How to memorize songs

[J-Bass RMR]

For me, I'll usually start through repetitive listening (if time allows)
I have 1 1/2 + commute time - usually and easy drive.
Having a trained ear and being able to pick out intervals and patterns helps, along with humming or singing the part. (best done alone in a car)

From there, technology has given more options over time.
I'll create playlists, these days on Spotify.
I've found a lot of isolated bass tracks on youtube (which can be an eye/ear-opener sometimes)
Sometimes, I'll also find notation for a lot of songs online.

I had to brush up on Moondance a couple years ago. It was helpful following the notation while playing along - not that you'd play it live that way, but it sped up the "refresh" process, and helped pick out key patterns & parts that I would want to incorporate.

The best way for me to commit to memory is the process of writing it down;
I have my own bastardized shorthand for basic cord progressions or key changes, and sometimes notate specific riff or patterns; No one else could likely make sense of my written method...

I picked up the Boss Waza last year. It's the best system I've ever had for this purpose.
When I'm just "noodling", I play my bass through an amp all the time, and it's "tolerable" for my wife.
But when I'm doing a deep dive into learning a song, repeating key sections or riffs, well, nobody wants to hear that!
And you can control the "mix" much better. I have a habit of playing what I "think" I hear or anticipate, rather than the part itself, and if you're too loud, you won't notice what you're doing. Finding the right level / mix and being able to hear both clearly is very helpful)

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I was wondering if anyone has advice when it comes to this. I need to learn more theory and ear training as I'm aware.

Thanks in advance !

Two things:

One, break the song down in to components. Like verses, bridge, beginning and ending as opposed to learning a song from top to bottom . Just learn each section and assemble.

The second thing I highly recommend is down load the Chorify app. They have a 40,000+ song library that you can play along with in real time, or you can slow it down so you can work out the more difficult parts. It will also provide chord charts with in meter highlighting the chord changes to keep you on track.

There is a 'FREE" version, but I recommend spending the $20 year for all the features. Well worth the money. Best wishes.

 

[FullumMusic]

Also, to add to what i said earlier about writing things down and repetition-repetition-repetition: Learn more songs.

The more song you learn, the more you realize most songs are the same with some different notes. There's only a handful of different song structures used in any given genre (for the most part) and SO MANY songs are doing some variation of I - IV - V, or "The Four Chord Song" I - V - vi - IV. Or, if you venture far enough into some genres you'll see ii - V - I, but really, ii - V - I and I - IV - V are almost the same thing if you're not playing jazz. (Not really, but when you learn enough songs and start seeing how chords interplay, you'll get what i mean.)

The more you recognize the same structures and chord changes, you're no longer memorizing arbitrary strings of bass notes for every song. You're remembering basic frameworks, the bass patterns within the framework, and then how the individual song might deviate slightly from that framework.

What i mean by deviations from the framework:
If you're working in the basic pop/rock structure of VS-Chrs-VS-Chrs-Bridge-Chrs-Chrs, then some songs have that same structure but with 4 bar vs & bridge, and 8 bar chorus. Or 8 bar vs and chorus, and 4 bar bridge. Or "oh, this song is just 8 bars for each section, but there's a 1 bar break after the bridge." Or something like that.

Or if we're talking chord changes, something like "It's basically a I - IV - V, but then in the bridge we go up to the Dom7" or something like that.

You don't have to just remember the bass line goes A A G A C A D D D D G A E E E E E B E E E A... etc for the whole song. You're just remembering structures and changes and patterns.

 

[SunByrne]

Funny you should ask, since I'm in the midst of this as well—preparing for my first-ever audition on Sunday!

I got the list of three songs to play last Thursday and have been working on them ever since, so I'm going through this right now, too.

As @micguy says, this is about the science of how people learn things. I have a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and one of the areas I sometimes work in is memory, so this is my wheelhouse. (See also Invalid Link Removed)

Lots of good advice in the thread already. Break it into pieces, write it out, play along with it, lots of repetition, etc. Knowing theory does help in the long run and you will learn songs faster if you have a good command of it. The science is clear on this: having the appropriate mental structures makes it easier to memorize new information. However, all the theory-based advice is great but if you're weak on theory (like me), it's not particularly helpful right now.

