How do you learn? Fingerstyle...

So, I've been trying to get better at finger style playing. My usual is to struggle through the tabbed music sections one at a time and when I can sort of play the section at tempo to move on to the next section, until I can get to the end of the song.

So, I can play here comes the sun, but I need to have the music in front of me in order to play it. Because I haven't memorized it yet, but it sounds fine with music.

This way of learning takes a long time, and although I feel a sense of accomplishment being able to play it, it is frustrating having to have the music in order to play certain songs.

Last Sunday, I started learning You've Got a Friend in Me. in the key of F. Boy, it's a toughie. The sections I was playing was like two music bars long, so really small parts. Well, this time around, I only focused on two bars or so at a time and once I was able to do it, I kept practicing without the music in front of me. After I got comfortable I would go back and pick up 2 more bars from the music and step away again. After a week (8 days really), I can now play the entire song from memory (it is still rough in parts, but I can get through it), and from an accomplishment stand point, it is much more satisfying.

so, is this a fluke or am I onto something here? My prior was to learn the song and then work on memorizing it. This time around, I was memorizing as I go. Does anyone else have this experience?

My reading of tabs is always too slow to play anything at any sort of decent tempo. The way I get around this is to memorise EVERYTHING. I do it much like you described. I focus on a few bars per day and just loop them. I tend to get there in the end.

ghostrdr said:

Well, this time around, I only focused on two bars or so at a time and once I was able to do it, I kept practicing without the music in front of me. After I got comfortable I would go back and pick up 2 more bars from the music and step away again. After a week (8 days really), I can now play the entire song from memory (it is still rough in parts, but I can get through it), and from an accomplishment stand point, it is much more satisfying.

so, is this a fluke or am I onto something here? My prior was to learn the song and then work on memorizing it. This time around, I was memorizing as I go. Does anyone else have this experience?

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This is exactly how I learn every piece I play. Small sections over and over until they are mastered. In no time at all, everything is committed to memory without even trying!

Nothing wrong with keeping the music sheet in front of your eyes instead of memorizing it. Being doing it for 20 years of piano playing.

Actually, strongly IMHO, it is way better to have the music sheet in front of you, because you free your mind from the task of having to remember the music.
As a software developer, I see it in a pretty pragmatic way: do whatever it takes less clock cycles of your brain

To me, having the music sheet in front of me is relaxing because I don't have to memorize or remember so I can use my full brain to play properly, keeping up with tempo and maybe even throw a couple embellishments here and there.

Also: always. use. a. metronome.

Everything I've heard indicates you're doing it the right way. Work on a small section until you are competent. then move on to the next section.

I'm not desperate to become a finger picker. I prefer strumming.

I find most tabs to be confusing and discouraging. I wish it were standard to show or notate the chord shape that should be held by the left hand. It's often difficult to figure out and chord shapes would make it so much easier.

donluca said:

Nothing wrong with keeping the music sheet in front of your eyes instead of memorizing it. Being doing it for 20 years of piano playing.

Actually, strongly IMHO, it is way better to have the music sheet in front of you, because you free your mind from the task of having to remember the music.
As a software developer, I see it in a pretty pragmatic way: do whatever it takes less clock cycles of your brain

To me, having the music sheet in front of me is relaxing because I don't have to memorize or remember so I can use my full brain to play properly, keeping up with tempo and maybe even throw a couple embellishments here and there.

Also: always. use. a. metronome.

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Thanks for this comment. So I used to play piano and maybe this explains why I approached learning this way. It is a LOT more brain power to try and remember what comes next. It is like trying to remember what you said or what you had for dinner last night in quick succession. The benefit is I don’t have to physically sit in front of the music, kind of like sitting in front of a piano and I can play a little bit here and there all over the house.

Well, eventually muscle memory will kick in at a certain point and you'll go on auto-pilot from there.

The point is that, speaking for myself here, there's a limited number of songs I can memorize over time, without playing them everyday.

I use to play The Great Gig in the Sky on piano regularly and didn't have to read the music sheet anymore, but since I've been focusing more on guitar and, now, uke, if you asked me to play it I would completely blank out and I'd need the music sheet in front of me again.

If you're able to properly read music sheet (whether the classic pentagram, tabs or chord shapes) you're pretty set to learn any kind of piece of music you like.

Then it's just a matter of developing speed and consistency and practicing over and over again until it'll feel natural.

