How did you learn songs (music in general) before the Internet ?

Rigsby

Some may find it hard to believe, but there was a world before the advent of the Internet. :P

For those who lived through this Internet free world, it would be interesting to hear how you went about learning to play an instrument.

When in my teens (back in the Jurassic period ), I first decided to try my hand at bass guitar. There were little or no lessons available. I remember going to a set of four lessons where the "teacher" was a jack of all trades (and master of none). There were three rooms. One for bass, one for guitar, and one for drums. This "teacher" taught all three....at the same time !!!:D I remember him giving me an exercise to work on, while he checked in on the guitarist and drummer in the adjoining rooms. He would then come back to see how I was doing, and give me another exercise, then off with him again. This is what my four "lessons" consisted of. Needless to say, I never went back. I proceeded to teach myself by playing by ear, and working out bass lines for myself. This involved endless repetitions of placing needle to vinyl on the appropriate section of a song I wanted to master. :pac: For this alone, I am eternally grateful for the lack of Internet, as it forced me to develop my ear, which I may not have done if the 'net was available. I recently found a tutorial book which I bought around this time. It contains a primitive form of tab called a "gate diagram".

Soon after, I gave up playing and only took it up again fairly recently. With the Internet, we have almost gone to the other extreme to which I mentioned earlier, i.e. there is so much information available now, that it can be quite overwhelming, especially for a newcomer trying to learn without a teacher. Nontheless, if it has to be one extreme or the other, give me the current one any day !!

noby

Early 90s guitar magazines, and a couple of DIY books.
I went from chords/tabs in books to tabs on the web, so only now am I trying to train my ear.

Rigsby

noby wrote: »

Early 90s guitar magazines

I was never really into guitar magazines, though I suppose at one stage there was not much else in the line of tuition. I always found the content of these mags to be in the ratio of 75/25 in favour of advertising over constructive or interesting material.

padraig_f

I took the guitar up post-internet, and there are a lot of great resources now, but I still find I'm using pre-internet resources. I'm a fan of those books you get for 15 odd quid with sheet music and a CD, with tracks that have both the guitar part, and the guitar part taken out.

One thing I like to be able to do though, which you probably couldn't do before, is import the CD to mp3 and slow it down with a program like Audacity.

Mongarra

Went to guitar classes in the local Tech at night for 8 or 10 weeks and practised in between nights. Learning song words was repetition of a tape or CD on the car player until I knew all the words. Then at home put the chords and words together.

Am still pretty poor but know enough to join in at a pub session around a table with a few pals and pints.

noby

Rigsby wrote: »

I was never really into guitar magazines, though I suppose at one stage there was not much else in the line of tuition. I always found the content of these mags to be in the ratio of 75/25 in favour of advertising over constructive or interesting material.

Oh absolutely. More like every few months if there's one or two songs I like tabbed out I bought it. I recently found a bundle of tabs I stuck in a folder (ripped out the tabs and ditched the mag).

-=al=-

Remember going into tower records and reading all the gutiar mags! Other than that I had a few tab books, chord books and just enough dial up to get some .txt tabs... had a handful of lessons too!

seamus

Guitar song books mainly, the simple ones where you have the chords written over the words
The first time I saw a tab I learned the main riff from sweet child o' mine from a Total Guitar magazine, and I was blown away by them. Then I just searched for tabs online and realised the web had it all.

Also figured out a lot by ear, though it was monumentally frustrating when you couldn't figure out the exact chord, only getting in the ballpark and having to make do. The web was a bloody lifesaver for that.

Common sense would say that having chords on the web makes guitarists lazy, but I think because so many tabs are user-submitted rather than official ones, you need to learn to filter out the crap, which inevitably trains your ear.

jimjimjimmy

How did you ask such questions before the internet?

noby

jimjimjimmy wrote: »

How did you ask such questions before the internet?

Pigeon.

artvandulet

padraig_f wrote: »

One thing I like to be able to do though, which you probably couldn't do before, is import the CD to mp3 and slow it down with a program like Audacity.

You could. If you had a hifi with Hi speed dubbing on the tape deck.
Thats how i learned. By pausing and rewinding the cassette over and over.

The other way was to go into Virgin Megastore and write the tricky riffs I couldnt work out on my arms or a bit of paper. No money to buy the tab books. I did that a lot!

AllCaps

By ear mostly. Sometimes from tab books and magazines.

Rigsby

Thanks for the replies everyone. It is interesting that hardly anyone went to lessons (what little were available).

jobo9968

I was classically trained for 4 years on piano but hated that. Couldn't stand that practicing.
Then my brother showed me how to play by ear (actually by chords)
So I was practicing at least 2 hours a day since playing my favourite songs.
The story is I never did exact thing. I was just looking at the chords and playing my own thing.
When Internet came Youtube or Google became my best friend though.
Doing covers I never do it exact thing. Just whatever is very significant.
The rest is my soul

slavetothegrind

i started out on bass in 89, tried to figure out by ear but found it hard, so went to this lad for lessons.
He was good, since i met him i began to see him on rte as a session player and stuff, he knew his theory and could sight read but couldn't teach.
Started me off with a piece of music i'd never heard of, a page of written music and asked me to take it home and work out a bassline???

i did two or three sessions with him but got very little out of it.

Playing with others brought me on, got the pentatonic scale down and then learned by listening what notes could be used around it in different keys, modes etc ( not that i knew any of that)

Today it is fantastic for learners, great backing tracks out there too you could lose hours jamming.

Left it too for a long time only back at it recently, both bass and guitar.

Got some good lessons in town on guitar which really helped

i have a poor work ethic regarding structured practice which is my enemy and why i'll never be good.....:o

Shakti

Scratched records, stretched and chewed cassette tapes and late night radio vigils were pretty ordinary behaviour when I started. Couldn't afford formal lessons but what I learnt from the people around me and from playing in bands they were the sort of lessons you can't pay for and still aren't available on the internet AFAIK.

slavetothegrind

Shakti wrote: »

Scratched records, stretched and chewed cassette tapes and late night radio vigils were pretty ordinary behaviour when I started. Couldn't afford formal lessons but what I learnt from the people around me and from playing in bands they were the sort of lessons you can't pay for and still aren't available on the internet AFAIK.

you were a c120 man? never worked out always fooked up in the player!!!:p

Shakti

and winding them back with a biro

Gaspode

Learned everything by ear, listening to songs over and over again. Mainly used vinyl as the cassette player I had played slightly slow so everything was about quarter tone down from concert pitch. Other than that I learned bits and pieces from friends. It was definitely a lot harder then - youtube makes it so easy now as well as software like guitar pro.

Tec Diver

I used to learn to play songs on guitar by working out the key, then playing along a bass line on what I thought was the progression of the melody. Then I would put major or minor chords over that and some 7ths, depending on the feel of the melody. Still works