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#1
12-08-2001, 09:18 AM
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How do you approach learning a new song???
This question pertains to fingerstyle pieces with a distinct bass and melody line. I was just sitting with my Hal Leonard "A Fingerstyle Guitar Christmas" (thanks for the info mapledude)and thought I would see if I could get one down before the 25th (I am working hard at "A Christmas Song" from my "Great Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar" book..but not there yet. ...anyway.. ) As I started working on "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" I had a thought I have had before...is it smarter to begin by picking out the melody line first, learn that cold and then learn the bass seperately and ultimately put the two together...or do like I have always done and just learn the whole thing measure by measure? Sometimes the bass syncopation is kinda tricky and seems to make the latter method cumbersome.
I am interested in how you guys approach a new tune. (and by the way....JR.....having a place to ask a question like this is EXACTLY why I love this forum....thank you!!)  [ 12-08-2001: Message edited by: BobS ]
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Wrote a song about....like to hear it? ...here't goes... 
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#2
12-08-2001, 10:44 PM
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BobS
a couple typos on that tune I believe...did you find them? Drop D instead of open D tuning... The G chord (2nd complete measure) should have a 5 on the 6th string tab I would assume...they've also got the musical notation messed up... concerning that G chord (again, the 2nd complete measure)...do you like the way that sounds? in general in most forms of fingerstyle there's bass lines, melody, and the notes between those (fill notes, middle voices, whatever you want to call them....) in this case we've got the 3rd melody note of the measure as the note B - but it's been used as a fill note throughout the measure repeatedly...actually bleeds into the melody.......sounds icky to me...open 3rd and 4th strings in there somewhere would sound better for fill.... and that F# and Bminor part at the beginning of the chorus could be seriously redone I think another thing...sometimes thinking 6/8 time will pull you in quite a different direction than 3/4 time... What about Ave Maria? anyways...what is the question?.... I don't think there is any 'smarter' way...sometimes you don't have to break apart the tune..sometimes it's helpful on sticky parts... but... you should always be 'able to' break the two apart... if you find you can't or have a hard time doing it it's not a bad thing....it's a chance to get better...you've found new things to practice... look over the bass line..count it out...clap it out...then do it out...use the metronome to build up some speed so the desired performance level seems like a walk in the park... you are a better player than you were before doing that little process.... do that little process repeatedly with everything you practice and you soon are a monstrously better player than you were before... toast burning?
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#3
12-10-2001, 06:01 PM
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Boy don't those "typos" make it challanging to try to learn a new song.
 Anyway, a lot of times I'll play the melody and bass parts seperatly to try to get a better feel for the song but I ultimately learn them together measure by measure. Seems to work best for me. Fingerstyle Noel by Mark Hanson also has some great arrangements that are fairly simple. I've been working on his arrangement of "Boogie Woogie Jingle Bells". I don't know if I'm going to get it mastered by the 25th, but it's a lot of fun to play with. SM
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#4
12-11-2001, 02:38 PM
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I also fight the question, "Should I learn the melody first, or try for everything at once?" What I usually end up doing is trying to work the song out in what I call 2 voice mode. I work on just the melody note and the bass note, and I leave out all of the other passing tones. Once I have the song worked out in 2 voice mode I'll go back and add all the little extras that make the song complete. One thing that usually comes out is that the 2 voice mode (or whatever you want to call it) usually works great the first time through the verse, and then the full rendition sounds even more impressive if you play it the second time through the verse.
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#5
12-11-2001, 03:12 PM
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Oh measure by measure, definitely. This way, you may find short cuts/pivot points in order to get your fingers ready for the next chord or note. For example, you may wish to fret your D string with your first finger in order to be able to slide it down towards a full E chord. My description is confusing, but my point is that it is important to know what all of your fingers should be doing at a particular instant when the music is being played correctly. Even if you have to start off practicing at a numbingly slow speed, doing it correctly from the get go helps establish muscle memory. Agree that a metronome is an important tool in the process.
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