Advice, how to learn songs

[JohnWP]

America’s “Horse with No Name” can be played with just two cords that are both very easy to make. It’s a great first song to learn with an easy strumming patter that you can change up once you have the basic pattern down to make it a little more interesting. https://youtu.be/XUZyjCqyf74?si=a5fJrWpRQc0wRsc6 First time I played along with this I was like OMG I am playing music!

Next up would be to find a 3 cord song you like and work on that. It’s all about making those transitions from cord to cord quickly and smoothly. After that just keep adding to your repertoire of songs and the number of cords in the song.

Tony teaches skills and techniques, but learning to transition from cord to cord takes time and effort. I am certainly not there yet, but I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel somewhere. lol

[Moose408]

I’m 15 months in and still find learning a song difficult.

Part of the key is finding a song you love because you are going to spend a lot of time with it during the learning process. Look up the song on Ultimate Guitar and YouTube training videos. When starting out, you need to Simplify and play it Slow (this part is hard because you hear the speed of the song in your head and tend to want to play it at that speed). If you have an issue with a particular chord transition then stop trying to play the song and just practice that chord transition for several weeks/months until it’s not an issue. Simplify by perhaps only strumming once per chord or simplify the chord, or skip the chord. If you are making mistakes identify why and isolate that section and practice just it. Don’t continue making the same mistakes or you will end up learning the mistakes.

In general it takes me 3-4 months to learn a song that I would be willing to perform in front of other people. Don’t rush it and be patient. Enjoy the journey.

[jumpinjeff]

The only way I found was through repetition. Picking songs I love was part of the success as I had to play them thousands of times. As I get further down the road, I realize the songs I liked were prototypical. One song applies to about 100 others. By learning one song so well I could wear it intuitively, I was learning 100s of others.

That learning period between when you start and when you are ready to play out is tough to endure. That is one of the beauties of sharing stuff you are working on here. We all know how it goes. Here we look at the presentation and identify what is good. It is less about what needs to improve as that is the point of being here. The presenter is always very aware, more than anyone else, what needs work.

Playing and recording your play speeds up progress especially with learning a song but is not exclusive to song learning. Share you recording or not, that is up to you but the exercise of recording should be worked into your music practices for fastest results.

[petelanger]

@jumpinjeff I’m curious about your comment in another thread that learning songs may have impeded your progress because I seem to have heard others mention this also. We all want to be able to play songs, that’s got to be on the top of everyone’s list. What songs and the level of proficiency certainly will vary from person to person. I have a pretty long list of songs I want to be to play and early on I found myself trying to learn a few of them but I’ve since backed off and I’m not entirely sure why.

But I also find that not focusing on learning songs and not worrying about being able to play the entire Daily Challenge has upped my enjoyment of TAC in a big way.

[jumpinjeff]

This is getting to the core of how TAC’s model is different from other systems. You nailed it @langerking . I am pretty sure I could go on for a volume or two on this subject. There are two thing particular to consider. One is: “we all want to play songs.” Why? What is the real reason? Fun? sure but why? I had to first get honest, explore the answer and then find something meaningful to shoot for. It is when I abandoned performative and adopted communicative as my modus operandi. This though is very specific to me. Each finds their own way. Second is Finger Choreography vs Becoming a player. This relates to how I was hampered initially by learning songs. My early attempts were that of learning choreography. I had no idea how the puzzle fit, I was just trying to make one little picture. I became super focused on a result without giving equal focus to how the result I desired was achieved. Do it over and over until you get it right and then continue doing it until you cant get it wrong. That was my mentality. It was too many bits of random info. This old brain could not keep it all straight without context. Another problem was inadequate physical preparation and not having the kinesthetic awareness so that no matter how many times I did it I would not be able to do it. It was like learning how to run a marathon by running a marathon. Sure it is possible but man the next day is a bummer and do you want to do it again any time soon. I had to hunker down and build chops doing chunks of things, put in some miles as it were, in order for me to play what I wanted to play . All the while right in front of me in the form of daily challenges,the workouts were laid out, beautifully plain. It is true I could have taken any one of my intentions songs and broken it into chunks and in fact I did with Stormy Monday, Allman Bros tune, with a teacher, one on one. It was costly dollarwise and I didn’t really know what to do with it…yet. So Tony does all the breaking down and I don’t have to think about it….over time I learned that what I initially questioned, Tony got spot on. Is it my favorite song, Europa? No but it is music that is perfect for teaching. That was my path to get to Europa as I am ready. How do I know?…it is measured by enjoyment. When the dopamine is flowing I know! Final analysis: perhaps my own overemphasis on learning songs hampered my learning. I can see there is a beneficial balance. Could have gotten to where I am today more quickly without my imbalance? probably. I did not adjust fast enough. Eventually I got it.

