Lesson 5 – How to memorise a melody

Lesson 5: How to memorise a melody

This is the video transcript of lesson number 5 of the Beginners Guitar Course: How to memorise a melody.

• You may read the transcript of the Beginners Guitar Course lesson one, here.
• You may read the transcript of the Beginners Guitar Course lesson two, here.
• You may read the transcript of the Beginners Guitar Course lesson three, here.
• You may read the transcript of the Beginners Guitar Course lesson four, here.

Consolidation exercises

As mentioned, every week I add one more exercise to your daily 20 minute practice session. The new exercise builds on the previous. Do not practice only the new exercise because you will not learn, and you will feel very frustrated and give up.

You must consolidate all the previous musical examples on a daily basis. The better you know them, the easier it will be to learn new musical material. It will take you 10 weeks to consolidate all.

I have designed every exercise to help you improve your aural rhythmic and performance skills gradually. You need to work and build on these three skills on a daily basis. Please practice the program in order, so as you may achieve the learning goals that I established.

Do not concentrate your practice on what you do not know, practice and have fun with what you know and then add new music new every week. You must practice every exercise exactly the way you learnt it. If you cannot do such please go back to the video to refresh.

L.I.S.P Melody number 3

• Listen
• Imagine
• Sing
• Play – Comprehend

Before you play, comprehend what happens on each beat of the melody, in order, so as to help you in the how to memorise a melody. Ask your self the following questions, sing and point to your fingers:

• Per Beat: How many notes?
• Per Note: Same, up or down?

Beat one 

How many notes are there? One ,it is a C.

Beat two

How many notes are there? It is the same note that starts on beat one as is maintained.

Beat three

How many notes are there? It is the same note that starts on beat one.

Beat four 

How many notes are there? One.

Where does it start ? on 4 &.

Same, up or down? It is the same.

On your own

The following three bars follow the same pattern as the first.  Stop the video and figure them out using the same process. Do not worry if you do not get them perfectly right.

Play along with me

• Play along with me at half of the original tempo.
• Play along with me a the original tempo original.
• Rewind and Repeat full L.I.S.P of Melody 3.

L.I.S.P Melody number 4

• Listen
• Imagine
• Sing
• Play – Comprehend

Before you play, comprehend what happens on each beat of the melody, in order, so as to help you in the how to memorise a melody. Ask your self the following questions, sing and point to your fingers:

• Per Beat: How many notes?
• Per Note: Same, up or down?

Bar 1

Beat one  

How many notes are there? Two.

Are they both the same? Yes they are two Gs.

Beat 2, 3 and 4 

How many notes are there? Two per beat.

Are they all  the same? Yes they are repeating G notes.

Bar 2

Beat one

How many notes are there? Two

Same, up or down? Same, again they are repeating G notes.

Beat two 

How many notes are there? Two.

Are they both the same? No.

• 1st note, is it same as the previous, does it go up, or down? It is the same note.
• 2nd note, is it same as the previous, does it go up, or down? It goes up.

Beat three 

How many notes are there? One.

Same, up, or down? It goes down.

Beat four

How many notes are there? One.

Same as the previous, does it go up, or down? It goes down.

On your own

Apply the routine to bars 3,4,5,6,7 and 8.

Ask yourself:

• Per Beat: How many notes?
• Per Note: Same, up or down?

Sing and point to your fingers to help you understand.

Play along with me

• Play along with me at half of the original tempo.
• Play along with me a the original tempo original.
• Rewind and Repeat full L.I.S.P of Melody 4.

L.I.S.P Melody Number 5

• Listen
• Imagine
• Sing
• Play – Comprehend

Before you play, comprehend what happens on each beat of the melody, in order, so as to help you in the how to memorise a melody. Ask your self the following questions, sing and point to your fingers:

• Per Beat: How many notes?
• Per Note: Same, up or down?

Play along with me

• Play along with me at half of the original tempo.
• Play along with me a the original tempo original.
• Rewind and Repeat full L.I.S.P of Melody 5

Play along with me

Now it’s time for you to start playing the full song. Please follow the instructions and make sure you have the 5 five melodies clearly memorised, and the chords. On the screen you will see me playing the melodies I want you to target.

• Play melody 1, 2, 3.
• Play melody 1, 2, 4.
• Play melody 1, 2, 5.
• Play chords – melody 5.

Assignments

Repeat the video as many times as you need to until you have memorised how to play the scale and melody number 1 and 2.

L.I.S.P  Melody 3, 4, 5 

After you have L.I.S.P the melody, write in detail your replies  to:

• Per beat: How many notes ?
• Per note: Same up or down ?

Record yourself

Once you have memorised the melody (pitch and rhythm).  Record yourself in video, with your phone, playing along the corresponding melody track. 

Your recording must answer yes to the following check questions. Once you are satisfied please submit your recording to the teacher.

Check questions 

• Did you turn on your metronome?
• Did you tap your feet while recording?
• Did you count it in?
• Did you sing what you were doing?

You have access to tabs of all melodies in your drop box folder.

Music Production and Songwriting

Are you interested in the final goal of your learning which should also include the experience of how to write a song, record and produce it to your utmost satisfaction. Read more about how to write a song.

For further information on all available courses please visit the main site of my Melbourne Guitar Lessons.