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How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I find it difficult to learn the name of a tune, frankly Im much more interested in learning a tune, than in learning the name of a tune.
Its almost the same effort to learn the name of a tune than to learn the tune!
I dont know if am alone in this repect?
I would like to learn the names of the tunes that I can play, for a start, thats on my list of things to do....sit down & play the tunes and figure out the title and then write it down and learn the list....sigh.....
does anybody else suffer the same affliction?
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I wouldn't worry about it at all, BanjoBongo.. Even if you could remember the names of all the tunes you hear there are multiple names and ongoing controversy over the "correct" name.
From observing my session mates, I have seen the following natural progression.
Playing a tune and knowing the name.
Playing the tune really well.
Playing the tune really well for years and forgetting what it was called. At which point a newbie, usually me, says "That was lovely, what's it called? " Er......er......
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
While designing a CD of some Carolan pieces, I did some mockup artwork and put it in the CD case - basically to see if the layout worked. I had to fill up the rear card with some of Carolan's tune names, and being lazy I invented my own just so I'd have a wodge of text with about 20 or so tunes.
I never thought much about it until someone picked up the mockup case and read the tracklisting on the back: at which point he asked me about all these tunes he'd never heard of, such as "Carolan's Underpants", "The geezer and the goat", "Mary Doony's thing", "Carolan's whiskers". Silly really! But they ought to be tune names.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Of course lazyhound, there is nothing to stop you (or "one") doing that as well. I just didn't want to say that in the context of talking about my session mates!
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Yeah, just make up your own names, really screw with people. "Oh yeah, that was 'The Humours of Podunk' and 'The Cleveland Lasses', cracking tunes, eh?"
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
It Is not much of a handicap in my opinion, but when you sit down to play a few tunes with someone that doesn't know the names it generally goes something like this.
Musician 1: Do you know, "The Night We All Got Sloshed."
Musician 2: I don't know the names of anything, but go ahead and play it and I'll see if I know it.
At this point the Musician 1 starts off with "The Night We All Got Sloshed" while musician 2 noodles along for awhile trying to remember if they actually know it, but haven't played it for a wile, or if they never learned it, but heard it lots of times.
After a few times through musician 1 ends the tune because it is clear that musician 2 doesn't know what they are doing, and then asks musician 2 to start something. Musician 2 happily complies and starts off a terrific tune, but musician two doesn't know it so he sits quietly and listens and, when the tune is over he asks what the terrific tune was so he can look for a recording later. Of course Musician 2 doesn't know the name, so musician 1 has no real way of learning it later on.
In my opinion communication is what music is all about, and knowing tune names helps communication.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
That doesn't reflect my experience. More typically, musician 1 would ask musician 2 to teach him the terrific tune then and there, for it's the passing of tunes between musicians, from hand to ear to hand, that's the essence of trad.
The other thing he'd ask musician 2 is where he got the tune from, meaning what musician passed it to him. If he got it from a recording or paper then so be it. But if you listen to trad musicians talk it's the tune's provenance that's important to them not its name.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Knowing the (or "a") name helps, thought it's obviously not essential.
1. It helps you to be aware of what you know instead of just reaching into the bag of the same few dozen tunes you've been relying on for the last six months.
2. It helps to communicate with other players.
3. It helps you to value the tunes, so you are less likely to become just another FaRT (FAst Reel Thrasher).
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Of course you don't have to know the names - but it does help me in sessions from time to time, and I also enjoy hearing and remembering the stories or history behind the names.
For example, I initially assumed the "Star above the Garter" was some reference to ladies' undergarments. Turns out it was a Royal award given to those who served the crown well - they even had country specific ones for folks from Scotland and Ireland. Now see? That's the fun in knowing the names once in a while.... pointless trivia over pints and tunes.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
At the Battle of the Boyne it was alleged that William wore his Star above the Garter prominently, in plain sight of James' musketeers, drawing fire to himself as he rode on his steed directing his troops.
...which is nice because I'm a history geek and all that, but I still prefer the assumed reference to feminine undergarments.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
In my experience, the older players I used to go around with would have names for most of the tunes they played. Lack of this knowledge would seem to be a fairly new thing.
No, it doesn't stop you making a good job of a tune, but personally I think it shows a lack of respect for the tune, and lack of interest in the 'historical' aspect of the tunes.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
It's one thing to forget the names of tunes every now and again because you've been playing for so many years, things just fade from memory.
