I know I'm a little late to the party but when I've been asked to play a song, for funerals mostly, and I don't know it or know it very well, I head to youtube to find the "official" release from the artist. This gets the song into my head a bit. I'll play it over and over at least 10 times to get it to sink in. I then look up chords using the name of the same artist I've been listening to. Most of the time I get something pretty close. Yes, there have been a few wrong chords but they usually are easy to fix. Then I play along with the youtube video to get the song out of my head and into my hands. Then I transpose it if the original key doesn't fit my voice (I find most music is in a tenor's key and I haven't been a tenor since I was 12...) I then spend the next few hours/days/weeks learning it in my key or if it's already in my key, I spend the time learning the lyrics. The older I become, the harder lyrics are to learn.
The entire process can take as short as a day or as long as a month.
Best,
PJ
ps, (I think the internet is the BEST thing to happen to learning songs.)
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