• From: Florida
  • Registered: 2011-12-25
  • Posts: 26

Topic: Learning a Song

How is the best way to go about learning a song and then sing it?  Do you learn all the chords., lyrics then the chords.  This would be a song that you know already the melody? Please advise, Sonny

! Corinthians 15:1-4
  • dino48
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  • From: los banos,california
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 6,801

Re: Learning a Song

Hi sonnya,welcome to the forum.You need too know both too some extent.I find if I play with a song I know I can get good resuls this way.

my papy said son your going too drive me too drinking if you dont stop driving that   Hot  Rod  Lincoln!! Cmdr cody and his lost planet airman
  • From: Tooele Ut
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 4,049

Re: Learning a Song

It's always good to know the melody and lyrics first.  When you can sing them, then add the chords and you are on your way.

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  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 1

Re: Learning a Song

I go about it the other way around:
First get the song "in your head" by listening to it a lot.
Then make sure you understand the rhythm by clapping along, tapping your toe or heel until the rhythm is also "in your head".
Then look at the organization of the song, which chords does it use in what order, what are the patterns, where are the repeats, are there different chords for the chorus, etc.
Then begin to play the song slowly a little bit at a time while humming or using Da de das or some such substitution, when you have the bit up to tempo, move on to the next bit.
When you can play it all the way through, at tempo with Da de das start using the words.  By then it should be fairly simple to learn the words.
If you are learning a song for fun play it until you don't make any mistakes.  If you are playing it in order to perform play it until you can't make any mistakes.

  • From: Florida
  • Registered: 2011-12-25
  • Posts: 26

Re: Learning a Song

Great stuff Two Buck, I wondering these guys that perform on regular basis can they learn a song in a day or so?

! Corinthians 15:1-4
  • zguitar
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  • From: Mentone, Ca
  • Registered: 2009-01-10
  • Posts: 1,367

Re: Learning a Song

Welcome Sonny!!!! This is what I tell my students: You must be able to chord and strum without thinking about it. You can't do 3 things at once. So two of those things have to be automatic so you can focus on the third. Once you have the playing down then you can add the singing.



Good luck

Keep Rockin!!!!!!!!!!!
  • From: Rugby, England
  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 71

Re: Learning a Song

I don't want to throw a spanner in the works here but I have always found that singing the words, even if it's just in my head helps me to figure out the chord changes and map the song in my head. I think that I tend to listen to the words more than the music when I hear a song. When I do sing then the chord ghanges seem to figure themselves out without me having to think about them. That does seem backward to all the advice I see in the forums here but it just seems natural to me. I guess we are all different!
I used to play bass in a band that was out most weekends and we had to throw in a couple of new songs each week so playing new stuff is a skill you kind of pick up. Having said that, the six string is a whole different ball game. Some songs are quick, some can take months to get right and some I can't play at all!! Keep plugging away though, it's fun trying, even if the songs never pan out the way you'd hoped. I keep a ring binder of songs that I play and at the back are the ones that I can't do. I come back to them regularly and I've actually conquered one or two which lets me know I'm improving.

Best of luck.

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." (Ben Sweetland)
  • From: Probably Somewhere
  • Registered: 2010-12-09
  • Posts: 2,446

Re: Learning a Song

i like to noodle with songs and do my own thing with them, so once I have the melody half way there (by singing along with the recording) I learn the chords and start to experiment with the feel.

  • From: Alabama Gulf Coast
  • Registered: 2008-06-24
  • Posts: 1,819

Re: Learning a Song

I was the arranger for several night club bands during the 60's, 70's and 80's. This was before computers were available.
You need an accurate copy of the lyrics in large print. Then play the song on U-Tube to find on which part (syllable) of the word the chord is struck. Jot the chord in red ink over that syllable in the lyric where the chord is strummed. Then play along with the video enough times to get the chords right and on time. Then add your vocal over and over until you are happy with your performance.
It is slow going the first time or two but you will speed up the process with enough practice.
toots

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Ya'll wanna go down to the Guf?

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  • From: Rhondda, South Wales, UK
  • Registered: 2009-01-19
  • Posts: 120

Re: Learning a Song

Look for some songs with similar chord progressions, so you aren't too bogged down with what chord comes next. don't try to learn too many songs at once. Start with one or two, and get to the point where you enjoy playing them.

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  • Zurf
  • Zurf
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
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Re: Learning a Song

However else you do it, start slow, play a bazillion times, and as you learn the song better and better increase your speed until you get to the speed where you want to perform.   Then play it another half a bazillion times. 

- Zurf

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  • Registered: 2006-10-31
  • Posts: 50

Re: Learning a Song

Funny how different we all work...

Usually I have the song zinging around in my head first... after all thats the reason I want to play it... as I am both lucky and cursed in the way that I can reproduce melodies quite good and my head is a jukebox at the best of times that part is easy...

Then I find the chords... then I transpose the song until I feel that my inept playing suits the chords and the whole thing suits my vocal range...

But from then on lyrics and melody rule supreme. I once tried jamming with a friend of mine... he would ask me: "How many beats am I supposed to play C"... and I could only answer "How the f*** should I know... until you have to play someting else".

So in the end it's singing and adding chords then. Later both will change. Delete a flourish here, add another one there, get rid of a chord I don't need, maybe change some, add some...

After all, I (but that is just MHO) don't want to copy but to create.

Cheers,

Tom

  • From: Toronto Canada
  • Registered: 2012-02-12
  • Posts: 13

Re: Learning a Song

Hello all I just joined and find this a great site.I never learne tabs and can read music.I have one problem with songs if I dont know the melody how can tabs help me learn a song.Is there anyplace tha I can get the melody lines in regular written music form?? Harveyw