A student just asked me the question from the “Ask Adam” page.
“Adam…..I have a problem of remembering songs I’ve already learned
when they haven’t been played in a couple of weeks…usually when I’m
concentrating on new material. How do you keep it all under your fingers?”
When I learn a new song, or am writing a song I have to almost have to “forget” every other song I know.
For example, I recently came up with an arrangement for “Killing me Softly” and I had to
play nothing but that song for a week.
It was as if the new song eclipsed anything else I’d every played – but of course I have to have old repertoire ready to play for concerts.
Here are 4 tips to keep in mind for keeping your old arrangements “fresh”.
TIP #1
Before we talk about practicing, it is key to understand the “4 levels” of learning.
(I cover in the Stevie Wonder Vol 1 DVD, and I’ll recap it here:)
Level 1. Unconscious Incompetence: You don’t know what you don’t know.
This is where you are before you start a new piece.
Level 2. Conscious Incompetence: You find out what you don’t know.
Like..”oh wow that’s how he plays it, ooh that’s tricky, but I can see how it’s played” and so on.
Level 3. Conscious Competence: You know it consciously.
Once you have started working on the piece, you find that if you pay attention you can get through the piece pretty well.
But…
Music at this level usually falls apart on stage if you are nervous, because you are using your conscious brain to control your hands. Any distractions can take your mind off track resulting in an on-stage musical train wreck.
Level 4. Unconscious Competence You know it subsonciously.
You’ve practiced it enough that the piece of music is in your unconscious mind, and literally “in your hands.”
Like when a drunk customer collapses, you know you are at the bridge of “Misty” and keep the song form 🙂 without skipping a beat.
You are not really “remembering it” – it plays itself. This is the level of “you can play it in your sleep” – i.e. you have driven it into your subconscious mind.
This comes from repeat, repeat, repeat the piece.
TIP #2
Let’s say for now that there are 2 flavors of “guitar practice sessions.”
Some practice sessions will be “creative” (focus on one ne songs) and other sessions will be “running your repertoire” (several songs).
On the “running your repertoire” sessions, your practice sessions could have the alternating rhythm “older tune / newer tune” so that you don’t neglect old tunes.
You have to “dust off” music that you have had at “level 4” at one point in the past just to maintain it.
TIP #3
(The Best Solution)
Get a small gig where you have to play long enough that you are required to dig up old songs and play them for people (coffehouse, restaurant, bar, concert, art gallery)
I call this best because it’s like having a trainer show up at your doorstep, you gotta play whether you want to or not and you gotta fill up time – 2 or 3, 45 minute sets.
It’s a little more hardcore than just “playing when you feel like it.”
Of course not all of us want to do gigs. If that’s the case, just use TIP #2 – alternate “older tune / newer tune” in your “repertoire running” practice sessions.
TIP #4
Either way, you have to review old pieces as well as learn new ones.
I suggest a song list, a written practice plan or journal and put a little focus on “running repertoire” – not only the “shiny new fun” songs!
Please comment below to let me know what you think!
Very smart Adam! I’m always impressed by you. Keep it up!
Thank you!
Where is the “LOVE THIS” buttom ?
Thanks Adam……good stuff !,,,,,
Thanks for reading!
Some great points to think about , another great article
Here in my zone, the Law of Recency is best applied. I remember best what is recent; seemingly a flaw for a non-musician like me.
To hurdle this, I have to practice/play last the older pieces i have learned. Usually, the fillers are often forgotten and the melody is best remembered.
I have to ‘go back’ always to the older pieces for this gives a good balance in learning…new…old…new…old…
Enjoy playing!
Very good words Adam.
It is a tough balance. Learning a new arrangement takes 100% effort and concentration. That is true even for ‘easier’ pieces like a basic classical etude from the John Mills book. LEarning one of you SW or J5 arrangements takes weeks and probably months of steady examination.
And then in the meantime, there is that large set of material, anywhere from 10 – 50 tunes that we ‘know’ how to play, and have played for years. For as well as we may know those tunes, they too require constant review to maintain at a sharp and automatic level.
For me the trick is being honest where I am at with it all, and going back and forth between running tunes to keep them solid (and to improve them), and taking to time to learn new arrangements, a few measures at a time, in spite of how slow that process can be.