It's another thing entirely to be a pretentious snob, stick your snout in the air and proclaim that "knowing the names of tunes is for beginners." I simply cannot stand the whole "tradlier than thou" routine. Get over yourselves.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
PJ wrote,
"That doesn't reflect my experience. More typically, musician 1 would ask musician 2 to teach him the terrific tune then and there, for it's the passing of tunes between musicians, from hand to ear to hand, that's the essence of trad.
The other thing he'd ask musician 2 is where he got the tune from, meaning what musician passed it to him. If he got it from a recording or paper then so be it. But if you listen to trad musicians talk it's the tune's provenance that's important to them not its name."
This isn't my experience at all (mine is more in line with Nopstavon's) but I wish it were. It seems to be that teaching tunes in the way you describe is somewhat of a lost art. I've made attempts now and then to revive it, but consistently find that (a) if I'm learning the tune, the person teaching it gets impatient if I'm not picking it up in ten seconds and wants to go on to something else or (b) if I'm teaching the tune, the person learning it gets frustrated if they're not picking it up in ten seconds and wants to go on to something else. The kind of patience and willingness to spend actual time (more than ten seconds) passing tunes around person to person, rather than mediated by a recording, seems hard to come by. It is as if it's faster for someone to give their mate a recording and send them off to learn a tune. That way they don't have to take the time or deal with the aggravation of teaching something and the person who wants to learn the tune doesn't have to deal with feeling like an idiot in front of their mate because they might have trouble picking up a phrase or two. I feel something is lost here. If I play a tune and someone likes it, I've offered to teach it but the usual response, "Nah, it's on that Matt Molloy CD" or "I'll find a youtube video of it."
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
SilverSpear, a couple of thoughts.
Firstly, I'm not sure it can be a lost art if it's the way I and most musicians I know learn and teach tunes. To my way of thinking, and I suspect to my neighbors, trad is all about community: both the community of musicians and the local community that the music lives within. Taking time to pass on a tune "by hand", as it were, strengthens the bonds within those communities in a way that learning from recordings can't.
Secondly, it's interesting that many of my parent's generation and earlier still distinguish between "taking" a tune from a musician sat in front of them and "learning" a tune from a recording or score.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
That is an interesting distinction.
You must be in a very different community than most I have lived in. I agree that passing a tune by hand strengthens the bonds within a community, but it's not something I often see happening, not here anyway. That said, I've had moments where I met a musician or a couple musicians who were interesting in learning tunes from one another and exploring the music together, but then either they moved somewhere else or I did. Those moments were wonderful but all too brief.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Communities are not just local in this day & age. Funny that, in some twist of irony I find the best way for me to join in on this forum is with patience. Lots & lots of patience.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Names are handy ways to keep track of tunes and I suspect I'm not the only one whose found himself in a session where I couldn't play a particular tune until someone said the name. (nasty problem that). So tune titles can be useful in strange ways as well as historical ways.
On the other hand I've heard Joannie Madden say when someone asked "do you know xxx?" "I don't know. I've got the library but I've lost the card catalog." I only have a couple of books from the library, but I seem to have lost the catalog for them too from time to time. :(
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
"Is this anyone else's experience?" - Silver Spear.
Yes, very much so (the learning part). I'm used to environments where songs are learned that way and would like to learn tunes that way. But it is quite understandable that if a mate is prepared to give me time to help learn some tunes then me going off with a recording and then meeting up and playing through them with him at a steady pace might suite us both better.
I suspect it is an art killed off by recording technology. So names help.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
SilverSpear, between the four houses that are within half a mile of us there are three adults that play and six children not including ourselves. Extend that to a radius of say fifteen miles and there must be way over a hundred musicians. Within a twenty minutes drive there are four Comhaltas branches and perhaps a couple of pub sessions most nights of the week. But most of the music making is in kitchens, at the rambling house, at parties, and céilís. There are families nearby, like mine, where three and four generations all play. We play tunes and sets that have been played by our parents and grandparents, tunes associated with local musicians, living and dead. Tunes passed down, learned face to face, but of course we also play tunes from recordings and books, from our travels and that musicians moving into the area have introduced, who doesn't? And they're all threads that make up the weave of the tradition.
