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Slippin' backwards?
In my session “lineup” lately, I’ve been picking up the 12-er, doing “warmup” kinds of exercises for ~10 mins, then for maybe 10 mins, I’ll work on the Dailies- (including ones that need “a little more” work).
Then, if I’m working thru any Skills Courses, I’ll maybe work on those for ~5-10 mins or so.
Then sometimes I’ll putz around for ~10 mins playing bits and pieces of songs.
Then I switch-over to my 6-string, and do a lot of the same stuff over- minus the “warm-ups”.
This is where the problem starts(?).
AFTER I’m good & warmed up and got some “work” done with the 6-er, I wanna play some MUSIC. Most of the time I’m trying to learn and/or memorize a song or five during this period, and I find myself going to tabbed music- either internet tabs or my own written music w/ tabs above the lyrics- (which is really just the homemade version of Ultimate Guitar, E-Chords, etc).
Then I usually just ask Alexa on my Amazon music speaker to play whatever song tabs I’m lookin’ at– either laptop screen or from my old notebook.
Well….. It’s damn fun!…. And I think I’m actually pretty good at it…… it SOUNDS good.
So here’s the question I need help with……..
Is this a good path? Time here in TAC has certainly made me a better player, and I am way better at playing along with the “tabbed” stuff— but it “feels” like I’m just slipping backwards somehow……
I’m certainly “learning” these songs- (because of repetition mostly?), and being more at ease with all the chords & transitions— just playin’ along— so that’s good.
But I wonder if it’s just sort-of a lazy way out- and if there are any suggestions about this method– or a better one as far as learning songs by memory….
My Ultimate Goal to just be able to grab a guitar and nothing else- (no tabs or chords- nothing)- and start playing “cold”. Or be able to play if somebody hands me a guitar and says “play something”. Or be able to play something and be comfortable if I’m in a guitar store test-driving a new rig.
This has got me bugged—- where do I go from here….
I’m rarin’ to go- after COVID round 2. Never had a day without a guitar in my lap!
Thanks for reading this mess, and thanks in advance for any help or direction–
Mark J
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This discussion was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
the-old-coach.
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This discussion was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
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12 Replies
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@mkjohnsons Mark, it sounds to me as if your practice routine is working for you. As for just picking up a guitar and playing, I find that the more I play a song, the less I need tabs or chord sheets. I just remember it from repetition, and alive often picked up a guitar and played a song I haven’t played in months, and I still remember it if I previously memorized it. So, bottom line, practice until you memorize it.
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There’s no shame in playing from written music, if you ask me! I’m not great at memorizing, so I find it really helpful to play off of tabs or song sheets. If I play something enough times it’ll stick. 🙂
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No, @mkjohnsons you’re not slipping! I’m with you. I want to have at least 10 songs that I can play without a music sheet in front of me. I am at 6 right now. I might muddle through them, lot of hesitating, but I do it. Take a song that isn’t way to hard and play a much as you can. If you make a mistake, start over (I have spent hours on this stuff and then have to repeat if the next day). I walk the line by Johnny Cash is a good one to practice to (download it from ultimate-guitar). If you get one verse down you’ll get them all, because it’s nothing but chord progression changes per verse. By the way have you taken the fretboard wizard course? It will help. Tony talks about a thing called Music Theory and how songs use chord progressions to make the song (i think I said that right). Here is something that @Brian2501 mentioned in a ‘small wins’ post of sounding out the melody of a song. I started doing it myself. I’m incorporating it into my ‘Jamming songs’ course study. If I’m saying any of this wrong, or someone has an easier way to say it, please jump in. In no time you’ll be making up jingles off of TV commercials.
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Cadgirl-
I responded to your post- but then had to edit my own response. When I hit post to re-enter my response…. it went POOF! and disappeared.
I’ll try again later.
Thanks- Mark J
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If I know I’m making a longer post i’ll write it in Word. Then copy / paste. I don’t know why that is happening. Did you happen to get the flashing pink screen of death? or maybe I’ve been black-listed. 🙂
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Nope- haven’t seen that one yet.😯
As I said, just wrote the post, and hit the post button, then- (to make sure it was posted OK)- I read thru it again, and discovered a spelling error. So I hit the “edit” button, made the correction, then hit “post”……..
POOF gone
It’s happened before to me if I recall correctly, but it’s been months ago.
That’ll teach me to fix spelling errors🤨.
