The inaugural 'learn a song a day for a month' challenge.

octatonic

thomasross20 said:

I'm working through some van halen, malmsteen, slash, mini stuff. I'm signed up to jamplay but learning real songs is the real education. Problem is I learnt loads for the band, which is over... I'm learning another 40 or so for a new acoustic thing... I have to her better at singing for that, so on the whole I'm too busy. Plus, the album. And I have to admit I tire of playing other folks songs - I love writing my own stuff and exploring for myself. I think a song a day is too ambitious - if I'm learning something mental, like a malmsteen song or some fingerprinting tune, it'll take longer. Weeks!

Learn some simple stuff then.

This is kinda the point to this- I spend most of my time working on jazz/fusion/prog type stuff- I'm a 'technical' type of player, I guess.
I can play the Mahavishnu song above (learned it when I was 18) but I've not learned something simple like 'Always on the Run'.
I'm not saying don't learn complex music- but having a vocabulary of a few good, fun but not too technical songs under your belt is a good thing to have.

BahHumbug

Just for clarity....how much of each song is one meant to learn? Words?  Lead guitar?  Riddum guitar?  Etc etc

mgaw

I am up for it I got the time and this would save the constant noodling 

samzadgan

One song a week...yes I'm up for it...it was about time I learn some songs...and I'll just follow yours...Lenny seems easy enough.

at some point Mississippi queen has to be in there too.

armitaan

Sounds good, first week easy as got that one already , pretty simple riff but getting perfect timing of it throughout the song not as easy as it sounds 

kjdowd

This is a great idea. I'm in

axisus

Actually I did learn another song in about 10 minutes once - White stripes, it had 'Orchid' in the title. I'd forgotten it by the next day.

Sassafras

I'm still struggling with House of the Rising Sun.

Rocker

I am up for two or three songs in the month. For me that is real progress.

Plectrum

Learning a song a day for 30 days sounds more like a punishment than pleasure! It often takes me months to get a song to point where I'm happy to gig it what with learning the chords and any distinctive fills and riffs, arranging it for solo guitar, memorising the lyrics and practising to get the vocals to a decent quality (which may involve a key change).

octatonic

Plectrum said:

Learning a song a day for 30 days sounds more like a punishment than pleasure! It often takes me months to get a song to point where I'm happy to gig it what with learning the chords and any distinctive fills and riffs, arranging it for solo guitar, memorising the lyrics and practising to get the vocals to a decent quality (which may involve a key change).

It shouldn't take that long to get the meat of it.

Ok, I'm feeling like I'm going to do the 30 songs just to prove that it is doable and it isn't that tough.
Re the Kravitz song above ^^^ I haven't actually worked it out yet but I've just had a listen through to it with music analysis brain plugged in.

It essentially two riffs- both are being played at once for a lot of the song.
One riff is 4 notes and slide into a chord.
The other riff is about 10 notes and most of them are E.
Then you have two chords that sound like G and A.

Then a bridge type thing that sounds like A7 E7 B7 (so IV, I, V).
Then back to the riffage.

This is about 30 mins work- it doesn't have to be exact but it does have to be in the general ballpark so it doesn't sound out of key and weird.

DavidRees

I'm in...

octatonic

Well I'll find another song to do for the first day.
I've just sat down and worked out the Lenny Kravitz tune just to show it can be done.

After 5 mins of figuring out the riff I turned on the video camera and you can watch my aimless noodling pissing around with it should you wish to.
I know the song pretty well just from having heard it loads but I've never sat down and figured out any of it until now.
I know not everyone can figure out stuff as quickly by ear but Im sure there are loads of play through lessons on youtube and such- I'll try to dig one out.

octatonic

For anyone wanting to learn the riff:

Panama_Jack666

30 White Stripes songs coming right up.






*Get the sand out of your vaginas. It's a joke.

Iamnobody

Good idea

For those that are struggling with time - like I would be, I'm sure that between us we could come up with a list of very simple songs to help each other out.

Off the top of my head a couple of interesting tunes that are quick to learn and have a couple of riffs rather than just strumming chords:

The Amazing Snake Heads - Where is my Knife

Imelda May - Jonny Got a Boom Boom

Fleetwood Mac - Long Grey Mare

Philly_Q

Threads like this are normally in the "Playing" section where I can comfortably ignore them, but I foolishly went ahead and read this one.

After watching @octatonic doing his "aimless noodling pissing around" - which to me seems like playing the song pretty much perfectly within nanoseconds - and contemplating the very notion of learning a song a day for a month, I'm getting the feeling I should finally abandon the pretense that "one day I'll get my playing sorted out"... and just pack it in altogether.

viz

octatonic said:

Well I'll find another song to do for the first day.
I've just sat down and worked out the Lenny Kravitz tune just to show it can be done.

After 5 mins of figuring out the riff I turned on the video camera and you can watch my aimless noodling pissing around with it should you wish to.
I know the song pretty well just from having heard it loads but I've never sat down and figured out any of it until now.
I know not everyone can figure out stuff as quickly by ear but Im sure there are loads of play through lessons on youtube and such- I'll try to dig one out.

Tasty stuff at 4 and 5 mins Mr. 

mudslide73

I've got the ACDC book "Plug Me In" - I'll go through it. I think it'll get easier as I go

octatonic

Philly_Q said:

Threads like this are normally in the "Playing" section where I can comfortably ignore them, but I foolishly went ahead and read this one.

After watching @octatonic doing his "aimless noodling pissing around" - which to me seems like playing the song pretty much perfectly within nanoseconds - and contemplating the very notion of learning a song a day for a month, I'm getting the feeling I should finally abandon the pretense that "one day I'll get my playing sorted out"... and just pack it in altogether.

That really wasn't my aim here so I'm hoping you are kidding.
Would it help if I showed a video showing my exact process, from the first listen to breaking the riff down note by note, to building it up to the right speed?
I'm happy to do it with a song you want to work on- just nominate one and I'll do it.