My Best Tips to Memorizing Songs (and Remembering Them Forever)

So I thought I would just take a few minutes today before I start my regular stuff , and just go live and hang out with you for a little while . And because this is only on Facebook , hey Bob , some of you again , your information might not pop up . It'll just say Facebook user or something like that , and it's a limitation on Facebook .

It's not a limitation through Restream or anything like that , it's a limitation that Facebook has enabled . So if you want to just always type your first name in real quick , then I can make a comment and respond directly to you .

So , anyway , let me talk to you a little bit about what I call clearing and just how practicing works for me Now when I'm practicing . And let's just talk about in the context of maybe , songs , learning songs , hey , jason , because it might make more sense that way , but you can use this for anything .

But let's say you're , you're , you're in a band and you're learning some songs , or you're just having some fun and you want to memorize a song , but you're having some problems with it .

The one thing I try and get people to understand is the less that you have to , you know , stare at your piece of paper while you're trying to play , as you play a song , the more you can actually connect to the song itself . And part of it , hey George , is is trying to make that process as simple as possible .

Now , again , the songs that you choose are going to dictate whether or not it's a lot of work for you or not , hey Chris .

So I want you to think about the fact that when you're learning songs , the first thing I'll say to you , hey Jeff , is that when you're learning songs , put songs in categories , and the two categories and again , you may have heard me talk about this before , hey Chester , but there's two different categories for me .

There's what what I refer to as ego songs , and then there's what I refer to as project songs ,

hey Christopher . So an ego song is a song that you can learn how to play . Maybe you don't learn all the parts perfectly , maybe you don't learn the solo , maybe you don't learn all the lip , the licks or the riffs or whatever . But you learn how to play with the song in some capacity , from point A to point B , beginning to end , hey David .

And when you do that , you tap yourself on the back and that's an ego song . It's a song that you can feel good about , because you're playing something that has a beginning , a middle and an ending and you're getting all the way through . And again , it doesn't mean that you've got all the parts memorized .

Okay , hey Ed , hey Mike , it doesn't mean that you've got everything memorized , but you're able to play along .

So let's think of some song that has , like you know , a bunch of different parts to it Wonderful Tonight , bayer Clapton right , it's got a solo , it's got all these different things going on , different picking , but you're just strumming to the song and getting all the way through it . Okay , that's step one .

Step two is maybe then you decide you want to learn some of the picking stuff , or you want to learn part of the . You know the solo or something , and that's fine , hey Surgey , whatever you want .

The point is is that because we are guitar players and we're humans , we tend to always try and take everything to the nth degree and try and make everything that we do as hard as humanly possible , because that's the only way we can find validation in what it is that we're doing .

Okay , we've got to be , everything's got to be perfect and it's got to be the best and whatever and again , I'm not saying that that can't be a good mentality at times .

But in the ego song category , when you're learning ego songs , the point is to build yourself a playlist of songs where you can just grab your guitar , press play and start playing along with things that have a cycle all the way through that you can play along with .

So if you're with somebody and they want to hear you play , you can play along with something all the way through . Now , the beauty of that is is that when you're playing along , you're making all kinds of musical connections to the music chord connections , rhythm connections , groove connections , tempo connections , dynamic connections .

All of these things are happening while you're exploring this , right ? So it's not just well , it's an easy song because it only has three chords

. So those are terms that we always use . Thank you , justin , glad you're here . Those are terms we always use . An easy and hard is a relative term to you , not to everybody else on the planet , because everybody's in a different place , right , in terms of their playing . So what I want you to understand is that think of songs when you learn a song .

Think of a song as more than just a scale or a chord change or something . It's really trying to learn how to connect musically to the event that's happening with your input , the way you strum , the way you pick the dynamics that you're using the chords , that you're choosing the chord changes , all these different kinds of things . There's a lot going on .

Even though we use the term well , it's only got three chords , so it's easy there's still a lot going on in there , Okay . So if we think about it from that perspective , we can always figure out what we need to improve on .

So when we're learning hey , amos , when we're learning how to play a song , we're thinking about the chords , right , we're thinking about the sections of the song , like . So now let's take it to the next level . We're going to move into this clearing idea I was talking about . Thank you so much Again .

If you are on Facebook , especially if you're in the VIP , the community or the masterclass groups , you might want to put your first name in , because those are private groups . I'm going live to the Guitar Zoom Facebook page to , but just Guitar Zoom .

