Memorizing Long Tabs

[~Pugz~]

I have to memorise and play perfectly this tab by saturday:

http://mxtabs.net/tab_versions.php?p...am+%232,193264

Me and my m8 (guitarist) are playing a big gig saturday and yesterday we decided to do this so i have to learn this. I'm doing ok. With about 2 hours I managed to do the first 5 lines but its getting real tough. There is no real pattern to it so can anyone help me in ways they use to memorize tabs like these?

The playing part of it isn't hard but remembering is just getting tough. Thanks.

[Time Divider]

Like any other large task, you must break in down into manageable chunks. Then put the smaller parts together.

[Mark Wilson]

Pfft That's not a long tab!
THIS is a long tab!

[bass_drum]

What I like to do, is break the song up into sections and jsut keep playing each section over and over. Then when you have each section down, try playing the first and second, keep trying that, then try first second and third, and so on and so on.

[thewanderer24]

what i suggest is learning the song instead of memorizing every note. If you get the feel convincingly and nail all the changes, nobody is gonna care or even notice if you don't play every note exactly like the original song.

[George Looney]

Originally Posted by thewanderer24

what i suggest is learning the song instead of memorizing every note.

Exactly !

[Meehaw]

I had 14 songs to learn from charts from 5 PM today untill 9:30 AM tommorow. Moreover, these songs are Russian and involve tempo changes, slowing down, speed up, and fermatas placed wherever the singer fancies them to be. Good luck.

[Daniel Baskin]

Ah...lead sheets, sweet lead sheet, let me never take you for granted...

[BassManJim]

Originally Posted by thewanderer24

what i suggest is learning the song instead of memorizing every note. If you get the feel convincingly and nail all the changes, nobody is gonna care or even notice if you don't play every note exactly like the original song.

absolutely......... also find "landmarks" in the song, like a lyric, or a riff, or a rhythm change to mentally separate it into manageable parts. It helps alot.

Also, with so short a time to learn a tune......... less TB=More practice

........Jim

[ras1983]

forget the tab. go and buy the live at castle slain DVD (which isi excellent BTW) and learn the song by ear.

[abaguer]

I may sound like an old fart but, after you do the gig. Go and learn how to read music. Tab is an impairment to your progression and getting paying gigs.

Reading music also makes it much easier to memorize a song. I regularly have to learn anywhere between 5 and 30 songs a week, every week. If I write the part down I usually have it memorized after playing through the chart a couple times. It also helps you recall a song you haven't played in a while if you're written it down.

This is a long term goal but I really suggest you do it. It definitely won't hurt your playing and will open up a world of higher level gigs.

[bonscottvocals]

abaguer, good advice. I had to unlearn tab in order to read music better.

[The_Ryst]

Hm...I think the Chili's would laugh that someone was learning their jams, or noodling around.

Whenever I like to really LEARN something I Learn it by ear, which gives me the main riff, and then I can get certain fills as I go along. Get the bare bones first, then add the meat.

[billio]

I used to use tab a lot. I'd sit there for ages, listening to a MIDI version of the song and get it to spit out the bass tab. If this was wrong, which it most often was, then I'd sit there for ever trying to fix it. It took me ages to learn anything even after all this. Now I sit down with my bass and play the cd and learn it by ear. I find that I remember it loads quicker this way, and seem to recall it pretty well even if I haven't played it for ages.

JMHO...

[fr0me0]

Originally Posted by Geddy_Lee

Pfft That's not a long tab!
THIS is a long tab!

that is pretty long. I know the temple part I should learn the rest.

[Rocinante_x1]

Originally Posted by Geddy_Lee

Pfft That's not a long tab!
THIS is a long tab!

Yeah.. I agree. but it is quite easy to play. i LOVE playing that song!

---Rocinante_x1

[Ajrocks]

I find if I listen to the tune over and over and sit down and play it without music to get the fingerings, then go back and play it with the music I learn stuff quickly this way, I'm usually getting yelled at that they (family) have now heard whatever song I'm learning a hundred times and don't I know it yet!!!!!

[ras1983]

Originally Posted by BSR6P-Bob

That would be so much simpler to read and memorize if it were in standard notation.
Personally I'd say transcribe it to standard notation and work out your own fingerings. (Then the "form" of the tune would also be apparent).

Or transcribe it by ear directly like we used to do in the olden days. I think we called it playing along with records.

I think Tab can be usefull on some occasions (like describing for someone where to play false harmonics) but not here.

why do people neglect using their ears? it is one of the easiest and most accurate ways of memorising a song. to me it seems natural, but isn't it natural to learn by ear for everyone?

[Ajrocks]

the problem I've seen with this is a lot of people get it close but they're off. For example do a search on who are you for tabs, there are quite a bit, but all of them are wrong, I have the transcript for it and it seems everyone either leaves out the begining cause they don't know it or they think it's Townsends guitar, not sure which,

[billio]

Originally Posted by ras1983

why do people neglect using their ears? it is one of the easiest and most accurate ways of memorising a song.

I do it that way now and find it loads easier. There's programs available that will allow you to slow down a song (sometimes helps in learning) and that will let you loop a particular piece so you don't have to start, stop, rewind etc...