The one piece of advice that hasn't been mentioned here that is clear from the science: split up your practice! Two one-hour sessions spaced four hours apart is MUCH more effective than one two-hour sessions. It's just like cramming for exams: the kids who study for four hours straight right before the exam are at a huge disadvantage compared to the kids who study for an hour a day for each of the four days before.

The other important thing is to organize your work. Don't just go in and say "I'll work on this for an hour" and make it up as you go along. Have a plan for what you're going to work on and how you're going to work on it. Think about what you learned the last session and how you're going to build on that, and even more importantly, think about what you failed to learn the last session and how you're going to fix it.

Now, there are two slightly different components to learn when you're learning a song: you have to memorize the sequence of notes to play, which is not really about your hands (this is where good theory knowledge makes a huge difference), and you also have to learn how to execute the sequence of notes, which of course is all about your hands.

I've definitely had songs where I could execute all the pieces but I had a hard time remembering what all the pieces were and in what order. For example, where the song has a repeated section where the first few measures are always the same but there are like 10 different variations of the last measure ("Sledgehammer" comes to mind for this). Making myself write it out, no bass in hand, over and over, is how I get through that. (Not an issue for the songs I'm learning for this audition but it comes up a lot.)

Fortunately some songs are easy to memorize in that sense, so then it's "just" a matter of learning how to execute them. I'm a big fan of playing along with the song, because it's a lot easier to notice your mistakes when you can hear them right away. You can't fix a mistake that you don't know you're making. (This is also strongly backed up by the science: clear and immediate feedback speeds up motor learning. As part of my day job, I'm doing a research project now on training endovascular surgeons—fun stuff.)

Unless the song is pretty easy to execute, I rarely try to play along with it at full speed. I usually drop it to around 85% speed (lots of software can do this for you; I use AnyTune) until I can play it all the way through several times without mistakes, then I just work on speeding it up. Once I have it full speed then I alternate playing along with it and playing it solo, so I'm not using the recording as a crutch. There's a little less science on this one but this is how I often do it.

Good luck!

 

[LowEndThrasher]

You don’t. It’s all muscle memory from playing the same songs over and over again over a long period of time.

 

[bigjames]

As others have suggested:

1. Repeated listening. Live and breath the song. I find when I intentionally do this, the song becomes stuck in my head and I find myself humming it, singing it, and thinking about it constantly (almost crazy-making). If you need to learn lyrics too, transcribe them.
2. Learn and understand the sections of the song and their order (e.g. verse, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, etc.).
3. Learn and understand the chords and how they move through the song. This is the theory the OP talked about, but I find knowing the chords and the changes and how the work together helps me really "know" the song and can save you if you get lost during a performance.

 

[pbassnut]

I was wondering if anyone has advice when it comes to this. I need to learn more theory and ear training as I'm aware.

Thanks in advance !

I find employing the Nashville number system very helpful.

 

[Marko 1]

The vast majority of the time I do the YouTube thing with someone playing bass to the track. Since I'm doing covers of popular songs, I usually find it. Then I go to the song and play with it many times until I've got it.

But I'm gonna bring something up I don't think anyone else has.

Often (maybe more often than not) I don't play the bass exactly like it's done on the recording.

I will absolutely respect the integrity of the bassline, but if the original band has far more instrumentation, the bass line might be kinda sparse and could benefit from being slightly busier, and more melodic, especially when you're playing with only one guitar. And my notes being more important, I might brighten up the tone a bit so they're clearer and more articulate.

Also, studio magic makes room for bass lines that go a bit high, but live, with the guitarist (understandably) EQing to fill a lot of sonic space, going high like the original will cause you to disappear in the mix, so I keep it low (playing a 5-string is extremely helpful here).

 

[bigthemat]

I think it bears repeating....

