How do YOU learn a new piece of music?

[Graham English]

When you work on new pieces, do you go measure by measure, page by page, or do you kinda go for the whole thing and get the details down later? I've been thinking that concentrating and focusing on each and every note right from the beginning is the best way to go. What approach do you take?

[Slowly]

Me, I go for the right hand first loosely, then the left hand. When I get it down pretty good, I come back and learn the little notes in between. Kcbass

[marino]

Great question. I guess it depends on the piece, and how much time you have. Generally speaking: If it's a classical piece, usually I have a preliminary read through to get a feel of what it is, then I divide it into sections - my first goal is to learn the various sections as they were a whole piece. A section can be one bar or three pages long, depending on the difficulty. I try to have everything right in this phase - dynamics, speed, etc. Then I slow down the tempo, and start joining the various sections. Usually, I make some changes here, dictated by the continuity of the flow. At this point, I'm ready to turn it all into music

Anyway, these are very generic considerations - it really depends on what piece it is!

 

If I have to learn a rock tune, to be played onstage with all the energy, I try not to have any paper to look at - I play by memory. In these cases, I usually have enough rehearsals to learn my parts, and I'm a fast learner anyway.

 

For jazz gigs, I try to learn the pieces by memory as well, but if I'm not that familiar with the changes or the key, I see nothing wrong in having a few chords scribbled on a piece of paper.

 

When I play with my own group, I have to manage intricate parts, complex harmonies, fast tempos, patch changes etc., so studying everything beforehand is a must, and usually I read my parts onstage too, just in case. Things are made a little easier by the fact that I wrote that stuff myself...

 

Carlo

[Graham English]

Yeah, when you write the tune yourself, you usually end up learning it in the process. That always helps

I usually give a tune a general whirl too before I really tackle it. The most interesting response I received from the PianoWorld.com forum was to learn the piece from back to front! That directly relates to another post here about left/right hand independence and the need to move beyond the left brain. DaVinci's technique was to draw upside down. Similar techniques.

Thanks for all of your input

[Dave Pierce]

Well, I mostly learn rock, blues or pop songs for the sole purpose of playing live. For rock or blues songs I take the simplest approach: learn the chord progression first. Usually by ear, although if there's solid sheet music that can hurry the process slightly. If there's any keys at all on the original recording, and I like what they do, then I'll pick up those parts next.

 

However, a lot of times I just make up my own arrangement. Especially since a lot of songs don't even have much keys on the original recording.

 

For pop songs, the approach is a little more focused on actual melodies a bit earlier in the process. But my first pass-through is still focused on learning the changes more than the melody.

 

--Dave

[Rod S]

Depends, if it's a piece that's intended to be played verbatum per the transcription, I will usually try to break it into 'phrases' and learn those, and then piece it together.

I'll start by going thru the right and left hand kind of loosely until I have a handle on the position of my hands. Then I play really slow with the drum machine setting the tempo with a hihat to get the rhythm right.

 

Now, if it's just a lead sheet, a rough transcription, or a lot of the times where the transcription will bore any listener to death if you try to play it note by note, I'll usually run the melody once, go through all the chords, all the inversions, go through a couple of different voicings for the chords, then start playing the tune again, and working my way into a decent right/left hand arrangement.

[Botch.]

I usually just play cover tunes in a bar band, and learn the songs from a cassette. Whenever possible I try to listen to the tunes Without playing them, either in the car, while cooking, etc. Then I just sit down and play the tape over and over, picking out the chords on a piano-type patch. My ear's developed enough to hear I-II-IV-V-VIm, but something more complicated like a 9th or a diminished chord, I usually have to sing notes out that fit, find them on the keyboard, and try to figure out what the chord is.

One trick I've learned when a chord has me stumped, is to figure out what the bass is playing; lots of times once I have that then the rest of the chord falls into place.

After learning the chord sequence, structure, etc only then do I start working on patches to match the song, if necessary.

[kiddo]

Being in S'pore, I'm badly deprived of sheet music. So most of the time the ears get stretched. Assuming that I've heard the song couple of times before, and have a copy of the track with me, here's my SOP:

 

0. Play the track on repeat mode and plonk myself at the board.

1. Get the basics: key (any modulations?), structure (verse, chorus, bridge, etc), rough idea of the melody, rhythm & feel of the song.

2. Follow the bass lines to get the root chords.

3. Identify the chord progressions and respective inversions/forms.

4. Write down as much as my ears can tell me, stop playing the track and work on my own from there.

 

kid.

[RABid]

On classical I break it down and learn one section at a time. It helps to also hear the piece first if I am in a hurry.

 

For group cover music I start by charting the chord progressions, or finding a chart. Then I learn the lead. Next I play along with the origonal to get the feel. Last, I listen closly to see what I may have missed and make any corrections. What really kills me, I can work on keyboard parts of a cover tune for hours. With drums I am comfortable hearing the song once then playing it live.

 

Robert

[danallen1]

It depends on my brain at the time. Sometimes I hear a bass pattern, or strings or piano or organ. The other tracks are laid out after I have 'heard the principle' thought. A melody might catch you or just fiddling around till it happens, a song is created. Mood creates, sadness, happiness and the like make my music.

[Raymar]

I haven't learned a new piece of music in years! Lately the music I do create I don't have to relearn because its all improvised and unstructured. If I were to play it live I'd go over it loosely so I'd have to improvise live, ambient music sorta lends itself to that.

 

However I used to learn music a measure at a time and string it all together. These days if you have a PC and Cool Edit you can record the fastest most complex music going and slow it down to a crawl without changing the pitch. I'm going to have to take advantage of that soon!

 

Steve

www.mp3.com/SteveRaymar