I am on a rush for getting a few songs into my system until tomorrow, they CAN be tackled in a short while as they are not difficult to master, but nonetheless, there are structures to be remembered and all in all, getting the whole song to flow through you so that on stage, nothing can go wrong. A performance has to exceed the level of reproducing a musical piece, by creating that certain bond with the listeners in which you actually transmit a feeling through what you are playing.
The idea is not to just learn the song but be able to interpret it.
So the question is, what do you do in order to get the song through your system and feel it?
I for one have listened to the 4 songs in this thread The songs I have to learn all day yesterday until I could sing every word and every passage came natural. I don't know how to play them YET, but I know what's next if that makes any sense. Today, I'll get to level two, meaning: actually playing them.
How do you approach these situations?