But there's nothing unique here. There are communities like this all over Ireland and the Irish diaspora. And in all of them, passing tunes on face to face, whether at a festival, in a classroom, round a kitchen table, or at midnight in the street outside a pub, is not only the best way to learn but it's a way to show respect to the music and those that played before us. It's something about the music being a precious gift and not a commodity. Friday lunchtime and already I'm waxing lyrical without a drink taken!
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Not knowing the name of a tune isn't that much of a handicap if you are a backup musician/accompanist as I am. Knowing what key the tune starts in and the rhythm is more important to me.
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I know most of the names of the tunes I play. One reason is that I like putting tunes together and it facilitates that in being able to jot it down on paper. Sometimes I'll hear a tune that sounds familiar and when the name dawns on me I can suddenly join in with no problem. Having said that there are still plenty of tunes I don't have a name for. Since there are often more than one name associated with a lot of tunes, the usefulness of knowing the tune names matters only to me. When I communicate what tune I have in mind to other players I generally play a snippet rather than saying the name.
Because I don't have the pleasure of living in a community like PJ describes, we often share tunes by revealing the source, or recording each other playing at sessions. Occasionally we meet up to learn tunes from each other, but most of the time we meet up to play tunes.
How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I find it difficult to learn the name of a tune, frankly Im much more interested in learning a tune, than in learning the name of a tune.
Its almost the same effort to learn the name of a tune than to learn the tune!
I dont know if am alone in this repect?
I would like to learn the names of the tunes that I can play, for a start, thats on my list of things to do....sit down & play the tunes and figure out the title and then write it down and learn the list....sigh.....
does anybody else suffer the same affliction?
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by BanjoBongo
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
It's not an affliction, it's an irrelevance
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Someone - an old fiddle player in Portree - told me that if you know the names of all the tunes you play, then you don^t know enough tunes...
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Nikita Pfister
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Have they got names?, crikey!
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
like jiggii vulgaris, reelus thingiii
Oooooo adds another dimension altogether.
The thot plickens.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I wouldn't worry about it at all, BanjoBongo.. Even if you could remember the names of all the tunes you hear there are multiple names and ongoing controversy over the "correct" name.
From observing my session mates, I have seen the following natural progression.
Playing a tune and knowing the name.
Playing the tune really well.
Playing the tune really well for years and forgetting what it was called. At which point a newbie, usually me, says "That was lovely, what's it called? " Er......er......
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
But forgetting what the tune was called doesn't necessarily imply that it was played well!
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
While designing a CD of some Carolan pieces, I did some mockup artwork and put it in the CD case - basically to see if the layout worked. I had to fill up the rear card with some of Carolan's tune names, and being lazy I invented my own just so I'd have a wodge of text with about 20 or so tunes.
I never thought much about it until someone picked up the mockup case and read the tracklisting on the back: at which point he asked me about all these tunes he'd never heard of, such as "Carolan's Underpants", "The geezer and the goat", "Mary Doony's thing", "Carolan's whiskers". Silly really! But they ought to be tune names.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Mark Harmer
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Of course lazyhound, there is nothing to stop you (or "one") doing that as well. I just didn't want to say that in the context of talking about my session mates!
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
The two go hand in hand - I can't remember tunes without a name - must be the way I file them away in my head.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by geoffwright
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
http://www.cafepress.com/ITMGoodies/5530299
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Yeah, just make up your own names, really screw with people. "Oh yeah, that was 'The Humours of Podunk' and 'The Cleveland Lasses', cracking tunes, eh?"
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Knowing the tune names and knowing the tunes are not mutually exclusive. Stick with it if you find them interesting.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
It Is not much of a handicap in my opinion, but when you sit down to play a few tunes with someone that doesn't know the names it generally goes something like this.
Musician 1: Do you know, "The Night We All Got Sloshed."
Musician 2: I don't know the names of anything, but go ahead and play it and I'll see if I know it.
At this point the Musician 1 starts off with "The Night We All Got Sloshed" while musician 2 noodles along for awhile trying to remember if they actually know it, but haven't played it for a wile, or if they never learned it, but heard it lots of times.
After a few times through musician 1 ends the tune because it is clear that musician 2 doesn't know what they are doing, and then asks musician 2 to start something. Musician 2 happily complies and starts off a terrific tune, but musician two doesn't know it so he sits quietly and listens and, when the tune is over he asks what the terrific tune was so he can look for a recording later. Of course Musician 2 doesn't know the name, so musician 1 has no real way of learning it later on.
