Learning tunes

[Danafellow]

When learning a tune how do you go about memorizing it in a way that you can not only memorize it for a gig the next day but also be able to have it a resovoir that you can pull out of at any time. How can you pick up a tune you haven't looked at in a while and still be able to hold it in your memory?

 

[tmorgan]

I'm sure Anthony and other smarter than I will have good advice for you but I struggled with memorization too and I can give you a few things that helped me.

First - the obvious - practice, practice, practice. The more time I play a song the easier to remember. My cover band has a repertoire of over 200 songs. Part of my weekly practice is to review our set list and refresh myself on any harder songs or songs we haven't played in a while.

Second is something a lot of athletes do.....visualization. I take a song and play WITHOUT my bass in hand and visualize myself playing every note in my minds eye. Often do this in the car during commute time. I've found this has really helped me.

Last is the biggest thing - ear/interval training. What I found is that I could (more) easily memorize melodies and bass parts (could hum them back to myself) but the fingerlings I would have trouble remembering. The more I began to hear and learn intervals on the bass the more instinctually my fingers remembered what to play. Hope that makes sense. Ear training is still a huge work in progress for me but is something that has had a huge impact on my playing....

Tom

 

[mbeall]

Learn the tune, the whole tune, and not just the bass part. This will put it in your memory where it will stick.
Start with the melody, always. Then the chords. (you don't have to be able to play the chords but you better understand 'em) Then the bass part. The bass is the foundation. If you know the design of the whole building the foundation will be harder to forget.

This works for me anyway,

Mike

 

[sonofabass]

Here's my respectful two, maybe three cents worth:
- Learn concepts not "licks". (you never know when singers or instrumentalists will want to change keys or find some other way to switch things up...sometimes ON THE GIG. Expect the unexpected).

Of course there are signature lines - learn those but understand the concepts behind it. (Brick House isn't brick house without its signature line). Check out Vic's "2- 10 " for the other http://studiokay.com/recorder/Studentsx.html ..chord progressions, rhythmic ideas etc. some less experienced guys may have a difficult time retaining, say for example, an entire set's worth of music until they realize that the entire set is, in some way built on a blues form. ...just as an example.
All of those things come with a little bit of time and playing, stumbling and getting back up again.

Record as much as can, rehearsals, gigs, lessons.
What you hear will inform what you need to bring into the shed. This has been my experience at least.


All the best,
Blyss

 

[sonofabass]

Hahahaha somehow I accidentally pasted something into my last post! Recorder music for one of my elementary school classes ! Too funny ...but if THAT helps. Lol.

I'm so embarrassed.

 

[sonofabass]

If I may ad one example - lets take a song like Prince's kiss. The original recording doesn't have a bass part (although many live incarnations of his have been played with a bass part) but countless top 40 bands play it ( either in A or Ab).

It's been my experience that what's played is left -sometimes to the detriment of the entire groove - up to the bass player.

The song has a very basic blues form which consists of only 3 chords.. I IV & V. The main groove is "1 (2) +" repeated over and over.

That information alone is half the battle.
At that point it doesn't really matter what key it's played in or even what genre....groove workshop 2-10

Now, The reason that I say detriment is simply because that particular song is, in my opinion, all about space and some cats use it as an opportunity to play waaaaay too much which usually turns it into a cacophony of over played funk cliches and just kills it. Just my opinion.

 

[SBsoundguy]

Lots of practice. Be happy you're not learning them on drums either. IMO drum covers are 100x harder than most bass covers.

 

[Ant Wellington]

All great suggestions!

But remember that memory is also a function of biology and cognitive psychology. There are 3 main stages: Encoding, Storage and Retrieval.

To try to address this only by practicing an instrument or as it relates to music is still a very incomplete process.

There are memory competitions and champions. People have to remember the order of cards in multiple decks. Songs are easy by comparison.

Last year I read a book by Joshua Foer called 'Moonwalking with Einstein'. If you're really interested in improving your memory read this book.

