8 Essential Tips for Learning Any Song on Bass Guitar

How to learn to play a song. There are many different approaches here, but regardless of what method you prefer, here are 8 tips to make the process easier.

Use Tablature, Sheet Music, or Tutorial Videos

We live in an age where it’s pretty easy to find the tablature, sheet music, or a video tutorial for most any song you’re wanting to play.

These resources are great, and they can show you exactly what to play, and when to play it. But sometimes it can be difficult to find the tablature for a certain song. Not only that, it’s easy to become so reliant on reading the notes on the page, that you lose focus of the performance.

So, keep reading for tips on how to memorize the song, so you don’t have to be staring at the sheet music while you’re playing it?

Start with the Key of the Song

What key is the song in? This is a great thing to know.

Now, you could just play along with the song and figure out the notes, this is essentially learning by ear.

But Google can help you here as well. If you type in the title of the song, the artist name, and the word “key”, and you can find this information pretty quickly. There are sites like SongBPM.com and Tunebat.com which are typically reliable, and they’ll give you not only the key of the song, but also the tempo, the BPM, these are both really important details to have.

Get Familiar with the Notes on the Fretboard using the Nashville Number System

Once you know the key of the song, let’s look at it on the fretboard. Let’s say my song is in the key of A. I’m on the 5th fret of me E string.

Now if you’re not familiar with the Nashville Number System, check out this Nashville Number System Explained, which gives a quick introduction. But what I’m going to do is start with A, and work through the major scale, and assign a number to each note.

A is 1
B is 2
C# is 3
D is 4
E is 5
F# is 6
G# is 7

These notes make up my song’s musical palette. These are the notes which are most likely going to be played in the song. This isn’t a bulletproof method, depending on the style of music and which mode it’s in, but it’s a great starting point.

For a lot of popular music and worship music, you can expect to play the 1, 4, 5, the 6, sometimes the 3 and the 2 as well. That’s why we’re doing this exercise, so that we know what notes to expect in the song based only on the song’s key.

So, now you know the key, and you know the notes and the numbers that are most likely going to be played, now it’s time to play along with the song and map out the chord progression.

Instead of strictly learning the songs by the actual notes or the chords of the original version, using the Number System will allow you to transpose the song into any other key. If you need to change from the key of A to the key of G, you just shift the pattern of the progression to the new root note, and you’re good to go.

Break Down the Song Structure

Now, it’s time to listen to the song and break down its structure.

Most songs share elements of the standard structure.

Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus

This is a big generalization, as there are plenty of songs which don’t follow this structure. They may have a longer Intro, or the ending may be different, or maybe there’s an instrumental break or solo in place of the bridge.

But that’s what we’re listening for. You can start by actively listening to the song a few times to familiarize yourself with it and to get a sense of the journey it’s taking the listener on.

It’s good to know these different parts, because each section usually shares the same or similar chord progression throughout the song.

There will often be nuances or small differences in each of the parts, but doing this helps break the song into more manageable segments for learning.

Change the Tempo of the Song

Slow Down the Song

If the song has a particularly challenging part to play, you might want to try slowing it down. Check out this video that shows how to adjust the tempo of a song in Logic Pro.

Learning to the play the song at a slower speed can help get a better feel for the notes you’re playing, and once you’re comfortable, you can gradually increase the speed.

Speed Up the Song

Conversely, if you’ve already mastered the song at its original tempo, a great exercise is to speed the song up and challenge yourself to play it at a faster tempo. This can help to reinforce the patterns that you’re playing.

Playing with a Metronome

If you don’t have the means to change the tempo of the song, you can play along with a metronome. This helps develop your timing and rhythm skills.

This is a great way to play the song at a different speed, and it also helps reinforce the structure of the song in your memory, since you’re having to recall what point you’re at in the song.

Record Yourself Playing the Song

Recording yourself playing is a great way to get practice in performing the song. There’s something about hitting the Record button and seeing that red light that puts your performance in a whole new perspective. This can be as easy as recording yourself with your phone and listening back to what you played.

Teach the Song to Someone Else

One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. This is known as the protégé effect.

Personally, I try to practice a song until I’m to a point where I could teach the song to someone else, or lead them through it. I’m often that position at my church, where I have to act as a music director and lead the rest of the band through the song. I have to know the parts well enough to play them correctly while also making sure everyone else is following along and playing together.

This can also help to avoid burnout, and this is one area to be aware of; many players can reach a point where they’re bored with the song and tired of playing the same thing over and over. If this happens, try to shift your perspective and think, how would I go about teaching this song to someone else if I needed to?

Develop Muscle Memory with Practice

Once you know what you should be playing, it’s time to reinforce it with practice, which will help build your muscle memory. This makes the performance of the song more intuitive and less mentally taxing.

Muscle memory is where a specific motor task is consolidated into long-term memory through repetition. As you practice, you gradually reduce the need to make conscious effort in what you’re playing.

Now, concentration and maintaining good form is important here. Slow and deliberate practice is more effective quick practice with poor form and a lot of mistakes.

Also, regular practice sessions that are short are more effective than infrequent, long sessions. Practicing 10-20 minutes 5 days a week will be more effective than having a 3-hour session on a weekend.

Bonus Tip! Get a Good Night’s Sleep

This is advice you might not hear in a lot of music instruction videos. Get a good night’s sleep! There are numerous research studies done on the effectiveness of sleep in strengthening our memories.

You might’ve noticed this in your own practice, where you’re work on a particularly difficult riff or fill that you can’t quite get, but you keep trying for a few days and you’re finally able to get it.

It’s true that repetition and practice is helping here, but the sleep will help as well! Sleep helps consolidate and reinforce memories that we want to retain, and studies show that there’s better retention in a given period that includes sleep when compared to the same period without sleep.

So, if you’re wanting to nail that riff, practice it, then sleep on it, and come back to it again the next day.

Summary

When trying to learn a song, try to get as much information as you can about the song. It’s great if you can find a copy of the sheet music or the tablature or if there’s a tutorial online. But regardless, figure out the key and the tempo of the song. That will give you an idea of where you’ll be on the fretboard.

Then get familiar with the song’s structure, which will help break down the song into more manageable chunks.

Adjust the tempo of the song to make the challenging parts easier to learn, or use a metronome to help hone your sense of rhythm and timing.

Practice with deliberate intent, record yourself playing the song, then teach it to someone else!

Lastly, get a good night’s sleep, to allow your brain to reinforce what you’ve learned.

Give these tips a shot the next time you’re learning a song, and let me know if you have your own tricks for learning a song.

Watch the full video below from YouTuber Bo Boswell: