OK...Let's Take It From The Top!

There have been a few times along the way that I’ve been in a position where I had to learn a lot of songs in a fairly short amount of time.  Probably the biggest crunch I ever had was when I was asked to join Buzzfuel in the fall of 2009.  When it was all said and done, I had about 45 days to learn 30 songs I had never played before.  And not just muddle my way through ‘em.  Nope, the band leader expected all the key parts to be there.  Needless to say, I had to figure out the most efficient way to get these songs under my fingers.

Before I go any further, I have to give credit to John Cortell for turning me on to a lot of the tools and techniques for learning songs.  John was the ring leader for Buzzfuel, and was the guy that had the final stamp of approval on when a song was ready to perform.  John, those lessons you taught me still serve me well to this day.

In this article, I’m mainly concentrating on learning covers. Keep in mind that there are various "levels" of learning a song...anything from "it sort of goes this way" to what I refer as "tribute level" where your goal is an extremely accurate reproduction of a recording.  Unless it's agreed upon that the song is going to rearranged or otherwise changed, I'm usually shooting for "tribute".

When learning a cover, the most basic thing is to make sure you’re learning the correct version of the song.  I’ve been burned more than once because I learned the album version of a song only to find out at rehearsal that the band was playing an extended dance remix version.  Thus was born the idea of “the well spring”.  A central repository of all of the songs to learn.  It can be a CD that’s handed out to everyone, or uploaded to a web or FTP site.  However you do it, make sure you’re all working off the same song.

And on that note (pun intended), make sure you agree on the key of the song as well.  Normally, that’s not an issue.  But, what if the original artist tunes down a ½ step?  Do you play the song in Eb, take a second set of instruments tuned down, or do it in E?  And what about those songs that sort of fall in between standard pitches (thanks Pearl Jam...would it kill you to use a freakin’ tuner).  Work all that out ahead of time so you don’t have to learn the same song twice.

OK, you’ve got all that figured out.  Now, how do you learn the song?  Well, back in the day I’d put the album on and just wear it out.  If it was a 45 RPM single, then I had the option to slow it down to 33 RPM to try to pick out the fast parts.  But things are a little easier now.

 

You’ve Gotta Be Able To Hear

I work under headphones whether I’m learning something on guitar or bass.  The setup I've put together has worked out really well.  At the heart of my system is a small Behringer mixing board.  I’ve got the output of the computer going to it in stereo.  My bass goes through a preamp to buffer the signal,a compressor, and then to the board.  For guitar…I’ve got a Digitech GNX-4 Workstation that’s direct in.  I’m not overly concerned with the tone or quality of the instruments right now, I just want to hear and play along.

 

The headphones I use are Shure SRH-440’s  They’re well built with a balanced sound and solid performance in the low octaves. An added bonus…the main cable is easily replaced by the user. They’re less than $100, and are one of the best deals out there.  I tried the Beats headphones, but have two problems with them…the bass over powers everything else and they’re way too expensive for what you get.  The build quality didn’t really impress me either.

Get Yourself A Good Media Player

The media player that comes standard with Windows is OK, but it’s designed for listening to music…not really learning it. What if you need to slow down a part, or change the pitch? What if you want to loop a section over and over? All of these are useful features to have when learning a song.

By far, my favorite software to use for this is Audacity. It will do all of those functions and a whole lot more. You can also record yourself with it as well. And the best part…it’s free! Audacity will play just about any type of audio file (MP3, MP4, Wave, AIFF). Check it out.

 

Listen Before You Pick Your Instrument Up

If you start playing along immediately to a song you don’t know, you’re going to “learn” wrong parts to start with.  Nope, you want to listen without an instrument in your hands a few time before picking it up.  Listen first for the rhythms, then the notes.  And if you’re the type to actually chart your stuff out, this is what you want to do anyway.

Start Picking Things Apart

If you haven’t charted anything, at least make yourself some notes on the song structure (unless you’ve heard it a million times and know it by heart).  Generally, I’ll try to learn a verse, then the chorus, the bridge, and then string it all together.  Be aware of subtle changes in parts from verse to verse.  It’s picking up on these little things that will put you ahead of other players.

What Did He Play?

I remember working on “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”, and the bridge of that song is extremely dense and distorted.  We were having a hell of a time figuring out what was going on there.  I’d tried all the usual tricks…slowing down the track, EQ’ing it, listening to each side separately…nothing.  It was just white noise.  

