James Taylor - Fire And Rain (cover) 

Cheers Brian, hope you’re well mate

I second this

Thank you! It doesn’t take me super long but that’s because I never use tab. If I had to remember it that way I think I would struggle. I relate everything to chord shapes and I learn everything by ear so it’s easier for my brain to process (seeing a chord shape and a riff using the surrounding notes is clearer in my mind than if I were looking at numbers). I would say for this I probably spent a few hours over a couple of days playing around to get it down but I spend way more time listening to the song intently than I do playing it, so I’ve already internalised the notes before I start to learn where they are. Sorry if that isn’t a clear straightforward answer but hopefully it helps!

Also to add onto that, I try not to learn things 100% exactly the same as the record all the time, because that leaves room to add a little bit of myself in it and makes the cover a bit more unique (hopefully - at least in my head!). So whilst the odd note here and there may not be exactly what JT was playing, the main chunks of it are close. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying to get as close as possible and be accurate to the song, I’m just slightly loose around some parts that aren’t the main melody if that makes sense

Thanks for explaining that sound like a better method I’ll try and incorporate that going forward. Can you read music?

I’m not sure I understand the question? What you are hearing is exactly what you’re seeing. Me singing live whilst playing the guitar live at the same time. Reverb was added afterwards but nothing else has been edited as in all my videos. I’m not playing along to a track in the background or anything. This is just me sitting on the floor with a guitar singing