Really, there's no "good" way to learn songs you like, just keep at it everyday and eventually it'll come.
The rest is just knowledge and familiarity of the instrument you're playing and developing good technique.

ghostrdr said:

... The sections I was playing was like two music bars long, so really small parts. Well, this time around, I only focused on two bars or so at a time and once I was able to do it, I kept practicing without the music in front of me. After I got comfortable I would go back and pick up 2 more bars from the music and step away again. After a week (8 days really), I can now play the entire song from memory (it is still rough in parts, but I can get through it), and from an accomplishment stand point, it is much more satisfying.

so, is this a fluke or am I onto something here? My prior was to learn the song and then work on memorizing it. This time around, I was memorizing as I go. Does anyone else have this experience?

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Your method is good and is the way to practice.

I just have a few suggestions that may help:

A suggestion is to not use something like 2 bars as the division; but, instead, I'd suggest using a musical phrase. Using a phrase allows you to play more expressively. It's kind of like memorizing a story, instead of memorizing 10 words at a time, try memorizing a sentence as a time. This way you can speak it with better inflection. Once the musical phrase/story sentence is memorized, the task becomes tying them together to provide even better expression.

One other suggestion, once you break the music into phrases is to learn from the hardest parts. This can give you a psychological advantage because then you won't quit after learning half way and meet the hard part. This will let you learn all of the music because everything is always easier where where you are at. (If you quit, it'll be at the beginning, so not much time wasted.)

mikelz777 said:

I find most tabs to be confusing and discouraging. I wish it were standard to show or notate the chord shape that should be held by the left hand. It's often difficult to figure out and chord shapes would make it so much easier.

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Where necessary, I find it helpful to put the chord names above the tab. It really speeds up my ability to read the tablature.

It takes a long time to memorize tabs.

I also dichiffer what corresponds to a few lines of song at a time, then look up from the tabs and try to play without looking, then adding a few more lines.

I can't play from the sheet, so I have to memorize it. Keeping tempo and picking the right notes take so much efford that I can't read detailed stuff like that at the same time. I can only cast a glance to remember a word or chord or so. If you want to play from the sheet, I saw a youtube video about how standard notation should be easier to translate on the fly. I often try to learn fingerstyle from standard notation in stead of tabs, but havent really learned it properly yet. Still dechifering note by note, but improving.

The metronome is probably great, but at the point where you are still trying to memorize it is perhaps a bit early to introduce it. First time you play a line you just try to find the notes. Then you try to get the tempo right. Then you try to find the next notes. Would be tuning it on and off all the time. I just tap my foot for a sence of tempo, Keeping a slight bounce in my body along with the foot.

As usual, great suggestions here. If you're trying to memorize something, here's another approach:

Practice and learn the melody first. Forget about the rest until you can play the melody by heart. Now you have something to have fun with and don't need to be always sitting in front of a sheet of paper.

Then go back to the tabs/clef and start to add a section the way you want it to sound. Then another. Then another... until you're playing the entire piece. When you are playing without the music in front of you and forget a part, you can always go back to just playing the melody for a section until the memory kicks in.

Since you played the piano, I'm guessing you already understand how chords relate to what you're playing, so it's also possible to attempt to add your own chord ("chord melody arrangements") here and there when you forget exactly how the tabs/clef were written.

It may take a little longer with this approach (maybe not , but I find it more fun to noodle with the melody and then add more complexity over time.

Daniel Ward: Arpeggio Meditations for Ukulele Book
Not only will you learn finger style - but you will learn some great music at the same time. Each piece utilizes a different picking pattern. It took me a year to go through this book, but I loved every minute of it. Great stuff.

+1 for the Daniel Ward book - great material!

+1 on Ed1’s idea.
I have played in bands and orchestras as a school kid, so reading stand.notation and playing along is something I’m used to. I don’t find tab difficult to read either. As an adult, I took up piano and for that, I always relied on sheet music, in fact, I don’t think I could play anything by heart or by ear. My kids memorized pieces for recitals, but not me. Now, however, I have divided music into different categories.

I have music that I always play from tab or s.n., usually fiddle tunes. I’m not trying overtly to memorize these pieces. If they stick, fine, but if not, that’s ok. They are more instructional. They teach me how a basic melody is fleshed out with passing notes, arpeggios, and chords to make a nice arrangement. If I wanted to memorize one of these more complicated arrangements, I would work phrase by phrase, til I got it.

For the most part though, I want to be off the book, so I learn the stripped down melody. First, you have to be able to accurately sing/hum the basic melody. Then, I pick it out by ear (this is where knowing your scales and arpeggios helps; they put the melody under your fingers). I practice that simple melody til I have it cold. Then, if I don’t already understand the chord structure of the song, I chart it out. It helps to know “where you are” in a song to figure out the next part. Now, I will add in chords, double-stops and passing notes. This is where you need to know which notes form each chord and where you can find them nearby on your fretboard. In the beginning, this may take awhile, but soon you will find you’re picking out the melody on the fly. You start to be able to hear the intervals and get better and better at “guessing”. It takes a bit longer to learn to incorporate appropriate double-stops and chords. You will see patterns, after a bit. With this method, you will not need to memorize sheet music. I also recommend using closed position learning for the melody so you can move it to any key.

