Learning songs note for note
dcj
Posts: 7
I'm trying to learn "Yellow Ledbetter" note for note and have hit a wall (I have the tab and CD from Guitar Techniques magazine so everything I need is right there in front of me). I know it's important to improvise and add your own touch to a song, and I realize McCready probably never plays it the same way twice, but sometimes I want to learn a song exactly as it's played on the album (or CD, for you youngsters!). I did this with "Behind Blue Eyes" and have a great time playing that one -- and it gave me a feeling of accomplishment to see it through to the end.
With "Ledbetter" I try to break it down into small sections and just work on those, but it seems to take me forever to move on to the next section.
Just wondering if anyone has some tips on how I can do this without getting frustrated. I just play in my living room for fun; I'm not in a band.
Thanks.
DJ
With "Ledbetter" I try to break it down into small sections and just work on those, but it seems to take me forever to move on to the next section.
Just wondering if anyone has some tips on how I can do this without getting frustrated. I just play in my living room for fun; I'm not in a band.
Thanks.
DJ
Post edited by Unknown User on
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The Boss RC-20XL that I'm getting soon has an aux in feature so I can record CD tracks onto it and slow down the tempo to something managable and still have it be the same pitch. I'm hoping it will allow me to take songs a bit slower and kind of work up speed on a lot of solos that I'm just having difficulty with (Alive and Sweet Child of Mine to name a couple).
7/9/06 LA 1
7/10/06 LA 2
10/21/06 Bridge 1
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Then played it every day for 6 months ..and I still dont sound like Mike....
But it is such a fun song to play and improvise over..
Have fun
Yes, I have one of these, in fact I have just finished an hour or more on trying to nail the last damn 4 bars or so of the Sweet Child solo. I have learned many solos and riffs by taking pieces and slowing them down. oonce you get them at slow speed, it's easy to incrementally increase the speed ubtil you are playing at full steam. If you can't play it slow, you won't play it fast. Also, your timing gets REALLY good when you learn to play stuff at all kinds of speeds. Try doing a legato piece at half-speed, taht is really tricky, but gets you thining and working really well.
There is incredible value in learning stuff note for note. It teaches discipline and mastery of technique that improvising , or "playing it your way" will never teach. Once you can play it right, then play it your way for sure. Until then, it's just a cop-out. You are not copping out. Believe that Mike gained his skills by playing many Hendrix and SRV pieces note-for-note.
No method of learning is exclusive. You can play note for note, then muck around, it's all good.
I share your sense of achievement in learning something precisely. That said, I always improv YLB, it's an easy one to do that on, and I've not had the patience to learn every variation on the verse parts note-for-note.