How do you memorise songs (assuming you have already "worked it out") ?

[ubassman]

Little and often for me. Once I have figured out the changes I practice in a very specific way to commit to memory .

Its a case of sitting down and simulating the gig in that were I want to get to is to hit every note right first time . I learnt this technique from a guy who used the analogy of the way golfers practice on a golf driving - you've got a bucket of balls to hit and it doesn't matter if you slice the first ball , hook the next, you've got plenty more in the bucket - whereas in a game of golf you have only one hit and you want it to be perfect. In short, you think and concentrate differently.

So, if I mess up I stop playing and highlight the bit that clunked and just work on that. Then I go away for at least half hour and do something completely different. When I come back and then sit down and try and play it in 'gig mode' I usually get through the clunk first time. I discovered that its a learning process called 'reminiscence theory' where you remember by putting down layers with short quality concentration rather than lengthy repeated practice where you can drift off into a haze playing a passage over and over ...and it still doesn't sink in .

It works for me anyway !

[TimR]

No that's a good approach. I tend to use something similar. I'll run through the set. I don't stop if I make a mistake but at the end of the song I'll make a note to come back to it. Then just move on to the next one.

[Bilbo]

I create a mental image of the dots for the first two bars as an aide memoire and then the memory kicks in.

[Lord Sausage]

Just play through it two or three times.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='iceonaboy' timestamp='1374994803' post='2155483']
Play it over and over again. That is the only way to remember something. Muscle memory is how you learn instruments after all
[/quote]
Yes.
Practice until it becomes second nature. Like anything else you do you regularly.
Habituation is king.

[Lowender]

I really don't understand the question. It's like asking "how do you learn to read a book"? Do you spell out the words first? Pronounce the vowels? Memorize the shapes of the letters?

It's music. You need to be able to hear the sounds and you need to know the chords you're playing, then emulate the part being played (along with the groove and feel) and be able to add your own creative input. It comes from doing it enough where it's second nature.

If you can't do that, you're just a hobbyist diddling around with a few positions -- in which case, what's the difference? Just have a bit of fun.

[cybertect]

I think the question is further from learning to read a book and closer in spirit to storytellers learning stories or poems in oral traditions like the Norse sagas or Grek myths. It's a question of internalising the narrative well enough to be able to perform it to others, perhaps adding your own interpretations and changing it along the way.

'How do you learn to read a book' would better equate to learning to read music notation of some kind. Get good enough at it (if the words/notation are capable of describing the piece accurately) and you barely have to be familiar with the original before you can translate it from the written to the aural form.

[Lord Sausage]

[quote name='cybertect' timestamp='1375022655' post='2155846']
I think the question is further from learning to read a book and closer in spirit to storytellers learning stories or poems in oral traditions like the Norse sagas or Grek myths. It's a question of internalising the narrative well enough to be able to perform it to others, perhaps adding your own interpretations and changing it along the way.

'How do you learn to read a book' would better equate to learning to read music notation of some kind. Get good enough at it (if the words/notation are capable of describing the piece accurately) and you barely have to be familiar with the original before you can translate it from the written to the aural form.
[/quote]That's just what he's like! He was criticising someone else's question the other week!

[Lowender]

[quote name='cybertect' timestamp='1375022655' post='2155846']
I think the question is further from learning to read a book and closer in spirit to storytellers learning stories or poems in oral traditions like the Norse sagas or Grek myths. It's a question of internalising the narrative well enough to be able to perform it to others, perhaps adding your own interpretations and changing it along the way.

'How do you learn to read a book' would better equate to learning to read music notation of some kind. Get good enough at it (if the words/notation are capable of describing the piece accurately) and you barely have to be familiar with the original before you can translate it from the written to the aural form.
[/quote]

What you're talking about is art. Interpretation. Bringing a style into it. That's different from notes and rhythms which are very specific. The OP asked how to memorize a song , not put a personal signature on it.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Lowender

[Lowender]

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1375026682' post='2155905']
That's just what he's like! He was criticising someone else's question the other week!
[/quote]

I'm think you just don't understand what's being said bro. It's okay though.

[Lord Sausage]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1375035169' post='2156006']
I'm think you just don't understand what's being said bro. It's okay though.
[/quote]I'm not your bro, guy!

[Lowender]

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1375036842' post='2156026']
I'm not your bro, guy!
[/quote]

LOL, didn't say you were....guy.