Does learning a song make you sick of it?

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neverfoundthetime
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:15 am

@Kevin(6stringbostic):
Know what you're saying in your thread "Enough is ENOUGH" and it’s been well discussed in this thread, so I'll post here. I think it's one thing enjoying a song and it's another thing learning it and perfecting it on guitar and vocals. That takes real WORK. And that kind of work is repetitive and may become boring. I've heard it said many times (and experienced it enough) that to arrive at mastery you have to go through boredom. But it can also be a very different process. Can I share an experience with you?

I'd always wanted to play Question by the Moody Blues but was put off by what seemed like a complicated musical arrangement complete with orchestra. The guitar playing that I could actually hear above the orchestra was FAST. Really fast. So I never had any hope until I found out Justin Hayward used a 12 string (which I have) and he played in tuning (for which I found the chord progressions and then learned). I found that the song was much easier than I imagined if I only left out the 16ths in the strumming and played the 8ths, in other words strum half as fast. That I could do. Then I walked around my emptying apartment (I was finally leaving the broken-dream home it had become) strumming and singing this song endlessly in between packing and cleaning (it filled the emptiness and gave me much needed strength). I did this incessantly for 3 days. We are talking about pressing down 12 strings in the same chord progressions for hours here. It hurt. Then I realised I could finally play this song I'd always wanted to play for more than 30 years. Wow! Oddly enough, under these (extreme) circumstances, I didn't go through boredom as the song was an incredible energy supply and release for me. I posted the result on TG some months back.

I'm starting a similar process now with Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me by Elton John. My focus has always been the singing. Since I heard George Michael sing this with Elton John, I've always wanted to do it but felt it would be beyond my ability. This week I tried on the singing for size and found it too high (in G) but I found that if I tuned my guitar down a half step it was just right for my voice. Motivated by this possible solution, I’ve been belting this wonderful song out full power whenever the house is empty. As it’s a piano song, I’m searching for a way to play it on the guitar and I may well ask for help with this here in co-operation on TG as it’s turning into the sort of obsession that Question became… complete with the promise of turning out well because it has the right kind of motivation/drive that can carry one through any boredom that may set in. This has happened immediately after I decided I needed more discipline and focus on practising TG songs. I made my list: Fire and Rain, Time in a Bottle, and Judy Blue Eyes…. and then found myself hung up on Don’t let the Sun! I will practice the others but this is the song that is driving me at the moment. I have learned that sometimes it’s easier to ride the horse in the direction it’s already going. No boredom in sight like this.

This maybe more than you need to know, please excuse!


haoli25
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:21 am

Great story Chris. I think we have all been there at one time or another. When you are ready, I look forward to your version of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me".



thanks,

Bill


izzyhara
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:56 am

suziko wrote:
I'm with Bear on this one. If I've been working on a song for a while (like right now with Needle and the Damage done), I might get to the oversaturation point, where the song loses its beauty and just becomes a tedious chore that I'm trying to slog through. But that rarely lasts for long. Any song that I'm willing to learn to play is going to be a song that I like, so if I step away for a while, the appeal returns to me. I guess a good song is kind of like a good spouse. If you spend many days with them, there might be moments where you find them annoying or vexing, and you need to get away from them. But after a little time away, you realize what made them so great in the first place and you're happy to be with them again :)
I am so in agreement with Suziko here. Almost everything I learn to play is something that I love, or at the very least, something that will assist me in playing the songs I love better !! Some of the lessons in Target do not appeal to me, but I want to learn that fingering, or practice that chord progression. So those I don't care if I master necessarily. And some of those songs I will get sick of. But the fact remains - I am playing. And I am getting better every day on the songs I love. As I mentioned in the other thread, I have too many songs on my wish list. I worry that I get fractured wandering around between the songs. So I try to make sure I really practice one of them hard one day. Because I have 5 or 6 really different songs (some classical, some Target lessons, some little piano song that I am picking out on the guitar, some strumming campfire songs), I don't burn out like you are describing. But I also don't master one song like you probably are. But this has been such a fun thread. Thanks for putting it out there, and being so honest!!


NKenny
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:09 am

I know what you mean, I do the same thing with Here Comes The Sun. I can do some parts ok and then keep making the same mistakes on other parts. After a while I feel like giving up, but then I just noodle around to try to unwind or just put it down. I watch some play it and think I am wasting my time, could never play that well.

But after a while I always come back and try to play


heyjoe
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:38 am

I'm in the group with all those people who can work on a song for months and never get sick of it. The people around me may get sick, but I don't. As guitarists I believe we have to practice to build up the muscle memory, so I'm happy to be working on songs for months, the more I practice the better they get and the more I enjoy them.

Even songs which absolutely torture me, like classical gas and here comes the sun, which are still works in progress and have reduced me to the point of learning 1 measure at a time, getting it wrong, and then going to 1 note at a time, are still fun.

I'm learning and developing new skills with these songs, so I know it'll take a while to learn them and be up to speed with them, but thats fine by me, its all part of the journey towards becoming the best guitar player I can.

Joe


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