Fall in love with the process. Let the outcome be what it will be. Control how you play in the future by how you play today. Play without tension, make eliminating tension your ongoing goal. Never chase speed. You will never catch it. You can sneak up on it though a few bpms at a time! This is the path to happy playing. You are finding it, as up your enjoyment it will continue. Play the guitar and the songs will just pour out and you will never have to play another song. Okay now I have to go play my silverstringed wooden box.

Thanks for asking. Wish I could condense it to a shorter version : )

[the-old-coach]

Jeff– You have done it yet again. Your way of explaining complicated things simply and clearly- (and in the right order)- is really great. In my limited experience and ability, I agree with those who think that focusing on learning songs when you’re just starting-out, is a BAD plan. In some cases, as you follow-along with the TABS- (Ultimate Guitar, E-Chords, etc)- you’re not really playing the song……… you’re more-like playing along with the song. However, I do think there is value in this- (I do it still– heck– we ALL do it). We get a sense of rhythm— and— a feeling of “wow- this is fun!”, and it IS fun. But…. you aren’t really LEARNING anything doing this. “Playing a song”- (or playing along with a song)- shouldn’t be “the main focus”. I’m out of TAC right now, but likely gonna re-join— simply because of the “foundational, building from the ground up” philosophy TAC offers. It purposefully does not teach us how to play a song, but rather- (albeit much slower)- it teaches us how to play any song.

[jumpinjeff]

That is it Mark!

I played along and still play along. Keeping engaged and motivated is one of the biggest challenges. It is an super useful tool! Recognizing its value even more powerful!

[Skyman911]

@Limor, so here’s my take. I assume we are all learning guitar to play actual songs, and not just to sit and practice. I’ve had two teachers, both from different sides. My first teacher was all about practice, drills, etc.. After a year I left him as I was having no fun at all. My second teacher was all about playing songs and less about practice. Once I let the fun back in, progress skyrocketed.

There are so many resources on the web for learning songs. Take what you are leaning from TAC, and incorporate that into learning songs. Start easy, but do challenge yourself. I use some of the below sites for song learning.

Marty Music
Guitar Hero2Zero
Justin Guitar

There are hundreds of songs if you only know the C, G and D chords.

[Loraine]

Hi @Limor This is a timeless question,on,playing actual songs. I remember being baffled by it at the beginning. My suggestion is to Google songs with 2 and 3 chords. They’ll be the easiest. If you know the song well, you can often figure out a strum pattern, but I always suggest using a metronome, and start slow. One down strum for every chord on the 4th count/click on it. Increase the speed by 5-10 beats once you’re able to master 1 chord every 4 beats.

If you need to work on transitions between chords, use the metronome. Take 2 adjacent chords in a song. Again, play the chord on the first beat. On beats 2,3,4 transition to the next chord (position fingers correctly) and strum down on the next beat 1; then use 2,3,4 again to transition back to the other chord, and back and forth. Again start slow and increase speed by 5-10 beats once you’re able to transition 10x in a row without missing a beat and with clear chords.

There are many resources to learn songs on sites and YouTube. I don’t like to provide competitors openly, so I’ll message you a few sites.

[Skyman911]

@Loraine, I hope I didn’t offend. I guess I don’t see these other sites as competitor sites since TAC is so much different. Also, most lessons are free, and no subscription required. I’ll try to be more prudent. I don’t want Tony getting mad at me.

[Loraine]

Hey @Skyman911 I take no offense to it, so we’re all good. I do it as a courtesy to Tony. That’s just me. Tony doesn’t get mad, that I know of. He’s more laid back. He or Support may send out personal messages. They would never call out anyone publicly. Those type messages are rare though.

I actually went against my own suggestion and posted a link to a pentatonic scale from another source. So we’re even – haha.

[Limor]

What a great support group you guys are, so much good advice. Thanks

[CHEzjeje]

humm them, then make the noise with the fat string. learn the chords that go with the sound from thefat string. play the chords. be famous.

[Av8tormike]

I did not read all of the other replies. Please forgive me if this is redundant.

I learn a song one bar at a time. After I’m proficient with three or so bars I combine them. Then repeat that process until the whole song is learned. It takes me a long time, maybe 15 minutes per bar, depending on the bar. Of course, bars that contain common scales take only a minute or two. I started on Unchained Melody about six months ago, and I’m getting okay at it. I have the beginning and ending bars memorized, but still need to look at the middle four bars. I expect to have the whole thing memorized by the end of the month.

I hope this helps.