aural memory

[morrism357]

how can this improve. I have a hard time of remembering how songs go. lyrics aren't the problem. affects my singing and playing by ear. if I can accuretley remeber the song i'm ok most of the time.

[musallio]

What I do is break the song down into parts..

So in a song with 50 chords, I break , say a sentence or 2/ a verse down into an independent progression..which is normally between 3-6 chords.

I play that part as many times as necessary for it to register in my mind & hands..(this is where having a good chord vocab. is advantageous because you don't have to do it so many times..).

if the song is too long, I play maybe a set of 3 progressions I've segmented to assess if it has actually registered in my head..(ie, in a 50 chord song it means I've played 3 sets *4 chords= 12 chords, now I know I have this part for good for the next few days , unless if I ignore the song completely after learning it)

So the trick for me is to play mini parts of the song & then add them together..

Remember also, that most songs repeat their progressions, so what might seem like a 5o chords galore, might actually be 13 chords, maybe with 1 or 2 chord changes later on in a progression you've already grasped.

I hope this makes sense & is handy.

[T-Block]

how can this improve. I have a hard time of remembering how songs go. lyrics aren't the problem. affects my singing and playing by ear. if I can accuretley remeber the song i'm ok most of the time.

It's all about the pattern of the songs.  In order to remember the pattern u need a system.  What system?  It's really up to you, but the easiest system I have found is using music theory.  You just take your bass notes, turn them into #'s that represent scale degrees of the major scale, then keep that pattern in your memory.  Then, no matter what key u need to play it it, you'll be ready.

If u focused more on that, I believe you would remember your songs better.