When learning songs, do you actually memorize the number of bars in each part, or do you go by feel?

Count? Hell no. For me, it's feel. Counting while playing is counter intuitive where feel is concerned. Again, for me. What Larry said about knowing where you are: verse, chorus, bridge etc... is what I do to understand where I am in a song.
 
Some guys need to count, others prefer to count, others don't need to count, whatever de-shells your nuts. I can't do the count because that's conscious thought and conscious thought gets in my way.
 
Some guys need to count, others prefer to count, others don't need to count, whatever de-shells your nuts. I can't do the count because that's conscious thought and conscious thought gets in my way.

Oh my, I hope I can get to this point one day.
 
Oh my, I hope I can get to this point one day.

You might be there and not realize it. It's just knowing where you are in the song form, at all times.

We do a song, "Lay Down Sally". During the guitar lead, the bass layer is following the same note progression as a verse into a chorus. He goes through that whole progression two entire times for the guitar lead. I can subconsciously sing a verse and a chorus exactly two times during the entire lead. So the lead is the verse/chorus, that's the only 2 parts to that song. Simple. I don't think the bassist is counting, he knows when to change. His big problem is changing to the right note lol. I know when he get's lost. It's just memorizing the chord progression, which happens automatically when I learn a song. So the song, from the bass players POV, is verse chorus verse chorus etc until the end. It helps to think like a bass player and knowing when the chords are supposed to change. Count it, feel it, memorize it, just as long as you know the tune without relying on anyone, that's the goal.
 
I feel that you should be able to count anything and everything. I can tell the bassist to watch out for the 16 th note anticipation at the end of bar 8 and we both get it.

Saves a lot of time.

I don't rely on cues from anyone. You should be able to play your songs with no accompaniment.

Yes, it's a lot of work but the working pros do it.

I tend to agree this is the goal. Although I also agree in a cover band with a large repertoire it's not always possible to get there out of the gate, but it's still the goal. And of course, listening is always a key.

The problem with relying on others for cues is they can, and will, make a mistake.
And really, the rest of the band is often relying on the drummer for the cues.

The drums are the foundation of a good band. If the foundation is waiting for a cue, things can get shaky quick.

I've observed that drummers who are in high demand are the ones who can lead the band on stage.
 
I play by ear at first, but if I'm not hearing familiar patterns in a passage then I count until I can feel it. Counting is my fallback safety net.

Same here...

I play most by feel, and I tend to have a pretty good memory, so once the song is learned, I usually don't need to count, there might be an intricate part of a song or arrangement which I would count for safety measure, cues are important too, many pros uses cues on stage while performing, and I probably gives as much cues in a song as I'm watching cues from the others too, interactions an communications between band members is as crucial as counting, not every music is set on stone and sometimes it's improvised by a good measure, that's were cues are important, rely on both if you need to and/or write a little simple chart for each song as Larry suggested.
 
I go by the lyrical cues to know when the song progresses.

Which means I've encountered some difficulties with the departure of the vocalist in our band, I've resorted to learning most of the lyrics and singing along in my head...
 
I go by the lyrical cues to know when the song progresses.

...

The problem with that approach is the old joke "How do you know there is a singer at your door? They don't know when to come in..."

In my old band, we often ran the set without the vocals in rehearsal just to focus on our timing and playing, while giving the singers vocal chords a break. I simply had to know the counts.
 
I go by the lyrical cues to know when the song progresses.

Which means I've encountered some difficulties with the departure of the vocalist in our band, I've resorted to learning most of the lyrics and singing along in my head...

Nothing wrong with singing along in your head. It works.

I've played in a variety of situations - Big Band, Metal quartet, Rock five-piece, flute-led Jazz quartet (that was fun) amongst others. I think the ability to follow any instrument is useful; if not vital. I'm happiest following a vocalist but can follow flute, saxophone, bass, guitars or (in situations where this is no monitoring) visual cues from either a conductor or another musician.

At some point or another - even at my deeply amateur level - being able to follow a variety of instruments has become very useful. Sometimes you'll have an instrument drop out due to technical issues (a guitar string breaking, channel goes out on the desk) or another musician forgets a cue and in those instances, being able to switch between instruments at will is useful. I still get things wrong mind you but I feel much more comfortable being able to follow others.
 
I first feel the leghth of 4 bars and from there the the length of 16 bars. That way I just know how long they are so when a section is 64 bars long, I really only have to count to 4. Of couse some songs don't always fit into bars of 4 or 16 but many do. From there you could make a cheat cheet until all the songs are memorized.
 
I was in a similar situation where I joined a cover band and had to learn roughly 80 songs. Took me a few months to be honest but here's the system I developed:

- Open a document editor
- Copy/paste the song lyrics into two columns
- Listen to the song, and notate at the top the feel of the beat
- As you listen, mark what beat you want each section to be - find your own shorthand (e.g. 2/4 beat, surf rock, disco, etc).
- Also be sure to notate where you fill, and transitional phrases from part to part (e.g. 8 bar transition, 12 bar breakdown).

I have the lyrics in black and then my personal notation in bright blue so I can differentiate the two. Hope that helps!
 
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