The best way to learn a new song.

Read the map for yourself!!!

To understand the 'bigger picture' of something is one of the best ways to learn about it.
It puts things in context and you can see where you are heading rather than just looking at the barriers directly in front of you. It's the difference between simply trusting your SAT NAV or actually looking at the map and knowing for yourself the route you are going to take. When you have seen the map and understood it for yourself, it's a much more pleasant experience to then trust the SAT NAV.

The same theory applies to learning a new song or piece of music...

When you first begin to learn a song, you have to start with the first note, first phrase, first chord or the first section of the piece. It is very common for a player to get lost in this part of the learning process and get tangled up in frustration very quickly. Why? Because almost everyone's instinct is to keep playing the fist thing they have learnt and only move on to the next part of the song when they feel totally in control of the first thing they learnt. I know - I used to do this too.

The best way to approach a new piece is to briefly play through each section of that piece everyday!

Here are the steps I use and that I teach my students to use... every piece ever learnt in this way, stays in your long term memory and you will always remember it...

Step 1.
Divide the piece in to 'bite size' chunks.
The way you divide it will be different for each type of piece and will also depend on the elements in that piece (does it contain a new chord to learn, new technique, etc.).
Divide the song in one of the following ways:
Solos - divide the solo in to phrases, or musical sentences.
Songs - divide the song in to section - INTRO, VERSE, CHORUS, etc.
New techniques and chords - mark these out as separate elements to practice.

Step 2.
Slowly, play through the first section or phrase until you have understood it's journey - in other words -  the order of the notes, the chord sequence, whatever it contains.
When you feel you understand the sequence of this section well enough to play it without looking at the page or asking your teacher to show you it again, SLOWLY repeat the section for 2 minutes.
Set a timer on your phone (other gadgets are available), so you can fully immerse your mind in the playing.
If you have any new elements to learn (chords, techniques, etc) single these out as their own 2 minute practice section. Try to play then in isolation as well as in context of the phrase they belong to.

If you feel the section is too short to keep repeating for 2 minutes, either add another section to make the phrase longer, or reduce the playing time to 1 minute.

Repeat  until you have played each section of the entire piece in your practice session.

Step 3.
Repeat step 2 for 5 days in a row!
After the first week, you will have a greater understand, not only of the sections and how they work but of the journey of the complete piece you are learning.
If it is a particularly long or involved piece, you may need another 5 days.

Practicing this way is much more thorough than how most people tend to approach a new piece.

Here's the maths:

If a piece has, for example, 10 phrases in it, your practice session will take you -

10 x 2 minutes = 20 minutes a day.

Over the 5 days, you will have played the new piece for a total of 100 minutes.

If you compare the benefits of playing a smaller amount (20 mins), each day rather than the same amount but all on one day (a larger 100 minute session), you can see why practicing in this way is going to get things in to your memory banks much more efficiently.
It's also much less overwhelming to think of practicing for 20 minutes rather than over an hour an a half.

Try for yourself - pick a piece to learn and create steps 1 - 3 for yourself.

Why practice more than you have to when you can spend your time more efficiently and just get on with playing?!

Richard Deyn

www.guitarmastery.co.uk