Seasonistas general thread: yakking, joshing, news and pictures

When I really must absolutely learn a song off-book, I just play it overandoverandoverandover. That works. My wife is not fond of that technique, as the songs that I have memorized are now ones that she is sick of. Oh well![/COLOR]

Yep. My husband gets the same way. "Can you please play something else?" -I hear that a lot! Here lately, I just practice when he is at work.

In an article I once read, a Nashville guitarist was quoted as saying that you don't know a song well enough to play on stage or in the recording studio until you've played it so often you're thoroughly sick of it.
 
One more memorization strategy I've used in addition to many of those already mentioned... practice singing the song without playing uke until you've got the words and melody cold; practice the chords without singing along until you've got them; then put together singing and uke after you know each separately.

Great to read so many of your voices here. Fun thread.

And welcome back, 'tina!

I've come across that one but I find it doesn't work for me. If it's a totally new song I do sing it through several times either with my concertina (if I have sheet music for it) or to a recording then on its own so I've got the melody in my head. Then I need to sing it with the uke as I find it better to learn the song and chords together so they become a whole. Once I've got the melody I play through several times and adjust the chords until I'm happy with it, then it's play it through over and over until it has stuck. CeeJay's right about sleeping on it. I can't learn a song in one sitting I need to practice it over a period of time to get it.

Even then when I play it in front of an audience, I will make mistakes - wrong chords, chord changes in the wrong place most commonly - but some advice I got years ago about mistakes when playing in front of an audience is to keep going and don't draw attention to them. Chances are the audience hasn't noticed them. As long as you start and finish well and play with an outward appearance of confidence (even if you are shaking furiously inside), your audience will be happy.
 
Whisky? Yummy single-malt scotch? I just brought back from Ohio bottles of three brands I can't get in N.C.

What's your experience with how whisky (or similar libations) affects your practice? I think it's like having a friendly companion encouraging you to relax and try it again.
.


I need no encouragement to try the Whisky again !!....


On a serious note (Yeah. Me, serious,,, thhhh) but that's how a lot of jazz and 60 s pop stuff came about ....and not just Whisky .... !!
 
That advice about keep going when performing - that is gold.
I was performing for a large family gathering and I had stagefright real bad. I made some errors and thought I had really messed it up BAD. I kept going though. Someone took a video of it and it was not that noticeable, it was much worse in my head. That helped.
Ralf's advice about singing without playing is another thing I do. I have a long commute, and I will often spend the commute singing the lyrics over and over for songs I am trying to learn.

That article was great Wendy! I am looking forward to changing what I already do to hopefully make it more effective. I do notice that sleep does seem to cement things. I will try to learn one verse at a time, then sleep on it, instead of playing through the whole thing.
 
So is this a nice way to tell me to stop talking in the weekly contest threads? :)
 
That advice about keep going when performing - that is gold.
I was performing for a large family gathering and I had stagefright real bad. I made some errors and thought I had really messed it up BAD. I kept going though. Someone took a video of it and it was not that noticeable, it was much worse in my head. That helped.
Ralf's advice about singing without playing is another thing I do. I have a long commute, and I will often spend the commute singing the lyrics over and over for songs I am trying to learn.

That article was great Wendy! I am looking forward to changing what I already do to hopefully make it more effective. I do notice that sleep does seem to cement things. I will try to learn one verse at a time, then sleep on it, instead of playing through the whole thing.

Somebody, actually a good pal of mine Rick Preece said. the point is you know that you've cocked it up because you are behind the guitar and driving, they're in front listening , they'll assume that everything coming out is meant to be that way ...so play on. Wise words indeed .....BB where the whisky at ????
 
So is this a nice way to tell me to stop talking in the weekly contest threads? :)

No, it's a nice way to say wqlecome squig and poo that went wrong didn't it ......right , try that again ...Welcome along and when you going to post us a vid ?
 
Won't be two of us until June...I will HAVE to make a video before then!!

Maria, if this means what it sounds like, congratulations!!!

That advice about keep going when performing - that is gold.
I was performing for a large family gathering and I had stagefright real bad. I made some errors and thought I had really messed it up BAD. I kept going though. Someone took a video of it and it was not that noticeable, it was much worse in my head. That helped.
Ralf's advice about singing without playing is another thing I do. I have a long commute, and I will often spend the commute singing the lyrics over and over for songs I am trying to learn.

