Hey guys, I'm an intermediate player, and I was just wondering, do you guys also have the trouble of trying really hard to learn a new song today, and you finally can play it smoothly from beginning till end of the song. But then after you put the guitar down and come back the next day, you realize you can't play through the whole song smoothly like yesterday, or you already forgot some parts. And you have to rewind and go back to watch the video lesson again. Moreover, if you put a song you can play very well aside and don't play the song for a long time. Would you forget parts of the chords / solos?

I mean, people go to some famous guitarists concert to watch them play the original version of a song. The guitarist can't just improvise right? People will know. So how can they manage to memorize so many songs to play in one concert? And still be able to play the exact same things on the next concert even if it's after a long time or after they were writing other new songs? I know sometimes they have screens on stage showing the lyrics to sing, but I'm sure it won't show guitar notes right? So is there a trick or something that allows the chord/solo of the songs to be in your memory forever or at least for a long time after you have learned it? Or it's just the matter of how smart you are and how good you are at memorizing stuffs... If that's the case, maybe I'm kind of dumb... b/c I practice a list of songs to play on a school concert, then after the performance I put the songs aside and start to prepare new songs for the next concert. Then I forget the old ones.... I can't always remember them... some might say play by feelings, but you still have to memorize the basic construction / melody of each song to make it sound like the song right...

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Hey Jimmy.......(the irony of being Scottish and using that phrase....... )

I'm sure there are memory exercises and stuff that can be used but the bottom line is practice, practice, practice...............a song just becomes ingrained in your sub-conscious until, I find, you are almost sick of the bloody thing..........

The more you play it, the easier it becomes and if you listen closely at many gigs, you will hear differences from recordings...............you will also hear mistakes. The mark of a good instrumentalist is to make the mistakes sound NOT like mistakes.......

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

i have forgotten loads since i stopped playing so reguarly. when i was in a band playing twice a week though, it was easy to remember everything.

also, when i go to a gig i would rather listen to a different solo in a song or an extended finish or something. i can listen to the song note for note like the album in the warmth and comfort of my own home, where whiskey is cheap and dickheads arent allowed in. if ive made the effort to go to a gig, i want to see an interesting cover, some new solos for old songs, big jams at the end. i saw Oasis twice and both times the gigs were full of these things that make you remember the gig, rather than a carbon copy of the albums. i saw them cover 'I Am The Walrus' and 'My Generation', and they blew me away.

I found at some point I was just staring at my music book when I practiced and it was more of a security blanket than anything.

The best advice I can give is once you've become familiar with the songs, close the book. You will forget a few parts here and there when you practice, but after you try your best and open the book up to see what you're missing, you won't forget the next time. Or perhaps the time after that.

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I never quite figured that out myself......... honestly I don't think I could play a complete song today without a refresher, I cant even remember things I come up with I am bad about just noodling ( short attention span)

for me I have to analyze the artists technique and adopt what I can from it, because the next day its gone I tend to just improvise all the time to fill in. most people you play for cant tell the difference anyways

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You're definitely not alone. It bugs me that I can play songs I learned 45 years ago, and stumble on an intro I worked out within the last month. But, the more you practice a song, the deeper it gets ingrained in the grey matter. I spent 2 months learning the solo for Hotel California for a show. I then went on a two week vacation and didn't take my guitar. When I got back, I had huge gaps that I couldn't remember in the solo. I spent about 20 to 30 minutes on it and got back up to speed. So you need to rotate the songs you want to remember occasionally or they just get pushed out to make room for the new stuff your learning.

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I had a little personal policy about that in regards to guitar solos....

If I really like the solo and think it's a big part of what makes a song great (like the solo work on Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding for example) I tried to get as close to note-for-note as possible.

If I didn't particulary like or care about the solo (Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry for example), I'd improvise it different each time.

The improvising keeps it fresh and less 'boring'. The note-for-note stuff gets people to say, that sounded exactly like the original. It's nice to have both.

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When I was in a band and practiced songs regularly, it wasn't too hard to memorize a bunch of songs, but now that I just jam on my own I find that I can learn a song and then record it and within a week or so of not playing it anymore it starts slipping away.

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Repetition. Thats all it is. Complete and utter repetition. To the point where you're absolutely sick with the song and don't want to ever hear it again, let alone play it.

You'll still be rusty with songs after you've left em alone for a while but it soon comes back. Usually after a couple of run throughs.

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No no and no

Same way you get to Symphony Hall.

Practice, practice practice...

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

+1 on that one!!
and + another one on practice.
play it til you hate it. play it every day until it becomes a part of you.
last band i was in everybody had the "songbook crutch". i was the new guy. when we went to do the gigs i was the only one without the songbook. why? because we practiced together once a week, and i practiced the songs every day.
no magic pill, no "mechanic in a can", just practice, practice, practice... then practice without the songbook.

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I am another one who firmly believes that regular practice pays off. Just throw what songs you haven't yet gone through into the mix of your playing sessions.

Another suggestion which I can offer is that if you know your theory, it becomes easy to predict what chord might come next or where the song is going.

Jimmy, all of the information everyone has given you is sound and will help your guitar playing. I follow most of those guide-lines myself.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Hard to add anything to what's been suggested but I will say this. As I got older I could memorize more songs. I currently know the words to well over 100 songs rotating in and out of bands. I occasionally have to refresh a old one I haven't done in a while IF it was a seldom played number. And I play all of those songs on Bass, many of them on guitar and can ad lib most as a saxman on the tenor. Play often and all your life and it will come easier. I still use a book in one band ( I'm in a few) for songs that are upcoming and not yet memorized. Probly 25 songs in there. (And for gods sake put the music stand as LOW as it will go, it looks stupid up by your face.) You should be glancing at the lyrics not staring. After a time many book songs become memorized after repetition. Trick is to sing to yourself while driving showering shitting and shaving. In your mind. Pack around the lyrics in your pocket to check.

Something else I do is to Type the lyrics out. That helps get the words as you read and re read the lines checking your work.

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about learning words - one of my mates, in his mid 30's brought up a good point. when he was young, getting your vinyl record and pulling the sleeve out with all the lyrics on and singing along was amazing.

most young people now buy MP3's, and you dont get a lyric sheet with those................