I just can't manage to learn a song!

[Waspinators]

Been playing about 3 years or so, put on a J.B.'s jam and I can funk it up the whole way. But gimme a Molly Hatchet, Beatles, or Cream song and there's no way in hell I can learn it. I've been trying to ditch tabs as they usually just mess me up and many of them are off-point, but even when slowing a song down I have a lot of trouble getting the right notes and trying to figure out fills and changes. It makes it damn-near impossible to join a band with a setlist already made cause it takes me a week to learn one song. Any tips/words of wisdom you folks can throw my way to help me climb out of the rookie ditch?

[viper4000]

Granted there are a ton of tunes out there where you have to get the riff exactly right or the song loses something. However, a lot of cover music is more about feel. Does the song feel the same? I for one, almost never play what the original bassist played on the album. But you would never know it, because the feel of the song is maintained. Also, something to consider....every band I have ever seen live, never once did they play the song as it was on the album. So don't beat yourself up over not getting the fill before the second chorus just right. Also, I joined a cover band after years of doing the original thing. At the beginning it was a little painful, but it got better. It does get better, and even fun sometime

[Oopsdabassist]

I use chord charts rather than Tab, it gives me the structure and from there I have a starting point for all those 'unique' riffs and fills that make a bassline for a particular song. the more you do, the easier it gets..just needs practice. Go for it dude!

[Fergie Fulton]

Learning a song is a different skill to playing. The focus is not on playing but remembering what you learnt. If you have learned the song correct you will internalise it and need no sheets to look at, if not you now add the extra task of reading and playing, skills i think a 3 year player will not have developed.

Most bands or artists write for their voice so keys will not be extensive, unless their range is extensive, but close enough to maybe confuse.
As said once the keys have been worked out it is simple to work out what he is playing because you know his options chord wise. Once you learn 8 or 9 songs you will start to learn his dominant habits and how he likes to play, what options he takes on the chords.....basically his style of approach to bass.

So look for the consistent factors in albums or artists you want to learn and listen to other songs of theirs for that similarity, sometimes leaning a completely different song opens the door to another.

[vkiing]

Start with the hard parts. Why? Because then the rest seems easy. Its all psychological!

[KingRazor]

Learning songs for me is the easy part, the hard part is writing my own parts or improvising.

[MalcolmAmos]

Yes move away from tabs and move toward chord charts.

Follow the chords and play chord tones. We lay down the beat someone else plays the melody.

Most songs use only three or four chords so it does not take long to realize what chord tones are going to work with this specific song.

Just remember your job is the beat and taking that into a groove. And like has been said, no need to play exactly what the original artist played. You are covering the song and this is the way you do it.

Take some of the pressure off yourself and go have fun.

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

Yes move away from tabs and move toward chord charts.

Follow the chords and play chord tones. We lay down the beat someone else plays the melody.

Most songs use only three or four chords so it does not take long to realize what chord tones are going to work with this specific song.

Just remember your job is the beat and taking that into a groove. And like has been said, no need to play exactly what the original artist played. You are covering the song and this is the way you do it.

Take some of the pressure off yourself and go have fun.

I'm sure this is true for most genres. But in what I play, 4 chords is the minimum and it only goes up from there!

[guroove]

It sounds like you could benefit from some extensive ear training. I would advise you find a competent teacher, as it would be impossible to learn everything needed from reading internet posts. A solid foundation of music theory helps connect the dots where your ear fails you. You need to understand chord progressions, and how bass lines are constructed within those changes.

[Rickett Customs]

Figure out the root notes of the songs first, then take it from there........... start at square one, then figure the rest once you have the bare foundation. Picking out root notes of these songs, will help you develop your ear, eventually you'll progress.

Don't take on the songs as a whole, more or less is what i'm saying........ break 'em down, you'll be playing them in no time.

[Chasarms]

I don't want to start a another TB theory thread as it has been discussed ad nauseum. But, the idea of thinking in terms of chords and learning a little bit of theory goes a long way in learning a tune.