Thanks,
Rob
I use index cards to keep to old tunes in my rep. Once I can play the tune by memory it goes into the card stack and I practice the top card then pit it at the bottom of the stack. Have hundreds of tunes ready to go.
Great advice Adam and fir me it came just at the right time. I’m relatively new to fingerstyle playing and I have to read to learn pieces from scratch right now. In longer pieces that means that everything stops to turn the page!
Nige, keep going, it’s worth it!
Adam,
I love your version of Killing Me Softly and just wanted to know if you have it written out in any form, or do I need to spend the time ripping you off on the video?
Keep on, keepin’ on…you’re playing makes me feel younger every day!
Joel (64 is the new 50) Henderson
Thank you Adam , The funny thing for me is that i have songs from 7 years ago ,and songs from several month ago ,and since i want to be a fingerpicker ,or i want to play fingerstyle in public , i only have done ONE gig . And now , i dont know what tunes to do in my second gig . Also i have a project to do a tribute to Beatles ,10 songs ,i can play , with my own arranges and also a couple of them from TE , but with my touch.
Good Traveling ,and Good Day .
AR,
It may be a good idea to make a running list of every song you play. Play old ones sometimes just to get the under your fingers once again.
Thanks for the idea of playing Killing Me Softly. Let’s compare in a few months. Love your playing and looking forward to our performance together sometime soon.
JG
Thank you for some more priceless advice, Adam. I think I am finding myself stuck in Level 3 with most of my songs! I get frustrated when I don’t play it as well in front of folks as I can regularly at home alone. I will just have to buckle down and strive for level 4 and use a journal for practice. It’s tough because by the time I get to that level I am ‘sick’ of the song(s). LOL
Adam,
These are tips I will definitely follow. I have had many disasters, ha, ha. My problem is I have 32-songs. Some I play better than others. If I hear one that I just can’t help learning, I learn another one. I may have overstepped my boundaries. Lately I’ve been playing them in groups. Some are drop-D and some are in alt. tunings. I’m lazy. I have 2-guitars but have a favorite. I am incrementally getting better. It takes a commitment. I love your music and tutorials. I believe you are overdue for a CGP title. If I’m ever at a “Meet & Greet” with Tommy Emmanuel I’ll tell him he better take up the torch Chet left him and start naming some more CGPs. Who better than he to bestow them. Thanks for everything and keep up the good important work.
Best Wishes,
~.Walt
Walt, you are too kind, thank you!
Thank you Adam, I always enjoy your articles and the comments from other subscribers.
Regards
Thanks Horace!
1st tip,… for Adam: pls, change the font. The one used in this blog is barely readable…
Then, my situation is the following: I have 80+ song in my repertoire and I remember all of them.
How ? I play all of them live every week, during my concerts.
But even in the past, when I was not plying live so much, I used to rehearse all of them every week.
1 hr per day x 7 days = 7 hours: in this time, is it possible to fit a lot of song to rehearse 🙂
Cheers
Roberto
Roberto, I spent the last hour tweaking the look of the site to make the font readable & slightly bigger, thanks for your comment! Keep rocking!
Tip #1. Help! I am stuck on level 3, conscious competence. How does a person .move to the next level, uunconscious competence. It seems no matter how much I practice I’m always at level 3.
Jack, get out there and perform, and in the practice room, repeat the thinsg you THINK you know. That’s the “fire branding” which separates the men from the boys 🙂 I STILL practice Billie Jean, Superstition. If I dont, I’l flub on a gig just a little, and then a voice inside says “aha! you thought you knew it – gotcha!”
So it’s not just me that keeps forgetting old songs whenever I start something new! It’s great to know that you all have the same problem – I mean that in the nicest possible way 🙂
Another trick is to do ghost practicing. I call ghost practicing the following method. You are learning a tune, you can play it all. Now try practicing it without your guitar, i.e. in your head. Think about every move you do in order to play it for both hands. When you can play the entire tunein your head, you’ll never forget it. Practicing the same piece over and over will also give you what I call muscular memory, your hands and arms and fingers will remember their moves. It worked well for me, give it a try.
