5 Steps to Learning Any Song in Under an Hour

Here’s What I’m Going to Teach You…

Introduction

I’ll go ahead and warn you that this method will forever change the way you approach
learning songs on the drums. Not only will you learn songs much more quickly, but
you’ll also learn them more thoroughly and confidently. You’ll memorize them much
more easily, and you won’t have to worry about even “reading” the chart. You’ll
experience far less anxiety and stress when gig time rolls around, and you’ll be much
more equipped to confidently lead the band and make music during the performance.

If that sounds alright to you, then keep reading!

This specific chart-writing, song-learning method is my personal method I’ve

developed over the last 5 or so years, and I now can’t imagine gigging as a
professional without this. I used other methods prior to this one, but this is the one I’ve
landed on and experienced the most success using. When I’ve had to learn 60+ new
cover songs, this is how I do it quickly. When I get called to sub on a gig last minute
and I have to learn 10 songs in 2 hours, this is how I do it. When I’m rehearsing with an
original band and we’re throwing together a new tune I’ve never heard, this is how I
memorize it.

Each of these “5 Steps” is basically a “listen-through” of whatever song you’re

learning. We’ll discuss what to do and listen for on your “first listen,” then we’ll talk
about what to do on the “second listen” and so on. Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• Listening Tricks: How to hear things you've never heard before on a recording

• Song Form Prediction: What almost every song has in common

• Length Prediction: How to NOT have to count measures throughout a song

• Shorthand Notation Hack: How to use simple notation to quickly learn grooves &
fills by ear

• The Cheatsheet: How to use a chart on the gig...without having to “read a chart”

• The 15 Minute Method: How to stop counting and learn a song in only 2-3 listens

I’m excited to share all of this with you, so I hope you enjoy!

- Stephen


1
Listening Tricks

How to Hear Things You've Never Heard Before on a Recording

Creating the Ideal Listening Environment

Since our goal is to learn a song as quickly as possible, we need to be able to hear the
recording very well and pick out as much detail as possible on our first listen. This
means creating an ideal listening environment - one free from distractions or
extraneous noise. The easy way to do this is to exclusively listen through
headphones or in-ears.

Whenever it comes time to learn a song, put your earbuds in and close off the world
around you. In order to learn a song in 5 listens (or 3 or 2…or even 1), you have to be in
a state of deep focus. I’ve found that headphones are the best way to achieve this
consistently.

Don’t learn a song for the first time in the car. Your car is full of a million distractions,
and you need to focus on the road first. That puts the song in second place, which
keeps us out of that deep focus state. Car listening is great for “brushing up” on some
tunes before the gig, but never learn a song for the first time here. Create a dedicated
listening environment for the initial learning process.

How Do You “Get in the Zone” of Deep Focus While Listening?

ACTION STEP: Immerse yourself in the track you’re listening to by constantly asking
yourself “what’s coming next?” Imagine you’re the drummer on that track. What are
you feeling? How hard are you hitting? The best way to learn something is by doing it,
and you’re getting as close to that as possible by putting yourself “inside” the
recording you’re listening to. The idea here is to actively listen, rather than passively
listen. Imagine you are an active part of the performance you’re listening to. As you
listen, think about:

• What’s coming next arrangement-wise. Are we heading toward a chorus or a

verse?

• What’s the current dynamic? Is the band playing loudly or softly? What volume are
the drums playing?

• What kind of emotion are you feeling? Great drum parts are very emotionally-
driven. What kind of attitude or feel is being conveyed right now in the recording?

Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with listening to music purely
for enjoyment. But in our case here, we’re listening critically with intention to learn.
When you’re listening for enjoyment, you’re on the outside looking in. When you’re
listening critically, you’re inside the track feeling and absorbing all the details.


2
How to Hear Things You’ve Never Heard on a Recording

Time to sharpen your ears and listen like you’ve never listened before! Believe it or not,
great listening skills are learned. Some folks are born with a so-called “musical ear,”
but the rest of us have spent numerous hours training our ears to hear and analyze
musical detail. This is essential if we’re going to quickly learn songs by ear without
consulting drum tabs or online tutorials. Let’s do it!

ACTION STEP: I want you to pick a favorite song that you’ll enjoy listening to over and
over again. We’re going to listen to it at least 6 times here, and I promise that before
we’re done you will have heard nuances and details in the recording that you never
noticed before. I’ll tell you what to listen to each time, so put on the headphones and
get ready for some deep listening!

