Brian R's Learning Log

[rileyman]

OK. Here we go.
I have bounced back and forth between different guitar learning websites and decided that the Blues Immersion felt like a great way to learn the Blues. So here I am.

I was on another site last month and the instructor talked about how to split up your available guitar time and he talked about technique practice, new skill practice, and your performance list. The performance list would be “memorized” songs. He was adamant that you needed to memorize the songs. That resonated with me because over the years I have wanted to have a list of songs, but I constantly have to pull out the tabs to get through the whole song.

Therefore, my New Years resolution will be to memorize a number of songs this year that I can just pick up the guitar and play if family or friends ask me to play.

The songs I have worked on over the last 4-5 years include:
Dust in the Wind
Yesterday
Blackbird
The Sound of Silence
Sittin on the Dock of the Bay
16 Tons
Black Orpheus
Romanza
Rob Swift eTudes - Morning Rising, Nightcap Serenade
You Should Probably Leave by Chris Stapleton

I can probably play any of these (some better than others) but you would have to give me a day to refresh my memory of the song. Not quite what I have hoped for.

The BLIM 2 will also include a couple Blues tunes each month and I hope to pick a couple to add to this list.

I have come to the personal conclusion that the best way to judge my progress needs to be how many songs I have under my fingers and can play at will. As my repertoire grows, I will judge that at progress.

I am curious how many songs community members have memorized and can play at will. I don’t mean you can necessarily play the song perfect, but have the song memorized and can play it.

[sequences]

There are a couple memorization topics that have been meaningful to me. I’ll link them below.

I take it you are going into BLIM Class 2? I was in Class 1. The time you will likely spend may not give you much time to work with your old songs. You will need to see how it goes. It is pretty exciting to get the new material each month and then see how far you get with it before new material drops. Part of this will be two new song lessons, part will be memorizing the licks.

You may be able to use the following technique. A large part of this technique is exercising your memory rather than resorting back to the tab. Use the tab as a last resort and don’t give in too easily.

The Spacing Effect

Another topic is this disdussion from Lieven. It looks at learning a little differently.

Tip: Memorizing songs (building layers)

Iv’ noticed many beginner are approaching songs too “one dimensional”, too much in a sequence of notes, trying to learn the EXACT notes that are being played from the beginning, trying to learn more Many learn it it “bar by bar”…and end up knowing about 20 intros of songs but they can not accompany a single complete song if they were asked. I was like that Here’s what I learned here Building blocks When I learn a song; I work my way up from the bottom, in layers first I see that I get the…

[rileyman]

Great suggestions! I plan to start incorporating the Spacing Effect tomorrow. I was also impressed by the Lieven discussion that included a lot of suggestions on how to build and enhance my repertoire.