While the above post is probably very correct, for a lot of people it will sound like: "First you just need to be come an accomplished musician, learning scales, finding the melody by ear and arranging chords around them on the fly. THEN you can begin to learn that fingerstyle piece you feel like learning. That is the right way".

I believe a lot of people who pick up the Ukulele and acquire a book with tabbed arrangements of a song do so, because they want to go right to playing. That's what tabs are for. So while I try to get better at standard notation and want to practice some scales to read it faster, I think this approach will scare off some people.

UkingViking said:

While the above post is probably very correct, for a lot of people it will sound like: "First you just need to be come an accomplished musician, learning scales, finding the melody by ear and arranging chords around them on the fly. THEN you can begin to learn that fingerstyle piece you feel like learning. That is the right way".

I believe a lot of people who pick up the Ukulele and acquire a book with tabbed arrangements of a song do so, because they want to go right to playing. That's what tabs are for. So while I try to get better at standard notation and want to practice some scales to read it faster, I think this approach will scare off some people.

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I hope it didn’t come off that way. There are a lot of times I work off of sheet music, and it’s a great resource. If I love an arrangement and want to play it exactly that way, I use it for sure. And if I want to take it a step further and memorize, I find that taking it one musical phrase at a time works for me.

When I don’t want to use sheet music, I use the method of learning the melody cold and then adding simple embellishments, a little at a time, refining the piece. I’m very much just an intermediate player, and so I’m not speaking as a skilled musician. I just find that starting with the basic melody is a good foundation. Everything else can be added in little building blocks.

UkingViking said:

While the above post is probably very correct, for a lot of people it will sound like: "First you just need to be come an accomplished musician, learning scales, finding the melody by ear and arranging chords around them on the fly. THEN you can begin to learn that fingerstyle piece you feel like learning. That is the right way".

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I strongly believe that you really need to find and strike a good balance between studying a bit of music theory, practicing scales/chord changes and just having fun (ie: learning songs you love, mindlessly strumming, noodling, etc.).

Maybe the most important part which should take most of your time during your normal day is just listening to the music you like.
Just listening and letting your ears getting accustomed to the tracks you like is going to immensely help you throughout your journey.
At a certain point, you'll discover that something "clicked" and you're start recognizing chords, patterns, scales and what have you, and you'll instinctively reach for your uke (or any other instrument really) and try to replicate the melody or the chords, sometimes failing spectacularly, other times getting it right dead on at the first try.

But really, whatever you want to do, you should really, really set some goals.

Do you want to just have fun and learn some songs?
Do you want to play in front of other people? Maybe just your friend or that girl/boy you're courting to impress her/him?
Do you want to go busking in the streets?
Maybe find other people to form a band and do gigs?

All those goals require different efforts and you should always have your mind clearly set on what you're trying to achieve, otherwise you'll end up frustrated and, most importantly, lost.
And that would be a pity, because music is a wonderful thing and learning to play an instrument empowers you.

ghostrdr said:

So, I can play here comes the sun...

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Not to take this too far off topic, but I'm a rank beginner (2 months in, barely any musical experience, none since the Carter administration), and Here Comes The Sun feels like my holy grail. I know that there are a bunch of ways to play it, and a ton of tutorials out there. In fact, I've put together a YT playlist for myself that's ONLY the Here Comes The Sun tutorials that I actually like -- currently 10 of 'em, but the list was over 20 at one point, and it seems like I still come across new ones every week!

So I'm curious -- how did you learn to play it? Any advice for me?

Thanks!

TimWilson said:

Not to take this too far off topic, but I'm a rank beginner (2 months in, barely any musical experience, none since the Carter administration), and Here Comes The Sun feels like my holy grail. I know that there are a bunch of ways to play it, and a ton of tutorials out there. In fact, I've put together a YT playlist for myself that's ONLY the Here Comes The Sun tutorials that I actually like -- currently 10 of 'em, but the list was over 20 at one point, and it seems like I still come across new ones every week!

So I'm curious -- how did you learn to play it? Any advice for me?

Thanks!

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I found Rudi Putter's tab pretty easy to learn from. He posted it elsewhere in these forums earlier this year or you can find it on his website:https://sites.google.com/site/tabs4ukes/home-1 If you're still having trouble, try some general technique exercises (e.g. the Ukulele Aerobics book) instead of a song-specific tutorial.