In my opinion communication is what music is all about, and knowing tune names helps communication.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Nopstavon
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Spot on, Nopstavon.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
That doesn't reflect my experience. More typically, musician 1 would ask musician 2 to teach him the terrific tune then and there, for it's the passing of tunes between musicians, from hand to ear to hand, that's the essence of trad.
The other thing he'd ask musician 2 is where he got the tune from, meaning what musician passed it to him. If he got it from a recording or paper then so be it. But if you listen to trad musicians talk it's the tune's provenance that's important to them not its name.
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Sweeney Astray
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Playing tunes is a highly emotionally charged business.
Remembering their names is more of a synaptic palaver foisted on the unwary by the praying mantis of destiny.
Having just passed my 109th birthday I find it increasingly difficult to pull the wool up the garden path.
Goodnight.
(Irene)
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by cyber-bullying is a criminal offence
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Knowing the (or "a") name helps, thought it's obviously not essential.
1. It helps you to be aware of what you know instead of just reaching into the bag of the same few dozen tunes you've been relying on for the last six months.
2. It helps to communicate with other players.
3. It helps you to value the tunes, so you are less likely to become just another FaRT (FAst Reel Thrasher).
# Posted on November 11th 2009 by Linsey Doyle
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Of course you don't have to know the names - but it does help me in sessions from time to time, and I also enjoy hearing and remembering the stories or history behind the names.
For example, I initially assumed the "Star above the Garter" was some reference to ladies' undergarments. Turns out it was a Royal award given to those who served the crown well - they even had country specific ones for folks from Scotland and Ireland. Now see? That's the fun in knowing the names once in a while.... pointless trivia over pints and tunes.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Just what was Early boiling for breakfast, I'd like to know.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by leoj
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Eggs.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by DaveL35
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Green eggs ..... and ham
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
At the Battle of the Boyne it was alleged that William wore his Star above the Garter prominently, in plain sight of James' musketeers, drawing fire to himself as he rode on his steed directing his troops.
...which is nice because I'm a history geek and all that, but I still prefer the assumed reference to feminine undergarments.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Porridge for the troops.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
In my experience, the older players I used to go around with would have names for most of the tunes they played. Lack of this knowledge would seem to be a fairly new thing.
No, it doesn't stop you making a good job of a tune, but personally I think it shows a lack of respect for the tune, and lack of interest in the 'historical' aspect of the tunes.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by The Archivist
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
The best way to "respect" the tune is to play it well.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by leoj
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Forgetting (or perhaps more accurately not quickly recalling) the names of tunes may also be age-related.
Now where was I ...
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
It's one thing to forget the names of tunes every now and again because you've been playing for so many years, things just fade from memory.
It's another thing entirely to be a pretentious snob, stick your snout in the air and proclaim that "knowing the names of tunes is for beginners." I simply cannot stand the whole "tradlier than thou" routine. Get over yourselves.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
PJ wrote,
"That doesn't reflect my experience. More typically, musician 1 would ask musician 2 to teach him the terrific tune then and there, for it's the passing of tunes between musicians, from hand to ear to hand, that's the essence of trad.
The other thing he'd ask musician 2 is where he got the tune from, meaning what musician passed it to him. If he got it from a recording or paper then so be it. But if you listen to trad musicians talk it's the tune's provenance that's important to them not its name."
This isn't my experience at all (mine is more in line with Nopstavon's) but I wish it were. It seems to be that teaching tunes in the way you describe is somewhat of a lost art. I've made attempts now and then to revive it, but consistently find that (a) if I'm learning the tune, the person teaching it gets impatient if I'm not picking it up in ten seconds and wants to go on to something else or (b) if I'm teaching the tune, the person learning it gets frustrated if they're not picking it up in ten seconds and wants to go on to something else. The kind of patience and willingness to spend actual time (more than ten seconds) passing tunes around person to person, rather than mediated by a recording, seems hard to come by. It is as if it's faster for someone to give their mate a recording and send them off to learn a tune. That way they don't have to take the time or deal with the aggravation of teaching something and the person who wants to learn the tune doesn't have to deal with feeling like an idiot in front of their mate because they might have trouble picking up a phrase or two. I feel something is lost here. If I play a tune and someone likes it, I've offered to teach it but the usual response, "Nah, it's on that Matt Molloy CD" or "I'll find a youtube video of it."
