How long does it take you to learn a difficult piece.

[two fingers]

At this stage the songs themselves (and the artists who played them) are teaching you so much! So keep at it. And don't watch the clock.

When asked "Who taught you how to play bass?" I always reply "James Jamerson and John Paul Jones".

 

[brianrost]

I'd say months for music like jazz standards. I can play them in a rough fashion from a chart within a few minutes, but fully memorized with all the subtleties in place takes me much, much longer.

 

[Runlikegregg]

I can take quite a while.
First I listen a million times so I really know what's coming.
Then I usually take maybe an hour or so to get almost everything down - I might skip really trouble spots if they seem like a waste of time at the moment.
I usually then depend on a few follow up days to play it through a bunch to really get it in there, sort out the trouble spots, etc.

But most importantly, who cares how long it takes? Whatever you need to do to be great is what you need to do.

 

[StatesideRambler]

And don't watch the clock.

Words to live by.

 

[DuckSoup]

Lots of good information in here and I appreciate the feedback. It's entirely possible I'm learning something outside of my skillset, but at the same time I like to push myself to harder things. I'm a gluten for punishment it seems...

I will say, when you get one part of the song down, it feels like your progressing and that part feels pretty sweet.

 

[DavC]

when i worked on Classical PIano pieces , i'd break them down into sections and work on those different parts until i had them down ... sometimes i would need to work on some very specific scales, fingerings or exercises to be able to play certain parts ..! i would also work on a technically challenging part right before going to bed ... seems your brain keeps working on it for a while ..!! then try it in the morning ...

how long ... depends ..!! the more complicated , the longer it takes ... and sometimes we have technically or mental roadblocks to get over ..!

 

[Jeff Bonny]

What's worked well for me to learn things fast is listening to the stuff in the earbuds for hours and hours. About ten years back doing long days hanging sound baffles in a film studio I didn't have time to sit with my bass and learn an original set of 10-12 songs for an upcoming audition. So I probably did 40-50 hours of listening over and over vs 4-5 hours bass in hand and I nailed the audition....the light bulb came on at that point. You DO need to put in the daily hours to train your hands to go to the notes. But ultimately the music comes from your head not your hands and getting it firmly planted in your mind's ear is what matters most.

Not only is listening some of the most important practice you can do it's practice you never beat yourself up doing.

 

[dheafey]

I'm a huge fan of Damian Erskine and his columns on notreble.com One of my favorites was Learning Lots of Songs Quickly. While not necessarily the same thing as you are asking, one of the nuggets I found in this article was:

If you do really have to memorize everything, I can only say that you need to listen, listen, play, play and repeat… every day. Play along with the tunes over and over again. Listen to them while you are driving or doing other somewhat mindless tasks.

Having the forms, melody and overall vibe of the tunes in your head is a huge help. Beyond that, there isn’t much beyond playing them over and over again that will really ingrain them in your head.

I can pretty much hum in tune, every song on Rush' Moving Pictures, but for the life of me, I'm struggling with The Allman Brothers' "Jessica". It's just a style of music I never gravitated towards. I've learned all the lines, but after reading Damian's article I realized it's a lack of familiarity with the structure that's blocking me, so I've begun listening to the tune whenever I can.

 

[tedious1]

For me, I haven't had an OCD episode to reproduce anything note for note since I gave up guitar and went to bass full time.

I suspect it's all in the string diameter, get yourself some thicker strings and let it flow...

 

[saabfender]

The key is to listen to the song at least 100 times before you sit down to learn it.

So to learn 40 songs for a band, you'd recommend listening to the material 13,200 hours (a year and half, 24 hours a day) before playing a note? Good plan.

 

[Bassbeater]

Not so long to learn them in all but the most extreme examples, to get it perfect, sometimes a couple of weeks of ironing out changes if it is unfamiliar style of playing or changes for me. Playing anything perfectly requires some practice.
Not to derail, but just something to consider in how we choose to spend our time... If it's a hard piece for us to learn and memorize as trained players, how hard will it be for the average audience member to assimilate and appreciate?

 

[LordRyan]

It took me three weeks putting in a couple hours a day to learn "The Lemon Song". I have to review it every couple of weeks or I start forgetting parts of it. Most songs I can learn very quickly like a half-hour or so.

 

[lfmn16]

Too many variables to give a good answer. How long is the piece, how difficult, how close to the original am I trying to get, what makes it difficult (lots of notes, very fast, both). Also, I find that if I take a few days away from a really difficult piece, when I get back to it, it's much better.

I wouldn't spend much time worrying about how long it takes someone else to learn a piece. It doesn't really matter. Frankly I've heard a lot of people who claim to be playing a piece correctly that aren't even close. If I learn it half-@$$ed, it takes much less time.

 

[okcrum]

It took me an hour or two to learn Spain by Chick Corea.

It took about ten years of gigs, practice, and lessons to get to the point where I could do that, and I have really good ears.

My point is this: don't get discouraged if it seems like you can't get a tune down. Come back to it later after grinding away at the basics, and suddenly it's doable!

 

[lfmn16]

So to learn 40 songs for a band, you'd recommend listening to the material 13,200 hours (a year and half, 24 hours a day) before playing a note? Good plan.

How long are you songs???

Correct me if I'm wrong here. 3 minute song; 100 times is 300 minutes, which is 5 hours, 40 songs would be 200 hours.

 

[Bassbeater]

Also, I find that if I take a few days away from a really difficult piece, when I get back to it, it's much better.

-good advice. Let it sit in your head after you learn it, then come back and play it later in the day or the next day.

How long are you songs???

Correct me if I'm wrong here. 3 minute song; 100 times is 300 minutes, which is 5 hours, 40 songs would be 200 hours.

This is why I sit behind you during math tests. Keep up the good work bro!

 

[lfmn16]

-good advice. Let it sit in your head after you learn it, then come back and play it later in the day or the next day.

This is why I sit behind you during math tests. Keep up the good work bro!

Thanks!

I'm actually taking a Calculus class now for fun. Who knew this math stuff would ever come in handy???

 

[somebrains]

I had not so good ppublic school music teachers, I had good public school music teachers, and I had the same experience with private tutors.

Good I will define as being able to break down gaps in theory, technique, or something I wasn't understanding to accelerate understanding and learning fo the piece.

Bad I will define as the same approach so learning the piece never felt like it "took".

Just be glad you aren't sitting somewhere for hours listening to lectures about the piece when you just want another play thru.

 

[RichardW]

Define "learn." If you mean "play note-for-note what's on the original studio recording," the answer might be never. If you mean "learn the chord changes and play a line that supports the song," well, that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of weeks. The fact is, you really never stop "learning" a song. Lines continue to evolve as you play the song more and more.

 

[FenderB]

I've been playing for a little over 3 years now and still stay away from the more difficult songs because it just takes me to long to learn them. Even to this day I still can't play a song completely through with out a mistake so I applaud you folks that can learn a songs in a short periods of time.