I don’t think that you can measure it in days or weeks or months. I think you can only measure it in the actual time invested learning and practicing the song. As others have said the time taken for learning songs will depend on the complexity of your song and your play grade.
Hi Jeff, that’ pretty much the same for me but practicing Rhythm on its own must be done and I usually work out the patterns with the metronome before playing the song, then I go like “Ok, homework done…now can I sing?!” 
Jokes apart I’m trying to force myself not to sing, especially when while singing I can detect the accents are not where they should be in the strumming. It’s always nice to find a mate on very similar paths 
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I generally take weeks/months to get the basic basics down… just the memorization of the structure & lyrics. Adding embellishments & “spice” sometimes is very gradual.
One of my problems is when a song’s chord progression is very similar to another song that I know… the brain is a funny thing… I will be looking at the music & it says D A D D A G DD - but a song I’ve got memorized in the past is D A D D A Em. I am looking at the song, reading the TAB as I go, and muscle memory takes over & the fretting fingers play the wrong chord. It’s very frustrating.Just takes a lot of time & repetition for me.Hope this helps you a bit.
Tod
If you feel you are struggling to learn a song, this is a great idea! Find a good but straightforward song you like from the grade one and learn it. Confidence booster for sure.
I do this time to time, but don’t retain them, just have fun actually bashing out a song I can play for a while.
My latest strumming song took 3-4 weeks to get the cords and changes in my head. But I have been working for a few months on making the changes smooth and finding the rhythm and strumming pattern I want (it is a loosely defined pattern). Then I want to pull in a few embellishments and small solos. It will be a long time I think. Many of the cord changes are new to me.
My project fingerpicking song…ha. I have been working on it at least 6 months, probably longer and I am up to bar 24 of 81…at least another year at this pace.
Much of it has to do with how much time and focus I have to put into it. Life gets in the way. Lately, moving and several related stress have diminished progress quite a bit. If I could devote a couple of hours a day even right now, it would move quite a bit faster. Especially if I could devote all my practice time to the new songs, but I spend time playing for fun, refining songs I know and want to keep in my repertoire (the previous few) and practicing skills, techniques and theory.
Good thing I am not in a hurry!
I will chime in here. I find to learn an entire song, or to get started with a song or to play specific sections I have to sing it to myself. Unfortunately I don’t sing so I struggle to learn a song In its entirety.
I am the same age.
For example, here comes the sun, 2 months.
I have read a lot on the subject of memory. As we get older the brain’s plasticity reduces.
But just stick at it and enjoy mastering a new song. No rush and great sense of achievement
How long is a piece of string?
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I mean, what we are talking about here? To play the song as the band plays with all the nuances? Could be anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of years. To play a simplified campfire song with your own familiar style, which you have used since the get go? A couple of minutes to a couple of days provided you know the chords and progressions quite well.
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Haha yes. I’ve also heard -
Call one end of the string A, the other end B and the middle C. The length of the piece of string is AC + BC.
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I think this group would prefer to call “the other end” D
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@djt294
Hello David and welcome to the Community.
One hour of practice then 30 minutes of repertoire is a particularly healthy amount of time to learn and practice - if you’re learning and practicing the things you need now and your repertoire building is related to what you are / have recently learned.
Time for a little tough love perhaps.
Are you continuing forwards though Intermediate lessons but unable to play a decent number of songs to what you call a decent level? If yes, then stop progressing though the lessons and shift your proportion of guitar time significantly towards repertoire building and maintenance and away from new learning.
As most know, my mantra is learn songs, learn songs, learn songs. The reasons I continue to emphasise this are so many that to explain all would take a long time.
One of the benefits is that the more songs you learn, the more songs you are able to learn and more quickly.
Here is a parable of sorts to illustrate.
