For what it’s worth, a piece of advice I was given by a friend who was a professional guitar player for learning a song is to begin at the end and work your way to the beginning, learning one measure at a time, before you put it all together. You might want to try that, and of course play at a tempo where you can play it perfectly before increasing tempo.
Now this advice was for classical music (which is where I ended up after meandering through blues and finger-picking), not sure how well it would translate to rhythm, but would probably help for finger picking tunes as well.
I will reiterate as others have said that you need to revisit the song periodically for a while to commit it to long-term memory. I’ve found that if I leave a piece for too long and try to play it, I cannot do so on the first attempt. It’s like my brain has to slowly retrieve it from long-term storage, and it returns to me in bits and pieces after multiple attempts until I have the entire song ‘recovered’.
Here’s my go to, if I want to learn the ‘proper’ way to play a song from beginning to the end (because most of the time I just fall in to my comfort zone, which is simple 3-4 chord campfire song with basic strumming patterns on an acoustic, and sometimes, using some lead melodies, if I ma familiar with the song):
Find out with which chord progressions I’m familiar with
Find the song that uses those chord progressions
Find a lesson, preferrably the one whose teacher would guide you from A to Z and with visible tabs on the screen
We probably all look for some key thing that will transform our playing. There isn’t one !
Have you ever heard the saying “A lot of hard work goes into making it look easy” ?
A past manager of the British cycling team said that to get a 10% improvement, it’s easier to get a 1% improvement in 10 different areas than to get 10% in 1 area.
One thing that really helped my development, understanding of the music, and enjoyment of the songs (especially because I mostly play by myself and am a terrible singer) is to learn how to play chord melodies, making a solo performance. When I delved into that my guitar playing and enjoyment jumped to a whole new level…and suddenly my family was life, “whoa, that sounds really good!” It also really helps with ideas for lead playing.
Get started with simple songs for which the melody is in your head and which use open chord arrangements. For me trying to play solo versions of carols like Silent Night got me started.
I find most guitar lesson books disappointing on many levels. But one that helped me is a learn to play guitar book “From LIverpool to Abbey Road” (tracks included), which uses Beatles tunes. That’s perfect because they’re relatively simple and everyone knows the melodies by heart! About halfway through, the book starts mixing melody lines and chords with simple arrangements at first (Yellow Submarine, All My Loving, etc) and then progresses to an advanced capstone with Michelle).
That got me interested and so I then played around with chord melodies for a couple of Justin’s songbook lessons – try House of the Rising Sun!!
Interestingly, playing chord melodies actually helped my singing (which I didn’t think was possible), and it also helped my picking technique measurably. Suddenly I was able to play the intros to song like Hotel California, Angie, and Wish You Were Here.
Justin has a short lesson on this with song suggestions. You can also search for chord melody arrangements in the internet. Have fun!!
Grr! Haha. I must remember, there is no shortcut. Thanks for the reminder. No I haven’t heard those sayings in particular, but I completely agree with them.
I don’t really have any advice to add, mostly sympathy. I’m currently consolidating Grade 2 – have been for a couple months, and will be for at least a couple more. I was as frustrated as you were a few months ago. For me, it’s been really helpful to revisit some lessons and practice items for various skills, all the way back to fast and perfect changes from Grade 1. I coupled that with revisiting licks and songs from various modules. To my delight, two things are happening. One - exercises and practice items that I found irritating the first time through are now fun. I believe this is because I’m now applying those physical skills with the benefit of experience. Two - actually, the same statement but with songs. Even in the beginner lessons Justin usually presents some embellishments. I’m now skilled enough to give some a go. Sometimes I’m more successful than others.
Respectfully, I’d recommend not going down any rabbit holes exploring techniques or concepts that Justin has not yet presented (unless it’s his theory or strumming classes) - especially given your time constraints. Instead, choose a song or two with sounds you like that have been presented (for me, it’s hammer-ons, rhythm push, and stuck 3-4 chords - oh, and some easy fingerstyle). Learn it slowly and well, and play with the app (if you have it) and the original recording. Record yourself (with the app or original in the background is nice) just with your phone; share it or don’t. (OK, I guess that’s advice. ) For me, each of these steps has made me realize that I’m making progress, and I now recognize various techniques in other songs. Just the other night, my husband (who has played for many years) overheard me practicing and said that at first he thought the radio was on. That felt pretty nice!
