gridjam

best thing that happened to me at Berklee- someone stole my Real Book- it had alot of wrong changes in it anyways.
HA.
You are NOT an idiot, in fact you have an advantage over all of us who saw the charts before internalizing the music.
LIFT THE TUNES FIRST!!!!!
There are so many versions out there and your ears and fingers will thank you for the process. We all have enough paper and files floating around (can you tell I'm in simplify mode folks?), who needs more stuff?
Yes- use the resources to check your lift but do your best to earball the form, melody and changes before looking at just "one" version of the tune.(hint hint- check out many)
I've been really getting into the details lately as well. re-learning original melodies, verses and lyrics from THE composers books. Rogers and Hart,Cole Porter, etc...(yes, i realize I am slightly contradicting myself here but someone gave me the books!)
All the things (you are) makes so much more sense to me now that I analyzed the original changes, not to mention It never entered my mind.
Anyways, that's my 2 Canadian cents. (which by the way is almost equal to our 2 cents here in the states now!)
Have fun
IJ