Fourth week in and not quite yet

[Shortfinger]

Does it take you that long to learn a fingerstyle song? For me it does.

I am only couple of years into playing, and have no knowledge of music theory or scales or reading or anything other than chord charts and TAB notation.

The latest is Roger Dale's really great interpretation of the Eva Cassidy version of Autumn Leaves. Roger's YouTube videos are in four episodes of about a half hour each, and are terrific, showing every note and the L and R hand positions and fingerings.

I have it all except that the repeats are driving me crazy. I think I will take the TAB sheets, five in all, and make additional copies and cut and paste so the sequencing is all there and I don't need to turn back pages.

[SouthpawJeff]

For complicated pieces longer, easy pieces shorter.... all depends. Though I don’t really “time” myself as I find it helps to get away from pieces too. So I usually learn a bit, then step away, then come back later, maybe a week or several. At least for me it works better as when I come back to it my hands seem to remember it better than when I left it.... if that makes sense?

Good luck,
Jeff

[tonyo]

Been playing fingerstyle for over six years now. I remember one song in the earlier days with a more complicated pattern took me a month to learn. (I practice about an hour a day).

[reeve21]

Hi Shortfinger,

I could have written your post, but I would have said months or years in place of weeks!

Hope that makes you feel a little better

absolutely! a couple of months sometimes for a couple of bars.
play it slower, don't spend more than a few minutes on it in one sitting.

edit: and have a go every day.

[SteveBurt]

It can easily take me a couple of months to learn a new song.

[rick-slo]

Most songs should not take that long to learn, especially pop type tunes. When you are getting into weeks and weeks to feel comfortable playing
something then probably first working up to a higher skill level via other pieces and exercises would be a better use of time. Also a piece of music
that takes a long time to learn is the same piece that will be quickly forgotten without continuous maintenance. However, if you are having more
fun than frustration then who cares.

[TBman]

I've noticed that if I can keep my ego in check and learn something at a very slow pace I actually learn it faster and play it better.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Shortfinger

I am only couple of years into playing, and have no knowledge of music theory or scales or reading or anything other than chord charts and TAB notation.

Certainly complex pieces can take a while for anyone to learn, but I do think it helps considerably to recognize patterns that a little fundamental theory can help with.

[SteveBurt]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Most songs should not take that long to learn, especially pop type tunes. When you are getting into weeks and weeks to feel comfortable playing
something then probably first working up to a higher skill level via other pieces and exercises would be a better use of time. Also a piece of music
that takes a long time to learn is the same piece that will be quickly forgotten without continuous maintenance. However, if you are having more
fun than frustration then who cares.

It takes me weeks and weeks to learn simple stuff!

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by SteveBurt

It takes me weeks and weeks to learn simple stuff!

Rethink the way you approach learning a new piece of music would be my advice. Most elements of a piece (especially in simple pieces)
form parts of a few repeating patterns. Looking for those and playing accordingly will make it easier.

[Pitar]

I learn by ear. It takes me a few minutes to get the progression and then a couple days to polish it up. But, I learned to develop my ear in conjunction with the mechanical part of playing.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Pitar

I learn by ear. It takes me a few minutes to get the progression and then a couple days to polish it up. But, I learned to develop my ear in conjunction with the mechanical part of playing.

This is interesting. To what degree can you do this in a few minutes? You say it takes a few minutes to get the progression, but does that mean that you can tell, for example, by ear, that you are hearing a I IV V and perhaps also the key? Then, I assume, you can get the rhythm, so then you play that part, or are you also able to get a fingerstyle arrangment, melody, etc.? Would you also be able to do it if the chords were unexpected progressions, changing key or using jazz chords or something more complex like that?

[SteveBurt]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Rethink the way you approach learning a new piece of music would be my advice. Most elements of a piece (especially in simple pieces)
form parts of a few repeating patterns. Looking for those and playing accordingly will make it easier.

Well, sure.
But just as a for instance. A simple fingerstyle piece such as 'You are my sunshine' took about a week's practice to get the first two bars right.
(i.e. play through multiple times without making a mistake).
Getting the whole thing (which I guess is about 16 bars) took a couple of months, and I still regularly stumble when playing it.
I think I must just be a slow learner

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by SteveBurt

Well, sure.
But just as a for instance. A simple fingerstyle piece such as 'You are my sunshine' took about a week's practice to get the first two bars right.
(i.e. play through multiple times without making a mistake).
Getting the whole thing (which I guess is about 16 bars) took a couple of months, and I still regularly stumble when playing it.
I think I must just be a slow learner

Steve,

From my own experience, and what I read here, I would say your frustrations are pretty typical for folks trying to learn how to play finger style. There is a whole lot more going on than when you are strumming chords, even in simple folk tunes, which can be arranged to be quite interesting in this style.

It gets better!