https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:56:37 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/paged/2/#post-277615 Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:38:36 +0000
I started out with 4 songs and have worked my way up to 12. I know allot more songs than this but we don't have time to get together. The only time we really have is maybe 5 to 10 minutes before he starts playing. So I work on the songs myself and if I have questions I'll call him or ask him before he plays. Before I start practicing a song I make sure I have the chords right and if I need to CAPO. Usually, I already know from watching him play. “Paint it Black” was one, before I started practicing it he reminded me that the 4'th verse is a single strum for the first 2 lines.

He has given me a set of CD's of all the songs he knows. So, I always use these in practice. The hardest part is when a song goes into a solo with no verbal queue. That's usually when I have to ask him what to do or how to work it out. If it's not on the CD's I'll go buy the music because he plays it almost exactly (not always though) as the recording. “Saving Grace” was one, a new Tom Petty album (“Highway Companion”).

So I approach it this way:
1. Hopefully I have a correct TAB, and will play with the recording.
2. I always practice the way I'm going to play. For instance, I have a barstool that I always bring with me and play (and practice) on that. I have practiced standing up but I have a problem with the guitar bouncing. Hopefully I'll get past this, because the day will come when I'll need to do this. Since he sits on a bar stool I thinks it's OK if I do the same. If he's standing, I should be playing the same way.
3. I keep practicing with the TAB until I get through the song two or 3 times with no mistakes.
4. Then, I practice without the tab and play with the recording. If I get through the song 2 or 3 times clean then I play it with him.

Having said all this, do I make mistakes playing live, YES, all the time, but nobody notices! Heck, most people aren't paying attention anyway. I can say there have been 2 times where I got through the hole set without any mistakes, That's the COOL part!

Also, when I play with him we don't always use the same strumming patterns but we play in “RHYTHM”. “Knocking on Heaven's Door” and “Margaritaville” are 2 that come to mind. As long as the rhythm is the same nobody notices. Most of the other songs are the same strumming patterns.

There are other little things that we work out, for “ticket to ride” he plays the RIFF twice then I come in with the rhythm. “Nowhere Man” he plays the riff and I just play over it. “Melt with you” when he plays the RIFF I do nothing. And, “Melt with you' is basically C and F and people love it!

I wish I could sing! That would really help him out, if he plays 3 hours Wednesday, Thursday and Friday his voice really starts going. I thing my voice is OK I just can't stay in key?

It's just so much fun! It's fun when I think I nailed a song when we play it! Again, if I can do it anybody can! In the beginning I was really weak with the BARRE chords so I played the easy songs. I'm still a little weak with the A shape chords but once I get that (soon) then it will open up a whole new set of songs – I can't wait!

Bob Jessie

Margaritaville
Knockin on Heaven's Door
Nowhere man (capo 2)
Ticket to ride
In the middle (F Barre)
Melt with you
Browned eye girl
No Reply (capo 2)
Paint it Black
Photograph
Mr Tambourine Man
Saving Grace]]> Guitar Players Discussion clideguitar https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/paged/2/#post-277615 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277610 Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:10:27 +0000
So, if you get a feel at anything you are playing, go for it. And when it comes to guitar, its you who matter the most (if you play only for yourself).

Having said the above, learning songs is one of the most basic and natural way to get a feel of the music. Thus most of us want to play songs, rather than complex instrumental pieces or anything else.

Start by simple chord sheets arrangements and you should be fine.

Good Luck.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Rahul https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277610 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277527 Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:12:39 +0000
What are some good approaches to learning songs? Not just being able to play a song...I know songs that I can get through, if I'm looking at the music... Based on what you said, it seems to me that you need the sheet music in front of you to be able to play a song. I apologize if this is not the case, but it sounds like you do not know that D should follow the A chord if you are not looking at the shhet music.
That said, you are playing stricly from sight, not from memory or "knowing" the song. Repetition should take care of that. You should obviously start with songs that are familiar to you. Songs you can sing and know the lyrics by heart. Being able to sing the song will give you a good refference to know what chords you should be playing at any given point.
When you sit down with a new song, how do you approach learning it? Not just singing it over generic rhythms...I try to play 1-2 hours a night (usually a warm up, flip through song sheets for a while, and then start a 12-bar backing track to mangle), surely there is time in there to actually learn the songs I'm twiddling with! Right?! Strumming or taking broad strokes while singing a song is a great way to start. What's wrong with that? Once you know the generic rhythm by heart, you can zero in on the fills or learn how to accent.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Blueline https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277527 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277183 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:40:42 +0000 Good luck and God Bless :D :D :D This is pretty much what I do.