We’re each different, of course, but I hope some of these thoughts resonate for you.
Edited to add: I realize you have background in piano, and I suspect that means you know at least some theory as well. You’re way ahead of me there! The reason I included Justin’s Practical Music Theory course is that he applies theory directly to guitar. That might not be enough benefit for you to devote limited time to the course.
Not weird to me. Let’s face it, playing a song, at the level most of us here are at, means strumming a chord progression for about 3 minutes straight. It requires more focus than I have on most days. That’s why I’ll never be a great guitarist. It’s also why I now focus on blues lead- it engages my brain more.
In terms of lyrics, the few songs I have learned are songs I’ve known and loved for decades. The lyrics are burnt in. I can’t imagine trying to learn a song I don’t already love. I admire people who have the dedication to do that.
Hi Stacy, maybe you could try recording yourself on the piano to something simple, play chord/melody on the piano and then strum along on guitar, maybe switch to melody only on piano and then play the chords strumming your guitar. You’d probably have a sense of the chord structure of the song from the piano, and it might be kind of cool to play both piano and guitar yourself.
Keep at it, and remember that having fun is one of the main goals!
There is a lot of good advice here. I thought I would share a few things that have really helped me.
Rule of Three
Only move on when I can play something 3 times in a row with no mistakes, if I make a mistake then I use the 3S method; make is slower, make it shorter, or simplify it. If I can then do it without mistakes I may speed it up, make it longer, or harder and try again.
Isolation
Playing a song is hard as you are having to use both hands, trying to keep rhythm, trying to remember the words, etc. So I isolate each of these and practice them one at a time. I will work on the chord progression without strumming, and just do it over and over until it’s engrained. I will then practice just the strumming pattern. I will sing the song without a guitar in my hand, etc.
As I improve with these isolated pieces I slowly put them together.
Use a metronome!
This is something I resisted for a long time, and even once I started using it I struggled with it for a month. But it really helped me improve my guitar playing and learn to play songs. I use if for both of the two items above. I will start off my chord progression isolation at a slow speed (50bpm) and once I have nailed the chord progression 3 times I will speed it up by 5bpm. Rinse, repeat until I am up to the speed of the song.
I will say I really dislike using the metronome, but I see improvement EVERY time I use it.
For Stacy’s question I disagree with both of these things. Chord melodies are much harder than chords & strumming, and the “rule of three” thing makes sense for scales/riffs/lead but not really for beginner songs IMHO where the goal is not perfection.
You are right the “rule of three” is better for scales/riffs/lead. But it can also help when learning songs by slowing down the tempo, simplifying to use the chords you know, and shorting the area you are practicing such as a difficult chorus or verse. As you state the purpose in not perfection but I still found it useful for learning a song.
Well some excellent advice already so not sure what I can add here but for what it’s worth after 14 years (and as a complete non player learning with Justin from the start):-
1 year is not a lot of time in terms of learning guitar. At the end of year 1 I think I was happy to play (and sing) songs out of Justins song book using simply chords. They wouldn’t have been that clean and certainly not that polished. The first 1-3 years are the hardest and practice will make you more polished.
Learning and forgetting songs is unfortunately common at the start. It’s quite easy to turn into a song learning monster and consume all songs as quickly as you can…but if you aren’t learning them for something specific (or need to remember them) then you’ll forget them. Build a setlist of just your most favourite songs, the ones youd like to play to others if brave enough and keep revisiting them regularly.
In terms of memorising songs you should get to a point when learning a song where you’ve got the chords, structure and if you’re singing the lyrics memorised. Again once you stop practicing them you’ll forget them…so make a chord/song book or use an app of some sort to store them.
