A fellow member (Hi Ross) complemented me the other day on the choice of tunes in my tunebook. Unfortunately, I had to admit not having got around to learning most of them yet.
I was wondering what criteria members adopt when selecting tunes.
In my case, I will add them to my tune book for a variety of reasons. Some of these would be;
1.The title appeals to me for some reason e.g "The cat in the fiddle case", "The Rat in the oven" etc. Once, I downloaded "The Cheating bastard" which caused some "Tut tutting" among the elderly ladies of the local fiddle society. )
2. A particular tune is recommended by another member or friend from outside.
3. I am looking for a tune which I've heard played either live or on a CD and wish to learn. Sometimes, I'll seek a particular type of tune suitable for a set.
4. The tune is one which I've already known about but haven't got around to learning.
5. I admire previous work by the composer.
Perhaps, the most logical way to pick tunes would be to try them out as they are added to the database and download those that I like best. Surprisingly, I don't do this. Probably, it's because I'm not well enough organised.
I use the tune book as tunes that I've conquered i.e. have learnt well enough to play with my piper friend. I'm relatively new to this so I'll go back over my tune book and brush up on tunes that want to slip away from me. If I've forgotten a tune all together I'll delete it (not that often thank goodness)!
I also keep seperate tune book for bluegrass and other genre.
This site is awesome. Thanks again to Jeremy and the usual contributors who keep it going!
I shall also have to make an effort to post some tunes but this will require some practice with the ABC stuff first.
Incidentally, Robby, I have the Braes of Castle Grant in a tune book. I could scan a copy and e-mail it to you if you wish. It's maybe not in the "spirit of this site" to do that but it would take me ages otherwise.
Thanks John! - one other thing, I have a keyboard with a floppy drive bay. I download the midi's to disk, plop them in then I can slow the tempo to a crawl and even transpose. It's pretty slick and if anyone was going to spend money on a gadget that does this, think about going the way of the keyboard.
Funny thing -- I've never taken a look at anyone's tunebook except for once when I realized that you could and so tried it. I use mine only when I want to print out tunes in a certain order on the same page. Otherwise I usually am only looking for variations on a tune or a different setting or clarification on a section of a tune that I'm missing off a recording or something. If I need the printed music for something, then I just print it out directly without putting it in the tune book...
Once in a while I'll take a look at someone's tune book just to see their repertoire, but I really don't use mine since I have a "hard copy" tunebook already and it really works for me.
I use my tunebook to keep track of tunes I want to learn.
If I do "conquer" the tune though, I usually just leave it in the tunebook. This is because the other way I use the tunebook is just to remind myself of some good tunes. Occasionally I'll trawl through the tunebook tune by tune, wondering "now, what was that one again?" and then click through to the tune to remind myself "oh yeah, that one".
I put tunes in my tune book if I like them and want to learn them. Of course, I don't know the entire contents of my tunebook yet, but it is something to work towards.
I agree with Jeremy 100%, I use it to keep track of tunes I want to learn, but do not delete them once 'conquered' so they can jog my memory later. It's a brilliant feature. I'm the kind of person who is terrible at keeping lists like these in my head. There are hundreds of movies I want to see, but when I get to the video store, I can never remember a single one. I also love to be able to see what other folks are learning/have learned. Yay for crazy cyberspace nonsense!
One feature I wish was here, was the ability to search for tunes by the member who had submitted them in the past, like Will, Gian Marco, Dow, etc, beyond the most recent 5 or 10. Know what I mean?
Oh, lighten up Michael! It's fun to be able to sneak a look at other's lists and compare repetoires. Since we are all here in cyberspace communicating, including you Michael, it's really the only way to do that. Hmm, maybe I should start utilizing my tunebook more for that very reason...
Nor all that 'crazy' *printed* nonsense, Michael? I have any number of printed tunebooks as well. I'm just grateful that Jeremy's saved all those trees, myself...
every sunday morning i sit down with my third cuppa and go throught the newly submitted tunes and print the ones that hum good, then play through the pile and pick the ones i really like and put them in my tune book. i teach students my new favorites often and when i do i give them a printed copy to take home which is a big hit with them. i've got way too many now and have to go through the whole bunch and weed out some that i don't ever play.
