How Fast Do You Learn Songs?

[neilpanda]

So I was playing around a little bit and was able to memorize the lyrics and chords to a simple song in about 5 minutes (yea a new song to add on the setlist! )

for longer songs it takes me about a week to pick it up, then I perfect it in the next week or to.

I just wanted to know how fast (or slow) you guys learn. unless you write songs instead

[Andy R]

Depends on the song.... AC/DC maybe an hour mostly trying to cop Angus' lead phrasing. Yngwie Malmsteen Uh like 22 years or so and counting.

[neilpanda]

Yngwie Malmsteen Uh like 22 years or so and counting.

yea man! malmsteen stuff is hard!

[Andy R]

Actually I listen to them as much as possible. In the car, at work etc... That seems to help.

[rocketman]

It depends on the song for me. I grew up playing classical and jazz piano. When you play jazz you need to be able to do things on the fly. I took some of that, although not as well as piano, to my guitar playing. So a lot of tunes we played were just done right on the spot without rehearsing them. For example, I don't think we ever rehearsed a Beatles tune.

 

At the same time we played a lot of Rush. You CAN'T wing that music. For those tunes I wanted to learn them note for note. Tunes like YYZ took several months to get down right. I lost my chops because of a tennis elbow issue last year. Once I healed again it took me about a month to be able to play YYZ again. I can figure out the notes pretty easily but playing it correctly is a different ballgame. Sometimes it'll take me a week of solid practicing to get one lick down. This lick from The Trees was one of them.

[ChanMan]

Depending ont the song, almost instantly. I had "Sex and Candy" by the 2nd chorus the first time I heard it. (A friend said Hey... here's that song i was telling you about, can you play it?")

 

Other songs can take me forever... even simple songs will stymie me unless I get the chords online (or the sheet music in them olden days!) Like Rector, the more I listen to it, the easier it is to play it.

 

 

Oh... and Rocket.... I have no trouble winging Rush songs. Just imagine my surprise when I see Alex play them and he's not playing the same chords I do....

 

 

 

 

I think they call that "faking it"

[Tman5293]

I can learn a basic Rock N' Roll song in about ten minutes minus the lead solo. If I look up the tabs it's usually only about five minutes.

[FirstMeasure]

Anywhere from a couple minutes to about two days, depending on difficulty and the amount of time I have to spend on it. Sometimes I scare myself, once when I was about 22 I played Rush's "Show, Don't Tell" after one listen (and I mean Accurately). That was divine intervention, however, not the norm.

 

{edit} A lot depends on whether or not I like the song, too. If I don't care for a song it takes about twice as long as it should, but I Guit 'er Done.

[swleary]

I'm still trying to learn Twinkle twinkle...geez lol

 

Seriously though. All depends on the song, some right away and others a few days. My biggest problem is not being able to focus and getting side tracked.

[duane v]

Learning a song is no issue......

 

Singing and playing it on guitar to the point where I'm not thinking about it...... a week

[surfpup]

I just make crap up.

[Steven Tari]

I just make crap up.

 

DITTO HERE! i'VE GOT MYSELF IN A WRITING MODE. sO NO LEARNING RIGHT NOW. jUST ON MY OWN THING.

[ChanMan]

I just make crap up.

 

I do a lot of this, to be sure!

[neilpanda]

I just make crap up.

same here

[damian]

It depends on the weather.............and whether or not I want to learn it, or need to learn it...

[Tman]

Standard 3 chord progression rock/new country rock - I can learn it by listening before I play the guitar.

Steely Dan - 2 weeks of picking up the guitar, learning the chords, re-picking up the guitar and re-learning the chords. As Damian said, depends on the "need to know". I have a gig coming up in Feb so I really need to learn these.