Thanks- Mark J
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You’re routine is way heavier than mine and it can’t help but move forward if you can keep the fun in it. One thing I picked up from a forum thread is the idea of reducing your playlist to paper (or virtual tablet), then noting the last time you played through it to keep the repertoire current. “Lyrics” memory is a harder piece of the task and all performers struggle with it if you ask them. So if you want to just pick up a guitar and play more than an instrumental, a playlist helps. I also am trying to develop themed playlists like: Traveling songs, Love Songs, Drinking songs, Grandkid songs, Train songs, etc. Each playlist may have only a few tunes, but in a “hand me the guitar”setting it helps one remember something to play. Guitar Geeks Unite.
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Hi @mkjohnsons slipping?….I thing you are one step behind the DoDah Man…truckin right along. I relate to the idea of getting the songs down cold but it takes time and effort. Start weaning yourself of the song sheets, one verse at a time. Get the songs down and then start playing as in messing around with them. Play them with the artist and then play them on your own. Helps me keep it tight. And lastly find someone to play with in IRL. I had a chance last month to play with Sherpa and TJ and the benefit of this is incalculable. I had an opportunity to crash and burn on a song I had been wanting to learn for a while and after having taken it off the rails with them it somehow got locked in correctly. You have the most important thing down, keep it fun keep it light. Set your goal, make it realistic and pursue, achieve, then set another goal, reflect on the feeling of the goal achieved and carry on. I learned a Robert Earl Keen tune, Gringo Honeymoon, and I thought I would never be able to get it. There were a thousand verses and the strumming stumped me for the longest time but…I just kept slogging away one verse at a time and darn if I didn’t get it down. Two years in the making. Never thought I was a quick study but once I get the bone in my teeth I am not going to drop it.
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Hey there. Just wondered if you had tried writing your own tune or song yet? This might seem daunting but actually writing your own music is a quite involved process and as you work through it you spend such a long time playing and rewriting little bits that it locks in. Obviously with no sheet music available this takes you in a different direction with your instrument. It doesn’t have to be Lennon and McCartney but it is such good fun.
I mostly write instrumentals but this week I’ve written a blues song which I intend to play at the next SCONES Virtual Open Mic session. This was a goal I set myself at the last 90 day progress party and of course with the blues at least you already have a chord structure to work from. It will be the first time I’ve played my guitar live to an audience since joining TAC in April. Nervous? Damn right! Whether you go down this route of writing a song or not I wish you all the best. You sound like you’ve just plateaued off for a bit rather than going backwards and this is natural. Push off in another direction, mix it up, perhaps tune your guitar to drop D or DADGAD and you never know what might happen. 🤘😎🎸
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Hello all- and thanks for your responses!
Upon re-reading and re-thinking my original post- maybe “slipping backwards” wasn’t the best title for it.
It was meant to be a reference to falling back into old habits- in my case, it was just playing away on a tabbed music song- (and thinking I was doing great!)- when what I really want to do — instead– was learn to play that song **without** any “help”.
It truly was kind-of a “rut” for me— for years. Saying to myself that I was really learning to play songs… but….. not really.
Like the kid in the high school band who could play away for hours off the sheet music in front of him- (yes, I remember all those Christmas and Spring concerts watching my kids & g-kids!). Anyway- was he learning the notes?– yes. Was he learning the SONG?– maybe— sort-of. Could he play that song **without** the sheet music in front of him?– Not on a bet.
One of the reasons I joined TAC was to get out of the dependence and false-sense of improvement that playing only TABs put me in.
I know discussions generally along this line have popped up now & then in here.
My particular question was about the TAB-bed music and how that should NOT be an easy “go-to” for me to fall back onto- in my quest to figure out the best way for me to learn how to memorize and make songs available to play straight from my head– all on my own— (no chords, no lyrics, no nothin’)- out of the blue.
I figured that there is NO better place on the surface of the planet to get help figurin’ this out, than right here, within TAC.
Maybe someone else is dealing with this same thing?
Well- once again- it appears that rambling-on is my thing.
Thanks again for any more help & advice….
Mark J
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Cool @mkjohnsons , to that end (again just me) get the changes down, get the rhythm down, add the lyrics. When I first started I was opposite because the songs I knew, I knew from the lyrics only, I was taking my interpretation of the lyric and applying the rhythm to the lyric in my head. This was most unsatisfying for me and worst of all it made it impossible or really tough at best to play with others. I had to relearn everything I thought I knew in the above order to successfully lock in songs the way they were written.
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Mark, I have to agree with every suggestion given. Break things down into small pieces. Start with the first bar and just place that into memory, and then add the next and play the 2 together and so on. Just focus on the individual verse and then the chorus, and so on. I’ll often envision the Tab in my head as I’m playing. Don’t worry about vocals until you’ve gotten the music memorized. It’s just a process and takes time. I think you’re doing great, and I always enjoy hearing you play and sing.
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