OK, I’ve finally got some enforced downtime as my wife is recovering from surgery and in my free time, I’ve set up some dedicated practice time daily having gone through BassBuzz.
Other than learning scales, timing, etc, one aspect I am spending my time on is mainly to improve my tab and sight reading skills working a mix of the 100 songs list and other songs I simply have always wanted to learn to play, e.g. Easy Lover, More Than A Feeling, Pacifics By Digable Planets, 6 Underground (sneaker pimps) and whatnot… etc.
The thing is that I am concerned that although I am becoming familiar with the material, I am also becoming somewhat overreliant on the tab, notes and charts (and the hypnotic scrolling line) that come with them to get through the songs.
I try to play them without looking at the charts, or by ear, or from memory and while I am able to nail some of them, the ol’ memory is not quite what it used to be, and I fluff my lines on other bass lines.
I was wondering if anybody might have some tips or advice as to how to get those tunes and lines “off the charts” and into my head so to speak, so that I can play those songs without referring to the charts?
this question occasionally pops up on Adam Nealy’s YouTube question and answer series. he always says the same thing. he says although it sounds simplistic the secret to learning songs is… just learn more songs. it’s additive, you start to recognize more patterns, more progressions, oh this part is kinda like that other song. this of course takes time, and sticking to it. if it seems like it’s not happening yet, keep the head down and keep working. also I personally have found that sheet music/tab can quickly become a crutch. once you can make it through a song with tab, start trying to fumble through without it. I find I will get a part down, mess up a part, etc. paying for sogsterr helps me here, because you can loop parts of a song over and over to focus in on them.
I learned a song with sight reading the tab and realized I was stuck using the tab. I had to go back and relearn it, without sight reading, to be able to play it without. It was a strange experience. When I was busy sight reading, it acted as a distraction from really getting in to the music.
For me, to quit sight reading, I had to quit sight reading and memorize it.
In all this, I’m not saying, “Don’t learn to sight read.” It’s a tool. How you use that tool depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
Thank you both for some great advice. Yeah, I kinda figured that I would probably have to “lose the crutch” of the tabs/notes to get the songs down in my brain. Will give these suggestions a shot.
My goal is to one day return to a band and playing a mix of covers and originals. My longstanding band came to an end about 12 or so years ago. Thing is, we used to do covers and originals in clubs, etc., but we played it our way, and through repetition, understood each other instinctively, even though it may not have been the note-for-note/official tab/notation way to play the cover songs, and I did this by ear, feel and woodshedding the songs with my bandmates who were open to playing the songs our way, if that makes sense. So learning full songs via tabs, and sheet music are new territory for me.
First, practice playing along with songs by ear. Find simple songs. Go in blind. Just see what you can figure out. Go through entire songs. Embrace the failure. Play the best you can even when you screw up entirely. Play the baby versions with 1/3 the complexity of the original.
Figure out from that what works for you and how you start to understand songs when you have no chance of fully understanding a song in the time allotted. Then apply that to learning full songs.
I suspect you will begin to start approaching songs with what I refer to as the Bottom Up approach as opposed to the Top Down approach that you are most likely doing now.
Top down is starting with the first note and brute force, rote learning all the notes in order, one after the other as they are presented in musical notation (sheet music, or tab).
Bottom Up is starting with the simplest most underlying form and gradually adding more complexity.
So you start with just - What’s the key? What are the major chord changes? And just playing chord changes. Then, are they outlining particular chord shapes? Like grabbing 5th and 7th. Or are they commonly using leading tones? From there you will begin to figure out what other sounds are personal embellishments or fills that the original artist did and can either copy those, or ADD YOUR OWN!
This system is great for longer term retention because, if you ever get lost or you haven’t played a song for a while, you can revert back to a simplified version of the song instead of it just completely falling flat.
If you think about it, this is more like how people learn how to draw. Think about art classes on how to draw a face. You don’t start in one corner and draw all the detail one piece after another like a computer monitor. You start by drawing an oval of general head shape, and then placing where the major features (eyes, ears, nose, mouth) sit in the face. Then slowly fill in increasingly precise detail.
Awwww yeahhhh I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THIS DAMN SONG! And always wished I could play it back in the day. Thanks to Josh, Bassbuzz and the gods of Bass, I actually can (mostly) now… that bass line let loose when the guitar solo kicks in is the JAM!
My recommendation reduce what you are looking at. Instead of tabs print out the lyrics to the song and write the chord changes as they correspond to the lyrics so you’re thinking more about the notes and changes.
You could start just by hitting the root notes and then expand to half notes, quarter, etc and as you become more familiar with the song and the chord changes start listening for more of complexities and see if you can follow along with what’s being played in the song
Makes sense Adam, thank you! Am curious as to how any of you guys who have kindly chimed in make use of tab/notation, if at all? Is it as a check against what you’ve written out?
I use the tab as a tool. I try not to depend on it. I’ll earn each part of the song until I can play it without the sheet. Then I move on to the next part.
Following that it’s as others have said, it’s repetition with slight changes as the song progresses.
Eventually I can play through without the music stand in front of me!
That’s a great feeling for a newb like me.
One piece of advice I didn’t understand until recently: can you sing the bass line?
I had thought it was about improving your pitch in singing… it’s not. It’s really about knowing what you’re trying to do. I find following a tab can make it take longer to learn (and internalize) the tune.
One way I got after this was finding a bass isolation of the song on YouTube. (You could also use a “stem separation” tool e.g. Moises to achieve the same…
One more thing about memorizing the songs: whatever you use, put it away, then try to play from memory. Then go back to your notes and see what you forgot or got wrong. Repeat that until you have the song.
Oh, and sometimes simple songs can be very difficult to remember. Have fun, and when you make a mistake, put on a smile! That way, people will see you smile at your gigs, whether you screw up or not!
Wow, I did not expect so many GREAT responses and advice! I would have thanked you all earlier, but I have been busy… busy applying so much of the advice I have received here and I am so happy that I wanted to share my progress in just the couple of weeks.
From jamming along to tabs, I have been able to detect some progress as follows:
Playing from memory AFTER studying the tabs:
Have You Ever Seen The Rain - CCR
Bad Moon Rising - CCR
Rolling In The Deep - Adele
Highway to Hell - AC/DC
Lessons In Love - Level 42 (50% speed LOL)
Where Is My Mind - The Pixies
More Than A Feeling - Boston
Since You Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
Easy Lover - Phil Collins & Philip Bailey
Starting from scratch, no tab - figuring out root notes, then moving to progressions, triads and fills
Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Missing - Everything But The Girl
Pacifics - Digable Planets
6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps
Tracks of My Tears - Otis Redding
Learning purely by Ear
I Feel It Coming - The Weeknd
My Friend - Groove Armada
Into The Groove - Madonna (50% speed, only have the first and second verse and chorus in)
Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac
Stand By Me - Ben E. King
Why Don’t You Come Back - Paul Young (only the opening riff)
Although I don’t have everything down perfectly, I am encouraged by much of your advice, and have stretched myself by learning a mix of easy and more challenging songs, trying to wean myself off the tab (except as a reference or if I can’t figure something out), and trying to build the grooves from the root up. I haven’t done covers on any sort of consistent basis for almost 15 years now, so am pretty happy with where I am headed post- BassBuzz. I think someone here said it best, it helps to play more and more songs, and things will start to spark!
