How do YOU learn songs?

Wondering others' methods for learning songs. I can't read music (well, I guess I could figure it out slowly - Every Good Boy Does Fine way, did take piano lessons as a kid) - but have been learning from lyrics with chord names or chord grids above the words.

Then, I try to find a source for strumming pattern for the song, and a source to listen to song sung to figure out how it should sound (and most of the songs I've been learning I've heard before).

What is your method for learning songs?

I think I'd like to learn some jazz and some instrumental/classical songs, and am wondering how to learn those.

If I'm already familiar with the song, I will work out the strumming and chords and try to get it in a key that is fun for me to sing. If the chord changes are challenging, I will work those out and start humming once they feel natural. Then I'll add actual singing once I feel good about the ukulele playing.

If I'm not familiar with the song, I will look it upon youtube or pick out the melody on the ukulele and get familiar with the tune, then work it out the same way from there.

I start out slow and add to it once I feel good about what I'm doing. I will really slow down the tempo, too. This helps get the feel and groove of the song, as well as helping me memorize it.

mama207 said:

Wondering others' methods for learning songs. I can't read music (well, I guess I could figure it out slowly - Every Good Boy Does Fine way, did take piano lessons as a kid) - but have been learning from lyrics with chord names or chord grids above the words.

Then, I try to find a source for strumming pattern for the song, and a source to listen to song sung to figure out how it should sound (and most of the songs I've been learning I've heard before).

What is your method for learning songs?

I think I'd like to learn some jazz and some instrumental/classical songs, and am wondering how to learn those.

Click to expand...

I taught myself to read music, and it isn't that hard. If I can do it, anyone can. I go to YouTube to listen to songs if I want to see how other people play them. I go to Ultimateguitar.com or Ukutabs.com to get the lyrics and the chords. I like Ukutabs.com, because you can change keys right there, with a click of the mouse and I can pick one that has chords that work for me. I have a few other places as well, but those two are my go to. As far as strumming patterns, I just make one up that works. Sometimes you can switch up the strumming patterns for the different verses. That's fun, and it gives the song a little extra sometimes. Then I print it out, put it in my folder, and go for it. I play around with it until I get it sounding like I want it to sound, and then if I really like it, I memorize it. That is how I do it.

When I hear a song I want to learn to play, I focus on the melody and the lyrics first (no ukulele).
Sometimes I will look it up on YouTube to find the rendition I like. There are so many different
renditions of popular songs, so I focus on the one I like. (Bobby Darin - Somewhere Beyond the Sea,
Dean Martin - Sway, Ray Bolger - If I Only had a Brain, etc)

Once I feel I have the Melody and Lyrics down, I try to work out the chords in the key I want to sing.

I pretty much always do the Strumming and Rhythm LAST. At that point I simply try to copy what
I remember of the way the song went in the rendition I like best. I have a standard strum, a Latin
strum, a choppy strum, and waltz strum, etc. and I simply try to replicate the rhythm of what I remember.
(what works for me )

For example: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World medley... I know I could
probably improve on my strumming/rhythm, but I'm comfortable with a pattern that sounds good to me.

I try to honor the song and show respect for the artist by replicating what I remember hearing. Sometimes
it's close, sometimes not. Example: I had to relearn some of the melody for It's the Loveliest Night of the Year
because I was singing it incorrectly earlier on. It sounded OK, but it wasn't the correct melody.

My advice is to work on the Melody and Lyrics, then the Chords, then the Rhythm and Strumming last, once all
the other parts/variables are comfortable for you.

keep uke'in',

I learn songs . . . with great difficulty. Usually the words go in my eyes and then melt away. ld:

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

I try to honor the song and show respect for the artist by replicating what I remember hearing. Sometimes
it's close, sometimes not. Example: I had to relearn some of the melody for It's the Loveliest Night of the Year
because I was singing it incorrectly earlier on. It sounded OK, but it wasn't the correct melody.

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What Rod said - it's how the song feels to me, which frequently deviates from whatever cheat sheet I started with. Sometimes I might drop a bridge if it doesn't seem to speak to me, or doesn't fit in with the way I have been playing it. Sometimes I am surprised at how different my versions are, but they come from how I feel about the music.

And once I get the basic chords and singing part done, I might try to throw in a little embellishment - even to the point of working out each string individually to get the music I am feeling.

I worked up an arrangement of The Way You Look Tonight with what I thought was the bridge, but it turned out to have a completely different bridge. I eventually worked the original bridge back in, but kept mine too for a later break. I like the way it sounds.

You're one of a kind, Greenie...


Thank Goodness!

keep uke'in',

I just changed my method recently. I’ve been playing for a year with varying results because I didn’t have a real system, I’d just tackle whatever aspect seemed to need attention. I usually chose songs that I already enjoyed singing, and I was always impatient to get to the stage of sing’n’play. Although I can see I’m playing better, I was having trouble with lasting memorization. I’d think I had a song down but then if I didn’t play it for a few days, I’d need the sheet music again. No matter how often I practiced, I would still have the same trouble spots. So I decided to go at the next one in a more systematic way. (Like my teacher has been recommending, duh) And it worked amazingly well.