[charlie brown]

Song basics, come pretty quickly. The nuances, and intricacies can take

a LOT more time/work, depending on the song, one's skill level, and one's

desire for exactness. Having seen all my "hero's" in live concerts, I

noticed a lot of them don't do their solos "exactly like the record,"

(in fact, a lot of them aren't even that close)...but they play from their

hearts, and the solos are often even better, than the records. So, I try

to get the jest of it, but don't worry (too much) about doing it "note for

note," unless it's an iconic solo, etc.

 

If one reads music, too...it's much easier, to get the "note for note"

thing down...IMHO. I don't, so I have to learn them 1 phrase, at a time.

 

 

CB

[neilpanda]

Song basics, come pretty quickly. The nuances, and intricacies can take

a LOT more time/work, depending on the song, one's skill level, and one's

desire for exactness. Having seen all my "hero's" in live concerts, I

noticed a lot of them don't do their solos "exactly like the record,"

(in fact, a lot of them aren't even that close)...but they play from their

hearts, and the solos are often even better, than the records. So, I try

to get the jest of it, but don't worry (too much) about doing it "note for

note," unless it's an iconic solo, etc.

 

CB

haha me to. I usually learn songs from a live version so when I take the song to an instructor they say Im playing it wrong and I get in trouble

[BigKahune]

Yeah, standard progression are easy to pick up.

 

The embellishments and solos are the things which might cause me to spend more time on a certain piece.

[pete c]

with me it depends allot on if i have to learn it or want to.

[milod]

Heck, I've played "Misty" for over 40 years - over 50 if you count trumpet playing - and ain't got what I wanna do yet. Never did learn the words all the way through. Played it at dozens of solo gigs, but...

 

Some of the Bob Dylan stuff back in the olden days was rough to learn the lyric, several weeks while also going to college and having a "day job" as well as a band, but enough for a "jam band" guitar sound at a rock gig wasn't difficult at all once you sorta got the flow of the tune.

 

I've never been so much one for an emulation of a record, even when I was s'posed to in a cupla bands both rock and country. But maybe that's the old "jazz" and "swing" mentality where almost all the top bands on the 30s, 40s and 50s had their own arrangements of "top tunes."

 

So I guess the question is, "what do you mean 'learn' songs?"

[Andy R]

My problem is not the learning so much unless it is just a physically challenging thing to learn but How the hell do you retain stuff you have learned? If I could only a remember a 1/10 of what I have spent hours learning I would be happy. I have a friend who is a juke box. You name it and he can play it pretty much first pass.... I hate him sometimes :angry: Nah not really!

[ChanMan]

My problem is not the learning so much unless it is just a physically challenging thing to learn but How the hell do you retain stuff you have learned? If I could only a remember a 1/10 of what I have spent hours learning I would be happy. I have a friend who is a juke box. You name it and he can play it pretty much first pass.... I hate him sometimes :angry: Nah not really!

 

 

Here here!!

 

I find I spend almost as much time trying to recall my old catalog as I do learning new stuff!

[FirstMeasure]

haha me to. I usually learn songs from a live version so when I take the song to an instructor they say Im playing it wrong and I get in trouble

This is why so many "Instructors" can take a hike, in my book. They try to teach you how "They" play the guitar, not how "You" are going to play.

 

Learning live versions is one of my secrets to really selling a cover tune. If you stick to the studio version and nail it note for note you come off like the radio, Stagnant and predictable but the audience will like it. However if you learn the Live and Studio versions it allows you to get an idea of how that song has grown, and what it has become for the band that wrote it or made it popular. Then try to capture the essence and energy of the song and the Audience will Love It! But that's just my opinion.

 

I'd have to say that your instructor doesn't understand that the recorded version of a song is just a snap shot of it when it's a fledgling, the live version is the practiced and fully bloomed result of the writing process.

[charlie brown]

Here here!!

 

I find I spend almost as much time trying to recall my old catalog as I do learning new stuff!

 

 

Well, must we talk about THAT?! LOL CRS is taking

over, here. :unsure:

 

CB