Songs: memorize them or just play them?

mikelz777

mikelz777

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Before I came to the ukulele, I played guitar off and on. (mostly off, I could go months if not a year+ without touching one so I wasn't accomplished by any means) When I started thinking about learning songs on the uke, I realized that at best, I could only play 1 or 2 songs from memory after 18+ years of sporadically playing the guitar. When I did play, I guess I just enjoyed sitting and playing songs from chords/tab sheets and didn't bother trying to learn the song by memory. Now that I'm playing the ukulele, I think my attitude has changed and was wondering what others here tend to do.

Do you like to learn a song until you can play it by memory or do you rely on a song sheet each time you play? I suspect for a lot of people it is a little bit of both but I think it would be cool to have a repertoire that I could play by memory. (While I'm certainly not ruling it out, right now I don't have plans for performing for others.)
 
I memorize so I'm not having to look at a book to play a song. It's not easy and of course I spend a lot of time and repetition doing this it's all worth it when it's memorized. That's just my thoughts on it and I'm sure there are ones that go the other way with it. It's just my own preference.
 
I tend to memorize them just by playing them over and over. I haven't yet and will never play anything on uke that was so demanding of me that I gotta have sheet music. When I was a kid, I used to marvel at how someone could play anything on any instrument without needing sheet music, but now it just feels like part of it.

Then again, I never remember lyrics...

If you need sheet of music or tabs or whatever works for you, then that's what you use, I wouldn't sweat it. :)
 
Great, question and I'm interested in the answers.

I tend to play from chord sheets and then if I really like how the song sounds on the ukulele, I try to commit it to memory. I'm up to about a dozen songs that I can recall from memory.

What I do find is that I get little retained memory from simply playing from the sheets over and over. I actually have to commit to memory by almost taking visual photographs of how my fingers are making the chords for a song. Not sure if that makes sense.

Anyway, I enjoy both and try not to stress about how many songs I know "off the top of my head" but then again, it is nice to sit on a beach and just play. ;)

My 2 cents.
 
Depends on the song. If it's a simple chord progression I try to memorize it via the I IV V7 (ala Jim D'Ville type) method. Other songs that I like on the uke are too much for my old mind to remember (the 80's were fun, I think)
 
mikelz777 said:
Do you like to learn a song until you can play it by memory or do you rely on a song sheet each time you play? I suspect for a lot of people it is a little bit of both
Click to expand...

Both.

Basically, I start with a tab/chord sheet and work on the song until it is comfortable (like getting familiar with weird chord changes), then play it so I memorize the pattern. But I find that when I play some songs (Come On Eileen, or '39) it helps to have some kind of chord cheat sheet handy so I don't lose my place or forget a transition. I wouldn't say I am playing from either memory or a page, but using the latter to help the former.
 
Both, definitely.

I don't feel like I "know" a song until I can play it by heart, but I sure like playing songs I don't "know", so I play songs from books, sheets, the web, etc. every day.

It's nice to have more than few songs to play by heart---especially simple, good ones. The list of songs I know grows/shrinks with my learning/forgetting cycle.
 
I try to learn instrumentals and not songs where singing is involved. Yes - I memorize them and some of them have taken quite a bit of time for me to get down.
 
I've found that having someone to play with has helped me learn songs by heart. Mostly because we agree when to put the charts away and try it without and then can back each other through the bits we can't remember. So after three years we've got about sixty songs down - thats practcicng for about 2 and a half hours every week. . We still take charts for songs we haven't yet learned properly but want to play publicly.
 
Mandarb said:
I try to learn instrumentals and not songs where singing is involved. Yes - I memorize them and some of them have taken quite a bit of time for me to get down.
Click to expand...

Me too. I don't consider me knowing a song until I can sit down and play it from memory. After about 6 months, I finally got an instrumental chord solo version of 'Chinatown My Chinatown' down.
 
This might sound backwards: I memorize all of my classical/fingerpicking songs - I find it way easier to play complex pieces from memory once I've gotten the basic structure of the song down.

The easy stuff, simple chord progressions, I don't usually memorize. I try to actually hear the changes and follow along that way, but I'm not a very good by-ear player so I still use chord charts even for songs I've been playing for several years.
 
guitarsnrotts said:
Me too. I don't consider me knowing a song until I can sit down and play it from memory. After about 6 months, I finally got an instrumental chord solo version of 'Chinatown My Chinatown' down.
Click to expand...

There was instrumental that I attempted to learn last year - I thought I would have it down in a few weeks....it took me months. I actually stopped working on it and learned a second instrumental that only took me about a week - "Fur Elise".
 
There is another option. This is to work the song out each time you play it.

Using this technique means that you can play songs that you have never played before. Also, the key doesn't matter. It is possible to play in any key.

Surprisingly, quite a lot of people use this technique, even if it is just in a simple way. For instance, lots of uke players can just play pretty much any 3 chord rock and roll song without really thinking too much. And in several keys.
 
I pretty much only play instrumentals, and I think it would be almost impossible to play them if I had to read from a tab sheet, so by the time I have an arrangement down, it's pretty much committed to memory by default. Also, in the last year or so I've mostly learned by watching videos and a little bit by ear, so I usually don't have tab sheets to begin with.
 
I believe learning a song is playing without a book/sheet.
I am constantly amazed at all the folks who bury themselves in a song sheet and don't listen to what they are playing.
When you play by yourself you should be able to hear what you are playing, when in a group hearing the group dynamics can be beautiful.
I always wonder why people want to read everything they play. Why play music if you are not going to listen?
Rather than memorizing a song, I believe you need to get it loaded into your memory so you feel and hear it.
Playing from a book sounds mechanical to me, little emotion or artistic interpretation.
 
With 90 songs in our songbook and working with a jazz vocalist that expects me to be "at the right place at the right time playing the right chord" I use my charts all the time. No exceptions.

Fortunately, I use the official Ukulele Cowboy Society Bandstand which holds my charts, capo, tuner, etc. and nicely hides my towel, water bottles and other unsightly stuff. Here is a shot of it and us at a recent gig...

photo-2.jpg
 
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I memorize, or that's what I did when I played guitar. It takes practice, time, and a lot of repetition but it's easier than having to play off a song book.
 
Both. If you want to play well, you have to become familiar enough with the material that it's memorized anyway. And reading is work, while playing is ...well...playing!
 
Ken Middleton said:
There is another option. This is to work the song out each time you play it.

Using this technique means that you can play songs that you have never played before. Also, the key doesn't matter. It is possible to play in any key.

Surprisingly, quite a lot of people use this technique, even if it is just in a simple way. For instance, lots of uke players can just play pretty much any 3 chord rock and roll song without really thinking too much. And in several keys.
Click to expand...

I second this. It's also a useful skill to have when you write songs.
 
I hardly memorize anything - I usually play from a book. There are a few songs that I've basically memorized because I've played them often - but it isn't the goal of my playing. I am mostly arranging songs from lead sheets (melody plus chords) in chord/melody form (I'm not a singer) so I'm not working off tab all that often... I am also playing for myself/by myself and not in front of an audience...
 
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