This post is for anyone. How do you practice a song in order to get it right for yourself? I have a tendency to break it down into sections and practice until I get all sections together then practice the whole song. How long does it take YOU to master a song? When I say master, it means its memorized and up to tempo and everything. I notice that sometimes I master a song in a day or two and other times it takes a week. Talk to me. Anyone else?
Practicing a Song
# 1
Hi john, well I am really a beginner so my opinion doesn't count for a whole lot, but the system you describe is exactly how I am going about it. I break it down into lots of little mini-skills and then build them together into sections and then try to nail the sections together into the arrangement, and then try to play the "performance". I have found I need to write the arrangement sequence into a book for a start, otherwise I forget where I'm at.
Has worked well for me, but getting up to tempo is a struggle for these beginner fingers!!!!
Alf
# 2
Well , I am 52 and started playing when I was 40...I only get to play an average of about 4 hours a week...I break the songs down into parts just as you do then put them all together very slowly to start with then increase speed till I have it...unfortunately my musicality does not come naturally..my rythym and speed suck at my age :) so it takes me about 2 to 3 weeks to nail a song like Barracuda for eg.
Shane
# 3
Sounds about right to me. Thanks. I can usually pick out bits and pieces and eventually get the song memorized, but sometimes its getting a chord change to work up to speed that makes it take longer than I want it to. I will be 65 and still consider myself a beginner although I know open chords and barre chords as well. Guess its back to practice practice practice. Studying Crazy now by Patsy Cline and its all heavy duty barre chords.
# 4
