I like to break songs into sections (verse/chorus, A/B, whatever) and make sure I can play one section by memory before adding another section. If that’s still too tough I’ll do smaller chunks (4 bars, 8 bars, whatever.) Also playing it by memory, no written music, is a good indicator you really know a tune.

If it’s technical, I make sure to not go too fast, really get it under my fingers before increasing speed. Then only go up by 5bpm or so.

One little trick I like, go play in a park. It’s kind of like practicing, but folks will glance your way, there are lots of distractions to test you! Nice middle ground between practicing at home and performing.

Best of luck to you!

When you play your songs for others, how comfortable are you with making mistakes, or forgetting parts of a song? If you want to limit mistakes I would keep practicing… a lot. There are different phases of practices too. There’s the “learning the song” part and then the “woodshedding the song to make it performable for others”. You might mix up the tunes during the learning the song part, but for woodshedding or polishing the song, I like to focus on one at a time.

Really, you are the only one who can say that you’ve practiced enough or not. For each of us, it would likely be a different answer. For me, the better questions have to do with what my goals are. What end result do I want to create.

Also, when you play the song, do you know it well enough to be thinking about the music… feel, dynamics, expression, tone, emotion? Or is your brain still stuck on chord fingerings, making the changes, finding the notes?

I forget where I heard this, but the quote is: “Amateurs practice until they don’t make mistakes. Pros practice until they CAN’T make a mistake”. For what it’s worth….

I’m afraid this is one of those “what’s the meaning of life” questions. It’s surely a different answer for everyone. I can relate my personal experience though, and hopefully it will resonate. I memorized finger picking picking songs for years playing them over and over and over, and when I thought I had it, I added another one. Then it became a chore. I bet you feel the chore already. Then I had a mountain bike accident and was in the hospital for a couple of months and forgot almost everything I had learned. Wasted time learning those songs? Not at all because deep in my lizard brain and muscle memory there were the remnants of rhythm, patterns, finger memory, and bits/pieces of useful stuff. Then I took up this thing called “improvisation”. That’s freedom for me now. Instead of memorization, just start with learning a simple structure, like the structure of 12 bar blues. All you need is three chords, (I, IV, and V) and the minor pentatonic scale. You can then learn licks from all of Active Melody’s slow easy blues lessons. And/or just make them up yourself. Start just strumming the chords in a 12 bar song over and over a few times until your brain gets it and goes on autopilot. Then start adding your licks from notes in the chord or pentatonic scale. Try looking for call and response lessons in 12 bar blues. Keep things very very simple. It should start sprouting pretty soon. Listen to lots of acoustic blues guys like Clapton unplugged, BB, Lightning Hopkins, etc. Then, soon, you will be playing music without memorizing songs. The definition of music is wide open.

Hi Michael – this is a really excellent question, and one I’ve thought about quite a bit myself. All of the above advice agrees with my own conclusions. Right now, I’m in the middle of a scientific experiment: I have learned a fairly complex bluegrass (flat-picking) song, and I have played it at least 3 times a day for 2 weeks now. I will continue doing this for 2 more weeks, then back off to playing it about once a week. As I’m doing this, I’m noticing how much concentration is required to play it perfectly. At first, I had to really focus on the note sequences, the position of the pick, my playing speed, my dynamics. But by now, I can just play most of it while my brain is on cruise control. And I am beginning to spend less time looking at my fretboard, with the goal of being able to play most of it without looking at the fretboard at all. When that time comes, I expect golden shafts of light will descend from the heavens, and I will be transported into an alternate universe.

michael k wrote:

My question is,how to know when u mastered a song on guitar,know it inside and out?

My hands probably shake worse than yours under pressure, I have a nervous system disorder that can really get so bad I just have to fight my way through it. The main reason for my nervousness is lack of playing in front of others. What would help both of us is to play with other people in some sort of a jam that is not just a solo performance. That way we get used to playing in front of others and not having all the focus on ourselves. If that’s not an option, I would say to stick with very simple songs until you get more comfortable with playing to an audience.

Once I start getting nervous, there is no easy way for me to stop shaking. I hate when it happens, but there is not a whole lot I can do about it other than playing a bare bones version of the song in question and just doing my best with it. I’m pretty much a hobbyist that occasionally will play on special occasions for family and friends or around the camp fire, but no jamming buddies in my age group. I would love to have others to jam with or work on songs that we can play as a group, but that would take some extra effort to find said individuals.

Another point about nerves… people understand. It’s a lot better to just say “I’m feeling pretty nervous. I don’t play in front of people that often” rather than trying to cover for it. If you’re uncomfortable with your nerves, others will be too. If you just come out with it and accept it all the best you can, others will too. Unless they’re teenagers… Haha! Then all bets are off!