Super Strong Starting Song Stages

Have you ever thought about your process of learning a song? If you had to learn a song by next week, do you know what you would do to "learn" it? I ask, because I'm supposed to learn a lot of songs for a youth camp that's quickly approaching, and I thought I would just share with you what I'm doing to learn them in a creative way.

If you're a professional, (or trying to be) you will lose your job very quickly if you show up not knowing the songs you're playing. They won't ask you to play again. That's the professional world. So I would like to encourage you (and myself) to have some professionalism and at least learn the songs before you show up on Sunday. So here's what I do to learn a song.

To learn anything, you have to spend time with it. You shouldn't expect to play a song like you've been playing it your whole life when in reality, you've only spent an hour learning the song. Personally, I see the song learning process as 3 stages. The first stage is what I call Living With It. What I mean is I turn on the song on my commute to work, while I do the dishes, while I fold my laundry, while I read a book, while I exercise, etc. It's just on. It's in the background. At this stage I'm not trying to pick out my part. I'm listening to the song as a whole. I'm just enjoying the song the way it was meant to be enjoyed. I want it to break through my subconscious. The goal is to just spend time with it. You know you're living with it when it gets stuck in your head when you first wake up in the morning.

What this does is it creates a natural instinct for the song. It allows me to understand the moments the song creates. It also raises an awareness of everyone else's parts. I'm able to pick up patterns in the song that I would not have otherwise realized. For example, I can notice that the second verse is really just the same words as the first verse. I would never realize this if I'm just listening for my part. Knowing patterns like these and other peoples parts is knowing the song. Especially, if I'm trying to encourage other people to sing along when I myself don't know the words, that's just silly. I should be worshiping in the song BECAUSE I KNOW THE SONG and others will see that which can cause them to worship, too.

If you don't live with the song, I encourage you to live with it. I have found that I play with more confidence and lead better when I live with a song than when I just try to learn my part.

For some people, all you do is just live with it. You know the song, but not really your part. What you need is the second stage: Listen For Your Part. Your instrument is playing just one part of a song. You play your part. Other people play their parts. And together, you got a song. Just because there's a chord on a chord chart doesn't mean that's what your instrument plays.

Some people play along to the song as they learn it. Bad idea. Why? Because it's easy to just listen to yourself and not your part in the song. I played with several guitar players who play some of the same notes as their part, but it's not exactly the same. (I know that because I've lived with the song.) I'm willing to bet it's because they stopped listening to their part in the song and just listened to themselves play what they thought the part is. I'm guilty of this, too. Sometimes, I'll play the beat I think the drummer is playing, but if I just listen to him play his part, I'd realize that there's a pattern. Maybe his pattern alternates every other measure. Knowing your part is knowing the song.

If you don't listen for your part, I encourage you to do so. I've found that I play with a lot more accuracy because I realize patterns just by listening, and it gives me something different and specific to play.

The last stage is to Play It. You don't want the first time you play the song to be the time when it matters. Give yourself a memory your muscles can rely on. At least go through the motions. I live in an apartment, and don't have easy access to playing a drum set whenever I want. I still go through the motions though. I'm sure I look like an idiot air drumming, but when it's time for me to play the song for real, I already know what it feels like. I already built the coordination. The difference between good and great, is the same difference between playing a song for the first time and playing it for the hundredth time. Having played the song before is knowing the song. 

One of the best ways to practice a song is play through your part without actually hearing the recording. That forces you to know how long the intro is or how long the instrumental is or how long the verse is etc. And if you don’t know how long it is, then find the recording to figure it out! Don't be afraid to listen to the song again. This exercise will give you confidence leading the other members of the band into different sections of the song.



All of these stages of learning a song help keep me calm instead of nervous. I get nervous when I don't know what's going on, when I don't know what I'm going to do, and when I've never done it before. Defeat your nerves by really learning the songs.