To me it is vital to have a sense of the melody. I simply cannot learn by playing from tab- it doesnt carry any sense of the music to me.Give me a good melody and I can recall it 20 years after. Though I do use tab to some extent I find properly notated music gives me a much clearer idea of the voices being suggested and the layout of the chords- andI assimilate all the information much faster.
Another issue is that as a relative beginner you work on a piece of music and you have so many technical issues with fingering and with getting your right hand to behave itself that you really do lose sight of the structure of the music.
I'd also strongly endorse Kirk's comments about knowing a bit of theory. Once you understand things like how a turnaround works or how to play alternating bass fingerstyle whatever you can start to learn music in chunks rather than note by note.
In the end though everything feeds back on itself. The more melodies you know, the more thoroughly you understand the kes and the harmonised scales, and the more comfortable you are with your technique- the faster you will learn.
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