Repetition


Repetition


Repetition

 

[groovepump]

Writing things down is a great memory tool. Also repetition. I used to cheat on some tests in high school by getting the answers ahead of time, and then copying them onto a cheat sheet. Then I’d toss the cheat sheet, and copy them again. Toss, and copy. By the third or fourth time I wrote down the answers I didn’t need the cheat sheet anymore. Writing them down a few times committed everything to memory.

And repetition. Repetition will engrain the patterns in your brain and builds muscle memory. Repetition will engrain the patterns in your brain and builds muscle memory. Repetition will engrain the patterns in your brain and builds muscle memory. Repetition will engrain the patterns in your brain and builds muscle memory. Repetition will engrain the patterns in your brain and builds muscle memory.

HA! I had students like you when I taught HS Chem. I fixed 'em though. I gave the same questions in different order on 2 or 3 versions of the test. Sometimes just changing the concentrations or ratios in tests even worked better. It's pretty obvious when I get answers for test ver. A on someone taking test ver B. But your idea about repetition is right.

 

[2thAche]

I'll repeat what everyone else has repeated: Repetition.

Make the Rewind and Play buttons your friend.

 

[FullumMusic]

HA! I had students like you when I taught HS Chem. I fixed 'em though. I gave the same questions in different order on 2 or 3 versions of the test. Sometimes just changing the concentrations or ratios in tests even worked better. It's pretty obvious when I get answers for test ver. A on someone taking test ver B. But your idea about repetition is right.

Ahhh, but that's the trick... it didn't matter what order they were in. Contextually i knew the answers because I didn't just write "A B B A C D A C." I wrote the full answers out, so when i read the question, i could just recall the answer, regardless of order. It also helped that i generally knew the material, so you can tell what the answer should be if you have half a brain. Worked for multiple choice. Worked for short answers. Worked for essay problems.

I also used to drive my friends crazy because i'd cheat off them and still get better grades on them. They had no idea how i'd do it.

My wife is a high school teacher and she can't even listen to my stories about what i was like in high school. She said i'm her worst-nightmare-student. Too smart for my own good. Distrust of authority figures. Refused to just accept anything that didn't make sense logically or have a rational justification, and loved to point any any hypocrisy or inconsistency. Would take tests without studying while on strong hallucinogens and get grades in the high-90s while the rest of the class barely passed. OMG i must have been miserable to teach.

 

[tlc1976]

Everyone has their own way of learning a song. As long as it works it’s not wrong.

IMO there are certain main things playing a song.

1 is getting it rhythmically correct. Even if I miss some notes or fills. I try to get the basics of the song down at the correct speed, like common patterns and chord changes. It’s easier for me to come back and change a few notes once I have the speed and rhythm down. At one of my first jam sessions, a bass veteran told me he would strive to figure out a song by the time it was over. Overly simplistic of course, but that’s step 1 for me.

2 is getting the rest of the notes and fills and other solo parts correct. If it’s a prominent solo part, or a part that I’m not used to, then I just play it over and over without music until I get used to it. After I get the part mostly down and I can flow through it, I listen to the song and fix what I missed. This might take several iterations, as I get more of it correct, I can pinpoint more notes I didn’t hear to begin with. Can’t hear the small stuff till I get the big stuff right.

3 the nuances. Is a note being hammered instead of plucked? Is a note being slid up or down on the same string, rather than being played directly on the next string? Is it an obviously open string? For me it’s not completely a muscle memory thing, because once I become comfortable with the full song, it’s not hard to change hand positions, or play notes at a different spot, or add some flair to spots if I want. The song is in my head, and I can do whatever I want with it.

When I started playing, I had a horrible ear. And though painfully slow, I could read music from my days of piano lessons. So I learned songs by playing the left hand of piano/vocal/guitar books. I hated tablature. I wanted to figure out my own way of getting to the right notes. Same with now, I watch youtube covers after I’ve learned a song, and usually find that I’ve done it quite a bit differently. Which is fine with me.

I agree about learning as many songs as you can. More patterns and experience under your fingers. And easier to improvise a song you don’t completely know. If you kinda know how it goes you can probably make it work, or at least get a jump on learning it.

