Am I Good Enough to Learn This Song?

[hayden]

Hey everyone,

I just started learning how to fingerpick a few months ago and I've been having so much fun with it. An old teacher of mine used to say that everyone can learn how to play the guitar, as they can sit down for hours and hours and hours until they can force to move their fingers in a certain way, but not everyone can be a guitar player, and use their skills to learn songs using their skill to learn new pieces, and in turn spend less time learning songs. My question to everybody is, is my level of skill high enough to be able to learn Never Going Back Again by Fleetwood Mac? Or would it just be a case of me painstakingly attempting to learn how to play a song. I've been fingerpicking for about three months, and I can nearly perfectly play the following fingerstyle tunes:

River Flows In You - Yiruma (Sungha Jung's Arrangement)
Kiss The Rain - Yiruma
Dust In The Wind - Kansas
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Blackbird - The Beatles
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

and am also currently working on Angelina by Tommy Emmanuel.

I want to make sure that I'm ready to dive in to the monster that is Never Going Back Again, and if I'm not ready, what are some other songs that I can play to increase my level of skill until I'm ready to try and channel Lindsay Buckingham. If anyone can shine some light on my situation, or provide any tips/comments, that'd be really cool.

Cheers everyone,
Hayden

 

[SteveC]

Only you can answer that question.

And, you can only answer that question, if you put your heart & soul into trying. Don't get discouraged if you cannot master it as quickly as you want. Break it down in to bit-sized chunks. Don't try to swallow it whole. Stick with it for a while; you'll have your answer.








I'm betting that you can do it, FWIW. Desire + Effort = Results. Good Luck and have fun!

 

[revtime]

You can learn anything you want. The question is do you have the drive and desire? Are you willing to make the time sacrifice?
I have been practicing Sweet Home Alabama for the last few nights. 3 hours of the intro a night. Usually I do not have the patience for one song like that. I like to move around and noodle incessantly. The discipline is working. I am memorizing and the speed is coming along. But man, my mind does not like to focus like that.
So yeah its up to you. Can you sit there and do it over and over and over and over again until it starts coming together? Can you stay focused for however long it takes?
Its not like you practice basics for years and then one day you can just bust it out. You have to practice and memorize the thing. This has become painfully obvious for me 3 years in. Sight reading will only take me so far, I need to know what is coming next so I can make it sound right. My improvisations sound pretty good to me. I can just let it flow. Its when I try to play someone elses stuff that I fall down. I can't get the flow until I know what I am going to play.

 

[paradice]

Yeah I think you'd be surprised at how long even professionals take to learn songs. Go for it.
If parts give you trouble then ask on here or something rather than struggling and developing bad habits

 

[huw]

Yes - you're ready to start learning the song. I can't tell you how long it will take, but you're ready to tackle it.

Just take it bit by bit: I once taught myself a Scott Joplin piano rag by breaking it down and learning it one hand at a time, one bar at a time.

FWIW Never Going Back Again is less tricky than it sounds - if you can play those other songs you listed, then you shouldn't find it too hard.

Good luck.

 

[WholeLottaIzzy]

You can learn anything as long as it's slow enough. Learn it at a speed where you can play it all the way through, perfectly. No mistakes at all. Even if it's 30bpm, it doesn't matter. Play it slow, play it perfect and keep playing it. You will be building muscle memory.
Bear in mind, if you play it slow and repeat it with mistakes, it will be very hard to break out of those mistakes.

 

[Quill]

... and I can nearly perfectly play the following fingerstyle tunes:

River Flows In You - Yiruma (Sungha Jung's Arrangement)
Kiss The Rain - Yiruma
Dust In The Wind - Kansas
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Blackbird - The Beatles
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

and am also currently working on Angelina by Tommy Emmanuel.

No kidding?

Then the question to ask is not, are you good enough for that song; the question is, is that song good enough for you?

My answer is: No! Once you got Dust in the Wind down, you were already way too good.

Are you really getting Angelina under your fingers? That's awesome. I'm voting for time spent on another Emmanuel tune - or one of his arrangements. After listening to Angelina, the next clip up was his arrangement of Close To You (I love a good Bacharach tune and I don't care who knows it!), and like seconds later I had a free, very good quality transcription sitting on my printer. Wish I could learn to play it that fast.

Thing is, I've known a number of players who could learn a piece that quickly. Listen to it once, then play it back to you or write it down, whatever you needed. I expect Emmanuel is one of those guys.

 

[DanL]

Glad to hear Angelina is coming along! As others have said, you're ready when you feel ready, and you should already feel ready.

 

[twiggidy]