How Do You Learn Cover Tunes

[FGJ]

How do you guys learn to play other people's stuff?

Do you:

1. Learn by trial and error?

2. Sheet music?

3. Tablature?

4. Learn from videos (e.g.YouTube)?

5. Have a friend show you?

6. Are so awesome you can play anything you hear?

7. By Osmosis?

8. By channeling a demon spirit?

9. You don't really learn it; you just fake your way through a song?

10. You don't bother learning cover tunes?

11. This survey sucks?

12. All of the above?

13. You arbitrarily mix and match the above, like selecting your socks in the morning?

[hamerhead]

1,6,7, and 9.

I learn the basic progression and the 'must have' hooks, and from there it's a free-for-all. If you keep out the cringer notes, the bar crowd is good to go.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

Chordify.net = you load in a YouTube video (of the song you want to learn) and Chordify puts up a tab sheet as the song plays! It's about 80% accurate at worst & I've learnt loads of songs!!! It's pretty accurate for the most part and I've played along to songs straight away using it...

[serial]

I play by ear. The more ingrained a song is, the easier it is to play note for note.

[killerteddybear]

I create a chord chart while I listen to the song (several times!). I find that committing the chords to paper also drills them into my head. Usually.

[murkat]

I do not learn other peoples tunes.

I do my own, or make it my own.

[FGJ]

Chordify.net = you load in a YouTube video (of the song you want to learn) and Chordify puts up a tab sheet as the song plays! It's about 80% accurate at worst & I've learnt loads of songs!!! It's pretty accurate for the most part and I've played along to songs straight away using it...

Never heard of that one; thanks for the tip!

[DBraz]

Unless a song is complicated I tend to learn it within a few takes - stereo on, linked up through my Mac and AxeFX2.

For the solos I will often seek tab/youtube assistance.

[zzzdat]

I don't pick up a guitar until I've listened to it several times. The rest is by ear, it usually doesn't take too long. Depending on how hard the solo is I will do it note per note or get close enough for an audience to recognize it, these days I don't put a whole lotta time into learning tunes.

Cool Beans

Gene

[Michael_B]

I use a combination of 1, 3 & 4. Retaining it is always the challenge for me. I have an easier time remembering scale degree progressions (e.g, I, iii, vi, IV) than chord progressions (e.g., G#, Cm, Fm, C#), because they become common and familiar patterns instead of more "random" chords.

[BubbaVO]

1-5. I can hear the songs in my head, but translating it to a fretboard or a keyboard is a painful and tedious process.

You can also throw in Rocksmith as #14.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

In a bit of synergy with the "batter-powered portable practice rig" thread, the THR-10 includes this for helping you learn songs:

The THR Session App

THR Session is an iOS app which is optimized for THR. Now you can learn to play your favorite songs anywhere! You can slow down songs without losing audio quality, change the pitch or repeat any segment of a song to learn even the trickiest guitar part. The Session App even allows you to cancel out the original guitar sound; it’s like playing a session with your dream band! This app is the perfect audio toolbox for today’s guitarist and with a Yamaha THR amp, gives you a practice experience like no other.As long as you've got an iOS device and a THR amp, you can dial in your guitar chops -- no matter where you are!

After work, I'm going to see if one can purchase the app separately and how much it is. The notion of canceling out the original sound of one part has been done before (with varying degrees of success) by a variety of methods, but I hadn't seen/heard of it recently, and I'd like to try it out and see how successful Yamaha's effort is.

[BlueJer]

This is the same method that I employ...and will occasionally refer to youtube to make sure I'm not missing anything important

1,6,7, and 9.

I learn the basic progression and the 'must have' hooks, and from there it's a free-for-all. If you keep out the cringer notes, the bar crowd is good to go.

[diablo175]

I get the sheet music and then lay it on a firm, flat surface. Then I pound my head against it, forcing the music into my brain cavity thru my pores and eventually, the resultant open wounds.

Once I regain consciousness, I'm good to go.

90% of the stuff I cover in the band is learned thru a mix of online tabs and /or downloaded sheet music with youtube tutorials/lessons to augment that. You have to be careful of what sources you use as much of the online tabs are absolute shite. There is a site that has licensed transcriptions and you pay 5 bucks per song to download. I use that when I want to be 100% accurate.

[it's me HHB]

I do gigs that have charts these days, but pop rock country I just listen to it

[santellavision]

I'm old-school and learn by ear. A tool that I do use is Amazing Slow Downer. It lets you slow down and loop a part to learn it, still by ear, but helps me a lot on nailing solos.

http://www.ronimusic.com/amsldox.htm

[Steve Haynie]

It used to be that songs were learned by ear or having someone show me what they had learned. Then tablature became a sort of cheat sheet, but not a reliable way to learn everything. Youtube has been wonderful for quickly learning the fretboard positions players use to play songs.

[atomicwash]

+1 for the Amazing Slow Downer. I love that software package.

[hanspanzer]

By ear. I can`t read music. Recently I`ve started using youtube to see and hear how the original artist does his song live. Helpful.

[Tres Aardvarks]

I used to only learn by tab. I started working on my ear by learning songs as friends played them for me, and then teaching the song to them. For pop, rock, and country, there aren't that many chord progressions so it's usually variations on a theme. Riffs can take some work. Anyway, if I'm pressed for time I may combine a chord chart with time spent listening to it. Slowing stuff down helps immensely.

[coolfeel]

What's a cover tune?

[diablo175]

Just as an fyi- a great resource for learning tunes is Songsterr.com - in it's basic form it's free but it's not as accurate as you might hope. If you pay the monthly charge or get others to signup you get added capabilities like tempo adjustment to slow it down to play along.

[diablo175]

What's a cover tune?

It's what you play if you are creatively bankrupt or wanting to actually earn something resembling a living playing music.

[DBraz]

I'm old-school and learn by ear. A tool that I do use is Amazing Slow Downer. It lets you slow down and loop a part to learn it, still by ear, but helps me a lot on nailing solos.http://www.ronimusic.com/amsldox.htm

That is brilliant. I have always wanted tech like that to nail those Lukather runs!

[Feynman]

I mostly use Audacity to slow down, change pitch, loop, save modified files etc. I think the Amazing Slow Downer sounds better if you go for an extreme tempo change, but within reason I see no real advantage aside from real-time adjustments.

Audacity does a lot of useful stuff, and it's free.