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Hi @mkjohnsons , a really great question you pose. When if first started I was so eager to learn some tunes I just did them kinda whatever way I could and initially due to my impatience I learned many a tune wrong, meaning not the way the composer had written it. Over time I became aware that a good amount of the coolness of the songs I liked and wanted to play was in the details (great example of this is Neil Young’s Old Man, the changes don’t happen at the measure or even half measure but rather at 3/4 measure with a single beat change at the end to catch everything up) Of course I was not into simple songs, right?… I found myself going back and relearning most of what I had initially learned. Over my life I had always been focused on the vocal without much thought to rhythm and changes. My story is about going from being lyric focused to chord change focused. Today once I get the changes and the rhythm then I start to lay lyrics on top. It can come in the form of vocal or instrumental melody. I work the structure, the bones of the song if you will and then flesh it out. The words are the last thing. This transition of focus took me a while, as in years…to be fair I am a slow learner.
As for the memorization, for me that seems to only happen with repetition. I have to play something over and over….like a three minute song I have to play 10 times in a row everyday for three months and then I get it. For me it is repetition over time that locks it in. It took me two years to learn Robert Earl Keens Gringo Honeymoon…lotta words in that song plus the strumming pattern was an adventure unto itself.
Now I dissect stuff measure by measure to get it right. Does it take a long time? Yes it does, but it is one of the most satisfying puzzles to work out. And taking the time to get it right helps me play it like I cant get it wrong. And when I am done…there is no more guessing.
Here is the best part of it all: the more I do it the faster it goes. #Small win….winning!