I’m finding that the more lessons I do, the more I’m remembering due to the fact that I’m doing the lessons late at night (10pm mostly) through the fast workouts and when I wake up in the morning I’m thinking of the notes and playing air bass as I eat breakfast.
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Great comment…be interested on your take on the “easier songs of motown” ate. I’m currently learning some Pixies which i still find dificult but would like to do an easier Jameson if possible
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“Where Did Our Love Go” is pretty darn easy, good place to start.
“My Girl” a little more complex but still doable for sure.
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I have been trying to “memorize” the fretboard for close to a year with little success. I have made much more progress in the last month just playing scales and saying the notes out loud. Same with triads. I find I am learning better by “osmosis.” With scales, I have found it useful to pull up a chill drum track and then just riff in a certain key–saying the note names as I go along. Another “trick” I have been using for fretboard memorization is to memorize the locations of EF/BC as reference points.
As to full songs, I have a hard time with those–which pisses me off because I used to be in marching band and would memorize full pieces every couple of weeks.
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My fretboard unlock was (and is ongoing) Mark Smith’s sight reading course.
It is truly great and also teaches you to not have to look at the fretboard. Haven’t goten past the first 5 frets yet but that alone has been awesome.
Without it my live lessons would have been a zillion times harder, as he only uses notation not tab.
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Memorisation usually follows understanding. As akos says memorisation shouldn’t be the goal. If you understand the material in lots of different ways, you will remember it much better.
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Funny, I started this topic in March.
Since then I have found that learning a song (memorizing) has come much easier as I go.
I think the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Memorizing things on sax was a huge strain for me, and now, they are also coming along easier.
RETAINING - well, that’s another bird.
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Memorisation usually follows understanding.
Alas, you did not have the misfortune of being the beneficiary of a catholic school primary education.
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OK,… I’ve overlooked this topic for a long time and since I’m just another old relic, I suppose (for what it’s worth),…. I’ll throw my two cents in…
Memorization???…. Well, my brain was “pickled” during the ‘60’s when I spent most of my high school years drinkin’ beer with my high school buds…. Then in ‘71 when I ended up while In Country in the Navy, my brain got a bit “fried”… so, there really isn’t too much “free and useable” space left upstairs unless I try to “free up” some of the already used space by eliminating what’s already there - problem is, if I did that, I’d probably be giving up brain space being used to remember things like “putting the toilet seat down” which would no doubt be devastating to the already 45 years of blissful marriage to my wonderful wife Connie….
So, I don’t “memorize” anything when it comes to playing any music. I do however relate “tones to spots” on my fretboard…. I know where the basic “notes” are at, but that’s about it….
Since I do play with a group that has an extensive playlist of songs (about 55) from the 60’s to the 90’s, I find that just keeping a spiral notebook with notes (mostly chords for the song and simple tab riffs) works the best for me. I very rarely play the same fills between the roots, so it kinda all changes a lot of the time - as long as I’m in time and in key, that’s all that matters anyway (at least for what I’m doing)…
Playing with other musicians in an open venue isn’t like learning covers or playing in an orchestra where “everyone” plays notes or tab on a piece of paper - it’s not like we’re doing a “recital” or anything - we’re just playing music together and focus is on listening to everyone else and feeling what’s going on….
I suppose it’s all in what your after…. I’m not saying that memorization is bad at all, just saying that I don’t use it…. Not saying that music notation is bad at all, just saying that I don’t use it either…. What I do use is what I call the three “H’s”…… I use my “Hearing”, and let my my “Heart”, tell my “Hands” what to do….
Sorry for the long post…. And here I thought @T_dub - Toby was the only one that wrote “long posts”…
Keep On Thumpin’!
Lanny
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@Lanny made some great points.
What I do is come up with a lead sheet of some kind for the song.
Over the years I have amassed thousands of these.
Everything from Another Brick In The Wall to Waltzing Matilda. 
From the lead sheet I look at the key signature and memorize the chord progressions.
The key signature primarily to see if I am going to run into any Sharp or Flat roots notes.
Most songs have the same chord progressions for the verses and a different set of progressions for the chorus. All that’s usually left really is the intro, pre chorus, and outro and most songs do not have all of these things, if any. For me after knowing this information the rest is just down to practice.
I realize that that this is not memorizing playing the melody line but at this point I am only interested in concentrating on the Chord changes, Rhythm and Staying in time. Fills, improv and solos will come later.
IMHO knowing the fretboard and staying in time are the most important things on Bass.
Heck for Bass we only have to know 1 or two notes for each chord and they are not even played together usually. Compared to a guitar player playing 3 4 or more notes in a chord simultaneously.
If you play a wrong note, and you will, just keep going and have FUN
This works for me if I have to memorize a song, so is what I do.
Most of the time at jams I am playing off a lead sheet or using a prompter of some kind so all that I need to know is where the root notes are on the fretboard and concentrate on the rhythm and timing.
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Thankfully not. Mine was a secular school, thankfully.
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Songs I don’t memorize, I have no need to so I have better things to do with my time.
