I have several songs where I have learned a part wrong and the mistake has taken root in my muscle memory. I have been trying to unlearn the mistake by playing just the culprit measures over and over again correctly. Sometimes it helps to have some little mantra (like “no thumb”) that I keep in the back of my head as I approach the culprit measure in the song and try not to mess it up in the same spot for the fifty seventh time. Anyone have any brain tricks for unlearning a mistake?
Unlearning mistakes
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Hi @Shad I think we all suffer the same fate at sometime or other. If your working from a TAB arrangement it’s fairly simple to go back and revisit a lesson and isolate the problem. Focus on the lick and practice till you fix it! At least that’s the theory and most times it works. However there are occasions when it doesn’t. I patiently await to see what others suggest.
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Isolating the culprit measure is the key. Something I like to do is find the culprit measure, then pull in some measures around it so that you can create a loop that actually feels like you’re playing a tiny little song. I think it’s helpful to keep your rolls going as opposed to just playing a measure, stopping, and playing it again.
If you have an example you’re working on, let us know. Maybe we can give some specific pointers.
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I do this too. @Shad Often I just add a forward roll - a tag lick followed by another forward roll and the offending lick.
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I wanted to come back to this now that I have a solid example.
I’ve been working on Ben’s lesson of Red Wing and there’s 1 measure that keeps tripping me up. In this pic, it’s measure 41, so I highlighted measures 40 - 42 and looped them.
Then I slow it down until I can play it clean every time. After I can play it through about 10 times without mistakes, I speed it up a little. I keep doing that until I can play it at 100% speed.
Now, if you’re like me, what you’ll find is that you’ll get it down and feel confident about it, then start playing the song and you’ll blow it again in the middle of the song. Or, you take a break and when you come back, you’ve lost it again. That just means you haven’t perfected your muscle memory. Go back and do the above exercise as many times as it takes to make that measure automatic. I’ve been working on this 1 measure on and off for 2 days straight now. I don’t know why, but it’s just tripping me up.
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The key here is LISTENING for the subtle changes.
Suggest for this exercise you leave off measure 40 for now - Start measure 41 in the partial (F shape) A Chord for the first half measure then switch the Index (to 3rd string) and the Middle (to 2nd string) both on the 6th fret keeping the pinkie on the first string 7th to complete the measure. Measure 42 add Ring finger at the 7th fret 2nd string and move the Index to the 3rd string 5th fret.
I know it took me a long time to get my head round this. The B Part chord sequence that follows drove me nuts. Stick with it @Mark_Rocka be sure to take a 
break every now & then. Just two days? I think it took me six months 
Patience, Practice and Perseverance