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How did you learn songs before the internet?

I still prefer to use a paper map and written directions when going somewhere new, but I will admit that traffic condition updates are really handy.
In this part of the world, pretty much either traffic is not a factor, or if it is a factor, you have no alternate routes anyway.

I like having paper maps as long as the scale is appropriate for what I'm doing. If you need street-level directions, the maps gets BIG. In SoCal, the Thomas Brothers was the standard, and the Lost Angeles County Thomas Brothers was nearly as thick as the telephone book. (Remember telephone books?)

Invariably, when I'm travelling somewhere new, I am driving into the sun, making it hard to make out the street signs. I've never understood how I manage this...

Out West, where the cities are generally newer, signage is much better. In the Philadelphia area we're blessed with streets that intersect at bizarre angles, streets that do not align across arteries, 5-point intersections, tiny "quaint" street signs, arbitrary one-way streets, and sections of roadway already obsolete in Benjamin Franklin's time.

So as much as I like to manage my own navigation and avoid becoming a 'child of the magenta line' I have come to love the GPS for actual navigation.

I'd never rely on it for trip planning tho.
 
Staying OT for a bit :), I just went to Lake George with my parents and wife this weekend. Last time I did that with them was about 40 years ago. The motel we used to stay at is still standing, as are lots of attractions that were there back in the 70s. They even have some of the exact toys my parents bought me back then, possibly even that old. Saw a very unique slingshot they bought me that hung around my house for years.

I remember when they first booked the motel, or any motels for our vacations back then. They'd find something in the newspaper, call and ask them to send a brochure, and then we'd do a road trip around May to check out the place and see if we liked it enough to book 2 weeks in august. The May roadtrip was fun... and I loved the vacations. Seeing all that this weekend was wild realizing how much has changed, while so much had stayed exactly the same. Was so grateful to be able to drive both my parents there too, and kinda take care of them as they did me way back when.

And cuz I don't really do facebook, I'll post my vacation pix here!!! :) Mom, Dad and the wife, Mom Dad and me. Playing miniature golf, which I of course won:

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I was born in the 90s, and still had a stereo until my teenage years.
and ever though my stereo is now my computer with speakers, it still works for the same thing.
I still listen a lot, and just play what I hear. Or these days, because I play original stuff more than learning other songs now, I hear what I want to be played, before recording it.
 
After years of wearing out records and tapes, these days I get MP3 files of our last group practice session (warts and all) posted to a dropbox account, which I copy to my computer, and then to the MP3 player I use in my truck. After that I listen to those songs whenever I'm driving or working at the computer. I'll then play them from memory when I practice at home. By the time we get back together I've pretty much got them down.

I was going to put up one of the MP3 files here but it wouldn't upload. It was smaller than the MP3 limit for this place and even after cutting it down even more it still wouldn't upload.
 
yeah, 'back in the day' is when they used to actually play songs on MTV!

Forgot about that!!! MTV did actually cater for people of all genres! There was even an MTV rock! A jazz Chanel , a performance Chanel ! Funk was played! Producers got greedy and bought cheap ****! That's why mainstream radio has the same ten songs all day! Cheaper to buy in bulk and from a solo artist than from lots of acts! A sad sad world !
 
Hi,

I'm sure someone has already mentioned this method.

In my first little rock band (1969) we used to go down to the local hamburger joint where there was a juke box. We would bring a portable cassette recorder and a few nickles to record the tunes off the juke box, then go home to my garage and learn them. This was back when most of us still had 8-track players in our cars.

You know what's funny? When I was a kid just starting out, the competition between the bands was so fierce (there weren't too many in my little town), that the guitarist in a "competing" band would turn his back to the audience when playing certain chords or lead lines in certain songs so that the other budding musicians in the audience wouldn't "steal" his licks. :p


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
This thread reminds me. I have a devise that records a sample of any passage and you can slow down the music but the pitch will remain the same as regular speed. I will have to try it with a Megadeth song I am working on.

Tapes do this. If you play it at 1/2 speed, it's still in key, just an octave lower. :)


I think the reverse of this us how they recorded The Chipmunks vocals. Sing in normal voice at 1/2 tempo, then record that tape being played back at 2x speed. :)
 
Hi,

I'm sure someone has already mentioned this method.

In my first little rock band (1969) we used to go down to the local hamburger joint where there was a juke box. We would bring a portable cassette recorder and a few nickles to record the tunes off the juke box, then go home to my garage and learn them. This was back when most of us still had 8-track players in our cars.

You know what's funny? When I was a kid just starting out, the competition between the bands was so fierce (there weren't too many in my little town), that the guitarist in a "competing" band would turn his back to the audience when playing certain chords or lead lines in certain songs so that the other budding musicians in the audience wouldn't "steal" his licks. :p


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff


That's a great way to do it there BassCliff.

Could get your cigarettes from the vending machine while you're there too....kill two birds.
 
That's why so many lyrics got screwed up. Unless they were printed in the liner notes we had to translate them the best we could.

'scuse me, while I kiss this guy...

Found this thread today! Oh, boy, some memories! I had a Garrard single play turntable suported on some Zane Grey books, playing through my Ampeg B15-N

We could not for anything come up with anything better than that line either for Purple Haze.

And, Louie, Louie...
 
Back in the late 80's when I started I learned from vinyl, cassette and even vhs. (The Cure In Orange was the first thing I started to learn from...Simon Gallup!).

Now it's my mp3 player through my Digitech BP200 pedal with headphones. I still have lots of vinyl and cassettes, a CD player, a cassette deck and turntable as well.

I very much miss 80's boom boxes. The modern ones are so ugly!