I just do not understand this.

[panther]

OK, will someone PLEASE explain to me why the "Sitting Easy Blues", I've gone through maybe 50 times over the course of the last couple years, and will make mistakes on a routine basis, and struggle to get it to sound like the jam track, yet the example of "Yesterday" which is  not exactly the same tune, both have similar traits. I can play the, "Yesterday" tune through, and memorize it well enough to play (The Parts Shown ) in a matter of hours at the most. I still, can not play "Sitting Easy blues" without looking at the tab, and not without mistakes. I just do not understand the dynamics of whats going on there ?

Here's another one I don't get.
I have the first 5 or 6 barres of La Bamba tabbed out. I memorized it in about 3 days off and on. I have not played it for about a month now. I played it through without a mistake from memory the second attempt.

"Hideaway Blues", I can play from memory, because I've played it at least 500 times in the past 2 years, and that is NOT a joke. I usually end my practice session by playing it through until I ace it. usually takes 2 or 3 times. HOWEVER I never play it clean the first time.
Dan

 

[Jon3b]

  How many times have you listened to 'Yesterday' or 'La Bamba' without a guitar at hand? Again, same question, how many times have you listened to 'Sitting Easy Blues' without playing along with it? I'd be willing to bet you can sing the melodies and or guitar lines for 'Yesterday' and 'La Bamba' acapella, but not 'Sitting Easy Blues'.

 

[panther]

Jon;
I think you are correct.
NOW the real key to learning guitar would be to get that same idea into ones head. I guess listening to the jam track 500 times would do it ?
Not joking here, if that could be done, the learning curve would change dramatically.
So my next question would be, If we made lesson with only songs we know would we learn faster ?
Dan

 

[panther]

Jon;
The more I think about it, the only hitch I can see, in the recognition theory is this...
My fingers do not know where those particular notes are to "Yesterday", I still have to build the memory, by showing my hands, and brain how I want it done. But minutes or hours, compared to days or even weeks for unfamiliar tunes, just seems a far stretch. I would think maybe twice as long for an unfamiliar tune, but in my case I'm talking  scores of hours difference.

I just did an experiment. I took a pentatonic scale, and randomly placed notes from that scale onto a tab form. Withing 5 minutes I had memorized a 10 not progression that I did not know, what it was going to sound like, or had ever played before.     5 MINUTES.
My next experiment is going to have one of my kids randomly place some notes for me and see how long that takes to learn.

Dan

 

[luckylarry]

Dan this may not be a good example for you. To play notes randomly is easy to memorize because you have no melody to memorize, there are no triplets etc. So you have an easy out. I think that the suggestion of listening to Sittin Easy over and over (with no guitar) until you really know the melody is important. The next step would be to break it down one bar at a time played very slowly until memorized. I would guess that because you have been at this for a long time you would get it down very quickly. Hope this helps. 

 

[Jon3b]

There's another element to the Sitting Easy Blues that's not in your other examples. Chords and singles note lines. It could be that, like me, your brain has the two techniques separated in a way that makes you have to consciously shift between them? I can't really speak for you on this, but I'm sure that you'll eventually get it worked out.

  In the same kind of struggle, I've spent weeks and months learning just one lesson from Griff's materials. Some parts come easy and others don't. I can sit down with a backing track and improvise a 24 bar solo in about an hour to post in the VJR without much problem, but just one bar of a lesson defies me for weeks. Why? Improv employs finger movements that I can perform just from muscle memory. That one bar I struggle with has note sequences that my brain still has to supply instructions for.
  At least that's what I tell myself while playing that one phrase a handful of times in sucession before moving on to practice other materials.  [smiley=beer.gif]

 

[panther]

Jon;
What you wrote is me exactly.

"I've spent weeks and months learning just one lesson from Griff's materials."

This is what I was having a problem understanding, but if Griff in fact has made the lesson stretch you to your limit, it then makes sense.
Dan

 

[panther]

This learning is really a mind twisting experience.
All day yesterday, I spent working on other licks etc. This morning I picked up my guitar, turned to "Sitting Easy Blues". I played it all the way through FIRST time without a single mistake. First time EVER.
Go figure.
Dan

 

[Bluesgrass]

I think sometimes it takes time for your brain to soak up the lesson, song, lick....whatever you're currently working on.  I've been learning the song "Fields of Gold" to play at an upcoming wedding.  I worked on it for two solid weeks but it never sounded quite right.  Last week was extremely busy and I didn't get much chance to practice.  Last night I picked it up and played it flawlessly (almost).  This happens a lot to me.  I'll ignore something for awhile, then go back to it and it's much easier than I remember.  The brain must have a way of making you earn the progress.

 

[samwell]

I think sometimes it takes time for your brain to soak up the lesson, song, lick....whatever you're currently working on.  I've been learning the song "Fields of Gold" to play at an upcoming wedding.  I worked on it for two solid weeks but it never sounded quite right.  Last week was extremely busy and I didn't get much chance to practice.  Last night I picked it up and played it flawlessly (almost).  This happens a lot to me.  I'll ignore something for awhile, then go back to it and it's much easier than I remember.  The brain must have a way of making you earn the progress.

Absolutely........... [smiley=beer.gif] [smiley=beer.gif]

 

[Russ]

Sometimes a lesson just refuses to come to me. After 4 days with no progress, I'll skip practice for 1 day just so I don't throw the guitar out the window. The next day, I usually Ace the lesson by the third effort.

 

[Rockybottom]

Being a rank beginner and not that familiar with how a tab represents timing accurately but here goes.  As a keyboard player !! (sorry) I use to have exactly the same problem and the key factor in whether I learned and memorised quickly or not was if I already knew the tune and hence the timing of the melody.  If you don't then your brain isn't sure if you actually played the right note and so you hesitate  I am currently learning Piano, completely different to keyboard, and a key issue I wanted to grast was this timing issue and melody recognition on music you don't know. After all, if you don;t get the timing right the melody isn't there, its just a sequence of notes, which is what a TAB looks like to me at the moment.  What I am now finding after months of Chopin, Debussi etc is that this is the key.  If you break it down and get the timing right to one section at a time then you will find you memorise it or can even go for a note instinctively if you loose your way on the page. As someone else said, our brains work differently.  If you are lucky enough to be able to memorise it must be great, but to learn new pieces from music, timing and motor memory for notes is essential and is slow coming for some of us.  Stick at it Bro !