No matter how good you are on omc and chord perfect lessons it wont necessarily translate to playing a song where you are moving between multiple different chords throughout it. As others have said just slow down, practice the whole chorus, verse etc. as if you were doing your omc.
In terms of rhythm and lead honestly I would not stress. Yes lead is the “glam” part of guitar and the bit you see a lot on YT videos BUT if you can’t play rhythm comfortably you can forget being competent at lead. If your playing to others on your own you’ll play rhythm…some lead embellishments, breaks yes but the majority of a song is solid rhythm.
String instuments like guitar are three dimensional meaning you can move left, right up and down and have multiple places to play the same note, chord or scale. The Violin family being the hardest because nit having frets.
The piano is a 2 dimentional instrument meaning you can only move right and left and there is only one place to play each note.
For example there is only 1 middle C on a piano, there are 5 middle Cs on a guitar
The only thing that is harder to learn on the piano is scales because every scale is different, but once learnt are the some in every octive. Where guitar has patterns that work for every scales.
I could teach you the 8 basic chords Justin teaches in the beginner class in one lesson on the piano.
Mastering the piano is just like guitar it can take a life time.
Lots of great input already. I’ll add that for me, being able to slow a song down and play along with it as I’m learning makes it more fun and less frustrating.
Regardless of how I learn a song; transcribing it, from a TAB, or from a lesson; the ability to slow things down to learn it is important. “You can’t play something fast if you can’t play it slow” (Attr to many people). I find it more fun to be able to play along to a version I like while learning a song, be it the rhythm or fills or lead, but I often need to slow them down initially to do that.
The JG app can slow songs down which is great, but if you want to play along with YTs or mp3s you need a way to slow them down, too. YT can slow things down but only in 25% increments and you lose some sound quality. I use ‘ Transcribe!’ (US $39), but there are likely other tools that can do this, some free. I initially got it as an aid to transcribing (Justin recommendation), but I’ve found it to be a great tool for practicing songs, too . It can slow the song down to 50% speed in 10% increments, maintaining good sound quality.
Here’s an example of how I’ve used it for learning a rhythm-oriented song:
‘Black Horse and Cherry Tree’ (KT Tunstall) has relatively complicated rhythm patterns. I started by practicing the pattern muted and then with the chords. When I felt like I could do it reasonably well, albeit slowly, I started playing along with it in Transcribe! at a speed I could manage. This made practicing it more satisfying and I picked up more nuances in the song plus the lyrics. I’m not a singer, but I like to be able to ‘sing’ the lyrics in my head while playing as it helps me with timing the feel of the song.
Just a small correction: on youtube you can get around the 25% increments limitation by selecting “Custom” under “Playback speed” (I think you get 5% increments). Agree that the sound quality is diminished with respect to full speed, but (for me anyway) it’s generally good enough for playing along.
Chords not sounding good (muted strings or fret buzz). It does get better with time. You can’t hurry it. just play through the bum notes & buzzes
& 3)The lyrics. Sheesh I can’t remember lyrics very well at all. Lean how to sing the song, even if you need the lyrics in front of you to remind you of the next line. You may forget overtime, but it quickly comes back to you when you pick up the song again. If you are doing an open mike (or any public performance) you need to re-practice all the songs before the performance.
Pick clicking noise. I play mainly finger style, but try a softer (thinner) pick until you get better at controlling the sound.
Rhythm playing versus lead playing Obviously you can’t do both if playing solo, but develop the rhythm and slot in bits of solo between the lines of the song. Like everything on the guitar, this takes time and practice. As you get better you can start to pick out the melody along with your rhythm playing. There are thousands of songs that sound really good with just one guitar. Just check out Justin’s song lessens.
You seem to be taking it all too seriously. No one will ever be able to completely master the guitar. There is always something else to learn. Just take it at you own pace and enjoy journey.
) For me, each of these steps has made me realize that I’m making progress, and I now recognize various techniques in other songs. Just the other night, my husband (who has played for many years) overheard me practicing and said that at first he thought the radio was on. That felt pretty nice!