• 1st Listen: Kick drum / bass guitar. Focus all your listening to the low end, making
note of the kick drum pattern and volume. Think about how the drum is tuned and
how the bass player is emphasizing or offsetting what the drummer is playing.

• 2nd Listen: Snare. Thankfully this is usually the easiest component of a mix to hear
clearly. Ask yourself whether the drummer is playing rimshots or center of the drum,
and think about whether it’s tuned high or low. Listen carefully for ghost notes, too.

• 3rd Listen: Other drumset components. Listen to the hihats…the ride… the crash.
If there’s a tom groove or tom fill, think about how many toms there are and how
they’re tuned. Pay attention to the overall drum sound and feel here.

• 4th Listen: The vocal. This is hands down the most important part of the recording,
especially if we’re listening to a pop song. The melody and lyrics determine the flow
and feel of the song, so we don’t want to neglect this crucial aspect! Listen to how
the vocalist phrases the lyrics. As usual, think about the emotion and the feel. How
do you think the vocalist’s performance is influencing the drum parts?

• 5th Listen: The guitar. Depending on the type of song or the genre, you may be
listening for an acoustic or electric guitar. Ask yourself what the role of that guitar
part might be. Is the acoustic functioning as a percussion instrument, playing simple
“rhythm strumming” to accompany the drums? Or is the acoustic part more
melodic? - a “picking” part? Is the electric part distorted and driving or clean and
pristine? Which side of the mix are the guitars on? Is there an electric guitar panned
hard left and another panned hard right? Listen carefully to the stereo field and
imagine you’re facing the stage watching these guys play. Where on the stage are
they positioned? Far left or right? Front and center? Or way in the back or even in
another room?

3
• 6th Listen: Keyboards / synthesizers. This 6th listen is also the “listen for anything
else” listen where we want to look for other sounds in the recording that don’t fit any
of our previous categories. If you’re listening to a modern pop song with a lot of
electronic production, you’ll hear a ton of this. If you’re listening to a modern worship
song, these keys/pad sounds are likely driving the entire feel of the quiet parts of the
song. Focus your listening on the piano, pads, or synth sounds that you can find.
What kind of reverb do you hear? Do the pad sounds feel like they’re being played in
a cathedral? Ask yourself these questions about the guitar sounds too. If you can
picture the musician playing the part, what kind of room is she in? Is it small and
dead or huge and live?

Now You’re Ready to REALLY Learn a Song… Any Song.

You’ve now listened to every detail of the song. Congrats! That’s a big
accomplishment, because you’re well on your way to knowing this song by heart (and
we haven’t even started writing a chart yet!).

Generally you won’t have time to do this many detailed listens when you have to learn
a song fast. This was just a helpful exercise to train your ear, and the more you do this
exercise the better you’ll get at picking out parts in less time. We want to be able to
hear everything in detail… all at once without doing 6 listens.

But now that we’ve created an ideal listening environment and you know exactly what
to listen for and how to listen to it critically… you’re ready to dig in and actually follow
the 5 step (or “5 listens”) plan for learning a song by heart…by ear… and be able to
remember it all when the gig comes around. Let’s get to it!


4
Song Form Cheat (1st Listen)

How to Learn a Song 90% in the First Listen

What Almost Every Song Has in Common

When we talk about song form, we’re talking about the overall sequence of verse,
chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, etc. The convenient thing for us right now is that
most songs follow a very similar form. That means we can predict roughly how the
song is going to go before we even listen to it, which makes our first step of charting
even easier.

Here are a couple of forms that you see all the time:

• ABABCB
• ABABABAB
We could explore this a little more and pull out some more variations of these forms,
but for right now let’s keep it simple. We could actually further simplify each of these
forms, respectively, down to:

• AABA
• AAAA
In case this seems like gibberish to you, let me explain a little more…

I mentioned a minute ago that most songs follow the form of verse, chorus, verse,
chorus, bridge, chorus, then maybe something else after that. If we label the verse as
A, the chorus as B, and the bridge as C, we can condense that form a bit on paper.
That leaves us with ABABCB.

The form I listed right after that one is basically just a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, over
and over again. This is a hymn-like form that you might hear in a traditional church, or
you might actually find this form in a soul/Motown song from the 70s.

But here’s the cool thing. By combining the verse and the chorus parts in our form
sequence, we can just label verse, chorus as A. Then we can label the bridge as B.
That’s how we get the condensed forms of AABA and AAAA.