I've been cruising the web for chords/lyrics/tab to songs that I like. I print them and work on them. The songs are old ones that have been burned into my brain (probably by my mentally singing them while I ran long distance in college) so they are like old friends. Then I work on the chords. Then I work on some embellishments with fingerstyle technique and I play & sing them over and over.

My wife thinks the result is pretty good. I'm happy with the result. And I don't play for or with anybody else. So I'm good :-)

I am working on expanding but this is how I've worked up some real pretty songs. (I have more Don McLean songs than anything else. Moldy oldies but I like them.)


I bet you know some songs you like that are pretty straightforward. Start there.
Good luck!]]> Guitar Players Discussion unimogbert https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277183 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277180 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:24:01 +0000
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/~aparsons/guitar/guitar1.html

It's just a list of chords / lyrics, so it helps if you've heard the songs before, but I was surprised how many I could strum well enough for my wife to sing along.

Also, when I'm learning songs, I try to play each one at each practice session. I start out playing the song without opening up my binder and looking at the sheet music, and see how far I can get. Then when I stumble I get out the music. This encourages me to memorize them, although it has the side effect that I learn the first part of the song really well and don't know the last part at all in some cases...]]> Guitar Players Discussion mmoncur https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277180 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277175 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:30:45 +0000
Denny]]> Guitar Players Discussion Denny https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277175 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277173 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:20:15 +0000
Now, after all this time, I have chosen to start focusing some of my time on songs while still devoting some tome to learning to play lead. But, I don't want to lern just the chords and the singing- after all, what did I spend the past two years learning lead for if I'm not going to use it? So, my approach,I decided, was first to learn the chords and words, but then once I had that down to then develop the song further by throwing in any signature riffs or short solos, or to embellish the song with maybe an alternating bass line or some other such thin, much like David Hodge does in his Lessons for beginners and Intermediates. So I am making the song sort of a project. I can learn the basic part pretty fast, but then i take some more time and develop it. So I have started using that approach and I know maybe 10-20 songs by heart (but, alas, none by Journey) and a few of those I do things in addition to the basic chords. The neat thing about this is you put a song in your repertiore rather quickly, but then it continues to grow over time.

Some songs I work out the chords and leads to by ear, since I can't find tab to a lot of them. This is good for ear training. I'd like to do about one of these a month, if only the chord part.

But Wes is right, in the end it's all about learning songs. I took up guitar to play songs, not to play just riffs or such.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Rum Runner https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277173 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277172 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:58:18 +0000 And so hard for someone like me who can't sing if his life depended on it. This has been one of my big challenges with guitar (the other being not having enough time, and hence finding some other people to play with who can also sing.)]]> Guitar Players Discussion vink https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277172 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277159 Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:56:00 +0000 To play songs :roll: .

I ran an Open Mic a few years back, we would get all kinds of players with different skill levels. I remember this one guy would come in and go up to the mic. Then he would tap, and man, he was awesome. He knew how to tap many different ways and he had it down. He was great at tapping. But know what??, this guy could not play one single song! Not one. We had him play on a few jams and he just tapped away, it was all he could do. It was impressive at first, but after 10 minutes it was old and you could see this guy couldn't really play guitar at all. It was almost useless.

You've got to play songs. Nobody cares how fast you can shred, or how you can rake arpeggios at lightning speed. People want to hear songs. People will listen to a player who can strum simple songs well and sing. They will pay good money to hear that. They will not pay to hear you play arpeggios or tap.

You have to start simple. Learn lots of simple songs like Knockin On Heaven's Door.... G, D, Am, G, D, C over and over. But strum it well and learn to sing it. Learn as many songs like this as possible. Start a notebook full of simple songs. Just write the lyrics with the chord changes over it. Now if you are at a party and someone asks you to play you should be able to play plenty of simple songs. People do not care how complicated a song is, in fact, most people like very simple music. The Beatles played super-simple music for the most part and look how many records they sold. People do not care how well you tap.

Don't know what to say about memory, you just have to put the written music away and force yourself to memorize the music and lyrics. Just like anything else, the more you exercise your memory, the better it gets. So start simple and grow from there.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277159 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277143 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:40:20 +0000
sounds like that works for you it's a little too rigid for me I just play it till I memorize, then when I think I have it down fairly decent I play along to the CD...find out I'm usually way off and then either parctice without the CD if I know where I'm messing up or just keep playing along with the CD if I think I playing it correctly just not at the right tempo.

The learning part starts out very slowly until I have the section memorized. although I'm impatient and tend to rush things a bit.

Learning songs now has gotten much easier, the hard part is remembering the older songs I learned 6 months ago.]]> Guitar Players Discussion cnev https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/not-learning-songs-grr/#post-277143