Is learning new songs equals practicing ?

[hasty arch]

I have been in a dilema recently on how to improve. Like is it better to learn new songs that is quite hard or diving deep on scales and understanding the fretboard can someone pls help ?

[pliant rover]

both is good practice ... you can also combine the two by learning a song and then analyzing what you learned... which intervals it uses, which key changes, how things relate to eachother

the song doesn't have to be hard to actually be usefull

[hasty arch]

Thank you so much for the advice ! I will try to analize my next song that im practicing, thanks again

[bleak gate]

yes I agree, doing both helps more. Also don't think it's beneficial to learn songs way far beyond your current ability, because it tends to become memorization instead of organic playing.

[pliant rover]

it also is no fun ... unless you are a masochist ... a bit above your paygrade can push you ... but just hours and hours of grinding won't do you any good

[bleak gate]

exactly. If I can't learn a song in a day it's probably too hard for me and I need to work on something else that will make it easier.

[pliant rover]

I actually progress a lot by writing riffs to drum grooves ... i have an idea of how it should sound and then work out how to play it and will learn what intervals it uses, which key etc ... usually add some form of leads

it also makes me record and doubletrack everything ... which by itself is good practice