If you take anything away from this little segment here, it needs to be this:

Most songs have a verse and a chorus that repeats, followed by a new and
different section that makes the song feel complete (the bridge). What happens
after that can be random or surprising, but most of the time the song will wrap up with
the chorus again.

Keep this in mind as you’re doing your “first listen” when you begin writing out the
form.


5
Writing a “Form Chart” for a Song

“You can fake your way through a groove or fill, but you can’t fake your way
through an arrangement you don’t know.”

This is a hugely important song-learning principle. If you don’t know “how the song
goes” - whether a chorus is up next or a bridge - you’ll struggle to make it through the
song. However, you could know the form well and make up grooves and fills and come
out just fine on the other end. Would you have played the song really well? Probably
not… But you will have survived. This is why I say that knowing the song form is 90%
of knowing the song. That last 10% is very important, too, but let’s start with the
learning step that gets us most of the way there.

ACTION STEP: Time to begin writing your cheatsheet chart! This is our “first listen,”
where our goal is simply to write out the form. Nothing else, just the sequence of verse-
chorus-etc. This is our roadmap chart, and we’ll gradually build off of it in the next few
listens. There’s an example on the next page of what your chart should look like after
this step.

I recommend picking a song that follows a basic pop form and that doesn’t
contain crazy-complex drum parts. Pick something you might play on a gig, like
“Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars or “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers. Or pick a
worship song you might play in church. If you’re into 70s Soul and Motown, pick
something like “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers or “Billy Jean” by Michael Jackson.

Notes on my chart below…

Note the “turn” after the first chorus here in my made-up song. This happens a lot
where a brief instrumental happens before going back into the verse. This might be the
same as the intro to the song, or it could be a little different.

Note the “chorus breakdown” followed by the “chorus up” on my chart. Many times a
song will contain a drums-only chorus after the bridge or a quieter, more “broken-
down” version that builds up to a big ending. I decided to add that for our fictional song
here.

Note that I don’t use the generic A-B-C form labelling system I talked about above.
Instead, I specifically use “V” for verse, “C” for chorus, and “B” for bridge since that’s
easier to remember.


6
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Length Predictor (2nd Listen)

How to NOT have to count measures throughout a song

Identify Common Song Phrasings

Many drummers are plagued early on by feeling the need to constantly count
throughout a performance. In the percussion world, this is necessary when you’re
reading sheet music and making sure to come in at the right moment. But on drumset
we want to be free to just listen, enjoy the music, still come in at the right time, but
have the freedom to improvise without worrying about counting.

Luckily for us, most songs we ever play on gigs are pretty straightforward and contain
the most common phrasings that we really don’t have to count.

Most song sections are built of 4, 8, or 16 bar phrases.

Why is this? Because it feels natural and complete. Most lyrical melodies adhere to this
form, and most songs are very “square” in this way. The verse is usually 8 or 16 bars,
and the chorus is the same. Maybe the bridge is 8 bars…or even just 4 bars if it
happens to be short. 90% of the time you can count on a song section being a multiple
of 4 in length.

This is handy, because we don’t need to count an 8 bar phrase. We can just feel it
instead.

ACTION STEP: A great way to reinforce your “feeling” of basic phrases is to practice
playing this exercise… Set your metronome to a moderate tempo (maybe 90bpm), and
play a basic groove. On the 4th measure, play a small fill. Nothing huge, just a simple
flair that marks the end of that 4 bar phrase. Then on the 8th measure, play a fill
that’s a little bigger. Think of this one as a period at the end of the sentence. Then on
the 12th bar, play a small fill much like the one you played on the 4th bar. Finally,
play a huge fill on the 16th bar. This could even be a 2 bar fill that starts on bar 15.

Repeat this 16 bar cycle until you don’t have to count anymore. Feel these phrases.
You’re basically playing a song here, and if you do know a 16 bar chorus you have your
work cut out for you. Just let that chorus melody loop in your head while you groove
along to your metronome.


8
But What If the Sections Aren’t Multiples of 4??

Sometimes things can get interesting and a song might deviate from standard form
lengths. Though this isn’t super common, it’s still normal. You might encounter a song
with an extra measure at the end of the chorus. Or you might find that there’s an extra
2 counts at the end of the verse (half a bar if we’re in 4/4 time). How do you handle
this? I’ll show you in a minute. First, I want to make sure you understand one thing.

