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New band, feel like I'm not learning fast enough

TDSLaBassiste

TDSLaBassiste

Bass drops and breakdowns since 2009
Jul 8, 2011
282
6
32
Southwest Florida
#1
Hey all, I just joined a new band and the guys are awesome, everything is clicking. But trying to learn the songs is bugging me. They had three recordings for me to learn by ear and I just couldn't get it to click. Then at rehearsal, we did about four or five more and while I had them down at the time, I just sat down with my bass and can't remember a thing.

It's only one practice so far, but I'm feeling like I'm already behind. What are your tips for learning stuff fast especially when you lack recordings to play along to?
 
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#2
It's going to be hard to practice in your free time if you can't recall the songs. If I were you I'd ask the band to devote your next practice to only one or two songs so that you can become very familiar with them and basically get them stuck in your head. Then practice those in your free time and repeat the process until you know them all well.
 
#4
You have to have some sort of recorded material to work off of. My band has gone to recording songs we are adding during practice.
The files are sent to each memeber on Dropbox to work on at home.
 
#5
Another vote for "get a recorder."
We have had a lot of good luck setting an old Tascam DR07 in the middle of the room and recording the entire evening as one long MP3. Then it could be edited into individual songs in Audacity, and placed on Box.net. When I joined, they already had one copy of every song they played. This made it easy for me to work on their originals when I was new. It made it easy on everyone as new originals evolved.
 
#6
Looking at your profile I'm guessing we're talking about something pretty heavy, and possibly involving multiple changes per song. The recorder is a must if there's too much to remember. Depending on the songs and how your brain works, you might also consider jotting down a few quick notes about ideas, impressions, understandings, approaches, themes... Anything the does click during rehearsals. We're probably not talking "shuffle blues in F# with 1-6-2-5 turn" in your case, but anything that comes to mind and makes sense for you.
 
#10
write down the basic progressions of the verse and chorus....takes just a second....i have a page for each song we do...some have a lot of notes and some just the key or scale....when you have alot going on info wise going into your brain...just a few notes can really help ..............
 
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#11
Thanks guys, I'll try to get a decent recorder soon and I'm gonna use my phone in the meantime. And as for Tom_RCJ's assumption, yeah, each song has at least seven or eight different basic patterns to learn plus all the little fills in between those and variations of the licks. I'm gonna write down the basic patterns for each of the songs next practice to at least have something to jog my memory. Again, thanks for the responses!
 
#13
Tom_RCJ said:
.....you might also consider jotting down a few quick notes .....
Click to expand...
listen to the recording, type out the notes you should play either on a staff, or just write out the lyrics and place notes above the word at the change (Stick to just roots, or any glaring notes that need to be there.) print. Get your music stand, and go over the notes a few times without playing. Then play along for a while while reading. Pretty soon you will get to where you will be reading along and your hand will already "know" where it wants to go next before you actually read the note. At this point, start reading 4 notes in a row then look away. look back, grab another 4. Now you should be able to turn your music stand around and play the basics to the recording. Add the fun stuff later
 
#18
When I auditioned for my current band, we had 23 songs in common of the 74 on their list at that time.
Most auditions I've done (or hosted) have been a couple of songs the person already knew, plus one or two thrown out for them to learn (depending on situation).
We went through ALL 23 at that audition (some in different keys from the version I knew) after which they threw 3 originals at me to see if I could wing it! I've been with them 18 months now.

Out first gig was 3 weeks after that audition (and 1 day in the studio). I got the planned setlist, got out my iPad and OnSong and started working on putting them all in there.. as a crutch/failsafe. We played 54 songs that 1st gig (31 new for me) and I used the iPad for that and the next few gigs, while learning the material and transposing the rest of the list.
Last count were were up to 115 ACTIVE songs - excluding the ones we've dropped.

I still do the transcriptions into OnSong as I find it helps me learning the songs due to the repetition. I take it to gigs - to use X32Q to mix my IEM's - and as a quick refresher if we pull out a song we haven't played in a while.
 
#19
First order of business: don't stress it. You'll learn them. It's a natural process.

Second order of business: don't put undue pressure on yourself to instantly memorize the new songs. Human brains don't really work like that.

Third order of business: get recordings of all the songs, via the various methods given above. Listen to 'em, play along with 'em, learn cues in other parts to get your bearings. If you're like me, you may even need to study the song names to remember which is which (it's a problem for me!) and get the proper associations formed. Study and practice, get enough rest, do it again, rinse and repeat. And DO NOT let yourself get stressed about it.


Finally, remember: You're not behind, you're new to the band. Everyone knows that, nobody is expecting you to be a push-button bass line. You'll be fine.
 

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