Strategies for learning tunes

[Oncewasaplayer]

I've been asking players about how they learn new tunes and hearing helpful advice.

So if I handed you a new lead sheet--something you've never heard before--and asked you to play it from memory in two weeks, what steps do you follow to get this tune into your brain and under your fingers? Thanks in advance.
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[Rapier232]

Good question. If I haven’t got the sheet music, I can’t play.
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[Turkle]

I assume you're talking about a jazz tune. Since this happens to me very often, here is my process. Not all of these steps will be necessary all the time, but they work.

1) Look at the melody. Is it going to be easy to play or ridiculously difficult? Any tricky rhythms, bizarre accidentals, wide intervals, etc.?

2) Look at the form. Is it AABA, ABAC, rhythm changes, blues, or something new and strange?

3) Look at the changes. Look for easily recognizable patterns. Oh, the key center here is G, the key center here is B. A minor 2-5 resolves to a major 1. Here's a 1-6-2-5 turnaround. Most tunes will have something a little tricky you'll have to look over in more detail, but look for the big patterns first and then drill down into the weird stuff. A b7 resolving to the one (the "backdoor" 7th chord)? Cycle of 4ths in 7th chords? Chromatically descending seventh chords? The more familiar you are with these patterns in all 12 keys, the easier it is to learn tunes.

Obviously, for some modern tunes, this won't work. Tunes like Dolphin Dance or Fee Fi Fo Fum will likely defy quick analysis of this sort. But the more you learn about music, the more you'll be able to recognize these patterns and learn tunes in "chunks" rather than individual chords (like recognizing words instead of individual letters, or phrases rather than words).

4) When memorizing the melody, I find that if I can sing it, I can play it. So I'll sing the melody. When singing, it will be super obvious which intervals you don't really know, etc. I like to do this when I'm on the treadmill. I have learned most of the really tricky bebop heads by memorizing them singing them to myself while running. Then when I pick up the horn it's super easy to play. Of course, you'll look like a madman singing Anthropology on the treadmill, but that's the price you pay for greatness.

5) Listen to all the recordings of the tune you can. If it's a standard, listen to vocal versions and learn the words - it helps! When I am learning a tune I listen to it multiple times per day.

6) When learning to play the melody, START SLOW. Play it a million times slow and only gradually work up the tempo. "The wise man practices slow. The wiser man practices even slower."

7) When memorizing the changes, again, take it super slow. Only work the tempo up gradually. Playing things quickly right away is a great way to learn wrong notes and mistakes. Practice literally saying the changes to yourself in order if there's something really tricky.

If you're learning something challenging like Giant Steps, it can be helpful to practice digit patterns like 1-2-3-5 or 1-3-5-7 or whatever over all the chords to get the sound of the root/scale movement in your ear.

9) Once you have the melody and changes memorized, the way you REALLY know you have a tune under your belt is by learning to play it in all keys. Eventually you'll be able to do this by ear fairly quickly for most tunes. But I would always make sure to learn it one half step up and one half step down. This is a great way to get to know some of the trickier keys on your horn! (And if you play with singers or guitar players, you had better learn them!)

10) The most important point, if you get nothing else from this, it is that the way to learn something is to play it a whole bunch of times very slowly. It works 100% of the time. Do not play it slow until you can play it slower. Do not play it medium until you can play it slow. Do not play it fast until you can play it medium. No exceptions to this rule are permitted.

When you have learned a large number of tunes, you'll start to recognize patterns that most songs share, at least until you get to super modern stuff. That makes it really easy to hear what's going on. These days, if we're just playing standards, I generally don't need to even look at the changes, even if I've never heard a tune before, I can just pick them up by ear the first time through, unless something strange is going on. So it gets a whole lot easier once you've been doing it a long time.

Nowadays, if my guitarist calls a tune I don't know, I can confidently say "I don't know that one but I'll have it memorized next week!"

I hope this is helpful. Good luck.
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[TrumpetMD]

[HERMOKIWI]

[kehaulani]

I believe lot of answers can be found by doing an internet (or forum) search.

In a nutshell, though, I learn the form, paying particular attention to where the cadences are and how I got there and got away from them.
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[adam.arredondo]

Great advice here already, so I'll just add a couple of related methods: (1) memorize backwards (2) use spaced repetition.

Memorize Backwards
Instead of trying to memorize the first phrase, then the second, then the third, etc. Start with the end of the tune and work your way back. That way, when you've learned the last phrase and are working on the second to last, running the last two phrases, the first thing you play is the part of the tune that's least embedded in your memory.

Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that uses intervals of rest between study to maximize the efficiency of time spent studying. The reason this is necessary is if you keep studying the same item (or phrase) over and over with no break, each time you test your ability to recall that item, you're recalling it from your short term memory. By placing intervals of time (ideally thinking about something other than what you're studying) between study and testing your recall, you're testing your long term memory of the material. The combination of study, time, and recall strengthens the memory of the material.

Over time, you can go longer and longer between review of the same material (the memory requires less and less maintenance). So for instance, you might need to review a phrase 10 minutes after the first study session, 30 minutes after the second, an hour after the third, 3 hours after the fourth, etc. DuoLingo operates on this principal and there are other spaced repetition apps in which you can create your own flashcards (with prompts for tunes or phrases) that will help you manage that process.
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[GisleB]

I've been lurking here for years, figured out I can drop in my two cents worth.

What I do (I mainly play traditional jazz):

I find recordings of the tune, mostly on youtube, learn the melody from that and never ever look at the lead sheet. I find learning from lead sheets tends to be next to impossible for me, as I never seem to manage to memorize the tunes properly. I then noodle around and improvise to the recording until I feel it is presentable.

At first this took quite some time (a few hours), but after memorizing a lot of tunes this is now quite easy.

That said, traditional jazz often has a quite simple form and relatively simple melodies - but it's a good start.

For what it's worth...

[yourbrass]

@ Turkle: +1! You really must know it after your very thorough process.

@Gisle: also +1: Listening to a great singer perform the tune is how I've learned many tunes without having looked at a lead sheet. In a way, it's getting it in your head without theoretical clutter. I've also learned how to play Arban's opera excerpts correctly the same way; listen to a great singer performing it.

my 2p.
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[EBjazz]

Write your own arrangement of the tune. Maybe a 3-horn voiced thing with some subs. Or simply copy the chart over by hand.

Eb
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[PH]

Learn the melody and as much of the changes as you can by ear.

Play the changes at the piano twice for every one time you play the tune on trumpet.

Transpose the melody and changes to a couple of other keys to make sure you understand the concept behind the tune's structure.
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