# How Long Does It Take You?????????????



## Canadian Charlie (Apr 30, 2008)

How long does it take you to learn a new song playing guitar? Days, hours?

I'm trying to learn Iron Maiden "Run To The Hills" and I guess after a few days I'm still at it. I have the tabs in front of me but I guess I'm just the kind of person that this stuff takes a long time to learn


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

it really depends on the song, and it really depends on how accurate you're trying to be. if you're trying to nail it? it can take weeks or more... if you're trying to get the framework down so you can play around with the idea, that can be a couple hours, or even a couple of minutes if it's simple stuff. iron maiden is hard to play, and moves very quickly... don't get discouraged, there's not many players that would pick that stuff up in a short time, unless they already know other maiden tunes... i find that once you've really nailed something by a specific guitar player, the next one is a lot easier.


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## violation (Aug 20, 2006)

Depends on the song/artist/if you're including the solo.

If we're talking rhythm anything old school classic rock I can usually learn in hours since I've been playing that since I started and it's all very similar. Same goes for anything written by Zakk Wylde and bands like Godsmack. Started out on that stuff.

Stuff with a lot of of fast and tight tremolo/triplet/downstroke picking I can usually get a decent chunk of the tune solid in a day or two (depending on how complex it is) and then I'll polish it and make sure all the accents are right until I think it's perfect. I usually finish a tune like that in a week or two. I think the longest I've spent on one tune was a month on Battery by Metallica... I wanted that bitch perfect lol. 

Solos obviously depend on the licks in them... if I haven't done them before it'll take a bit more effort to work the ol' muscle memory.

Time isn't important but getting it clean and perfect is IMO!


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## geezer (Apr 30, 2008)

I can usually get the basics down quickly but if it has a lot of fast alt. picking riffs in it ,it takes weeks to play it clean. Some songs that I've played for a few months still require me to warm up for at least a half hour before I can play them.


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## jcayer (Mar 25, 2007)

Like everybody else,

It depends of the song... a 3 chords ACDC type song can be learned in less than an hour but when I work on some jazz chord melody type of songs, it takes me a couple of weeks...


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Let's see--I recorded a cover of Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" about 20 minutes after learning it. But other songs took a lot longer to get to that point. (Where I'd feel comfortable recording it.)


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

suttree said:


> it really depends on the song


Too true.
It took me a year to get Barrios' The Cathedral
Cliffs of Dover took a couple of weeks from tabs.
One listen and 10 minutes of fiddling for anything by the Cult
...I actually played a cover by a Japanese band called Yellow Monkey when I was in Japan after having the singer kinda sing me through it without ever having heard it...no-one had a copy. I heard the original later and I think it was pretty close. it was pretty much wackawacka BOOSH BOOSHH anyways.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

I learn songs quite fast. I have had to learn 40 new songs in 2 evenings, and I sort of managed it. However, I did forget a few small parts here and there, during the gig.

Solos are another story. I hate copying solos. To me, they should be improvised, unless they have very special theme to them, or something that people expect to hear, like some signature lead line or something. Eddie Van Halen comes to mind.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

dolphinstreet said:


> I learn songs quite fast. I have had to learn 40 new songs in 2 evenings, and I sort of managed it. However, I did forget a few small parts here and there, during the gig.


Holy crap?!
40...in 2 days? From a standing start? 
Wow :bow:


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

devnulljp said:


> Holy crap?!
> 40...in 2 days? From a standing start?
> Wow :bow:



I have an excellent memory. I memorize dozens of phone numbers after hearing them only once. At work I can memorize several passwords to servers 8-10 characters long after using them only once. I memorize 25 key product codes to XP and office. But for some reason I don't think I could learn 40 songs in just 2 days.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Well, I screwed up some parts here and there, but I did write down hints for myself, so I would have a chance of remembering the overall parts. It was doable with some small hickups here and there, but it was very stressful and I'd prefer to have a few weeks to work with the material...
Luckily we played for people who were drinking, and I doubt they ever noticed any mistakes or missing guitar parts.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

I have learned a bunch of songs on the acoustic (chords only) but I have yet to actually learn an entire song on the electric (chords and solo). Yes I know, shame on me. But I don't play in a band and don't jam with anyone so I have no motivation to learn an entire song. I can play some solo stuff as well as riffs galore but - have I put them all together? - not yet!


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

dolphinstreet said:


> Well, I screwed up some parts here and there, but I did write down hints for myself, so I would have a chance of remembering the overall parts. It was doable with some small hickups here and there, but it was very stressful and I'd prefer to have a few weeks to work with the material...
> Luckily we played for people who were drinking, and I doubt they ever noticed any mistakes or missing guitar parts.


"just remember folks... the more you drink, the better we sound!"

i just did the same thing last week, actually... learned about 30-35 songs for a gig that never happened. sigh. always good to learn tunes though. the secret most people don't know is: learn the intro and the hook, and you can BS the rest easily.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Yeah, it really does depend on the songs.

I learned about 40 or 50 songs for a reunion jam a while back. We all learned them separately, so we could play them together.

I did it gradually, over maybe 6 weeks. Some of them only took a couple of minutes (less time to learn than the song was long). Some others I had to go back over parts and practise things several times. Some we just crossed off the list, because nobody was making any progress.

Partly too, it depends on your level of playing, and how that relates to the techniques used in the song. If you've never played anything like that song, and need to teach yourself alternate picking, or gallop picking, or palm muting or fingerboard tapping or something like that in order to play it, it might take a very very long time.


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## BenJammin (May 3, 2008)

I never try to learn things the "right" way 

I try to make cover's my own a little bit. a Friend of mine says I play a cooler "Panama" than EVH though, which I though was awful nice of him! BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IT! LOL


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