I'm not going on YouTube , not going to the Steve channels , nothing like that , just Guitar Zoom , just so we can hang out for a little while . Hey Steve , hey Dean , but if you're in one of those private groups , you might have to put your first name because it just comes up as Facebook user .

For me it's a , again , a limitation that Facebook has to protect your privacy . That's what it is . So , anyway , let me keep going here . So when I want to learn a song , okay , and again , let's take out the easy heart , all that kind of stuff . Oh , before we go into that , let me finish this kind of this idea .

So an ego song song you can pat yourself on the back , you're feeling good , you may not know all the parts , but you're able to play along and make a connection . A

project song , on the other hand , is a song of elevation . A project song is a song that's going to take you a lot more time and you may never develop all the elements of that song in its entirety . Okay , right , it might be . Take a , you know , a crazy dream theater song or something like that .

You might never develop every element of that song in its entirety and it's not that you have to is that you're using it as a project . You're developing a particular technique or a lick or an idea or rhythm or whatever it might be . That's what you're using the song for is for a project .

Now there are times in your life where what used to be a project song might become an ego song to a certain degree , right ? I mean , if you just started playing guitar , you know , a week ago , you're not going to learn a Dream Theater song , right ? But if you just started playing guitar a week ago , just about any song is a project song .

But once you've been playing for six months or a year , two years or whatever it might be , a lot of those songs would be considered ego songs , you see ? See , you just have to kind of figure that out . Jeff says Holy Wars for him , which is absolutely true . That's Holy Wars for just about anybody .

I don't know anybody that would say Holy Wars is an ego song . You know it would be a project song . It's just how much development does it need to get to the place where Jeff feels good about it ? Right , that's the whole point . So now let me get back to a little bit easier .

So I'm going to come back to ego songs here , okay , and let me explain to you what I do . So when I'm going to learn songs like this August , my daughter my oldest daughter and I have a show coming up . So she sings , I play acoustic and we play two hours with the material .

Now , not that any of those songs are overly difficult for me to play on an acoustic guitar , because I'm really just strumming and supporting her singing . But I do have to memorize all the songs right , and a lot of those songs are piano songs where we'll do a lot of Elton John stuff or Billy Joel stuff or things like that , and I'm doing them on guitar .

So I have to go into the song thinking , well , how do I want to strum this , how do I want the groove to be , how do I want the tempo to be Right ? If I'm doing killing me softly that's a song we'll do is killing me softly . I got to decide how I want that groove to be . I might not do it the same way Roberta Flack does it .

I might do it with a bit more of a groove , so to give it a little bit of a groove when I'm playing . These are things that I think about before I go into trying to figure out the song . So that's one thing .

Now the next thing is is when I start actually learning the song , I pull up the song right in Spotify or YouTube or whatever it is I'm doing , and I just listen to the song . I don't play along , I'm not looking at chord charts , I'm just trying to absorb the song on a musical level , on an entertaining , spiritual , if you will level .

I'm just trying to listen to the song , just like I would a song that I love , that I've heard a thousand times . I'm just trying to pull it in and as I'm listening to it , I'm getting used to . Oh , there's an intro , then it

goes into the chorus I'm thinking about killing me softly and then it goes into a verse and then it goes into a chorus . And as I'm listening to the song , I'm getting used to the flow of this song . Now , I'm not thinking chords , I'm not thinking strumming , I'm just listening to the song , right , and I'm getting used to . I was called this bird's eye view .

I'm just getting used to listening to this song and getting to know the tune . So if I listen to it again . I know what's coming up next and then I know what's coming up after that . And not because I've written it all out , but because I've listened to this song a bunch of times and I'm getting used to this . Okay , I'm getting used to the song .

Now , after I've done that a number of times , what I might start doing is injecting some chord knowledge so I might get the chord chart or whatever and start looking at it or watch a video or whatever it is you want to do . And again , I'm not overly dissecting at this point , I'm not project songing it , I'm just trying to make a connection .

So the chords are being played and I'm going okay , so it's a C sharp , minor , going to an F sharp , and then it's a B , going to what right whatever , and I'm kind of getting used to that . And what's really happening is in my head . I'm visualizing these chords as I'm hearing this song .

Now , all of a sudden , there's pictures of chords that are happening in my mind . Now , for you , you might have to decide where that picture lies . If it's a D chord , what does that mean to you ? Like , are you playing it as an open chord or a bar chord or something ? And that's all up to you . I've never been that kind of player that you know .