If you know, feel, and always recognize phrases that are multiples of 4, anything
other than that will jump out at you.

How do bankers know if currency is real or fake? They don’t spend hours pouring over
all the fake currencies that are out there. Instead they spend hours pouring over the
REAL currency. That way if anything fake comes along, it jumps out at them and they
immediately know something’s up. You can do the same.

Think of 4, 8, or 16 bar phrases as the “real currency” - the common stuff you see
every day. Then think of the 9 bar phrase… the 4 and a half bar phrase… or even the
12 bar phrase (though this one’s common in blues!) as the “fake currency.” If you’re
super familiar with the typical lengths, anything other than those will jump out at you -
even if you’re not counting!

My personal recommendation is to count the whole time as you go through your

second listen here to ensure you nail the details. But the more you do this, the less
you’ll have to count. And if the song you’re learning is all simple phrases, you won’t
need to count at all even the first time you perform the song.

ACTION STEP: Continue writing your cheatsheet chart as you go through your
“second listen.” We’re now identifying the length of each song section, paying careful
attention to whether we have any “odd measures” or strange lengths. For the most
part, we can expect 4, 8, or 16 bar sections. Check out my made-up song chart on the
next page.

Note the two spots where I decided to throw in a “curveball” for the sake of
demonstration. The “(1/2)” at the end of the second chorus signifies an additional half
measure after the initial 8 bars. It’s not uncommon for a chord to hold out a little longer
before launching into a bridge.

At the end of the bridge we have a full additional measure before we drop into a
breakdown chorus. This is common for the same reason, since sometimes a chord will
linger before the next section. I find that it’s easier to read (8)(1) on the chart than just
writing (9). I want to know that there still is a standard 8 bar phrase - There’s just an
extra bar tacked onto the end.


9
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Shorthand Notation Hack (3rd Listen)
How to use simple notation to quickly learn grooves & fills by ear

How to Read Music - CRASH COURSE!

Even if you’ve never read music before, this quick crash course will get you on track.
Musical notation is basically simple, logical math. There are no confusing tricks, and
everything is straightforward. Like any language, it contains lots of “pieces” or “figures”
that you learn to recognize over time. This is like learning to read words so that you can
then read sentences.

Most songs you play and grooves that you learn are in 4/4 time. That means that there
are four quarter notes in each measure (just like four quarters in a dollar). Naturally,
there are eight 8th notes in a measure and sixteen 16th notes in a measure. We count
the beats as “one-two-three-four,” and we add “ands” in between for the 8th notes. We
then add “e” and “a” in between the 8ths to create 16ths.

Quarter Notes

8th Notes

16th Notes

11
Notation “Key”

Here’s the “key,” showing you which line or space corresponds to which instrument on
the kit, which is extremely simple for our purposes here:

The bottom space (1st note) is kick drum, the upper middle space (2nd note) is snare
drum, the top space above the staff (3rd note) is the hihat or ride cymbal (played with
hand), and the bottom space below the staff (4th note) is the hihat played by the left
foot.

We could then use the other lines and spaces to denote other instruments on the kit
(like toms or other cymbals), but we don’t need to for our purposes since we’re just
talking about basic kick/snare patterns. For the majority of our examples, this is it. I’ll
actually only write the kick-snare pattern most of the time, so we won’t even use any
“X” notes for cymbals.

A Couple Other “Weirdnesses”…

We may encounter dotted notes at some point. When we put a dot on a note, we’re
adding half that note’s value back to the note. That means it is now 150% of the length
it would normally be without the dot.

Time for some basic math… A quarter note is equal in length to two 8th notes. That
means that if we put a dot on a quarter note, it will now equal the length of three 8th
notes.

Similarly we could put a dot on an 8th note to make it equal to three 16th notes.


12
Here’s a common example where you’ll see a dotted note, as well as a tie:

Follow the “counts” written in to read this rhythm. The counts in parentheses are silent,
while the ones directly adjacent to notes refer to those exact notes.

You can see how the first note (the dotted note) is equal to the value of three 16th
notes (1-e-and), because we then have the fourth 16th on the ‘a’ of one. The ‘a’ of one
is then tied to the 8th note on beat 2, meaning we don’t actually play on beat 2. This
8th note is basically an extension of the ‘a’ of 1 because of the tie.

We do play the and of 2, however, so in saying this rhythm it sounds like “ONE - - A - -
AND.”