For fretboard patterns, (scales, modes, arpeggios, intervals) I find them relatively easy to memorize; I just focus on only that task and repeat them over and over and over for as long as it takes to learn them. I don’t worry too much about how long it’s going to take, I just repeat it until it’s second nature. Could be a week, could be a month. I keep a bass by my bed and I’ll practice them for 10 or 15 mins in the morning, at night before going to bed and then the odd free moments that I think of it like while I’m waiting for the oven to warm up or my food is in the microwave. I have a fretless bass that I use pretty much only for working on theory, I find it’s more enjoyable because it makes me listen more carefully. It’s also easier to memorize those things if you can find a way to use them. Instead of just playing those shapes to memorize them, play them over a chord progression or drone. That way not only are you learning the patterns but you’re also learning how to use them and it’s fun too.
Generally, the better you get at playing an instrument or understanding the theory, the easier it is to memorize things. When you can play a random melody on bass as easily as you can whistle/hum it, it’s much easier to memorize things. When I work on modes, knowing what the mode sounds like makes it much easier to remember than knowing if it’s a major/minor scale and what #/b it has.
How long did it take you to learn how to use a spoon when you were a baby? Probably quite a while, you probably didn’t worry about it either 
So yes, it might take you years to learn them, but so what? If you need to learn them to solve a problem, you’ll learn them… otherwise they’re just an abstract that’s probably not offering you much.
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There are common chord progressions that once one hears and plays them, are easily remembered, for example: 12 bar blues, I-vi-IV-V, ii-V-I, etc. I’d suggest Googling “common chord progressions” for pop, rock, jazz and learn to recognize and play them. Then when learning a new song, try to identify hearing any of those progressions in the song.
I play mostly jazz and even though “they” say that only amateurs use lead sheets, I use them. If anyone bemoans me about it, I refer them to certain videos showing Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, etc. having their music on music stands in front of them, or any of the big jazz dance bands where all the musicians have their music in front of them.
One thing I do know, to be able to recognize common chord progression one must First: Practice those progression just by playing roots. Second: Play the chordal tones (arpeggios) for each chord. Third: Connect moving from one chord to the next by using the notes of the key scale of the song.
I don’t practice scales just for playing a scale for its own sake. Knowing the major scale helps get through most of the songs I want to play, but I use the scale notes as a means to “travel” from one chord to the next……even then, I’m mostly playing arpeggios of the chords. I use the natural minor scale somewhat, and once in a while (but a lot in jazz) I need to know the diminished and augmented scales to help connect chords, but again as a means to travel from one arpeggio to the next.
I believe just playing scales for their own sake is a waste of time when learning a new song. Identifying the chord progression is more important to me as a bassist. What I will say is that when learning a scale, it makes more musical sense to play through it chordally….so for a C major scale I’d play these notes of each arpeggio for each chord in the scale for example these notes up and down the neck: CEGC, DFAD, EGBE, FACF, GBDG, ACEA, BDFB, CEGC. (Those are triads, I also do the same by adding the 7 and not playing the higher root.) This way, I’m playing the arpeggios of the chords off of each note of the major scale, but hearing the chords in relation to the scale, not just noodling a scale over and over again without hearing the relationships between the chords. As Carol Kaye says: Modern music is based on chords not scales. (One can tell, I’m greatly influenced by her teaching and methods.)
Yes, scales are important for building and connecting chords, but it is more important to learn common chord progressions and the arpeggios first before practicing just scales. Then apply that progression knowledge to learning songs.
Again, concentrate on the chord progression and one will start to identify common progressions that one can apply to other songs. The more one does that, the easier it gets to hear those common progressions.
Other then that, I just use lead sheets, but the reading is made easier because I am familiar with the common chord progressions and many times end up not even looking at the music. It’s just comforting to me, to know it is there whenever I need it. When I played in a church band, even though I had played the songs many many times,
I always had the music in front of me. I didn’t want to make a mistake in front of the Lord!!! Haha! In jazz, if I mess up I can always work my way back and just say “Hey, it’s JAZZ!” Haha! Still, it is comforting to me to have the music in front of me.
Just my 4 cents worth…….(inflation!!!)
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I do the same thing but also apply the Nashville Number System (NNS) to the chords shown on the lead sheet. That way if you run into a situation where the lead guitar or singer wants to play in a different key you are all set. I find the NNS easier to see the chord progressions but that’s just me. YMMV 
If you are playing in C Major why do some of these chord triads have flattened thirds making them minor chord triads?
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Chord arpeggios based on each note of the C major chordal scale:
C major CEG
D minor DFA
E minor EGB
F major FAC
G major GBD
A minor ACE
B minor b5 BDF
Applies to any major scale: Bb major chordal scale for example
Bb major BbDF
C minor CEbG
D minor DFA
Eb major EbGBb
F major FAC
G minor GBbD
A minor b5 ACEb
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Not sure what I was thinking 
Sorry for the seniors moment and thank you for the clarification.
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I wrote an answer post and then I saw it was you and I thought “is he actually asking that as a question or something to reflect upon?”
That’s something which is so obvious when looking at a keyboard and playing triads in C major and why you get:
I - major
ii - minor
iii - minor
IV - major
V - major
vi - minor
vii° - diminished
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This is what I was writing, too, more or less.
…because I’m also learning piano and recently learned the “C Family of Scales” XD
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Keyboards are definitely the easiest way to learn how theory all fits together.
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