If you and I jam together and I play D up here and you play D down there , I might not go , hey , so and so , taught it , up here you split . I don't care If you play D and I play D , we could both be happy and have fun , right . So I'm not , I'm not .

I'm not really that concerned with it , unless it's an essential voicing that is crucial to the song . Okay , that's different , but for the most part , right now , I'm not even worried about that . I'm just trying to make a connection to strumming , my pain

with this . And I'm hearing this and I'm thinking , okay , so I'm going from this chord to this chord , kind of making that connection , and in the back of my mind I know verse is going into a chorus is going into whatever . Right , I'm already because I've been listening to the song .

So I'm figuring this out , and now I'm putting , you know , names to faces , I'm putting chords to what I'm hearing . So I still haven't even picked up a guitar yet . I'm just playing or , excuse me , I'm just listening . But as I'm looking at this chord chart or whatever it is I've got , I'm also identifying where my problem is . Like .

Do I not know that chord or right ? Or how am I going to approach that chord If it says C minor seven ? Am I playing a C minor seven or am I just going to play C minor right ? These are the choices that I have to make . It doesn't matter . Like again , I want to make music . I'm not trying to be a copycat , right ?

I mean , maybe I'll play it the same , but maybe I won't . And again , a lot of times , if I'm playing something that was based off a piano to begin with , my voicing is going to be different anyway , because I'm playing it on a guitar and I have very different parameters than a piano player would , right ? So I'm just trying to get this together .

And again , I don't want to take all your time , but just so you kind of understand . So , as this is going here now , I'm listening and I've got some chords . Well , the other thing I would be doing at some point too , is I'm listening to the song and I'm deciding how am I strumming , right ?

So I'm listening again , I'm listening to , you know , killing me softly in my head , and I hear this going . That's what I hear , that I want to be kind of the groove . Now .

Again , if I find that I cannot strum what I'm hearing , I have to do one of two things Either I have to change the strum or I have to stop this whole thing and develop what I'm trying to do , okay .

So if that kind of makes sense , so I start putting all these pieces together , now at some point I start playing along with the song and start developing everything . Okay again , this is all happening without doing this .

I'm not going looking at a piece of paper trying to do this , because I'm not saying that that's bad in some circumstances , but it's hard to make a connection to the music when you're doing that , because the reason you're doing that is because there's no connection .

You're needing that chart Now . If the chart is there for a backup to help you with whatever , whatever , it's fine Right .

But what I'm saying is , even in those situations , the more you can get to know that song , the more you can get to be a part of that song in here , the more connection you're gonna make and the better it's gonna sound and the more creative you can get , because you've got more freedom .

Like all your brain power isn't spent trying to figure out how you're gonna strum while you're sitting on stage or performing with somebody or I don't know that chord . Oh my god , what am I gonna do ? Well , this is all stuff we should have planned out beforehand . We should have figured this out Right as we were practicing these things .

Okay , so as I'm going , okay , as I'm doing these things , now what happens is , as I'm listening to the song , I do a technique that I call clearing , and I've always taught this to students . What clearing is is , once you've got your plan together and you've got your song , go drive around some time or just listen to the song without your guitar or whatever .

And clearing to me is is that it's like looking out a dirty window . When you're looking out a dirty window , or you're looking out a window when it's raining really hard and everything's blurry , you can't see out there . Okay , versus a very clean window and it's a sunny day and you're looking outside and you see the birds and the trees and everything else .

That's clearing to me when you listen to a song , if a song is blurry at all as the song progresses through now , please understand , as I start playing , killing me softly , I don't see the entire song laid out in front of me , you know like a little chart , right ? Oh , it's , you know three minutes . I do this and it to . I don't see that .

I see it like driving a car . As I drive from where I live to where I'm going , I know when to stop and when to turn left and when to turn right , and my eyes are open . So if there is all of a sudden a stop sign that I didn't know was there , I know to stop . Okay , I'm driving . Okay , but I'm driving with clear eyes .

I'm driving and I can see where I'm going .

Well , that's what clearing is . So , as you're listening to the song , you know what's coming up next . All the time In the song , in the chords , in the strumming , in whatever it is that you're trying to do , you're clearing it as you go . If , at any point as you're listening to the song , you're apprehensive of what's coming next , that's blurry , okay .