If this is confusing right now, that’s ok. When you learn a new language, you master it
by hearing it then speaking it, even when you don’t fully understand the grammatical
rules.

The Biggest Time-Saving Hack When Writing Out Grooves & Fills…

Most grooves that we learn in songs contain some sort of timekeeping. Maybe it’s 8ths
or 16ths on the hats or ride, or maybe we’re playing 8ths on the floor tom. Either way,
there’s often a continuous, repetitive pattern happening somewhere to glue the groove
together and keep the band locked in.

However, we can save a good deal of time and space by not writing out all the
“timekeeping” notes. Choosing to not write out eight 8th notes or sixteen 16th notes
can be a huge timesaver when we’re trying to chart a song quickly.

My “shorthand” method of writing out a groove consists of simply writing the key
rhythm. This is usually the kick & snare pattern. I may write out a basic groove to look
something like this…


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This is exactly how I quickly write out grooves in a song that I’m learning. I can write
out a pattern as I hear it without getting bogged down by writing every single note in
there.

In the third example, I know that there’s some sort of tom pattern happening with a big
snare backbeat on beat 4. Sometimes I’ll go ahead and write the exact tom rhythm in,
but many times I don’t need to. All I want to know are the basics: We have quarter
notes on kick, some tom timekeeping, and a big snare hit on 4.

In the first example you can see that I wrote in a little “+” sign on the upper left. That
signifies “closed hats,” so it tells me that I’m keeping time on closed hats. The “o” on
the upper left of the second groove signifies open hats, as you might have guessed. If
I’m keeping time on the ride, I might write in something like “ride wash” or “ride ping”
depending on what type of ride sound the groove needs.

ACTION STEP: It’s now time for your third listen of your chosen song, and we now
want to focus on identifying grooves and parts. If you’re charting a “dance-pop” tune
like “Uptown Funk,” you’ll be writing in a “four-on-the-floor” groove, which you
probably don’t even need to notate. Check out my chart for some more examples of
grooves and fills you might notate.

14
A few things to note on my chart…

• My goal is always to write grooves as few times as possible. So if the groove from
the beginning of the song continues throughout, there’s no need to write it multiple
times. I didn’t notate another groove until the bridge, where we have a “halftime”
groove. This is where we’re hitting the snare on beat 3, which makes the tempo feel
twice as slow. Every once and a while this kind of feel pops up in a bridge, so I
thought I’d throw that in.

• Our chorus breakdown just consists of 4 bars out and 4 bars building back in. You
could notate this in as much detail as you want, but I decided to keep it simple. You
could specify what kind of “build” you’re doing and whether or not there’s a fill at the
end if you’d like.

• Most of the time I don’t write out fills. If it’s a key, super crucial fill (i.e. “In the Air
Tonight” by Phil Collins), I’ll write it out note for note. But most of the time I allow fills
to be an improvisatory part of the song. If I do write one or two out, I’ll place them
over toward the right of the paper to keep things separate and organized visually. 


15
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The Cheatsheet (4th Listen)

How to use a chart on the gig...without having to “read a chart”

Make Your Chart So Easy to Read That You Don’t Have to Read It

The best way to memorize a song is to learn the melody, then make note of anything
unexpected that happens in the arrangement. If you retain those two elements, you’ll
have a solid handle on the song without even having to look at your chart. Since that’s
the goal we want to achieve, let’s finish writing the chart with the intention of
memorizing the song.

Notate any key components of the song that you think you might forget, and
highlight them.

This could be a break, stop, build, key fill, dynamic change, etc. Any “piece of the
puzzle” that is essential toward playing the song right needs to be clearly notated on
your chart, especially if there’s a chance you might forget it. I’ve actually already done
some of this on my example chart from the 3rd listen. I already included the “dynamic”
elements of the chorus breakdown and build near the end of the song, which is an
important part of the overall arrangement.

You might also choose to highlight any “odd measures,” like the (1/2) measure at the
end of the second chorus on my example chart. Anything that you’re afraid of
forgetting on the gig… highlight it now so that it jumps out at you. The goal is to glance
at the chart and immediately see the most important elements that we don’t want to
forget. We don’t want to have to squint our eyes and read past a bunch of detail. We
just want the big picture, and we want simple and reliable reminders that will keep us
on track.

