Memorizing djent riffs?

[Glimpsed-AM]

Hello everyone, I've been recently learning some djent songs because I like how groovy a lot of them sound or because of the difficult techniques. I've started some songs by Periphery and Veil of Maya and I can get the songs down up to speed while the music in front of me in tabs, but memorizing certain parts is a problem, for example the outro section on the song 'Unbreakable' by Veil of Maya isn't too difficult to play, but it feels so random and I can't really see any patterns to help me memorize it, I need to see what's coming next in order to keep the rhythm which happens rarely for me on other music I play like death metal. Does anyone have some tips I could use on working on parts like that? It's getting me pretty frustrated haha...

 

[Aevolve]

Listen to it. Over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over.

That's seriously about it. All of a sudden it will begin to click. Took me awhile to memorize the intro to Insomnia and now I can recite it even when other music's playing.

 

[Glimpsed-AM]

Listen to it. Over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over.

That's seriously about it. All of a sudden it will begin to click. Took me awhile to memorize the intro to Insomnia and now I can recite it even when other music's playing.

Alrighty, so it will just take a lot longer to memorize than 'regular' stuff as I call it? Thanks for the tip!

 

[Aevolve]

Alrighty, so it will just take a lot longer to memorize than 'regular' stuff as I call it? Thanks for the tip!

If you're really desperate you could take the time to count out the beats, maybe program the rhythm into TuxGuitar or GuitarPro.. By the time you finished it would be deeply ingrained.

Personally, I just listen to the song repeatedly, and once I can get the first couple beats I try to go along with the rest of them afterwards and restart it when I make a mistake, until I eventually follow the whole thing along.

 

[Dayn]

As said, pure memorisation. Oftentimes, there's a method to the madness. Listen to the rhythm; you'll often hear it broken up into two or three sixteenth note sets. So a three-sixteenth note beat = 3. Take the first two bars of Periphery's 'Icarus Lives!'. The rhythm of notes goes like this:

3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 2

You could count it like that. The first note is a dotted eighth long... then the two open notes with the rest in between? I count them as a dotted eighth, because it flows so perfectly. I hope you can understand what I mean? It's not actually random: you can pick out the beat perfectly with just eighth notes and dotted eighth notes. It flows very well and it's extremely easy to remember.

So that can help you, if you learn to pick out the beat. Then on the other hand, you have Meshuggah's 'In Death - Is Death', which is often just flat-out fucking random in places. But even then, it still keeps a fluid beat going.

 

[Solodini]

What Dayn said. Counting rhythms is what I find the most effective for learning to play and for memorisation. Count the rhythms in standard subdivisions, either playing at the same time, or simply accenting you're count where notes are meant to be played. Then your acknowledgment of the groupings of notes will make more sense to the piece overall. An important part of reliability of memory, I find, is having as many different approaches to the subject as possible.

 

[Bigfan]

I've actually had Icarus Lives in the back of my head for the last 2+ years, so learning that one is pretty simple.

Any other song in the world, though; difficult as fuck, repetition, repetition etc.

Just listen actively, try to hum melodies, beat out rhythms, and try to UNDERSTAND the music you're hearing, rather than just parroting it.

 

[Bugrasisman]

Counting rhythms is a good way but not enough to memorize quickly. Counting rhythms and give them accent is the best way to memorize. Accents will help you to remember. Instead of trying to memorize all song just try to hear & see subdivides. This is what i usually do. Hope it helps.

 

[Thrashman]

Its all about grooving to a constant beat. Listen to the music and try to find the starting point of each riff and to try to "follow" them so to speak. Observation is key.

 

[mm66554]

You need to study time signatures to get a feel of how repetitions take place within different beats. For example, most people know what 3/4 feels like so hearing a rhythm in 3/4 over 4/4 might be easy to memorize. I know when I was playing polyrhythms I tended to 3/4 style repetitions before learning what the others sound like. Each time signature has a different feel, for example 5/4 has that unique 1234512345 - hard to explaine in text but it plays once then resolves the next time round.

Also sometimes guitarists move away set rhythms and just go with whatever sounds best with the other instruments, in that case it's all a matter of listening over and over again. Try slowing the song down in media player and playing along with it to keep your brain from lagging.

 

[kamello]

hey, something I do when Im learning something with an odd rhytm is to take a pick with me when I have to go somewhere, listen to the song, and airguitar with my right hand


I can`t play during the week, so it is a nice practice for me to remember rhytms apart from counting them