Is this anyone else's experience?
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I admit to being impatient in regard to teaching tunes to others if there is a good reference. Sending mp3 files is easy enough.
# Posted on November 12th 2009 by leoj
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
SilverSpear, a couple of thoughts.
Firstly, I'm not sure it can be a lost art if it's the way I and most musicians I know learn and teach tunes. To my way of thinking, and I suspect to my neighbors, trad is all about community: both the community of musicians and the local community that the music lives within. Taking time to pass on a tune "by hand", as it were, strengthens the bonds within those communities in a way that learning from recordings can't.
Secondly, it's interesting that many of my parent's generation and earlier still distinguish between "taking" a tune from a musician sat in front of them and "learning" a tune from a recording or score.
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by Sweeney Astray
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
That is an interesting distinction.
You must be in a very different community than most I have lived in. I agree that passing a tune by hand strengthens the bonds within a community, but it's not something I often see happening, not here anyway. That said, I've had moments where I met a musician or a couple musicians who were interesting in learning tunes from one another and exploring the music together, but then either they moved somewhere else or I did. Those moments were wonderful but all too brief.
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Communities are not just local in this day & age. Funny that, in some twist of irony I find the best way for me to join in on this forum is with patience. Lots & lots of patience.
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Names are handy ways to keep track of tunes and I suspect I'm not the only one whose found himself in a session where I couldn't play a particular tune until someone said the name. (nasty problem that). So tune titles can be useful in strange ways as well as historical ways.
On the other hand I've heard Joannie Madden say when someone asked "do you know xxx?" "I don't know. I've got the library but I've lost the card catalog." I only have a couple of books from the library, but I seem to have lost the catalog for them too from time to time. :(
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by cboody
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
"Is this anyone else's experience?" - Silver Spear.
Yes, very much so (the learning part). I'm used to environments where songs are learned that way and would like to learn tunes that way. But it is quite understandable that if a mate is prepared to give me time to help learn some tunes then me going off with a recording and then meeting up and playing through them with him at a steady pace might suite us both better.
I suspect it is an art killed off by recording technology. So names help.
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by David50
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
SilverSpear, between the four houses that are within half a mile of us there are three adults that play and six children not including ourselves. Extend that to a radius of say fifteen miles and there must be way over a hundred musicians. Within a twenty minutes drive there are four Comhaltas branches and perhaps a couple of pub sessions most nights of the week. But most of the music making is in kitchens, at the rambling house, at parties, and céilís. There are families nearby, like mine, where three and four generations all play. We play tunes and sets that have been played by our parents and grandparents, tunes associated with local musicians, living and dead. Tunes passed down, learned face to face, but of course we also play tunes from recordings and books, from our travels and that musicians moving into the area have introduced, who doesn't? And they're all threads that make up the weave of the tradition.
But there's nothing unique here. There are communities like this all over Ireland and the Irish diaspora. And in all of them, passing tunes on face to face, whether at a festival, in a classroom, round a kitchen table, or at midnight in the street outside a pub, is not only the best way to learn but it's a way to show respect to the music and those that played before us. It's something about the music being a precious gift and not a commodity. Friday lunchtime and already I'm waxing lyrical without a drink taken!
# Posted on November 13th 2009 by Sweeney Astray
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
Not knowing the name of a tune isn't that much of a handicap if you are a backup musician/accompanist as I am. Knowing what key the tune starts in and the rhythm is more important to me.
# Posted on November 15th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: How much of a handicap is it if you dont know the names of tunes?
I know most of the names of the tunes I play. One reason is that I like putting tunes together and it facilitates that in being able to jot it down on paper. Sometimes I'll hear a tune that sounds familiar and when the name dawns on me I can suddenly join in with no problem. Having said that there are still plenty of tunes I don't have a name for. Since there are often more than one name associated with a lot of tunes, the usefulness of knowing the tune names matters only to me. When I communicate what tune I have in mind to other players I generally play a snippet rather than saying the name.
Because I don't have the pleasure of living in a community like PJ describes, we often share tunes by revealing the source, or recording each other playing at sessions. Occasionally we meet up to learn tunes from each other, but most of the time we meet up to play tunes.
# Posted on November 15th 2009 by Phantom Button