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| How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Jimmy25
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Hey guys, I'm an intermediate player, and I was just wondering, do you guys also have the trouble of trying really hard to learn a new song today, and you finally can play it smoothly from beginning till end of the song. But then after you put the guitar down and come back the next day, you realize you can't play through the whole song smoothly like yesterday, or you already forgot some parts. And you have to rewind and go back to watch the video lesson again. Moreover, if you put a song you can play very well aside and don't play the song for a long time. Would you forget parts of the chords / solos?
I mean, people go to some famous guitarists concert to watch them play the original version of a song. The guitarist can't just improvise right? People will know. So how can they manage to memorize so many songs to play in one concert? And still be able to play the exact same things on the next concert even if it's after a long time or after they were writing other new songs? I know sometimes they have screens on stage showing the lyrics to sing, but I'm sure it won't show guitar notes right? So is there a trick or something that allows the chord/solo of the songs to be in your memory forever or at least for a long time after you have learned it? Or it's just the matter of how smart you are and how good you are at memorizing stuffs... If that's the case, maybe I'm kind of dumb... b/c I practice a list of songs to play on a school concert, then after the performance I put the songs aside and start to prepare new songs for the next concert. Then I forget the old ones.... I can't always remember them... some might say play by feelings, but you still have to memorize the basic construction / melody of each song to make it sound like the song right...
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 4:24 am |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Henry Mars
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After playing the same crap over and over again for 300 shows a year, you wish you could forget it. Truthfully though ... most popular music is really simple underneath it all ... as for the lead parts, once you know what it sounds like you more or less just play it. It isn't really complicated.
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....that's real nice kid. Now can you play that in Db for me?
Ashby Trent
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 4:31 am |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Lukybob2
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Henry Mars said:
After playing the same crap over and over again for 300 shows a year, you wish you could forget it. Truthfully though ... most popular music is really simple underneath it all ... as for the lead parts, once you know what it sounds like you more or less just play it. It isn't really complicated.
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That's the key as far as I know. Just playing it over and over and over until you don't have to think about it. If someone else has a magical answer, I'd like to see it. 
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 9:16 am |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
sting729
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As stated above-It's all about repetition until a certain age of course, then the memory takes a crap on you anyway
“Among God's creatures two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes, in order not be separated from the man” Andre' Segovia
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 9:37 am |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Henry Mars
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sting729 said:
As stated above-It's all about repetition until a certain age of course, then the memory takes a crap on you anyway
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The truth is had to face ....... help.
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....that's real nice kid. Now can you play that in Db for me?
Ashby Trent
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 10:18 am |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
DeathCharge2
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Jimmy25 said:
I mean, people go to some famous guitarists concert to watch them play the original version of a song. The guitarist can't just improvise right? People will know.
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They can, the question is will they do it. My band has also started to do cover gigs - I haven't learned the solos to... well, pretty much any of our 3 hour repetoire that isn't original tunes  . One of the best local cover bands I've seen here - the guitarist improvises sections of solos on very well-known songs all the time, and it sounds great.
As for remembering, I can often remember the basic chord structure of a song unless I haven't played it in half a year or more. There's a lot of songs I learned in high school that I simply do not remember how to play. The good news is, I can relearn them pretty fast .
My metal band is having it's first jam in a year and a half tomorrow - we have to write two new songs as we didn't record the guitar parts for the last bit we were working on. I have an intro and a foggy recollection of how the fifth song started, but we're just going to run with it.
If you want to remember a ton of songs, you have to practice that ton of songs.
Canadian Handwound Sound - www.tonefordays.com
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 12:05 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
janosfia
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Yep, repetition, repetition, repetition.
Although that doesn't always guarantee you'll do everything right, every time. A perfect expample of this was David Gilmour's guest appearance at Roger Water's performance of 'The Wall' in London. I mean, how many times has DG played that song in his career?
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 3:14 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Henry Mars
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Currently, I am playing in an R&B and Soul Band. How complicated can it get? Most of these tunes max out at 6 or 7 chords and none of these use extensions beyond 9ths. Every once in a while you get a hook you have to learn. Me thinks that some ear training may be in order. When the ear is developed you can play most of this stuff automatically.
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....that's real nice kid. Now can you play that in Db for me?
Ashby Trent
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 3:40 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
bigdaddy76
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I have been learning guitar using the nashville numbering system. I too forget songs. However, I find that with this system, it only takes me about 5 mins to get back up to speed. I can NOT read tabs. My teacher says that when you learn with tabs, that it is just not so logical, so it is harder to remember what you are doing. I can not confirm or deny this, because other than what I have taught myself, this is the only way I have learned. Maybe this is a common way that everyone learns from a teacher, if so, forgive me.
Sometimes a winner is just a dreamer that never gave up! 
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 3:49 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Henry Mars
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Tabs are for the most part, the worst way to learn anything.
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....that's real nice kid. Now can you play that in Db for me?
Ashby Trent
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 4:06 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
sting729
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Henry Mars said:
Tabs are for the most part, the worst way to learn anything.
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I agree I didn't even know what tabs were until about 6 or 7 years ago when I started frequenting internet guitar forums
“Among God's creatures two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes, in order not be separated from the man” Andre' Segovia
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 6:45 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Sada Yairi
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Speaking from a classical point of view (where there's pretty much no improv at all) it's purely repetition to retain pieces. As you're learning a piece, you break it into smaller chunks (even just two or three bars for more complicated pieces) and repeat that small section over and over. Gradually you build up your repertoire of 'chunks' and then you have the whole piece.
Professional performers were mentioned above - for classical performers, those guys practice many hours every day (like I used to). Can't help but memorise heaps when you're playing that much over and over.
| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 6:49 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Atimeformetal
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Usually if I have to practice something a lot to learn it I memorize it pretty well. I may need to polish up it again the next day but after a few times I have it. Then I usually play songs I have learned every few months at least otherwise I become rusty on them.
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| Post Date: 6/8/2012 @ 11:38 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
ax_murder
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The good news is that music is one of those things your brain remembers well - people will often set information they need to remember to a tune. For learning a song, this is already done for you.
Luckybob mentioned playing the thing over and over until you don't have to think about it, and that works.
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| Post Date: 6/9/2012 @ 3:22 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
six string for hire
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I used to use a dictaphone. Look it up and see the possibilities. Hands free operation and you can learn a song a few measures at a time. I don't know why I can't get myself to use it anymore. It really was a great way to learn long instrumental songs bit by bit until I had the whole song mastered,
| Post Date: 6/10/2012 @ 10:15 pm |
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RE: How To Memorize Many Songs And Never Forget How To Play Them? |
Julia_343
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And then comes the day when you buy one of those "days of the week" pill dispensers so you don't forget your medications.
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--- Disclaimer: pay no attention to tonal advice from this poster if you are under 30 and play thrash.
| Post Date: 6/11/2012 @ 11:37 am |
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