Finally, we stumbled across a clip on YouTube of The Smashing Pumpkins playing on Saturday Night Live.  They just happened to have the camera on the guitarist’s left hand in that part, and we were able to figure it out from there.  Which leads me to…

Don’t Forget “Second Sources”

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words, and a video is a whole book.  Just getting a glimpse of hand positions can be a big help when learning a difficult to hear part.  Also, a lot of people are fascinated by making videos of themselves playing along to cover songs.  Some of these are really good, and some not so.  Use this as a resource, but take it with a grain of salt.  Unless it’s the original artist, then they’ve likely missed or changed up something.

There are also a number of videos popping up now that are “isolated tracks”.  Some of these are lifted from the consoles at concerts.  Others…it’s possible that someone that had access to original multi-track tapes has released these.  Others…they’re fakes.  They’re really good (and still useful), but still it’s someone else playing.  I’ve also found out that some of these are from Guitar Hero and other games.  Those have been painfully reconstructed in the studio with top notch players.  Still not the original but dang close.

Call In Software Support

In addition to Audacity, another piece of software I use quite a bit is called Guitar Pro.  It’s a tab and note reader/editor and MIDI player that lets you make your own arrangements as well as play what others have created.  It also works a bit like a studio, in that you can remix the sound or just listen to individual parts while watching the arrangement in real time.  There’s a free demo, and the full program will run you $60.  It’s been a huge help.
 

 

The best repository I've found for Guitar Pro files (as well as tab, text, ChordPro, and others) is Ultimate-Guitar.com.  You can search by band or song.  But again, as with all content contributed by individuals the quality varies quite a bit.  Some are spot on, some...eh, not so much.

There’s a fairly new piece of software on the market from Roland called R-Mix .  Now, the holy grail would be to have a program that would take a fully mixed song and break it back down into individual tracks.  But, that would be like trying to un-bake a cake and get the whole eggs back out!  

 

What R-Mix attempts to do is let you isolate portions of an audio file based on (OK…it gets technical here) spectral content and position within the stereo field (whew!).  You can move and resize a window on the display to zero in on an instrument and then turn down everything else.  Conversely, if you wanted to get rid of an instrument and leave everything else, you can do that as well. 

Now, how well it works depends on how dense the mix is and how the instruments are spread in the stereo field.  I’ll tell you right now, the examples they include were custom mixed to work really well with the program.  Real world audio…it’s hit and miss.  I was able to almost perfectly isolate the bass in “Roundabout” by Yes.  But trying to do that on “Subdivisions” by Rush…I really couldn’t get anything out that I couldn’t get with Audacity. 

The full program is pricey…about $200.  The demo is fully functional, but limited to 30 seconds of playback.  So far, that’s been good enough for me.  If I find myself using it repeatedly, I’ll pop for the full version.  There's also a $10 version for iPad with a reduced feature set.  I haven't tried that...mainly because I don't feel like betting $10 on this yet.

Sometimes Less Is More

Turning up the volume isn’t always the answer.  Keep in mind that our ears have different frequency responses at different sound pressure levels (see my January 5^th article Getting Loud Without Getting Yelled At).  Sometimes, turning the headphones way down has revealed the mysterious chord or progression that I couldn’t pick out at normal or high listening levels.

Visualize The Song

Once I’ve got the basics of a song down, I make sure it’s available in the truck to listen to (I’m behind the wheel about an hour a day).  Now…don’t do this if you’ve never played the song.  But once you know the basic patterns and moves, then this is a good exercise.  This is also where you’ll start hearing the subtle changes and embellishments in a song.

How Do You Like Your Hearing...Regular Or Extra Crispy?
Be aware that your ears will fatigue (as will you arms and fingers).  Every hour or so, take the headphones off, put the instrument down, and get up from your workstation.  Remember that it's really easy to induce hearing damage with headphones...I'm living proof of that.  I'm carrying more damage from my years as a DJ (wearing headphones 6 hours a night / 6 nights a week) that from playing live.  And after 3 or 4 hours, you've likely reached the point of diminishing returns.  It's time to call it a day at that point.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up Too Much

It’s fine to have lofty goals, but here’s the reality of learning someone else’s part in a song

•          You’re never going to get to 100%.  If I can get to 85-90%, I’m ready to take it out.  Learning the rest just improves things.
•          The artist that played it originally probably can’t play exactly the same thing again either unless their last name is Myung or Petrucci.

Get a solid foundation, the recognizable hooks, and the major flourishes and cues.  Then enjoy the fact that you get to play music!

Next weekend I'm going to be on the road, so I thought I take the opportunity to talk about prepping for a "tour".  Now, "tour" can mean anything from a month on the East Coast to Saturday night in San Angelo.  But at club level, the prep is all pretty much the same.  So until next week...keep the meters out of the red!

Ken

Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's. He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas. He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for an automated lighting manufacturer, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's. He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at National Instruments in Austin, and still performs on the weekends in the Central Texas area. You can reach Ken at itsjustlogistics@gmail.com