 

[logdrum]

Gingko Biloba and layoff substances that affect your memory . And no I am telling you to do Adderall

 

[Barticus]

I was wondering if anyone has advice when it comes to this. I need to learn more theory and ear training as I'm aware.

Thanks in advance !

Is your question more about 'memorizing' once you've learned the song structure (which is more about repetition) or 'learning' the song, prior to fully committing to memorizing?

 

[TyBo]

Ahhh, but that's the trick... it didn't matter what order they were in. Contextually i knew the answers because I didn't just write "A B B A C D A C." I wrote the full answers out, so when i read the question, i could just recall the answer, regardless of order. It also helped that i generally knew the material, so you can tell what the answer should be if you have half a brain. Worked for multiple choice. Worked for short answers. Worked for essay problems.

I also used to drive my friends crazy because i'd cheat off them and still get better grades on them. They had no idea how i'd do it.

My wife is a high school teacher and she can't even listen to my stories about what i was like in high school. She said i'm her worst-nightmare-student. Too smart for my own good. Distrust of authority figures. Refused to just accept anything that didn't make sense logically or have a rational justification, and loved to point any any hypocrisy or inconsistency. Would take tests without studying while on strong hallucinogens and get grades in the high-90s while the rest of the class barely passed. OMG i must have been miserable to teach.

so, you basically learned the material through repetition of the answers. That'll do.

 

[FullumMusic]

so, you basically learned the material through repetition of the answers. That'll do.

Basically.

When i told her this, my wife joked, "Ok. So basically, you cheated by studying." Sooooo, sorta? Some might question whether studying from the book/notes and "studying" the test questions/answers are the same thing or not.

 

[LBS-bass]

The easiest way for me to memorize songs is to get them implanted in my brain so that I know how they go and can sing/hear them in my head as I play. I understand that not everyone is able to do this. But when I don't have the time to get them fully implanted, I will take each section, learn it, and then stitch them together. As I'm learning the sections I'll also create a roadmap for the song so that I know how it goes: Verse and chorus X2, break, verse, chorus, outro - that sort of thing. Roadmaps may change if your bandmates want to make changes to the original arrangement - I don't much care for this as it makes my practice routine less efficient, but I'll make note of this if it happens and do my best to accommodate. Sometimes I'm the only one who remembers a change like this that was made.

 

[ThudThudThud]

The more you recognize the same structures and chord changes, you're no longer memorizing arbitrary strings of bass notes for every song. You're remembering basic frameworks, the bass patterns within the framework, and then how the individual song might deviate slightly from that framework.

What i mean by deviations from the framework:
If you're working in the basic pop/rock structure of VS-Chrs-VS-Chrs-Bridge-Chrs-Chrs, then some songs have that same structure but with 4 bar vs & bridge, and 8 bar chorus. Or 8 bar vs and chorus, and 4 bar bridge. Or "oh, this song is just 8 bars for each section, but there's a 1 bar break after the bridge." Or something like that.

As someone who grew up learning songs by repeatedly dropping a needle on vinyl, the above is where my head goes. Most songs are broken into sections, whether they are tradition verse/chorus/bridge etc., or lots of different pieces of music patched together (Yes's "Changes" comes to mind).
If you have a basic understanding of the shape of your part in each section, it's easier to remember.

 

[Joe Nerve]

I'm learning songs pretty much every week, my band doesn't rehearse, and I don't know how to read nor know a whole lot about theory. A few things I've learned and or do:

• As with anything, it gets easier with practice.
• I put the new songs on a USB and listen to ONLY the songs I'm learning in my car - until I know them.
• I learn them as quickly as I can by ear. If someone struggles with that, YouTube can help - if doing covers. Its a good idea to practice figuring songs out on one's own though.
• I practice along with the songs any chance I get WITHOUT my bass. While driving, its easy for me to visualize where my fingers go and play through a song. Once I know it, that's all I have to do to practice it.

That's pretty much it.