The song is a long term project, as is learning to line up the vocals with the guitar part AND learning to sing and play at the same time.
Don’t let working on a dreamer song or any harder piece get too much in the way of your lessons and other progress.
My thought (not what I do…) is that any given practice session should include a specified time for lessons, technical practice and didactic learning, and another specified time for practicing songs, songs, songs (and exploring). The song time should also include time for the dreamer song, some other newer song practice and possibly end with a bit of time just plain old playing (and therefore refining) songs you know and feel good about.
I my world, I frequently am a bit fried or tired at the end of a day and lately have very limited time, so I am spending a lot of time just playing songs and a lot less on lessons. Just a phase, and feeling good playing is why we do this, so I am not terribly worried about it.
@Jamolay No doubt. The song at the beginning wasn’t to be a dreamer song - lol. But it is turning out to be. Since I had another one that I was working on before I started the courses here at Justinguitar.com I continued working that one. I have almost finished it thankfully - makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something.
I know what you mean by always including technical practice. Although there are times when I have gotten a little lazy and not included it, I try to always do some. Never anything wrong with working on my barre chords…
Another thing to be aware of is that practicing a song is not playing it. When practicing a song you should repeat the bits you don’t get right over and over. Then move on to the next bit you can’t get right. You can then have 15 minutes or more at the end of you practice time having fun by playing songs. If you make mistakes at this stage carry on as you would if you were playing for others. By all means make a mental note of what went wrong, so that you can work on that part tomorrow.
I think you should make sure to choose songs you really like and that will make learning them easier. Personally, I’m not very keen on this strumming kind of playing songs and I’m just not an entertainer type of person. So, as an alternative, I seek out the songs/melodies I’m really interested in and try to apply Justin’s method of finding the chords and transcribing the melody and then try to play along with the original. Vocals are not an issue as I don’t sing, so that may make things easier in the long run.
I may be way off with this thought, but I’m sharing it anyway. I’ve been playing less than 2 years at the current age of 69. When I was a kid, the Doors came out with Light My Fire. The long version is still one of my favorites. Then Jose Feliciano recorded the song a year or so later as a ballad. It seemed like a sin that he would “ruin” such a great rock song. The older I got and the more I listened to Jose’s version, the more I liked it. My goal now is to play songs the way I like to hear them. Think Clapton rocking Layla and then playing it unplugged. Brown Eyed Girl is listed as a grade 1 song (perfecting the intro is a lot of work which I think should move the song to a higher grade, but I digress) at 149 beats per minute if you want to play it like the original version. I play it at about 100 BPM give or take a few beats, and when I practice it (every day), my wife actually comes out of her office to tell me how good it sounds. If it sounds good, it is good. Don’t be afraid to sound like you rather than the original recording. You may actually have discovered a better version, in the opinion of some.
@Ecronin2254 I definitely agree, thanks for that thought. It reminds me of a couple days ago when i was practicing piano. It was one of those days where your fingers are just inexplicably slower lol and I was playing a song that was supposed to be played a lot faster than my fingers allowed me to. But then my mom from downstairs said “Hey you sound reeaally good!” And i was shocked because i thought it wasnt as good as it coulda been. But the more i thought about it the more i realized exactly what you said, Ed
I don’t think this is a bad idea at all. Plenty of artists have slowed down their own songs or covered other artists’ songs as various speeds. I’ve been trying to learn CCR’s Bad Moon Rising, 179 bpm, and Up Around the Bend, 130bpm. I can usually play Up Around the Bend at the 130, some days better than others but not as relaxed as I I’d like to be. I have muddled through Bad Moon Rising at 179 but I know I sound rushed. So, I’ve dropped it back to 90% speed (I’m using the App for these 2) and I sound a lot better which is actually still 161 bpm but it really does sound better. I think it’s probably the chord sequence.
So go for it. I still am planning to get Bad Moon up to 100% but it just won’t happen this week.
) is that any given practice session should include a specified time for lessons, technical practice and didactic learning, and another specified time for practicing songs, songs, songs (and exploring). The song time should also include time for the dreamer song, some other newer song practice and possibly end with a bit of time just plain old playing (and therefore refining) songs you know and feel good about.