Yep, do that before sleep at night. (Usually don’t get through the whole thing though)
All quite correct Claude. Another technique that works very well I find is to close your eyes (or play completely in the dark) each tune about as slow as you can possibly play it … nailing every single note and playing the whole entire tune without looking at your guitar. Once you can play it without looking at your guitar., it makes its way into the unconscious. Cheers, Guitar Dave.
I enjoy your counsel and find your tips valuable excellent musician and teacher!
Sometimes, I go back to find I cannot remember anything from a once well known song and other times I remember a few things like the beginning riff or chorus. When I do remember one or two pieces of a song I try to noodle around and seem to finally get it all back. At times I get it mostly back but am aware of a missing piece then i go look it up. Feel like making the effort to fill in the missing pieces before I pull out the tabs or sheet music is better?
Thanks yet again Adam. Your tips are so relevant for the problems I am encountering. I’m sure you must be spying on me, and noticing the stage I’m at & difficulties I’m experiencing. I’ve even learnt ‘Killing me Softly’ recently!
I’m relatively new to guitar playing. I learn instrumental pieces, many Beatles ones. However, I play from memory & using my unconscious mind. If I stop half way through, or get nervous, I can only play from the start. I actually have no idea how to play my tunes, so would have difficulty teaching someone my version. I worry, therefore about playing in front of people, when I may get anxious, when I play well on my own or for immediate family. Do I just keep going & keep practising or what?
Thanks Adam. I love your insights and share them with my students all the time
Thanks Steve!
Two great tips there Adam, repeat repeat repeat until a song is embedded into the unconscious mind, then tip 4, maintain with daily practice. It is exactly the same as when I studied the London knowledge. I memorised thousands of places, road names and routes over a four year period by repetitively ‘calling over’ but when I actually started the job I found i didn’t use half of what I had learned so slowly lost recall on a lot of places etc. It really is a case of use it or lose it.
Absolutely! Thanks for commenting!
Hi Adam,
Thoroughouly enjoying the blog posts and articles and I always get something from them. I have a question or comment which might suggest a theme for another article at some stage. I’m sort of sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet just in the water wondering how to get started. As a halfway competent Travis style picker, wanting to take the next step towards Rafferty levels of enlightenment (establishing the groove, moving towards the bass, accompaniment and melody combination), the question is what are your thoughts about the steps of building this up, is there a sequence or progression to this which builds the skills and (I assume) develops the ability to get all the elements working together.
I would love to get your perspective on this.
Chris wow thanks! This is all tricky stuff and requires practice.
Not to sound like a sell but here goes.
On studywithadam.com I go into this in detail by example with my own arrangements and also there is a full on “How to Arrange for Solo FIngerstyle Guitar” course inside.
All that said, I am not a great Travis picker – each skill takes a lifetime 🙂
All the best! Keep rockin it –
AR
Great stuff. Thanks Adam. Funny thing is that I’m trying to “re-learn” the exact same song, Killing Me Softly.
Ralph I am late in replying…how’s KMS going?
I really like your ideas, but I thought Edd’s was a great suggestion about using a card index, well what a simple but effective idea, keep up the great work, love this site and hope to learn more from you and all your reply’s, magic stuff
Yes it is a super idea! Thanks John.
Adam-
really appreciated the post on remembering guitar arrangements. I had rarely performed publicly until a few years ago when I landed a gig playing background at the local farmer’s market – not too stressful, but I had to fill 4 hours each time I played! As you suggest, a key was developing a list of what I could play, then kept building and reinforcing (ie practicing) that. The quickest way to build that list is by adding back in things I used to be able to play – they are much faster to re-learn than to build new stuff (though its always more fun to have new stuff). thanks again for your helpful thoughts. Btw I loved your “killing me softly”.
Thank you for the article. It is very helpful. I’ve knew about 4 levels of learning – I’m am an actor and I’m using it in memorising the lines.. Wnen i play I prefered to stay conscious..😉 About making a “remember” that works with me, but it takes days… I’m looking forward to bars and galleries…
Wish you tremendous new year!
Thank you for the article. It is very helpful. I’ve knew about 4 levels of learning – I’m an actor and I’m using it in memorising the lines.. Wnen i play I prefered to stay conscious..😉 About making a “remembering” session – that works with me, but it takes days… I’m looking forward to bars and galleries…
Wish you tremendous new year!