And I disagree about drums being harder concerning memory. There are no wrong notes to hits. And if you hit tom 1 instead of tom 2,it doesn't change the song. Drummer don't have to worry about tonality at all. And everything that a drummer has to worry about(timing) applies to every other instrument. And if a drummer alters a beat but keeps time most people won't even know. But if we change the order of the notes to Brickhouse everyone will know. Try asking a drum what chord is on beat 3 of the 3rd measure and see what he says. Ask him what key the song is in. Ask him if he needs to remember that we're doing the Motown medley a whole step higher. He doesn't have to memorize any of those things. A drummer can fake a song easier than any other band member. I know, that doesn't have to do with memory. But he definitely has less concerns because there's always gonna' be a bass drum hit on beat one(generalizing).

peace,
anthony

 

[SBsoundguy]

All great suggestions!

But remember that memory is also a function of biology and cognitive psychology. There are 3 main stages: Encoding, Storage and Retrieval.

To try to address this only by practicing an instrument or as it relates to music is still a very incomplete process.

There are memory competitions and champions. People have to remember the order of cards in multiple decks. Songs are easy by comparison.

Last year I read a book by Joshua Foer called 'Moonwalking with Einstein'. If you're really interested in improving your memory read this book.

And I disagree about drums being harder concerning memory. There are no wrong notes to hits. And if you hit tom 1 instead of tom 2,it doesn't change the song. Drummer don't have to worry about tonality at all. And everything that a drummer has to worry about(timing) applies to every other instrument. And if a drummer alters a beat but keeps time most people won't even know. But if we change the order of the notes to Brickhouse everyone will know. Try asking a drum what chord is on beat 3 of the 3rd measure and see what he says. Ask him what key the song is in. Ask him if he needs to remember that we're doing the Motown medley a whole step higher. He doesn't have to memorize any of those things. A drummer can fake a song easier than any other band member. I know, that doesn't have to do with memory. But he definitely has less concerns because there's always gonna' be a bass drum hit on beat one(generalizing).

peace,
anthony

I was only referring to covering songs as it was originally played.

 

[Ant Wellington]

Man, I've never met a drummer who performed a song 100% like it was originally performed. If I were a drummer I wouldn't want to do that. I wouldn't want to as a bass player either. All I have to do is be faithful to the essence of the song. But I have to put a little(or lot) of me in every song I play. Even the original artists don't try to faithfully recreate the recording.

-aw

 

[sonofabass]

And I disagree about drums being harder concerning memory. There are no wrong notes to hits. And if you hit tom 1 instead of tom 2,it doesn't change the song. Drummer don't have to worry about tonality at all. And everything that a drummer has to worry about(timing) applies to every other instrument. And if a drummer alters a beat but keeps time most people won't even know. But if we change the order of the notes to Brickhouse everyone will know. Try asking a drum what chord is on beat 3 of the 3rd measure and see what he says. Ask him what key the song is in. Ask him if he needs to remember that we're doing the Motown medley a whole step higher. He doesn't have to memorize any of those things. A drummer can fake a song easier than any other band member. I know, that doesn't have to do with memory. But he definitely has less concerns because there's always gonna' be a bass drum hit on beat one(generalizing).

peace,
anthony

Amen.
I'm a little biased but I actually think that the bass really is the most important part of the band. Important in that we can't fake around tunes. We need to know them. The changes, the signature lines where applicable. ( You made a great point at the Aguilar Clinic using the signature "sir Duke" line. )

I've seen drummers, guitarists and keyboard players come in a sprinkle "good-sounding-I-dont-really-know-the-song-but-lightweight-know-the-changes" fairy dust on tunes and things don't fall apart. Let the bass player do that! :scowl:

 

[Ant Wellington]

Yo Blyss, We're you at that clinic?

 

[sonofabass]

Yo Blyss, We're you at that clinic?

Naw - that's back when I was cyber-spying on you . lol!

You where all " you can play anything you want......weeeellll, let me take that back" that was super funny and super truth!

on a side note..I'm listening to Pino right now on the Voodoo Tour with D'angelo. My goodness...

 

[Ant Wellington]

Pino killed that sh*t. He played so behind the beat that he was almost early for the next beat!!!

 

[sonofabass]

Pino killed that sh*t. He played so behind the beat that he was almost early for the next beat!!!

lawd yes!