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Problems with music memory

T

Theopij

Aug 21, 2007
9
0
#1
I have got a big problems with memorizing grooves. For example I pick a funky groove, play it to a metronome for 30 minutes, and after a short break (for exaple an hour) i cannot remember how it sounded. I have to listen to that again (but usually only beginning notes) to play it and refresh my memory. It is a problem, because at the rehersal my band mate is showing me some lick, and at next rehersal i do not remember that. It occurs especially with complex rythm grooves. I must practice several days to remember groove by heart. How to train music memory ? Please help...
 
#3
mutedeity said:
Ususally transcribing something is a good way to "remember" it. Also you could ask for a chart from your band mates. If you aren't really used to transcribing, then this is a good opportunity to learn.
Click to expand...
+1 Easiest way to remember something is to write it down. Especially with complex stuff, you can remember it wrong. For example, you may remember something as all 8th notes when there's actually a dotted 8th and a 16th note in the middle somewhere.

If you practice around a computer, get something like guitar pro that lets you write it out and play it back. I do this all the time with my guitarist. When something complicated comes up, we sit down at the computer and she plays the line on her guitar, I write it out on the computer, and then I have the computer play back what I wrote. Repeat until what the computer plays sounds just like what she played.

Every time I take a vacation, or we break out a song we haven't done in months, I'm glad I have everything written out. Otherwise, I'd forget the song and have to start from scratch writing another bass part for it.
 
#7
I do have to agree. Although I feel being high makes me feel the groove better, it definitely brings up problems with remembering the groove. I'll come to the perfect spot later in the jam to bring a groove I was playing 3 minutes ago back, and it'll just be gone forever (luckily we usually jam with a recorder on).

Transcribing, as said above, is a good way to really internalize the rhythm. But most of all I find it important to LISTEN to the groove a lot. I'm just recently getting into James Jamerson. I'll play his grooves and fall in love with them, but I can't remember them when it's time to play along. I'm thinking the problem is that I haven't listened to his music much, and I'm usually learning his lines as I'm hearing them. Whereas I can bust out any of Flea's grooves at any time because I've been listening to the Chili Peppers for a good 7-8 years now. I didn't spend any more time practicing them, I just know them because I've heard them alot.
 
#8
I think a lot of it has to do with how your brain moves stuff from short term memory into long term memory.

Don't just play it for 30 minutes, stop, then try it tomorrow.

Play it for two minutes, stop for five, then try it again.

Short term memory is what, about 8 minutes long? Beyond that you don't really move information into long term memory while you're playing, you just keep overwriting the short term.

There's lots of 'net information on study tips that apply to any information you are trying to internalize.

Writing it helps, reading it helps, singing it helps, thinking it helps, getting into long term memory from as many different directions as possible is the key.

Pot is notorious for killing short term memory.
 

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