If you learn your chord forms, practice your scales and modes a bit, you soon realize that all fills and riffs are really just wanking around within the right form.

It also helps you begin to see similarities and common forms in popular music. This helps a lot. If you see every song as a memorized series of notes and rests of random length, it's going to be a struggle for you.

[THORRR]

Another option for you is to learn a song in small chunks.
Like memorizing a paragraph (the song) a sentence or a phrase at a time.

I'm not a pianist, however I learned to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata that way, over a period of four months (after all, it was Moonlight Sonata and has a million notes!!) but I can play it to this day and people assume I'm some great pianist. But I can't play the piano!

I can play Moonlight Sonata, but that's pretty much it!.

On the bass, it's much easier learning a song in chunks.
Start learning an intro if there is one, then add the first line or two of the first verse to that, and so on. Don't skip ahead until you are fluent with what you're working on.
In short order you'll have the whole song down.

Then on to the next one.

Before long the pieces and similarities will begin to fit in your mind and it will become a way-y easier and quicker process.

I learned 11 totally new songs a couple of weeks ago in about 5 days. You can do it too. Practice daily and don't give up. If I can do it anyone can!

Best of luck & happy playing.

[HeadyVan Halen]

Stop Thinking About Notes!

Think about structure:
Intro--verse--pre-chorus--chorus-----bridge...etc.
Cm---Bb, F----Gm--------Cm-EbM----whatever

Connect chords accordingly.
STOP THINKING INDIVIDUAL NOTES! Think structure/sounds setting up next chord.

[bassbully]

Chord charts and ear training is the key. You have to know the chord progression of the song and have the ear to follow along one you know them .You cant go "fishin" for the right riff or chords. After you see the chord progression most fills and runs are using the scales off those chords or passing notes connecting each chord.

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by Chasarms

But, the idea of thinking in terms of chords and learning a little bit of theory goes a long way in learning a tune.

+1 to this

[Waterpilot]

With the understanding that ability to read music and know some theory seems to be the best way to go, I haven't taken the time to do it yet. I know a little, but it's very little...

That said, I buy bass tab books. They usually have standard notation in them as well which I use to try and figure out the timing of it. I start with the parts that look fun to play and go on from there.

[Billnc]

Songs are usually only 2 or three sections that repeat. Learn those and where they go.
If you have to learn a lot of songs quickly organize those into sets. Even if the band hasn't. Much easier to learn 3 sets than 30 songs. Many rock fake books or tabs make things way too complicated.

Organization is a key to learning, music is usually made of simple parts. Even the most complex jazz tunes are usually made up of 8 bar chunks.

[superdick2112]

Originally Posted by HeadyVan Halen

Stop Thinking About Notes!

Think about structure:
Intro--verse--pre-chorus--chorus-----bridge...etc.
Cm---Bb, F----Gm--------Cm-EbM----whatever

Connect chords accordingly.
STOP THINKING INDIVIDUAL NOTES! Think structure/sounds setting up next chord.

+1 Yep, pretty much how I do it too, and I'll add that after many years of learning covers, the first thing I'll do when learning a song is to listen to it about 5 - 6 times before I even attempt playing it. Once I have the patterns memorized, I can usually play the song the first or second try unless it's something really complex - then I'll break out the tab or the Tascam bass trainer & dig a little deeper to get the difficult passages down. Working in a cover band you sometimes have to learn 5 - 10 songs a week, and often you have only a few hours in the week to learn them. Listen to the patterns & memorize the song structure - the playing is the easy part.

[Hawaii Islander]

If you have the chance to look at sheet music for songs that you are familiar with, you can see patterns in the songs, even if you can't read music at all. If you learn some symbols, such as repeats, you will notice that several parts of the basslines are simply duplicates. So, if a phrse is repeated four times in the song, learning that one phrase will get you pretty far in the process. This is what my music instructor in school showed me years ago. If I listen to the song while looking at the basslines on sheetmusic, it helps me see how the notes and the phrases fit together in the song.