How do you memorize the songs? | Forums

[nefariousnero]

There are a lot of things I love about this game. The song selection, the gradual build up of skill, the pedals. What I don't like about this game is it creates a crutch. And ironically the crutch is the way it teaches us, at least for me. I can play what's on the screen fairly well, but aside from maybe 5 songs, if you take the highway away from me I'm pretty screwed. Practicing in the repeater doesn't seem to help much for me either, if anything it will only create a temporary memorization, just long enough to beat a MM song. No, the only way I can truly learn the song is plug into a real amp and just fiddle with it until it is in my memory. I dunno, that's why I don't think we need all these fancy options in Riff repeater. A metronome and a basic idea of the song seems to be enough to help me learn it to heart. Having that in game would only screw me up I think. How many other people are like this? This is a great leap point, but as long as we are dependant on the highway I feel we won't really learn anything, as we can see from all the MM encore complaints. We're just not used to memorizing things for good.

[rcole_sooner]

Yep, repitition is how I do it. Some songs some a lot easier than others. Depends on how familiar I am with the song, and how much I like it. And of course how "simple" the song is.

[rchiav]

You just have to start playing without the highway. I'm in the same boat as you though. I learned with tab and MP3's in the past, and I knew how to play the songs to the music. Now, with the songs in Rocksmith, I tend to be lost when I first try to play them seperately. I've found that you just have to do it. Do it and mess up and then watch the replay and see where you messed up. Then do it again and work on where you're missing notes. Just keep doing that over and over and over.

The great thing about Rocksmith is that I can learn a song a lot faster. The bad thing is that I still can't play it away from the game. You've just got to put in the time to commit it to memory after you get to the point where you're able to play the notes.

[bradiam]

I usually don't have too much trouble remembering things.

I spend lot of time looking at the rhythm patterns and the progressions figuring out the best fingering and most economic way to switch.

I find that once you get a feel for the groove of the song and how it works, the rest is pretty easy to remember.

[nefariousnero]

Example, I just pulled up some Beatles tabs and quickly learned pretty much two songs in like 30 min. Albeit, they're pretty easy. But for some reason I think it's easier to look once and then play until you get it without looking. Having the notes in front of you in riff repeater just makes me feel like I don't have to memorize the notes cause they'll pretty much always be there unless it's MM. I also think my normal amp sounds better then my speakers, so it makes it more fun to play the normal way, but that's not the games fault.

[derrickhenry1]

Depends on the song for me and how many sections there are. I use the sections and remember them and then play. The easiest for me was always Gone Away and Islands. The block setup was easy for me to remember. Repetition also helps a lot the more you start to play a song and that song only you just remember. My memory is getting better all the time for playing songs.

[revtime]

I have been doing a lot of different things to learn different songs. Riff repeater is great but I find myself pausing it to work on the section at my own pace. Once I get it under my fingers somewhat I restart the repeater and go into set mastery and add the next bit. Pause and work at my own pace. Free speed works well to help me get the notes down and my fingering on the board but then I start doing it my way. Less frustration and I can take it slow over and over again. I find that if I just repeat slowly over and over and over and over again that the speed comes of its own accord. I am still far from being any good but I add riffs to my library every week and its getting more fun to play and practice.

[PRS_Rocker]

Most people play guitar by memory and not by sound, and that's why, when they step away from their crutch, they don't have rhythm and lose a lot of notes.

I use the riff repeater, but I always set the mastery to 100%, then I just run through the riff. I pause it periodically to get the sound and the feel of the notes before I let it run through. I play mostly by ear, then I look to see if what I heard is what they show. If not, sometimes it's cause they want a note on one string, and I play it on another. I do that, because of transitions from part to part. So if I play a D on the 5th fret of the A string and they do an open D, I still get the note right in the game, but I can get to the 7th fret of the A quicker, because I'm right there already (just an example). If you're playing by sound, when a Mastery gets thrown at you and you can't remember the song, you can just listen, remember the progression and play from there.

That's how I do it. Not right for everyone. Works for me.

[rchiav]

Example, I just pulled up some Beatles tabs and quickly learned pretty much two songs in like 30 min. Albeit, they're pretty easy. But for some reason I think it's easier to look once and then play until you get it without looking. Having the notes in front of you in riff repeater just makes me feel like I don't have to memorize the notes cause they'll pretty much always be there unless it's MM. I also think my normal amp sounds better then my speakers, so it makes it more fun to play the normal way, but that's not the games fault.

The same thing happens to people who use sheet music for something like piano. There are people who can't play without the music in front of them.

[Steel_Nirvana]

I agree with the OP's observation, but not necessarily the conclusion. I like the RS method precisely because it does take the memorization out of learning to play and lets me concentrate on learning the techniques without also having to remember what comes next, thus putting all my (admittedly limited) brain power toward learning.

When I go to memorize a song, I need to write down the patterns and study them that way. For me, just playing it over and over doesn't really contribute to memorization; I have to understand what's going on intellectually before I remember it.