Firstly how long does it take people generally to learn a song and what is the best approach to it???
I put a lot of effort in but get bored quite easily and tend to start something else before I have a whole song done-does anyone else do this???
I feel that I know how to play loads of song intros but very few songs all the way through.
Any ideas on what might keep me interested???
Good question. I have been practicing for a long time now and can't play a full song either.
I am good at what I practice, some theory, many scales, finger exercises, arpeggios and know many chords and can switch between them now pretty well.
They say if you can play 3 chords, you can play music.
I don't know where the line is between practicing/developing skills and acutally playing music begins.
As slow as a song may seem, I hear lyrics and I often lose my place and play catch up or get lost altogether.
I think the key is breaking it down and taking the time to play all parts of the song, then put it together as we listen to the real song and be able to stop it to work through trouble areas. As slow as a song may seem, I find the switching for chords while playing needs to be very fast and very accurate.
Anyway, yesterday I starte Heart of Gold from the beginners songs page here and David did a nice job of breaking parts down for us (with MP3 examples which helps a lot!) and offering options and teaching us that we don't need to copy exactly what the artist is doing (which would be boring anyway). My playing of the lesson really sounds like what David is tesching us and I have no doubt I will be able to play thing song entirely soon.
Choose a song from the beginner page here and stick with it. Don't move on until you have it down and you will be able to play it. I think the most important thing is to choose a song that appeals to you in the first place or you will lose interest and continue jumping around, just building 'pieces' of songs to add to your practice sessions that add up to nothing as far as being something to record and play back to listen to for making corrections to technique and mistakes.
Heart of Gold. Will be my first song done completely before I move on to something else again. :P
This is the best advice I can give you (and myself).
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
Greenstuart.
The other reply is spot on. Break it down!
Say you have a song that is intro / verse / verse / chorus / verse / chorus / outro.
How many things you gotta learn? 4.
Intro
Verse
Chorus
Outro.
So, pick guitar up. Can I play intro? Yes - move on.
No - practice it. Can i play it now? No. Am I ever going to play it? No? Ok, Do i need it? Can i just strum the chords to the first verse and then start maybe? Can i just launch into it without an intro maybe? Can I play a little bass line as an intro maybe?
Find a way round it. Move on. Or give up on it. Its your choice.
Ok so we've done the intro. Move on. How's the first verse looking? Scary? Can we simplify it, maybe playing single strums instead of that complicated fast off beat strumming the band is using? Yes?
You have to think about what you're trying to do.
If you're listening to Clapton and thinking "RIGHT, I am going to play Crossroads all the way through just like he does"...you might be there a long time.
Or you might think "hmm, I can play a fair bit of Crossroads, if I learn that one interesting lick and then add this on, and cut that bit out, it will still be Crossroads...but it will be MINE!".
Start basic. Pick a song from the Easy Song Database, or from the beginners lessons. Don't be too proud to pick a 2 or 3 chord song. Get practicing, and most of all, pat yourself on the back when you get to the end. And think. "right, I have played a song all the way through....wheres the next one??!"
You'll get it.
Matt
