Guitar/Learning Songs
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Now that you've got a few chords under your belt, you're ready to start learning some songs. Great! There are several ways to learn songs, and some are more accessible than others. If you are looking for software to help you learn, please see the main page.
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[edit] General Tips
Practice the song slowly (especially if it's a fast song) until you can play it flawlessly. Then, when you are confident with the notes you are supposed to play, increase the speed until you can play along with the song.
Regardless of the method you use to learn a song, you should always use a drum-machine or metronome in order to keep a steady tempo
[edit] Methods of Learning
[edit] Sheet Music
The best way is to find sheet music for the song you are trying to learn, like a tab book, available from any guitar shop. Tab books are good, because they are almost always accurate, and they not only show the notes you're supposed to play, but they give good sense of how to play the notes. Generally they include both the rhythm and lead part, even written on the same page if they are played at the same time.
However tab books are notorious for being both expensive and hard to read, especially if you have no prior knowledge of music notation. Understanding music theory, even just enough to properly (and easily) read a tab book is difficult. Being able to read music is a huge, immense help in understanding why some things sound good and others sound bad, but learning is a massive undertaking.
[edit] Online Tab
A much quicker, cheaper and often faster way to learn is to search for an online tab of the song you're looking for. Simply type "ArtistName SongName tab" into your favourite search engine, and voila, you have dozens to choose from. The online tab community is thriving, and there are many popular sites where you can find tabs for most popular songs. Some sites even feature a MIDI of the song, to make learning even easier.
There are several downside to online tab, some of which are outlined in the Tablature section. The biggest problem is lack of accuracy. Always remember that online tabs are not made by professionals like tab books, and that somewhere down the line someone was sitting at home with a CD and figured it out by trial and error. Thus, the more complicated the song, the less likely the tab you are reading is 100% accurate. But since most people don't play a song exactly as it sounds on the album (even the recording artists!), this isn't such a big deal.
Another down side is that there is a huge amount of stealing in the community, and if you are looking for an obscure tab, you might only find one actual tab, with copies of it on every site you visit. Some sites allow for multiple versions, and some use voting or comments to give you a sense of how accurate the tab is. However, don't let voting alone determine which tab you read, because if the people who vote don't know how to play the song either, then they might vote a terrible tab really high. In general, you should read two or three tabs for a song, and then from that determine how you intend to play the song. Comments on a song can contain slight revisions or alternate fingerings for chords, so it is good to check those out.
[edit] By Ear
Songs can also be learned "by ear", with no sheet music. Essentially you just listen to the song and try to figure it out, with nothing for reference. Knowledge of music theory is particularly helpful for this method. It probably sounds a lot harder to learn this way than it is, but it is a really good way to practice whatever music knowledge you have. And it is especially rewarding being able to figure out a famous musicians piece and saying "I could have made that up!"
First, you should always try and figure out the key (or scale) the song is in. Knowing the key essentially tells you two important things; what the root notes are of the chords they are playing, and the scale that is used for soloing. When you know the scale, you can also probably figure out which scale degree is supposed to be major or minor.
To figure out the key, try playing random notes on the fretboard, and when one "works", play a major or minor pentatonic scale beginning with that note. Once you have figure out a few more notes, you will probably have a good idea of what scale is being used. If that doesn't work, try humming the chords being used, and then match those tones on the guitar. Be careful you don't accidentally start humming the lead vocals, because although that will help determine the key, the chords are likely different.
Once you know what key the song is in, the rest generally follows pretty quickly. Some of the tricky bits can be one-note riffs, arpeggios, of specific voicing of the chords they are using.
If you don't want to figure out the key of the song, the figuring out something by ear is more difficult. Essentially you need to just find the same notes and play them at the same time. Generally this involves a lot of trial and error, but simple songs can easily be figured out.
[edit] Other Guitarists
This is perhaps the best way to learn. Playing with another guitarist gives you the opportunity to ask questions about chords and rhythms, and it gives you a chance to see and hear what the song is supposed to be like when it's performed live. However, the down side is that often a guitarist learn to play a song "their way", and they don't care about how it's "really" supposed to be played. Thus, you might not be learning the song exactly, but rather a slightly different version.
[edit] Concert Videos
Another place to learn is by watching concert videos, especially on DVDs where they allow you to pick camera angles. Often they will have a camera never breaks away from lead guitarist. By following along, you can learn exactly how a particular guitarist plays a particular song live.
The downside of this is that not every artist (especially new ones) have a concert DVD. Also, the guitarist may be playing the song differently live than on the album, so depending on how accurate you intend to be with your learning and playing, watching a video may not be the best way.