If there's any time where something could go wrong , that's when it's going to go wrong , right ? So Jimmy says lyrics . Okay , I don't . I've never been one to care about lyrics . But let's say , jimmy is singing and playing at the same time , right , which is another level , being able to play chords and strum and sing at the same time , right ?

So Jimmy tries to do this , but it doesn't really work out . So Jimmy goes back and goes okay , what is it that I need to work on to clear this , you see ? So as you're driving and listening to this song , okay , as you're listening to it , you're able to visualize and see what's coming up next . Now , when I do this ?

Okay , for instance , last weekend I had to go out to Minneapolis , which is about four hours away , for two different band rehearsals . I play in two different bands out of Minneapolis . So I brought my daughter with , because we went and hung out , had a daddy daughter weekend and ate a bunch of terrible food and whatever .

So , as we're driving up there , there are certain points where I'm listening to the music that I'm doing . Exactly what I'm talking to you about is I'm driving . There are songs that I need to study in my head . Now I know them , I practiced them a bunch of times , but it still makes me feel good to clear them , I as I'm .

So I'm driving , I'm listening , and she's listening to whatever she's listening to , and then , all of a sudden , she'll start talking to me , and so I'm talking to her and then I go oh crap , I wasn't listening to that . I wasn't clearing it right . I could hear it in the background , but I wasn't listening , listening .

So I rewind the song and do it again , right ? Or sometimes I might hear a song and I start singing along and now all of a sudden I'm not in my clearing head . Right , I'm listening to the song from an entertainment standpoint and I'm listening to the lyrics , but I'm not seeing me playing along with that song

. I'm not seeing that happen . So I stop myself and go . Whoops , I got to go back and I got to listen and see myself , see my fingers , see what's happening , see myself doing this . And again , are there any points that get blurry for me ? Well , not at this point , not if I'm driving to rehearsal . There are no points that are going to be blurry .

Everything is going to be cleared by that point , because I would not show up to rehearsals not prepared . That isn't what I do , certainly driving for four hours and wasting anybody's time , including mine or theirs . So , if that makes sense , that's what we do . And so sometimes in those songs you get what I refer to as red flags .

A red flag is when you get to something that's blurry but it's blacked out or you didn't see it coming . Maybe it's cleared but you didn't see it coming . So all of a sudden it just jumps up on you or you can feel a part coming and you know it's coming , but you don't know that part well enough .

So , even though it's cleared and you know it's coming , but you don't know really how it actually goes . Well , those are things that you've got to make points on . Those are red flags that you got to make points on .

Go really , that's what I need to work on more , because I need to get to the point where that's completely cleared and I don't have any you know anxiety or any issues with that part . So Snotts Willard says do I hear a tune in a certain key ?

No , but I can hear chords Again , we're talking about chords right now so I can tell if something's in major or minor . I can tell one , six , four , five , one , two , five , all it .

When I listen to , I can start like my wife will laugh at me because I'll be sitting there , I'll go okay , c , sharp , minor , a , e , b , that's what it is Now when I get home , because I don't have perfect pitch .

It might not have been in C , sharp minor , it might have been D minor or it might have been C minor , right , but that motion of the chords would be right . Like I can dial those in . You know , the guitar player might have been a half step down and I can't tell that . So when I get home and start figuring it out I go , oh , it was just a half step

off or something . But I can hear those kinds of things Most certainly when I'm , when I'm listening to songs . Now again , if I'm trying to do some crazy prog metal tune , no , I mean , a lot of those things are going to need like , if you think about it , a lot of those kinds of songs are like songs within songs .

So you might have six songs , if you will , that are all one thing , because they're all different parts that are completely independent of each other . Yes , they're connected on some thread , but the parts themselves need their own development right .

So when you learn songs that are more complex like that , you got to take them section by section and learn them , because just sitting there listening to a nine minute prog metal song and then trying to absorb it is is pretty much impossible . You break it down into little pieces and you develop each piece as you go . So hopefully that makes sense .

Okay , so I just wanted to go live , talk to you a little bit and let you know , kind of how I think about those sorts of things and see if that's something that might help you a little bit sometime in your practice as well . So I got to get back to recording .

But I just want to go live and say hey to everybody and thank you very much for being part of the GuitarZoom family . I and everybody else certainly appreciate you being here and I just want you to stay positive and keep practicing and have a lot of fun with this . Okay , so everybody , take care and I'll talk to you soon . Okay , bye .