| | | Hey Friend,
A happy Sunday to you!
Today's supposed to be a day of rest, so I'll be brief. I've got a bunch of shrubs to go plant...
How did everything work out with your chords yesterday? Were the notes you hummed the same as the chords you tried out yesterday?
What about the execution? Were you able to follow along with a strumming pattern? Were you able to keep up, or have you realized a tool like Song Surgeon could be a good investment to help you learn songs faster?
As you saw from the example I gave you, the notes I hummed were the same as the resulting chords.
Now I have to admit, I selected "Change of Heart" because of this simplicity. I wanted you to see the process I've used to learn the basic structure of a song.
Obviously, there's a lot more to reproducing an exact rendition of any given song, but when you need to get the structure down quickly, this works in a pinch.
Honestly, I don't need to use this system any more. Because I've studied the most common progressions and I can usually find the initial chord quickly, my hands just know where to go. My ears hear these progressions, so as long as I know which chord to start with, I'm good to go.
You'll gain this superpower, too.
It just takes practice. That means playing every day... even if it's only for five minutes.
I will tell you I use Song Surgeon quite a bit for isolation. I can easily select a verse or a solo and set it up to loop again and again. This is really helpful for those layered guitar parts you hear in songs.
You know, you can hear the main chords being played, but then on top of that you hear a guitar being picked, either with what sounds like a lead or an arpeggiated chord.
I open Song Surgeon and select the song section. Then I'll slow the tempo to 75% speed and listen to that guitar part. I'll then find the starting note of the riff and try various chords or notes based on how the riff goes. still too fast? I'll slow the tempo down until I can identify the notes in the riff.
Once I've figured out the riff, I can then practice it at the slowed tempo until I can play it through. At this point it's just a matter of bringing my playing up to speed with the song.
This is the technique many guitar players use to practice and improve - learn it at a tempo you can handle, and then slowly increase the tempo. For each increase in tempo (maybe 5 beats per minute at a time), practice until you play it perfectly. Then bump it up again.
Remember, mastering guitar is about patterns and repetition.
Un-sexy, but true. In fact, this is true for anything you want to get good at.
Sorry, but no super powers here. Just work...
So much for resting, am I right? LOL!
You really need to at least give Song Surgeon a try if you're at all interested in growing your playing skills. Check out the Song Surgeon demo here.
Have a great one!
Peace~
Dave
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