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This is a great converstion, thnks for posting @Aservire ! Cool to hear about everyone’s approach and thoughts. Making music is so personal and everyone does it their own way. But its also communal and we’re inspired and can learn so much from others.
Tons of great advice here but just to add my two cents…be careful of ‘perfect’ or ‘mastering a song’. I can play and sing an hours worth of songs from beginning to end but i wouldnt say that Ive really mastered any of them. Dont get me wrong i can play them pretty good but perfect is still a ways off.
I love Coach’s point about learning vs practicing. Even though I have learned a song, its imperative that I continue to practice it, especially if my goal is to get closer to mastering it. You can learn a song fairly quickly depending upon difficulty, but practicing it is a much longer process. A few times Ive left a song on the shelf for too long that has a specific fingerstyle and its like “damn i forget how to play this”. Can always figure it out again, but the longer I leave it the harder it is to get it back. So I spend half my time learning new songs (usually 3-5 on the go, alternating between them) and half my time practicing those Ive already got under the belt. And its always a long game…Ive got songs that I learned years ago that Im still working on to improve.
Also agree its important to learn the whole song. That doesnt mean you have to have the lead solo, or any other tricky parts, but if you can, learn it from beginning to end. Start with a version thats at your current level or just above. And then once youve learned the song you can add stuff as you practice and get better. If you only learn the beginning of a song or the main lick/riff, it gets boring after awhile and you miss out on the sense of accomplishment of learning the whole thing.
If a song has distinct parts eg intro, chorus, solo, finish, base runs, etc etc., I’ll always break it up into chunks and work exclusively on each part. Once Ive drilled each part in then I’ll put them all together. For me this is especially important when I’m at the very beginning of learning any particular tune. I do the same thing when its time to bring the singing in.
Bottom line…again depending on degree of difficulty, and how much time put in, I can learn a song pretty quickly. In other words I ‘know’ how to play it. Can I play it well? Not at all, that where the practice comes in. And like they say, practice makes perfect…or at least good enough.
And of course the most important thing is to have fun with it, pat yourself on the back regularly, keep your expectations realistic, and be patient and kind to yourself.