There are many stories (real and urban myth no doubt) of people who have a dreamer song they are passionate about learning, but one that is above their level. Nevertheless, they watch countless hours of online video tutorials towards this singular goal. They get their fingers knotted and their brains mangled trying to play the riffs with their complex rhythm patterns. They go through all aches and pains playing unfamiliar chords, perhaps barre chords and more. They learn to approximate a solo note for note and can play it, almost play it - albeit with out-of-tune bends, sloppy timing on the fast parts, little feel or sensitivity. They probably turn their distortion up to full-on-fizzy when a mild overdrive is all that is needed. They upload their crowning glory, their miracle of learning to play a super-advanced song. And it only took them six months to get there.
In my humble opinion, that six months would always be better spent learning to play one hundred easier songs with basic chords, requiring simpler techniques, developing a strong sense of rhythm, timing, touch. And, in the process, developing an awareness of song structure, chords that work well together and some musical knowledge. Also, learning those songs is intrinsically training the ear to hear chord changes, to hear how chords and melody work together and that can lead to the ability to anticipate chord changes, to recognise the movement of a song.
These are what could be called soft skills. These are levels of musicianship which are almost hidden, not made explicit, not taught or conveyed to beginner guitarists. But they are vital to playing well and they are also essential tools which can facilitate quick and better learning of new and unfamiliar material.
If you want to increase the rate at which you can learn new songs - learn songs, learn songs, learn songs. Every song you learn makes learning the next song that bit quicker and easier.
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I agree with Richard. It’s very important to find songs at your technical playing level, so you can learn them. For me, finding music I liked and was at my technical playing gave me the motivation to continue learning, so find those songs.
To answer your question, I saw a TED talk of a guy who learned to sing and play his first song on ukulele (having never played a stringed instrument) in 20 hours. His talk was on super learning or smart learning. it was just a 4 chord song, like thousands of songs.
Work on the chord changes in your song (back and forth between them) until you can do them quickly if that’s slowing you down, or focus on whatever it is that’s holding you back such as the strumming pattern, or whatever. If other people can do it, so can you.
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It all depends on the song and on how long I’ve been playing. I remember learning a song in my early days took me a full month. When I look back on it now, it wasn’t overly difficult.
Yet recently I learned a song that had been on my bucket list to learn and I spent 4 months just working on the fingerstyle for it, along with the singing it would have been probably 6 months.
I also have songs I call low hanging fruit. Once you’ve played for a while it does get easier.
My take is how long something takes to learn isn’t that important as that time will go by regardless of whether you attempt it or not.
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Thank you, I will take your advice!
Hi there.
The key to singing and playing involves three steps.
- Look up the guitar tab for the song you want to play and write the chord over the exact lyric you will play that chord on.
- Listen to the song and strum the strings muted to try to get a feel for the tempo or rhythm. No chords at this point.
- Start singing the song and play just the chord changes.it’s helpful if you keep your hand moving strumming away from the strings.
- master steps 1-3 first then try a steady downstrum- basic no fancy patterns at all. Remember to sing while you’re strumming down.
- Finally try some other strumming pattern that you like that is basic and see how it goes.
Justin has a video of singing while playing. There’s another guy named Tony who has a very basic 3 step process that’s very helpful . I don’t think I’m allowed to post videos of other teachers here so check out you tube Play Guitar & Sing at the Same Time (in 3 Easy steps- acoustic life. He looks like he belongs in ZZ Top but the lesson is great. Good luck
Jeff
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Thanks for such an extensive answer, that’ll definitely help. Gonna finally make a songbook now.
Yes, I found this to be super important. I usually create my own chord and lyric sheets, and often have to locate the exact syllable in the word where the chord changes. It’s quite common for a single word to straddle a chord change…and often change pitch on each syllable as well.
It seems most of the songs I want to play have lyrics that weave around the chord changes in interesting ways, and I can’t sing it properly until I do this…it just doesn’t feel or sound right.
I find it best to get the basic chord changes down first…those tend to follow very linear, predictable patterns in most popular music.