What's the quickest way to learn new songs?

Top tips to expand your repertoire fast

Earlier this year I joined a great covers band called Fraudio. They have been playing for about five years and have an enormous repertoire of songs. It's a four-piece with two guitars, bass, drums and lots of vocals. They play stuff that makes people want to sing-along and dance. My job was to fit in fast!

Fraudio gigs come thick and fast - at least once a week - and run to 40 songs. New songs are tried and added all the time, so after a few years playing my own stuff, it's been a great challenge getting so many songs learned in a short space of time.

Some tunes are played pretty standard and others are tweaked and arranged, so there is a lot to learn and get comfortable with so we can perform them, not just play them. 

After the first two weeks, I realised that staying up all night was not going to work - I needed an approach.  Here's what I do to learn fast.

1. Be clear on the version we're playing.
   Radio edits are often very different to the album version. Rehearsal time is precious, so make sure you've done the right homework and listened to the same version(s) as everyone else. Agree the song structure and any changes to the arrangement - you don't need to be in rehearsal to do this. These days its not uncommon for me to get sent rough outlines of songs or passages recorded and emailed on a smart phone.
   
2. Listen, listen, listen and then cheat.
   I always start by working stuff out by ear. Each song is a step on my musical journey, so I use it to develop my ear as much as I can. I listen to a song two or three times without trying to play it, and start to sketch out a song chart (verse, choruses, etc). I have a guess at the key and chord progression. It is important to learn using your ears not your eyes.
   
   Then I scan YouTube and guitar tab sites for short-cuts when I start playing it. There is a health warning on this stuff so be sure to check it with your own ears.  Pay special attention to strumming patterns, counts into key sections and chord voicings.  WATCH OUT for 'easy' versions for solo acoustic guitar that don't reflect a full band.
   
   These days production is often so full that it is difficult to tell what chords are being played on guitar 1 vs guitar 2 vs keyboard so listen hard. 'Greatest Day' by Take That is a prime example.
   
3. Do a song chart. 
   Even if you don't use it live, doing a song chart helps you memorise the progression and structure much more quickly.  I used to use lyric sheets but I find that unless I am singing lead vocal they are too difficult to read quickly. Here's a blank song chart sheet.
   
   You should be able to recite the song structure out loud without the guitar or a sheet as a prompt. If you can't, then the risk is that you actively remembering structure as you play, rather than playing it and doing two conscious things at once causes cognitive dissonance (aka screw ups).
   
   Writing down the progression (e.g. I - IV - V  ii)  will help you spot similar songs and learn them a whole bunch quicker.  Don't forget key, time, strum pattern, riffs too.
   
   And song charts are also useful if you don't play the song for a while, after all you're investing time in it, don't lose your work and have to start again. My song chart box has upwards of 300 charts.
   
4. Tab the solo and analyse it.
   The first thing with solos is "Does it have to be like it is on the record?" Some do (e.g. Alright Now, Beat It) and some don't. If it does, I tab them out note for note by ear if I can (or find a good vid or tab if I can't).
   
   If I write a solo that works really well, I tab that too. It's a useful discipline, especially when you need to be able to reproduce the same thing every time. I tab the notes and the chords they are played over. Just like a song chart it helps lock it in memory. I almost never refer back to solo tabs so I'm sure they do change and evolve a little over time, and that's ok - it creates feel.
   
   I also analyse what scales are used, like they do in the guitar mags. That way if I get lost one night, I at least know if I'm in pentatonic minor, mixolydian etc...
    
5. I know all of that sounds a little intense but in fact that is just the preparation. It doesn't have to be forensically detailed. The best bit is obviously playing it and polishing it.  It is essential that you move from getting it in the thinking part of your head, and into your inner ear and your hands. And that is just repetition, but I have found the more I do steps 1-4, the quicker the whole process becomes.
   
   I use loopers, phones and a Boss BR-600 to record backing tracks to practice over so I can polish the parts I need to play, and dial in the eq and effects needed. Practicing to a backing track is more fun and I find if makes me tighter.
   
   Spend practice time focusing on the bits you CANNOT play - don't keep playing from the top if you can play the intro well. That is groundhog practice and you'll end up with very polished intro and verses, and a flaky middle 8 or solo.

Rehearsal time is precious. Nobody wants to hear me fumbling around the chord changes, making a complete mess of the solo, or asking "How does this one go?". I can't tell the bass player or the drummer how to play their parts - why should they learn my parts for me?  

Rehearsals are for learning to play the songs as a band, not to learn the songs from scratch. Do your homework - it isn't like it's not fun.