Learning songs (part 2)

While playing Rock Band, you don't really have to learn songs. There are skills to learn (like fast drum rolls and using the bass pedal), and there are tricky parts of songs to learn (like complicated drum fills), but the notes scroll in front of you so you never have to memorize songs (that is, unless you're like this guy). It's a totally different story on a real kit. I am responsible for keeping the rhythm and memorizing my part of the song. Sort of. It's more like 3 parts memorization, 1 part improvization based on how I feel like playing the song at that given time.

At any rate, I do need to learn and memorize songs. I used to search for Guitar Pro files and practice the sheet music that was contained in the files. This method has some pros and cons.

Pros

You see the exact sheet music for the song.

Most of the files you find are good quality.

Cons

This is someone's interpretation of the song, and it is not necessarily perfect.

You may not be able to find a GP file for the song.

You have to own a working copy of Guitar Pro (eventually).

Occasionally I ran up against the second con - I was never able to find a good drum tab for Linger. Eventually I ran into the third con - my trial version ran out and I didn't have a spare $60 for a full version of GP. So what you see below is my current method of learning new songs:

My new approach now is to listen to a song a bunch of times on YouTube and take notes - what the drum part is for the intro, verses, chours, bridge, etc. I also tend to play along with the song in RB freestyle mode after I've heard it a few times. I think it's helped quite a bit. I'm supposed to learn Alone by Heart for next week, and after listening to it a few times and taking notes, I'm pretty confident that I could sit down at the kit and not totally screw it up. That's a good start, I think.

The cool thing about playing on a real kit is that you don't have to be perfect. There are certainly things you should try and get very good at - keeping a steady rhythm, playing your drums at a consistent volume, etc. Technical things. But when it comes to covering a song, you can tailor it to your own skills. For example, 99% of the audience probably isn't going to know if you did a single kick instead of a double kick during the chorus (unless you're famous or playing a really well-known song or something like that).

It depends on how hard the song is, my skill level, and how well I know the song, but in general I can just play a simplified version of a song and it sounds fine. It's almost like playing on Hard rather than Expert on RB, and I get to decide which notes to hit. It's a good way to start playing and start learning songs.