(This was a song for which I already knew the melody and lyrics, so I didn’t have to learn those.)

What I did differently this time is, early in the process, I devoted one whole session to mastering the chord changes in sequence, in bite-size pieces. I resisted the temptation to rush ahead and play the whole song. I’ve discovered that sometimes I can change the fingering of a familiar chord in order to facilitate moving to the next chord (barring is beginning to be workable for me), so here’s where I work that out. I pretend that I’m the laziest player who ever lived and I want to move my fingers with the very least effort that can be managed. So I keep asking myself: Is there an easier way to position my fingers to get from there to here? I start out very slow, only the first few chords, and make sure I’m comfortable with each transition. Each time I practiced the sequence, I added just one more chord and mastered that transition and just played them in little groups hooking them together faster and faster. When I did it this way, I discovered that memorization happened automatically and in a lasting fashion, because I devoted so much concentration to the fingering process for the chord progressions.

Then when I could play all the chords in sequence with no stumbling – i.e. memorized! – I went back to the notation and began to count beats and assign the right timing to the chords. Again, this started out very slow and methodical and with no particular strum or rhythm – just counting it out till it was correct. Once I knew the right timing relationships, then I could play with rhythms and find the strum that felt right, then add the voice. It was all so much easier to do when I didn’t need to worry about remembering the chords. Now in just three days I feel like I have this song down better than anything else I’ve practiced all year.

It seemed that early memorization was the key to all the other flourishes and finesse. And going slow and deliberate – against my instincts and preferences - mastering chord change by chord change, was the key to memorization. At least for me!

Down Up Dick said:

I learn songs . . . with great difficulty. Usually the words go in my eyes and then melt away. ld:

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Boy does that sound familiar! I learn songs the old fashioned way, by playing them over, and over, and over, and ..... Well, you get the picture. I probably played through Over The Rainbow a thousand times before I could do it without looking at a lead sheet for the chords and words.

Thanks Junebug! I'll try this method, as it takes me forever to learn a song....slowly and patiently seems to be the best way!

What I've been doing with guitars, banjos, lutes, mandolins, 'ukes etc for the last half-century: If I have a songbook with chord diagrams, I start there. Learn the words (if any), the chord structure, then pick out melodies, counterpoints, etc. If I only have recordings or memories, I may noodle around on the fretboard till something starts coming together, like playing a descending ostinato for ONE-NOTE SAMBA on soprano uke or a drone midrange for AS YOU SAID (Cream) on mandolin. Then it's practicar, practicar, practicar.

For many songs, the most helpful thing is for me is to look for the patterns in the chords. I see the repetitive blocks that make up the different parts of the song and it becomes much easier for me to organize them in my mind and ultimately memorize.

VegasGeorge said:

Boy does that sound familiar! I learn songs the old fashioned way, by playing them over, and over, and over, and ..... Well, you get the picture. I probably played through Over The Rainbow a thousand times before I could do it without looking at a lead sheet for the chords and words.

Click to expand...

This...I pretty much have learned every song I know through sheer repetition. Not exactly the most elegant method, but hey!

the way I build up a song is, I start working on putting the chords together as they are played in the song, I work on a part of the song eg:- the verse, chorus or bridge, I do sing along but at this early stage it will be way off the rhythm, I listen on youtube if I don't know the song and gradually start jamming with youtube until it starts resembling the original, the rhythm of the piece will come with practice, I find that the more you practice the song, sometimes I will leave the song I am working on for a day or 2, then return to it and start again, if there is a couple of hard or new chords I will practice these over and over slowly to improve muscle memory for that particular progression, another tip that I often force on to myself is not to think too much about what I am doing and just letting the song blossom of its own free will, believe me too much thought can lead to more mistakes and a lack of natural rhythm, hope this helps kaizer

If I really want to get a song ingrained into my mind so I can play it from feel then it's a case of spending the time to just listen and work it out myself. It takes longer, but the return is worth it.

Lots of good, solid pointers here!

In my case, the key is repetition. I'm pretty particular with the minute nuances of the song's changes in pitches along with the lyrics, and this becomes particularly tricky when I need to transpose it. I've not experimented with capos yet. It really boils down to a good amount of repetition. I bought a headphone for this purpose because it drove my daughter to bunkers!

Another thing I learned in ukulele playing is that when strumming is combined with singing, the most difficult part for me is finding my own "internal pulse or groove." There are songs that requires creativeness in strumming pattern to make it go well with the song's rhythm. For instance, I've had a bit of rough time learning this song "Brave" by Sara Barailles lately due to being unable to find the right strumming pattern for it. Then I peruse YouTube, spent hours learning various techniques, and then finally found the one that goes with my "internal pulse." Then it finally "click" in my head.

Best of luck to us all!