tips or tricks for learning tunes off a CD?

[Jimbilly]

I stumbled into the opportunity of auditioning as rhythm guitar for my friend's band (rock originals, just a little bit heavy-ish) seems like it would be super fun!

I'm starting out learning 3 tunes off a CD, is there a better way than just playing along over and over?  Chart them out?

[bry4321]

There are better ways, but if they are semi-popular songs I usually go to Youtube and put "how do you play Satisfaction" or whatever. But if you already know the chords then playing them over and over as you said sounds like the right approach to me. 

Disclaimer: I am probably the last person on this board qualified to give advice on this but that has never stopped me before. 

Have fun and good luck!

Edited to add: You have probably already thought of this but be sure to tell them the band's name will be The Jimbilly Experience. 🤪

 

Edited December 3, 2025 by bry4321

[JohnZ]

1 hour ago, Jimbilly said:

I stumbled into the opportunity of auditioning as rhythm guitar for my friend's band (rock originals, just a little bit heavy-ish) seems like it would be super fun!

I'm starting out learning 3 tunes off a CD, is there a better way than just playing along over and over?  Chart them out?

No. In case there is any chart given. Thats why I try to write up my stuff the best I can for a hand over.

Edited December 3, 2025 by JohnZ

[Jimbilly]

7 hours ago, bry4321 said:

There are better ways, but if they are semi-popular songs I usually go to Youtube and put "how do you play Satisfaction" or whatever. But if you already know the chords then playing them over and over as you said sounds like the right approach to me. 

Disclaimer: I am probably the last person on this board qualified to give advice on this but that has never stopped me before. 

Have fun and good luck!

Edited to add: You have probably already thought of this but be sure to tell them the band's name will be The Jimbilly Experience. 🤪

 

I laughed aloud! 

it's probably in the neighborhood of 50 repetitions to get them solidly committed to memory, plus or minus based how quick the learner is to memorize. I imagine I'm on the slow side, but with practice it would probably get quicker.  However it turns out, it will be a good learning experience.  My Cali std iridescent with emg's will be perfect for this. 

[Dave Scepter]

11 hours ago, bry4321 said:

There are better ways, but if they are semi-popular songs I usually go to Youtube and put "how do you play Satisfaction" or whatever. But if you already know the chords then playing them over and over as you said sounds like the right approach to me. 

100% this... I do this as well and most likely will show what tuning the song is in to eliminate any confusion 

[hamerhead]

First: know what key your damn singer is changing it to.

Then: Practicepracticepractice. Reps ingrain the tune while building gig strength/stamina into your hands. 

It's a lot easier if you're playing it straight off the record - doing the same arrangement and the same key. If not, Audacity can change keys without changing the tempo (although going too far will sound a little weird). But then when your drummer needs to change the arrangement for no reason at all, a recorder of some sort will be a big help. Not only to re-learn the arrangement, but also to keep track of your progress.

Then: Practicepracticepractice.

 

And.....what are these 'charts' of which you speak??

[BoogieMKIIA]

There is some device, forget the name, that slows down the song but keeps the correct pitch. Can help with fast passages. Looking songs up on YouTube is good, just compare that version with the real song. A lot of online versions are not quite exact, but get you close enough to use or figure out the rest on your own.

I like to use Ultimate Guitar for chords and lyrics. I import to the OnSong app on my iPad where I can organize the songs into sets. The format is simple, no information on rhythm, but gives you the song structure and chords. Kind of like a reminder, especially for lyrics if you are singing. Downside is becoming iPad dependent but shouldn’t be a problem if you practice/repeat. It also lets you change the key. You can edit songs if the downloaded version is not to your liking and you can enter songs manually (originals or obscure songs).There are other apps, just the one I found.

 

[alantig]

30 minutes ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

There is some device, forget the name, that slows down the song but keeps the correct pitch. Can help with fast passages. Looking songs up on YouTube is good, just compare that version with the real song. A lot of online versions are not quite exact, but get you close enough to use or figure out the rest on your own.

YouTube will allow you to change the playback speed without adjusting the pitch.  There's software that will do the same - I use Transcribe, which will let you change the speed, the pitch, and I think it has EQ presets that will help remove or emphasize certain instruments.  Also, Izotope's Music Rebalance will let you pull or eliminate some instruments.  Neither of those is surgical, but I think Music Rebalance does it a bit better.

The newer versions of Logic Pro apparently have a function that will split instruments out into separate tracks.  The demos look good, but I haven't tried it myself, so I can't recommend it.  But I plan to try it one of these days.