Color-Code for Quick “Instrumentation Recall”

A super helpful element of my chart writing over the last few years has been color
coding song sections. I’ve mentally assigned a color to each main component of the
drum kit. I’ll then label the song section with the color pertaining to my main
“timekeeping” instrument. In other words, if I’m keeping time on the ride I’ll label that
section green since the ride cymbal is green in my mind. If I’m keeping time on the
toms, I’ll label the section blue since toms are blue. Closed hats are yellow, open hats
are orange, and crash cymbal is red.

Get yourself some colored markers and get creative here. Pick colors that make sense
in your mind so that you can know at a glance whether you’re on the ride or the open
hats for the bridge. Less reading, more making music!

17
ACTION STEP: It’s time for our 4th listen, where we do exactly what we’ve just talked
about. Highlight important things you’ve already written in, and write in any key
elements you’ve missed. Add color-coding to the song form to make instrumentation/
timekeeping super obvious and easy to recall. Remember that the goal is to memorize
the song, and the less time we can spend squinting at our chart, the quicker we can be
fully “off-chart.”

A few things to note on my chart…

• You can see where I highlighted those two “odd measure” spots to make sure I
remember them.

• I also added in a “stop” on beat four right before the final chorus. That’s a very
important element to not forget, so I highlighted it.

• I also wouldn’t want to forget the 4-bars-down, 4-bars-building section there on the
chorus breakdown, so I highlighted it. If the build were to contain a tom part, I’d also
highlight that in blue since that’s my tom color.

• Each song section in the form column now has a color, which means I now know
exactly where my right hand goes for each section. This is so much easier than
having to scan the page to find where I wrote in “ride wash” or “open hats.”

• I also added a tempo on the upper right, as well as song title and artist on the upper
left. You don’t want to forget adding the song title, otherwise figuring out what song
you’re looking at will be a pain if you have a whole bunch of these charts. ;)


18
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The 15 Minute Method (5th Listen & Beyond):
How to stop counting and learn a song in only 2-3 listens

The One Thing You Need to Know to Ditch Your Chart

Know the melody. Be able to sing the entire song in your head. Even if you miss a
lyric or two, know the melody and the rhythm of that melody.

Let’s say you have to pick one of two songs you’ve never played before to perform 5
minutes from now on a gig. The first one you’ve never even heard before, and it’s not
familiar to you at all. The second one you’ve heard a hundred times on the radio, and
you could sing it in your sleep. You’ve never played it on the drums, but you can sing
along to it. Which of those songs are you going to choose to perform 5 minutes from
now?

The one you can sing in your sleep, of course!

When you know the melody of a song, you feel deep down inside that you know the
song by heart. Knowing a song isn’t so much about knowing the details of the
drum parts. It’s even more about knowing the melody and the riffs that drive the
song. Every other part is there to support the melody, so within the melody lies all the
answers for what to play and how to play it.

When you know the melody, you don’t have to count. You’re just playing the vocal
part in your head, and you know exactly when the chorus ends and the bridge starts.
You know the emotion and the overall feel of the song, so you actually aren’t blindly
guessing on the drum parts. Though you don’t know them well, you have an idea what
to play since you know the overall gist of the song.

I think you understand at this point that learning the melody is the key to memorizing a
song and eventually ditching your chart. That’s the icing on the cake. Once you’ve
charted the form, the length of the sections, the grooves and fills, and all the key
arrangement elements, you’ve probably already memorized the song to a degree. All
that’s left is getting it playing in your head so that you retain it and can sing it on the
spot.

The chart provides you with the “math” element of the song - the parts and the length
of sections. But the melody provides you with the emotion. It tells you how to play
those parts. When you let yourself be absorbed into the melody, music starts to
happen. You suddenly know what parts to play and how to play them. You can even
improvise appropriate parts without thinking much. It all stems from the melody.


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ACTION STEP: Use your fifth listen of the song to really drive the vocal part and the
lead lines into your head. Memorize the melodies, whether it’s sung by the vocalist or
played by the guitar in the turns or instrumentals. This is how you enter the “comfort
zone” of feeling like you really know the song. As an added plus, this is also a great
way to confidently remember the tempo so you can count off the band accurately.
Remember how the chorus goes, play it in your head, and count off accordingly.

How to Condense This Whole Process Into Only 2-3 Listens

My initial promise to you was that this method would teach you how to learn a song in
one hour. Of course, this first test run has probably taken longer since we’ve slowed
down to explain what’s happening during each listen and during each stage of chart-
writing. But now that you know the method, go test it out on another song. You’ll be
able to get a chart down in under an hour, no problem.