That article was great Wendy! I am looking forward to changing what I already do to hopefully make it more effective. I do notice that sleep does seem to cement things. I will try to learn one verse at a time, then sleep on it, instead of playing through the whole thing.

Yeah, I do believe anything is learnable, and anyone can memorize. I read another article ... I'll look for it ... about how to learn new things (musical things specifically) ... and it said to break them into tiny parts, like this article said, and SLOW THEM DOWN until you can play them without error, and then repeat, repeat, repeat, and speed it up only as you are able to keep doing it flawlessly at the new speed. The moment you make a mistake, stop and redo it slowly enough so you don't make the mistake, and follow this procedure until you can do it at tempo. It takes a LOT of patience to actually do this ... but it saves a heap of time and error by preventing you from learning your mistakes by repeating them - which is what we inevitably end up doing if we don't take the time to do this.

Yeah, the keep going no matter what thing has been one of the great secrets to my success. And playing for live audiences every chance I get has been terrific practice at it. Especially the weekly Sam Ash open mic ... we get one song, one take, and at least half of the weeks I think I've just made the worst mess of the song I've ever made ... I could do it so much better at home! ... but then the video is always passable ... every single time.

So I keep taking chances there, and taking video, and posting it, warts and all.

Which leads to my message to AL ... just do it already and get it over with! You say you've been working on songs and videos every week ... just record and post one and we will love it up, and then you'll never ever want to miss a week after that, once you get how not a big deal it is. No more excuses. Because no matter what you think, we are going to love whatever you do. So DO IT.
 
perfection is not the goal of the Seasons, participation is!

Sometimes perfect participation is the goal of a few .... :biglaugh:

We had a regular in the early days of the seasons who was a perfectionist. She used to get stressed out every week when she couldn't get a recording just so. She seemed unable to post something that wasn't just so.

She gave up participating in the end which was a shame as she was very good and just did instrumentals.
 
Somebody, actually a good pal of mine Rick Preece said. the point is you know that you've cocked it up because you are behind the guitar and driving, they're in front listening , they'll assume that everything coming out is meant to be that way ...so play on. Wise words indeed .....BB where the whisky at ????

Very true. That's what I was told. There's a couple of folk at folk clubs I go to, songwriters, who will say say something like; "Here's my new song, if I can get it right". My response to that is usually along the lines of; "It's your song, we won't know if you've done it right or wrong and we'll enjoy it anyway."
 
Whisky? Yummy single-malt scotch? I just brought back from Ohio bottles of three brands I can't get in N.C.

What's your experience with how whisky (or similar libations) affects your practice? I think it's like having a friendly companion encouraging you to relax and try it again.
.

Yes, definitely scotch! Preferably single malt, although I'm not averse to a blend here and there :)

Unfortunately whisky renders my uke playing completely incoherent, which is surprising, as I'm pretty sure I can speak fluent French when I've had a few.
 
Well, come on over! I've got a birdbath you can sit in and we can play tunes from my songsheets while sipping a wee dram.
 
I haven't carefully read through any of the posts and suggestions that anyone else has made so this may have already been suggested.

Memorizing is mesmerizing! And I can't do it either.

However this is what I try and do.......and it helps. First of all I have a heck of a time if a song has loads of chords. Start small! Learn the chord progressions so that your hands are on auto pilot.

Try making keywords on each line. When I can get through a line with only the keyword then I try and turn those keywords into visuals.

Here is an example of what I do.

If I could shimmy like my Sister Kate
Shake like a bowl of jelly on a plate
My Mama wanted to know last night
How Kate could do it oh so nice
Now all the boys in the neighborhood
knew Kate could shimmy and its understood

I may be late but Ill be up to date
When I can shimmy like my sister Kate
Oh yeah, When I can shimmy like my sister Kate.

then I try erasing words along the way.


If I could shimmy like my Sister Kate
Shake like a bowl of jelly on a plate
My Mama wanted to know last night
How Kate could do it oh so nice
Now all the boys in the neighborhood
knew Kate could shimmy and its understood

I may be late but Ill be up to date
When I can shimmy like my sister Kate
Oh yeah, When I can shimmy like my sister Kate.


I try and eventually erase words until there are nothing but keywords left. Along the way I try and mentally change those keywords with a visual just like you teach small children songs. Repeat and repeat and repeat!

Look for rhymes and a progression in the story that help with the visual.

Hope this helps a little :)
 
Last edited:
Wow, Linda, that's a great explanation of very helpful idea—thank you very much!

I've learned several neat tricks about memorizing here.
 
Top Bottom