performers and the audience.
5. If you can’t do 1 or 2 you can get by but it just won’t be as good.
6. You have to force yourself to not rely on charts/iPad even as an emergency backup. The pain of f…ing up will be enough motivation to work harder. After you’ve f….up enough times you’ll become a great performer. This is called experience.
Sounds very familiar!
Mowgli
Tele-Holic
Here’s a method that a lot of people use:
1. Listen to the tune several times in a row. Then listen to the first part you wish to learn (usually the intro or first verse) several times and focus on THE BASS LINE.
Most of the time the bass will play the tonic note (or the 5th) of the chord on the 1st beat or as a “pick up 8th note” which rings over the first beat. In many cases, this also establishes the key of the tune.
2. Learn the bass line as best you can.
3. Then learn the first chord. Try to first establish whether it’s a major or minor chord. Sometimes the bass line can establish this. Then it becomes a trial and error effort to fill in the rest of the chord tones.
4. Once you have the chords down, make sure you know the correct rhythm.
5. Then learn the melody; usually it is a single line but occasionally a double stop or three note chord played as a chord extension (e.g. D minor triad played over a Bb major7).
6. Solos. I like Howard Roberts’ (also Clint Strong’s) approach. You learn them “one note at a time.”
Learning the lyrics can help with both remembering the song and it’s melody.
Hope this helps.
1. Listen to the tune several times in a row. Then listen to the first part you wish to learn (usually the intro or first verse) several times and focus on THE BASS LINE.
Most of the time the bass will play the tonic note (or the 5th) of the chord on the 1st beat or as a “pick up 8th note” which rings over the first beat. In many cases, this also establishes the key of the tune.
2. Learn the bass line as best you can.
3. Then learn the first chord. Try to first establish whether it’s a major or minor chord. Sometimes the bass line can establish this. Then it becomes a trial and error effort to fill in the rest of the chord tones.
4. Once you have the chords down, make sure you know the correct rhythm.
5. Then learn the melody; usually it is a single line but occasionally a double stop or three note chord played as a chord extension (e.g. D minor triad played over a Bb major7).
6. Solos. I like Howard Roberts’ (also Clint Strong’s) approach. You learn them “one note at a time.”
Learning the lyrics can help with both remembering the song and it’s melody.
Hope this helps.
I complained about my ADHD tendencies to a psychologist I know. She told me that “pills don’t teach skills.”
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