Learning songs with/without the music playing?

[big_z_in_miami]

My method to learn a new song is to review the tab/staff, look for riffs and repeated sections and main melodies, and figure out the structure of the song. Then I practice the parts reading the music and learning the fingerings, and techniques I will use for that section. I listen to the song to get an idea of rythym. Once I can pretty much play without having to read, I then jam with the music playing.

This works most of the time pretty well for me.

But on a few songs, I can play the section from memory, but with the music on, my timing is all thrown off. The bass part is not very audible in the song I am having trouble with also.

And this makes me wonder if I am relying too much on hearing the bass part to keep my timing. What would happen when I am jamming and I am the only bass part?

Comments, recommendations, practice advice????

[Fergie Fulton]

Try it the other way around without the crutch

Listen to the song or part, learn it in your head, hum it or whistle it as you work out what to play what you have learned. When finished play with the song and look up the tabs/staff and compare what you have with it...you'll surprise yourself how well you can do

Its just like whistling/humming, you hear it you whistle/hum it, but now you hear it, you play it. Because all your life you brain is in contact with your hearing and your vocal chords it knows where all these sounds are and how to produce them. You just have to familiarise yourself with where all the sounds are on a fretboard and relate to them......its the same thing.