do exercises need to be memorized before moving on?

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
I would encourage you to memorize each exercise or lick, yes. When you're reading them off the page, you can't devote your attention fully to playing them. You'll do better to memorize as much as possible.
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
@Griff beat me to this by several days, but I couldn't agree more. I see this question asked a lot, which makes me wonder whether there is a sense that there will be a lot of effort involved in memorization. If you think about a song you have heard many times before, you can generally recall almost everything note-for-note without ever having intentionally memorized anything. As you play the licks and solos in order to learn the technical aspect of playing, the repetition will eventually help you memorize rather naturally. Each note in a lick is not a randomly selected element, but is part of a song. It's like remembering a good story. You don't really need to memorize one to remember it.

For me, one of the most productive ways to approach learning something new musically is to listen to it repeatedly, with no instrument in hand. As Griff has mentioned, being able to simply hum along with it several times will help engage the learning process. Once you start to play, the repetitiveness of the playing, combined with your memory of what it sounds like will make the memorization come rather naturally. The more you memorize, the easier it becomes to memorize.
 
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Robb H

Blues Newbie
Well... If it is recommended to memorize each of these exercises and short songs before moving on, I'm screwed. I'm up to the Deep Sea Blues and still working it out. However, I play each of the previous songs nearly daily and still have to read them from the sheet. I am also working on Strumming and Rhythm Mastery and solo 2 of 5 easy blues solos. Still read them all.
 

Silicon Valley Tom

It makes me happpy to play The Blues!
Do what works for you! Enjoy the process. There is nothing wrong with reading the music notation or tabs, and playing your guitar. The chances are that with time, by playing the lessons and pieces over and over, you will in fact memorize them.

If possible, from time to time record yourself. Keep a log book of your progress. It also is helpful to "listen" to, and later, "play along" with the music that you are learning.

When you are teaching yourself, that is you do not have a teacher by your side, you get to pick and choose what you want to do. The courses available from Griff are extremely helpful. You might get to a point in your journey where you decide you like one or even a few types of Blues music. Or even parts of the instruction that is available. That is a personal decision. You do not have to learn all styles of the Blues, if they do not interest you. I would suggest that you learn all the guitar techniques possible, to play the Blues.

Most of all, have fun! :cool::)

Tom
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
Different people learn in different ways. Many times I stunted my own progress because I didn't have a certain phrase, or song down. For me, I learned sometimes I have to just push through it and come back to it later, or modify to suit me, or it will never get done. YMMV.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Well... If it is recommended to memorize each of these exercises and short songs before moving on, I'm screwed. I'm up to the Deep Sea Blues and still working it out. However, I play each of the previous songs nearly daily and still have to read them from the sheet. I am also working on Strumming and Rhythm Mastery and solo 2 of 5 easy blues solos. Still read them all.

You didn't mention how long you have been trying to memorize these lessons. Some lessons take me a month or more to memorize, some much less.

By the way, based on your list, you are probably trying to memorize TOO many at once.
Remember: You are working on BEGINNING Blues Guitar Unleashed, so I'd recommend two or three lessons at the same time TOPS. (And for a beginner, three may be too many).

I guess I'd tell you to keep at the memorization until it starts to frustrate you, then move on to something new, but DO go back to the piece that was giving you fits and you may find that you remember more than you thin and the parts that you don't remember will come back quicker.
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
You didn't mention how long you have been trying to memorize these lessons. Some lessons take me a month or more to memorize, some much less.

By the way, based on your list, you are probably trying to memorize TOO many at once.
Remember: You are working on BEGINNING Blues Guitar Unleashed, so I'd recommend two or three lessons at the same time TOPS. (And for a beginner, three may be too many).

I guess I'd tell you to keep at the memorization until it starts to frustrate you, then move on to something new, but DO go back to the piece that was giving you fits and you may find that you remember more than you thin and the parts that you don't remember will come back quicker.

I tend to agree. The more you try to do at once, the less likely you are to be successful. One of the issues for me is that to memorize something musical, I need to be able to hear it in my head. Otherwise, it is like memorizing a random series of numbers and letters, with no particular meaning. Listening to what it should sound like before you try playing it (even if you have heard it many times before) will help contextualize the tablature.

Pick just one thing that you are doing, break it down into licks and focus on being able to play just one lick without looking at the music or tab. Once you can do that. Put the guitar down, come back a little later and try it again. Repeat until you don't have to look. When you can do that consistently, go to the next lick.

Another factor is that the more you play, the better you will be able to associate the sound of a particular note with its position on the fretboard, giving you a better ability to play by ear in addition to the written notation. I know that for myself, having a notoriously bad memory (just ask my wife), I really surprise myself sometimes at how much of a large solo I can memorize in spite of the fact that when I started out, I pretty much had to look up and read every note from the page.
 

Robb H

Blues Newbie
I didn't mean to hijack Grant's original thread but do appreciate the advice and comments. I have actually been learning guitar for about three years. It was suggested to me to start here with the BBG course and glad I did. I had not been trying to memorize the songs until I read this thread question. I have worked them out until I can play them at full speed, with and without the video. Then I move to the next one while still playing the previous songs. Sometimes they sound pretty good, sometimes not so much. I do mostly enjoy the journey, that's why I have stuck with it even though I think I should be much better by now. Thank you all.
 
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