Should I memorize songs to the point where I can play them without relying on tabs/backing track?

[Lorcan Ward]

When you play a song enough times it will eventually stick!

I never rely on notes when playing a show.

Sort of related but in the audio commentary of Steve Vai’s live dvd Billy Sheehan says he has a cheat sheet beside his amp for the song Liberty since he can’t remember it. It always stuck out to me how a seasoned musician like Billy would have trouble with a song like that.

 

[Baelzebeard]

I think ultimately you need to memorize it, but learning with tabs, and playing along with recordings is great.

I'll start with tabs to get the notes/chords under my fingers. Then I break a song into sections as I learn them. The song then becomes a list of parts and how many repetitions.
Ex.
A x 4
B x 2
C x 4
Etc.

After i drill that enough, it becomes memorized, and I can play unaccompanied. Just need to count the repetitions as I play them.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I don't spend too much time on covers, but when I'm in a band I use a marker board to break songs down into parts and mark the number of repetitions etc.

Obviously we don't use that live, but it helps a lot in rehearsal/songwriting/workshopping.

 

[LedAstray]

Everyone has their own standards, bro.
If it's just to play for yourself it doesn't matter at all unless you make it matter.

My process is, if I am making a cover, that I will learn the song first - individual riffs and what not - then I'll play it many times to a backing track and see if it sticks well.

Then I'll make a scratch record few times and see how it sounds on it's own, if I'm making any mistakes, how my tone works for the song etc.
When it's time to do a final recording, I'll set up the session, set some markers in my DAW where riffs start and end, have my drums and bass in place.
Then I'll try to record as long piece as I can, if I make an error in the middle of next section I'll stop the recording, split it on the marker, double/quad track that section and move on to the next one.
I'll do a video separately though and I'll play the whole song several times with different angles, if I make an error I don't stop, just give myself a second and pick up on next riff/repetition and just hide it with a different video take.

So essentially yes, I do memorise the whole songs before I play them, but playing it correctly has a priority over playing it in one take.

However - seeing that you mention looking at tabs - I must point out that I play lots of stuff that there simply are not tabs for. Some less known bands, or the tabs are simply wrong - and so I learn them by ear.

 

[CerealKiller]

I would recommend learning the songs by ear. They stick so much better than when learning from tabs. Playing along with backing tracks or the recordings is all good, but if you really want to learn and memorize the songs, put the tabs away. In my experience, of course.