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A question for those who have been playing a while.

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(@sam334)
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Joined: 18 years ago
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Topic starter  

Is there always an initial struggle when learning a new piece of music? I enjoy playing fingerpicked classical pieces, but always seem to stumble the first day of learning a new song. It takes maybe 24-48 hours for it to sink in and become second nature. Do those of who've been playing for several years notice anything similar? Of course a lot of it depends on the piece, but there is always a learning curve.

edit* have only been playing daily for about 9 months.


   
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(@demoetc)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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Yes, there is always that initial struggle unless you're a dynamite sight-reader.

And then there's always The Section where you spend most of your time trying to get through. After that, like you say, it become second nature.


   
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(@coloradofenderbender)
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Joined: 18 years ago
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Its still a struggle for me too. Although, it doesn't take quite as long to get a song down as it used to.


   
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(@dogbite)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 6348
 

same here. a new piece takes a bit of study and then practice.
once that is done the more one plays it the more personal it can become. eventually you can 'own'it.

after forty years it is always the same for me.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=644552
http://www.soundclick.com/couleerockinvaders


   
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(@anonymous)
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Joined: 17 years ago
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i find that everything seems to be stacked on top of what came before. it's always as difficult as the level you dig to, or something along those lies.


   
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 geoo
(@geoo)
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Yes, especially with fingerpicked stuff and if you can feel better in only two days then I am #1 jealous and #2 inadequate :lol: but seriously it sounds like your doing great.

Jim

“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)


   
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(@sam334)
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Joined: 18 years ago
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Topic starter  

Yes, especially with fingerpicked stuff and if you can feel better in only two days then I am #1 jealous and #2 inadequate :lol: but seriously it sounds like your doing great.

Jim

:lol:

Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit, hehe. I don't have the whole piece down perfectly in that amount of time, but something seems to "click" the next day. It doesn't seem as complicated and I'm able to pace myself without feeling overwhelmed at first.


   
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(@denny)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 452
 

Kudos to you Sam. After 9 months of playing, I was impressed that I could go from a G chord to a C chord and have most of the notes ring true! What I now do with a new song is break it into parts. After that I'll go to sections so that it flows.


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
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I always spend a couple of days looking at the score before trying to play anything. It still doesn't make that struggle disappear but you can get some idea of shape and phrasing from it.

Best,

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@wes-inman)
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I always spend a couple of days looking at the score before trying to play anything. It still doesn't make that struggle disappear but you can get some idea of shape and phrasing from it.

This is why I wish I could sight-read. If you can read you can play most anything.

Because I don't read, I need to hear the song if I'm not familiar with it. I can usually pick up songs real quick. But any song can have difficult parts that I need to especially practice.

I always concentrate on the difficult parts of a song that give me trouble. I really don't worry about the easy parts at all. But if part of the song is difficult for me, I will practice it over, and over, and over again.... (this gets on other people's nerves). But usually the difficult part will become very natural and easy after enough practice. Once you do that, you've got the song. :D

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@kingpatzer)
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This is why I wish I could sight-read. If you can read you can play most anything.

Because I don't read, I need to hear the song if I'm not familiar with it. :D

I play mostly jazz standards out of a real/fake book.

I read reasonably well.

But everytime I tackle a new song, the first thing I do is go to my favorite streaming audio supplier and get as many different artists versions of the tune as possible. I put them all on my mp3 player and spend about 2 days just immersed in that one song.

At the end of that time, I usually have a solid sense of what it is that makes a song recongizable as that song. Sometimes it's a particular riff that just has to be there, or sometimes it's a rhythmic trick, or a meldoy line, or whatever.

That way, when I start putting together my arrangement, I know what's essential and what's the space I have to play in as an arranger.

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST


   
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(@ab0msnwman)
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Joined: 17 years ago
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taking 24 hours to learn a song is nothing man.

as you progress you will realize that some songs will take you years to learn, and even then it won't sound as good as the original.


   
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(@hueseph)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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taking 24 hours to learn a song is nothing man.

as you progress you will realize that some songs will take you years to learn, and even then it won't sound as good as the original.
Yup. Especially with classical. There's some pieces that I've started learning years ago but have yet to master and even the ones I've memorized, I've yet to play well. 20+ years and I'm still a hack! :roll: :lol:

https://soundcloud.com/hue-nery/hue-audio-sampler


   
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(@hueseph)
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or sometimes it's a rhythmic trick, or a meldoy line, or whatever.

Yeah. Those darn meldoy lines! I hate them! Who is this meldoy anyway and why did he have to make lines? Why not circles?
.................Okay. Sorry. I had to razz you about that typo. :wink: :P

https://soundcloud.com/hue-nery/hue-audio-sampler


   
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(@ab0msnwman)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 125
 

yeah dude exactly

i'll hear some of these jason becker songs or something and be like "ok so i will never be able to play it EXACTLY like he does, but maybe in like 4 years i could at least play it at tempo and cleanly"

it's depressing, but liberating in a way. i look at guys like shawn lane and buckethead and think to myself, ya know, i COULD play like that if i just practice a hell of a lot.

if i am like 50% as good as them in about 4 or 5 years I will be happy, and I play like 2 hours a day at least. usually 3 or 4


   
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