Lots of great input here. There's definitely a talent angle...just like with anything. Some people have to work harder than others to learn, just look at students in college. Anybody can learn to write software, but it comes much easier to some people.

So we are really talking about memorization...which I was never good at :-). I was always a "look it up" kind of guy. My grades in history class were never good :-).

Using a drum beat or a backing track makes it easier because I can identify specifically where a note should be hit or a phase should start or end. This helped me with the China Grove solo.

When I was going over China Grove yesterday, my fingers just seemed to go where they needed to, like you described Hagh. Getting to that point is good because you can then put some nuances in there. The flip side is sometimes if you start thinking about what you are doing, you lose it :-).

Something else I try to do is when I'm listening to the song is visualize the fingering while listening.

Slowing things down is a great help too to "get it under your fingers"...good point. Once you get that you can bring it up to speed.

@fretsmith - for that wild bend in the WLL solo, I am probably not getting to the right note - I bend up as far as I can, which might be a little about 1.5 step. I'll have to listen again. I'm also not playing it exact - but it's very close. I fake my way through the open position pull offs, which at point sounds like I'm playing it the right way. I'll revisit that because that's a technique I want to learn - I have to develop the coordination.


One other question...does learning theory help memorizing things like solos? I've read that it helps classical pianists. My theory is weak, but I will know what key I'm playing in. In the China Grove lesson, Anders points out that the first half is played using the E major pentatonic scale and moves to E minor pentatonic. Knowing that just means if I get balled up, I can improvise something that will at least be in key.