How Do You Learn Cover Songs?, If there's not a GMC lesson for it :p |
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How Do You Learn Cover Songs?, If there's not a GMC lesson for it :p |
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Jan 17 2010, 05:58 PM |
It think this is one of the value of music theory, ear trainging, sight-singing and technical abilities.
Personally, these tools really make it easy for me to learn a song I want to play because everything in popular music (that includes metal, rock, blues, jazz) happens in a diatonic context, so once you get familiar with diatonic musical system everything kind of falls into place. Of course there's more challenging stuff than other. For me chords are harder to learn by ear than melodies, but then again with practice you really develop a sense of placing your listening mind in the diatonic subdivisions so you can identify what intervals are within a chord, yet that is a melodic way to approach it. The harmonic way to approach (more effective in chords of course) is by feeling what is the mode and texture of the chord. That is the melodic and harmonic part. Then there is the rhythm! then there's the technique being used! (what string is being played, legato, picked) then there's what the source of sound is! (guitar, amp, etc) Any thoughts on this? how do you do it? -------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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Jan 18 2010, 01:23 AM |
Ummm, interesting topic. In the old day's I've tried to simply cover the songs exactly, but nowadays I rather prefer to do personalized versions instead. In order to capture whats going You have to train Your ear, a good knowledge of different positions of chords and how they sound with different "colours" is a must. Speeding down things helps a lot if its fast pieces, then a good theory knowledge also applies, I've listened a lot to jazz, so identify chord progressions in ordinary music is fairly easy for me... I also play the piano which I prefer to use to transcribe other than guitar-stuff. In identifying a chord, the most important is to identify the bass note first - and then the rest of the notes. Commonly the bass play's either root, third or fifth and sometimes the 7'th, and rarely other notes in general music.
Identifying melody's is a matter of recognizing intervals in my beliefs, and can be trained by singing them.... Rhytm may be the hardest part since there are players that not care for a good timing - or simply plays that advanced patterns very fast so it will be nearly impossible to transcribe. I'm thinking of mixed rhytms like groups of 7, 9 , 5 and so on here. But also here is slowing down the key to success....And I always starts with writing the form and the chords on a lead sheet so I can get an owerview whats going in throughout the whole song.... Thats my approach.... //Staffay -------------------- Guitars: Ibanez AM-200, Ibanez GB-10, Fender Stratocaster Classic Player, Warmouth Custom Built, Suhr Classic Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2003, Ibanez steel-string Amps: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Marshall JMP 2103, AER 60 Effects: BOSS DD-20, Danelectro Trans. Overdrive, TC-Electronics G-Major, Dunlop Wah-wah, Original SansAmp, BOSS DD-2 Music by Staffy can be found at: Staffay at MySpace |
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Jan 18 2010, 11:59 AM |
Most important part for me is listening, listening, listening. It's way easier to learn it when you have it in you head, so as to say!
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Jan 18 2010, 12:29 PM |
I use tabs to learn the song and then i correct the misstakes when playing it with the original song
-------------------- My Gear
Ibanez RG Jackson js30 warrior jackson rr24 Line 6 Spider III amp Line 6 pod xt live Washburn acoustic Youtube Account My bands Myspace |
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Jan 18 2010, 04:05 PM |
If I can learn by ear that's fine. If I can't I google for a chord progression.
I don't aim for note by note perfection but rather own flavor. -------------------- My bands homepage
All time favourites: B. Streisand - Woman in Love, M. Hopkin - Those were the days, L. Richie - Hello |
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Jan 22 2010, 01:59 AM |
thanks for the great input guys, it's interesting to see your point of view in this matter.
-------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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Jan 22 2010, 07:02 PM |
I always learn by ear, but sometimes the video can be helpful if you want to see where something was played (talking about guitar music of course )
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Jan 23 2010, 01:15 AM |
I start by making small pieces/tasks. Then I learn bit by bit, and connect them later. Listen to chord progression first, find the chords, keys, scales and then transcribe it by ear.
-------------------- - Ivan's Video Chat Lesson Notes HERE
- Check out my GMC Profile and Lessons - (Please subscribe to my) YouTube Official Channel - Let's be connected through ! Facebook! :) |
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Feb 4 2010, 03:59 PM |
I start by making small pieces/tasks. Then I learn bit by bit, and connect them later. Listen to chord progression first, find the chords, keys, scales and then transcribe it by ear. yeah that's a good advice -------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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Feb 4 2010, 04:59 PM |
I listen to the track a bunch of times and then I try to find some videos and tabs. Then I just sit and learn the song by ear, using the videos and tabs as a reference (usually I trust my ears more ). Half-speed player helps a lot on faster songs, so I use that a lot too. Finally, I decide if I'm going to improvise over some sections or I'll walk the note-for-note road. I think that's very important, to trust your ears and not only rely on the tabs -------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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Feb 17 2010, 03:26 PM |
that advice on hearing the root bass is really good, that helped me a lot°!
-------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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