A Tip I Just Discovered That May Help Learn Songs

[TSJMajesty]

I use Songsterr a lot, pretty much exclusively. And even though it's not perfect, it's extremely good. I'd say they're 98% accurate on the actual notes.

Fingerings though..., that could use some work. Yes, we each have different preferences as to where it's easiest on the neck to play something, but sometimes their positions don't make any sense. Especially when you need to shift positions quickly.

I use the free version, and it's been good enough for my needs, especially after they added a feature that allows you to edit fingerings. I'm terrible at working out songs by ear, especially solos, so this site saves me tons of time.

So today I discovered that you could not only change the fingerings from what the site shows, but also erase their fingerings, which is new. So instead of showing your edits in red, with a line drawn through the edited fingerings, it looks just like it should, when you're done with your edits. Take a screen shot, save it to a word doc, and you have it. (It won't save your edits unless you have the paid version, so if your browser updates, or you close the window, you lose it.)

I thought it was cool enough to share.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

I can almost always find someone on YouTube with a tutorial on almost any song. A lot of them are very good. You can tell in 10 seconds if they can't play. I also used Amazing slow downer to learn some tough licks like the unison riffs in YYZ and The Spirit Of Radio. I've played in cover bands for so long, I can hear most things pretty easily.

I'll check it out. THANKS!!!

 

[Stone]

Yeah, I use YouTube as well, I use the slowdown Feature helps a lot

 

[TSJMajesty]

I work on several songs at the same time (not every day, but they stay in rotation), and I can never memorize the stuff I gravitate towards on the first exposure. So YT is out for me for that reason, not to mention it's so much faster to just type in a song name, and bam, there it is. No searching for a video..., nope, this guy doesn't have a clue, looking for another one, etc.

Plus, I don't have the patience for watching someone show me how to play a song. Probably comes from my days of reading sheet music. I just like it laid out, right in front of me, I know it's almost always correct, and I can go straight to whatever part I want to focus on today, and when I've had enough, I can just as easily pull up another song.

There are however, a few YT vids that I have saved, because they have the tabs running along with the song. No verbal instructions, no, "Put your 1st finger on the 3rd fret, that's a D...", no talking of any kind. Just the song and the tabs. But for the types of songs I'm after, most of the time Songsterr has it nailed. The only time I even go looking for those types of videos is when there's something about the tab that I don't think is correct, which is rare.

I also used Amazing slow downer to learn some tough licks like the unison riffs in YYZ

I have BP Minus, which has a slow-down feature, which I also used for YYZ, but honestly, with the delays, the overdubs, and the way AL plays, I still couldn't tell if I had it right. Lol. That's when I did turn to YT, watched a few different videos, until I decided to agree with 1 or 2 of them as to the correct way that riff is played, and I've played it that way ever since. Which btw, is the way it's tabbed in Songsterr!

 

[Eagle]

Certain songs get played wrong all the time thanks to YouTube lessons. People need to develop their ears and learn to copy the originals from the record. We had no choice music books were rubbish, tabs are often the right notes in the wrong position anyway. Youtube can save you time but you need ears enough to identify the good from the bad .
When I teach (occasionally ) as one of the first things I get people to do is chose a song and find me a YouTube video that shows it played correctly as the recording. Hardly anyone manages this so ears first.

 

[Byrdman]

I use YouTube and Ultimate Guitar tabs for most of what I do, but lately I have been trying to tab stuff out myself to strengthen my ability to figure it out and train my ears better. I have an old copy of Cool Edit Pro that will slow audio files down with out changing the pitch.

Where I struggle the most is efficient finger position. Like which is better, hit that note with the index, ring or middle to be able to move to the next position, chord, fill, etc., and YT really helps me with that. I have a few guys on there that I think plays well enough and has a lot of songs, so I stick with them. My main goto's are Marty's Music and GuitarLessons365songs. Marty usually plays them in a more simple way and the Guitarlessons365 plays them a lot closer to the actual artist, so I go back and forth. Learn the basic song structure on Marty and then use the other for the nuances that he doesn't do.

The good thing is that with today's technology, there has never been a better time to learn guitar regardless of how you get it done. It's a shame that the younger generation isn't learning how to play and I wont even get started on today's popular music's song structures or lack thereof...