Man, it takes me several tries to remember the short bars in the course let alone an entire song or multiple songs. I’ve read stuff on people learning 10-20 songs in a week or so for an upcoming gig. How?!
What’s been working for me is the off the bass sessions as well as off the amp sessions. When you are “learning” you are bass bound and most time sheet bound, by removing that pieces you can unlock the mind and let it works the way it’s designed to do, at high level.
I’d put on my favorite IEM on headphones or make a fun comparison session between some of the IEMs that I have that would ensure the song(s) will be repeated several times in a roll. While I listen I’d play my air finger along with the songs
Next for the timing and final I’d unplugged the bass an play along with the track hearing the real bass lines against my playing for accuracy, this is a great time to secure and bake in the “fake it til you make it”.
The more songs you learn how to play, the easier it is to learn new songs. You see the same sorts of patterns repeated over and over.
I find the trick is to learn bottom up rather than top down. Don’t memorize one note at a time. That requires perfect memory.
First, find the key and the root. Then find the basic chord changes. Then start filling in the details. Basic chordal shapes or fills and such.
Don’t try to memorize and get things identical to the original recording. Even those original artists don’t play them identically in live performances.
Using this outline, it’s dizzying the number of rock songs that are just “Oh look, it’s minor pentatonic and alternates between the 1 and the 4.”
I look for the patterns in songs to help me break it down…instead of 1000s of notes in a particular order it might be for example:
a 4 bar pattern for the verses and a different one for the chorus with a few little fills, so that = 2 repeating riffs + a fill or two to practice to know the song
google patterns of songs and find a nice article talking about structure e.g. verse, chorus, intro, bridge, etc. if you are not familiar with common song/music writing structure
All of the above. Starting with the basic chord progression is exactly what I do. Moises, helpfully tells you what the chords are as the song plays…it’s really helpful!
And this. Almost all pop/rock song bass lines consist of two patterns: one for the verse, and one for the chorus. Learn them both, then, nine times out of ten, it’s two verses, chorus, verse, chorus, break/bridge/solo, and repeat chorus to finish. And sometimes it’s just one pattern (With or Without You) Memorize the patterns, and you can play the song.
Yeah +1 to both you guys. Almost all songs of any kind in western music follow some basic structures. This is a place where some music theory really helps; usually it turns out you only need to memorize a few short repeating phrases, and their pattern. Learning how to break a song down and understand it is worth the time.
And then, when composing your own music eventually, there’s the equivalent typical relationships in melodic structure.
Play until your hands literally fall off. Pick 1 or 2 songs a night and keep repeating it until you can’t take it. It will become muscle memory.
It also helps to know the patterns like “starts on E7 the A7, A5, E0” Etc. If you know the notes that’s even better.
Once you have songs pretty well down you can start playing a set or 1/2 set in a session. Playing each song 1/2 times each.
I really like YouTube bass tabs. Play while reading the tab and once you get it down stop looking at it. Physically turn around, play in different physical positions (it matters)
For timing look up the bpm and play just the bassline through with a metronome or drum pedal.
Playing with others is Huge too cause you might have it down but if you aren’t locked in with your drummer and the guitar is all over the place it can be a challenge.
Most importantly remember to have fun. Mistakes are fine just keep playing or pause and hop back in when you have it. Most folks feel instead of hearing the bass anyway. It’s better to drop out than play wrong notes.
What really works for me, is to break down the song into sections, I’d play along with tabs and doing great, but as soon as I put the tabs away, I’d mess up after a few bars.
After deconstructing the song into verses, chorus, bridge, etc, it really just clicks for me and I seem to have very little trouble to remember the song, despite having a memory like a broken colander.
I mainly use tabs I’ve found or I’m starting to play it by ear, then I simply write down how the song progresses.
As most songs follow a simple progression of verse, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, verse etc, I found out I have little problems learning it that way; “okay two verses first, then chorus, then the fill, transition back to verse”. I think it’s a bit like doing a shopping list; if I write it down I don’t need to look at the list, if I try and remember it all in my head, I get lost quickly.
@sundog said something similar to me a few months back when I asked this question. Recently, I have found it easier to remember at least 90% of the song so am less reliant on tab. It’s taken me probably 10 months to get to that point though, but I’m sure for others it has been quicker.
The point is though, it will come
My brain seems to be better at recognising the fretting patterns rather than the actual notes, but I’m picking note names up too as I go.
Good suggestions here from other people, you just have to find what works for you.
I struggle with note names on the fly, but I try to learn and understand the relations behind the patterns. Just the basic theory level that we get in B2B - Major/Minor, Pentatonic, Blues Scale, etc. and then the numbers 1-7 in the scale.
The secret is that there is no secret. Everyone learns differently, so what works for me might seem difficult for you and vice-versa.
Personally, I take whatever song I want to learn, separate the bass track w/ Moises, put it in GarageBand and then listen to it repeatedly. Figuring out the chord progression is pretty easy, especially if you use tools like Moises that will literally show you the progression as the song is playing.
Then I break the song down into sections - Intro/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Outro - learn these one at a time. Once you can play the Intro/Verse, move onto the Chorus. Those sections will almost always repeat (with slight variations). Bridges generally will be vastly different from the rest of the song and are usually the hardest parts for me to learn. Just start piecing the song together one section at a time and before you know it you’ve learned the whole thing.
I will typically have to play a song all the way through anywhere from 50-100 times before I feel like I really have it memorized.
If you’re not already using the Nashville number system, start there. It’s the easiest way to learn and remember a chord progression, and you’ll realize many songs share the same progression (also makes it really easy to play a song in different keys when needed).
Also, LISTEN to the song many times. Work on your audiation (the ability to hear music in your head). If you can “play” the song in its entirety in your head, and you know the chord number progression, you’re 95% of the way there.
Play the song over and over until your hands fall off…
But other than that I’ve been experimenting with singing the bass lines along with the bass. I’m not good with it yet but what I’ve noticed is counting gets you pretty far but singing the bassline and making the bass sing the bassline seems to really lock in timing for me.