Approach to learning songs after joining a band

[BazzTard]

I auditioned for an original band years ago, at first jam I recorded it on a crappy cassette recorder, went home, learnt all their songs that week.
Went to the second jam, and I was the only one who knew the songs properly! Needless to say I didn't join hehe

My advice is to keep doing what you have done so far. If you are able to record the jam, do so. I used to play different things at practice,then listen to the recording to see which bits sounded best, for original songs this helped a lot. Also listening to jams as I fell asleep helped ingrain them in my mind, I SWEAR!

 

[interp]

About 12 years ago, I was asked to audition for an original band that was touring. I met the BL on a Friday night. He gave me a cd and asked me to learn 2 songs and be ready to audtion on Monday. I really wanted the gig so I decided to learned the entire cd. I spent Saturday and Sunday working on every song and got the gig. The BL told me that what set me apart from the other people who auditioned was that I was the only one who took the time to learn more than 2 songs. There is no magic formula for learning other than repetition.

Your post reminds me of a story I heard about how Nathan Watts originally got his gig playing with Stevie Wonder. Can't vouch for whether it's true, but basically the story is that he got an invitation to audition for SW's road band and was given a list of songs to learn. He went ahead and learned everything in Stevie's catalog at the time. He was flown to Atlanta, put up in a hotel, and a car came to pick him up for the audition. The car went to a stadium in Atlanta filled with 30 or 40 thousand people. Turns out the "audition" was a live gig in front of a full stadium.

He got the gig and still has it to this day.

 

[MrBass617]

When I have a lot of material to learn in a short time I find it most helpful to just LISTEN to the songs as much as possible. Put the tunes on your iPod, or phone, whatever you have. Just keep it in your ears at all times that it won't interfere with work or school, whatever your situation. It's just like elementary school, repetition and memorization. I've had gigs where all I did was listen to the tunes, never had a chance to sit down with a bass and actually learn them. After awhile your brain takes over and you just know what to play.


Sent from my iPad using TalkBass

^^This. I have to do this for my Sunday gig frequently (unfortunately), as the BL does lots of original material and provides us with demo versions. Most of the times when I'm sweating it worrying I won't cut it, I just go with the flow and work it out during our short rehearsal.

 

[lowfreq33]

Your post reminds me of a story I heard about how Nathan Watts originally got his gig playing with Stevie Wonder. Can't vouch for whether it's true, but basically the story is that he got an invitation to audition for SW's road band and was given a list of songs to learn. He went ahead and learned everything in Stevie's catalog at the time. He was flown to Atlanta, put up in a hotel, and a car came to pick him up for the audition. The car went to a stadium in Atlanta filled with 30 or 40 thousand people. Turns out the "audition" was a live gig in front of a full stadium.

He got the gig and still has it to this day.

I've heard that story several times myself. I consider it true based on the fact that you don't get to even audition for somebody like Stevie if there's any question of whether or not you can cut the gig.