But that’s not the end. I want you to narrow this down to 15 minutes. I want you to
learn a song in 3…or maybe even just 2 listens. Do this by following these three steps,
which also serve as your ACTION STEPS for this section:

(1) Be familiar enough with song form to be able to write out your roadmap and
count at the same time.

Combine steps #1 & #2 so that you’re writing out song sections and counting them
simultaneously. This is a very logical combo, and this is what I do on my first listen
every time.

(2) Get comfortable and quick at notating grooves and key song elements.

Combine steps #3 & #4 so that you’re notating grooves, fills, and key arrangement
elements all on the second listen. I know this sounds like a lot right now, but remember
that you do have the freedom to pause the recording as you go. I do that all the time,
though I try not to on a simpler song. Ultimately it all comes down to doing this over
and over and over again. The more you chart songs and notate grooves, the faster you
get at it.

(3) Use your “third listen” to just enjoy the song and feel the melody.

Get the melody in your head so that you really feel like you “know the song” at this
point. If possible, come back the next day and listen through the song again. This helps
a lot with remembering the melody a few days later.


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One additional tip… Set a timer for 15 minutes next time you chart a song. Having a
strict deadline will help push you along and prepare you for learning songs in a hurry if
you get called for a last minute gig. Parkinson’s Law states that “work will expand to fill
the amount of time you allow for it.” Keep the deadline tight, and that will help you
exceed your time expectations for charting.


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Learning Songs Lightning-Fast
How to learn 10 songs in two hours

The Tried and True Method for Fine-Tuning This Process

You guessed it. You gotta practice this everyday! The great thing about this process is
that it works every time. You can now follow a predictable system that will teach you a
song every time, no matter what. No more guessing and feeling uncertain on a gig. You
can now confidently go forth and conquer every song that comes your way.

But what if you have to learn 30-60 covers for a new gig you’re starting? What if you
got called to fill in for someone two hours from now and you have 10 new songs to
learn? Do you think you could pull it off in either of these scenarios right now?

If not, don’t be discouraged. This stuff takes practice. But here’s what I want you to do
in preparation for that. This is the big, final action step I want to give you before I send
you on your way.

FINAL ACTION STEP:

Chart a new song every day for the next year. Is this ambitious? Absolutely it is. If
you feel like this is too much, back it off to 4 or 5 songs a week. I’ll give you the
weekend off. ;) Even at 4 new songs a week, you will have charted and learned over
200 songs by the end of the year. That’s incredible! Think about how much you will
have grown at that point. Imagine how much faster you will have gotten at this. Maybe
one song takes an hour right now, but a year from now you’ll be down to 15 minutes.
Or less! You might even be charting simple songs in 1-2 listens.

Predictable, reliable methods like this song-learning method only get better and better
and faster and faster the more you use them. So go do it! Practice until you reach your
song learning goals, and if you have any questions you know where to reach me.

Stephen@TheNonGlamorousDrummer.com

Thanks so much for digging into this guide and for hanging along for the ride! I
hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I hope this powerful method of learning songs sticks
with you and saves you hours of wasted effort. I hope this has hugely impacted
your learning, practicing, and performing. Let me know how this guide has
helped you! I’d love to get follow-up updates from you as you continue to grow.

Thanks,
Stephen
P.S - Don’t forget to check out 10 of my personal charts below, as well as the song list to get you started!


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SONG LIST
Simple Songs to Get You Started Charting

Use these songs to get started, since the grooves & fills are very simple…

• September (Earth Wind & Fire)

• Vultures (John Mayer)

• Miss You (The Rolling Stones)

• Love and Happiness (Al Green)

• Back in Black (AC/DC)

• Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)

• Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars)

• I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick)

• Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi)

• Let’s Stay Together (Al Green)

• You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)

• Let’s Go Crazy (Prince)

Level-up with these songs, which still follow very basic pop forms but contain
slightly more complex parts to notate…

• Easy (Commodores)

• Purple Rain (Prince)

• Superstition (Stevie Wonder)

• I Wish (Stevie Wonder)

• Finesse (Bruno Mars)

• 24K Magic (Bruno Mars)

• Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears)

• Africa (Toto)

• Lovely Day (Bill Withers)

• Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)

• Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac)

• Come Together (The Beatles)

• …and you could continue this list with literally ANY pop song out there!

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