[diablo175]

If it's a matter of learning anything involved, I will sometimes take the song and open it into Audacity,  then slow the tempo down (without effecting the pitch) so I can play it at half speed and then speed it up gradually.

I learned some fairly challenging pieces (for me) that way. 

If it's just familiarizing yourself with it, then repetition is the name of the game.

[Jimbilly]

luckily, these are originals and I have the CD which is in the right key (and tuned standard 440) and are the same arrangements as I'm expected to learn. I'd just be playing rhythm, giving the singer/lead guitar support for his solos (he's quite good imo), and doubling the other rhythm parts for now, so a relatively simple task. I made notes about the structure on two songs last night, they're not overly complicated (intro/riff, vs, riff, chs, bridge, chs etc). These 3 tunes are to prove that I'm capable of learning some songs, if I 'move on to the next round' I'll have quite a few more tunes to learn, which will be easier on these chilly/rainy and short winter days (when my work is typically a bit less busy too).  Challenging for me, but not impossible, and for sure good practice, and interesting/fun so far.  I've mentioned before that I did quite a bit of amateur bicycle racing over the past 15 years, a bad crash with some injury took me out of that, but I think the training (somewhat obessively several hours per week) mindset from that can carry over to music pretty well, and I've needed something to replace that focus.

I have an ancient Sabine sampler tool that will slow to half or 1/4 speed for learning solos or tricky bits, I've used that for other stuff, it really degrades the audio quality, but it does the job, probably won't need it for this.

 if you're curious, here's one of the tunes, fun to play along with

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Jimbilly

[Dutchman]

I have used Moises. It's an AI app that breaks the music down to individual instruments. Does all the speed up slow down(I have not used this)

Anyway it's like playing with the band because the guitar is turned down. Works for drums bass and keys too.

[shankyboy]

My favorite app for learning songs is Amazing Slow Downer. I have the desktop version and the app on my phone & ipad. You would need to rip the CD to digital format. I use it all the time to learn licks. 

[veatch]

For new music, listen to it as much as you can. Make each song an earwig. That helps with remembering the arrangements and hooks. I've literally put a song on a loop playing while I slept. I was surprised that actually helped.  : ?

If there are songs you dislike, figure out a killer part to take it up a notch and make it fun. 

And yes, practice, practice, practice...

[hamerhead]

9 hours ago, veatch said:

...Make each song an earwig....

...or an earworm. They're much less bitey. 

 

[hamerhead]

21 hours ago, Jimbilly said:

luckily, these are originals and I have the CD which is in the right key (and tuned standard 440) and are the same arrangements as I'm expected to learn. I'd just be playing rhythm, giving the singer/lead guitar support for his solos (he's quite good imo), and doubling the other rhythm parts for now, so a relatively simple task. I made notes about the structure on two songs last night, they're not overly complicated (intro/riff, vs, riff, chs, bridge, chs etc). These 3 tunes are to prove that I'm capable of learning some songs, if I 'move on to the next round' I'll have quite a few more tunes to learn, which will be easier on these chilly/rainy and short winter days (when my work is typically a bit less busy too).  Challenging for me, but not impossible, and for sure good practice, and interesting/fun so far.  I've mentioned before that I did quite a bit of amateur bicycle racing over the past 15 years, a bad crash with some injury took me out of that, but I think the training (somewhat obessively several hours per week) mindset from that can carry over to music pretty well, and I've needed something to replace that focus.

I have an ancient Sabine sampler tool that will slow to half or 1/4 speed for learning solos or tricky bits, I've used that for other stuff, it really degrades the audio quality, but it does the job, probably won't need it for this.

 if you're curious, here's one of the tunes, fun to play along with

 

 

 

 

Good tune! Sounds like fun. And you can always lean on the other guitar player to show you any of the trickier bits.

[Jimbilly]

1 hour ago, hamerhead said:

 

Good tune! Sounds like fun. And you can always lean on the other guitar player to show you any of the trickier bits.

yes, and his main gig these days is teaching guitar!

 My biggest challenge seems to be remembering the structure (vs/chs/vs/ dbl chs bridge etc), notes help with the playing along, but I'm not sure if that will help with memorization.  I'm getting more to the point of 'hearing'/anticipating what's coming, finally, - slow learners can still learn. I've achieved more in my life through determination than talent.

I should have been counting how many times I've played along, it's got to be 50 or more by now, plus all times I've just listened

[veatch]

30 minutes ago, Jimbilly said:

I've achieved more in my life through determination than talent.

Personal opinion:  Talent is the ability to tolerate being bad for long enough to get good.

[veatch]

Or in my case, to get a little less bad... : )