The best songs come from the heart, and that works best when you know them by heart! Join Lieven in this live class and learn how to memorize chords and lyrics so you can focus on expression as a musician, from smart practice methods to the stage.
Why are you still convinced that reading songs from a paper is the best way to perform?
You know better but you still having issues memorizing songs?
Let’s create a practice regimen to expand your repertoire with songs you can bust out on any random moment because they became second nature
Resources:
Slide deck for session #31
Slide deck
Song Grids:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17C68MaoBlkWHZUYqwVk3ENunEfbWoIrC?usp=sharing
| Region |
City / Zone |
Local Time |
Day |
 West USA |
Los Angeles (PDT) |
12:00 PM |
Sunday |
| Central USA |
Chicago (CDT) |
02:00 PM |
Sunday |
 East US/Canada |
New York / Toronto (EDT) |
03:00 PM |
Sunday |
 United Kingdom |
London (GMT) |
07:00 PM |
Sunday |
 Belgium |
Brussels (CET) |
08:00 PM |
Sunday |
 Asia (Example) |
Singapore (SGT) |
03:00 AM |
Monday |
 West Australia |
Perth (AWST) |
03:00 AM |
Monday |
| East Australia |
Sydney (AEDT) |
06:00 AM |
Monday |
 New Zealand |
Auckland (NZDT) |
08:00 AM |
Monday |
ENROLL
7 Likes
Original post updated with links to the slide deck and 3 version of songs grids that help you structure a song
2 Likes
Nice looking set of stuff to talk through! Wonderful notes for after the club.
You did not address another part of learning a song - when to work on getting it sound right versus just using the easy chords. Where would that fit into this learning process? “Sounding right” is performing more complex picking/fretting, adding embellishments, fine-tuning amp settings, that kind of thing.
I may not be in class to ask today. I have family coming to visit about the time of the club stream.
Good question!
There is no explicit slide about that.
I mention that in the part about the “stacking chords” and in the practice routine it is the part where you work on the “known song”.
- Because I focus on internalizing before perfection
- The right “chord territory” will be there for you to work in; giving space to go for “as the original” or “your own take” as you go.
Example: a block of D chords could be a semi-random sus2/sus4/maj mix OR the exact way as the original. Yet…it will ALL fit the D chord territory.
Circumstances will require you to drop a layer from time to time. Bad monitoring where you can’t hear yourself, Stress, other musicians playing something complex themselves, mistakes by others musicians…
Being in control is being able to move a layer in complexity up and down at your command. How that layer up looks like for you is up to you to define in that “2 or 3 known songs” stage (or the old song stage section of course )
2 Likes
Hi! Thank you for the excellent presentation!
I did have a question though. You mention to learn around 1-3 songs at a time so you do not get overwhelmed. But, when you describe the practice structure you talk about playing your new songs, then ones you know, then an old one. It seems like if we do this, we are practicing lots of songs and not just 1-3. Am i missing something? It seems like you are saying two different things, or i do not understand.
Thanks!
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Not more than 1 to 3 NEW songs in parallel.
You practice songs you know the gist of, and you can play a lot of those known songs in your ‘song block’ to solidy them further (varnish over varnish)…as long you don’t take much -new- hay on your fork 
1 Like