I agree with Michael up to a point. All the tunes that I can play really well ARE in my head. Once I've learned them by either dots or ear, there's no need to look at the tunebooks whether they be in cyberspace or, as often as not, scattered around my living room floor.
I went through a stage of choosing tunes for my tune book in case I ever learnt to read music, but so far havent. I usually like the name or know that I want to learn that particular tune.
Have you got a problem with that Michael?? I think its pretty rich you putting us all in one category, if you ever read any of the posts - I mean - actually read them, you'd see that we are all as diffrent as chalk and cheese. Sometime you just make me laugh...
Michael always makes me laugh. He has an amazing ability to annoy lots and lots of people by only typing one or two words. I can't believe you're ALL so stupid that you fall for it every time (notice smiley - don't go taking me seriously)
I do love lists, Michael. It works for me. I have to work at this stuff, and the more organized I am about it, the more I succeed, and hence the more fun I have!
I have a friend who was so completely unorganized about her whole life, not just with the tunes. She refused to write *anything* down. It came to the point where she would rely on me and ask *me* "Do I have anything planned on such-and-such a date?" "Do I know that tune?" "Did I ever learn this tune?" Frankly it got to the point where it almost ruined our friendship.
Sorry to vent, I guess it just goes to show you having an organized life has it's down side...
LOL Zina. I was thinking more needle-and-thread, the stuff with the pointy seeds that get stuck in your socks and jab you in the ankles. Reminds me of the line in Master and Commander where Capt. Aubrey asks the good doctor to name a Galapagos shrub after him, "someting prickly and difficult to eradicate."
We saw it last night. Good fun. The battle scenes are chaos and a bit hard to track, but that's realism for you. Crowe and company do a masterful job of the acting, and the script has its moments.
As for plants, I intend to have my ashes scattered up in the mountains, when the time comes, so I'll no doubt come back as low bush cranberry, grouse whortleberry, and lupine, fine by me. I suppose I could ask to be dumped along this high elevation stream I know of, and come back as columbine and monkeyflower....
No, no. Evan and Ben get to hike in to a spot just below the continental divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. There's a nameless meadow and a nameless creek, and acres of wildflowers. I lived there once, and don't get back often enough.
Sounds like a nice place for the Big Sleep. Guess I've never really thought about it. Dunno, I guess probably under a rose bush someplace is just as good as anything else.
One of my reasons for this particular meadow is to coax the boys up there. The fresh air will be good for them, even if they are in their 50s (or older) when the time comes.
Hey, it'll be my last chance for a little character-building exercise.
My real reason behind this is that, as a land mammal I have a bias. I want my carbon atoms and whatever else is left to start reincarnation way up near the continental divide, so with any luck I won't end up as shrimp food in the gulf for quite some time. Hmmm...maybe I should make a list of all the critters and plants I could end up in....
So, talking of tunebooks- were we? I've just printed off hard copies and emptied out my "cyberspace nonsense" version. Who said that? Now, it's a case of playing them through. Hopefully, a few a will stick. Wish me luck.
while vaguely on the subject, i can't really be bothered with the tunebook thing, but is it possible to download the ABC for all the tunes on the site in one go?
if anyone was interested, i did manage to get all the tunes from the site (it wasn't entirely straightforward). it's maybe interesting to note that it looks like 78 tunes have been deleted...
I've noticed too that a number of tunes have been deleted. I think it's usually a case that the tune is a duplicate (not necessarily by name) of a tune already on the list. What seems to happen is that someone posts the ABC and a title, and then someone notices it is a duplicate and comments to that effect. Or Jeremy might spot it himself. The upshot is that it gets deleted before the sheetmusic comes on line.
Less frequently, a tune might be deleted because the ABC is manifestly incomplete or meaningless. And rarely, a tune might be pulled because it is inappropriate for this particular website.
BTW, Rog, what technique did you use to get all the tunes? - other than downloading the ABCs one by one
exactly that: i just wrote a little script to do that, and automatically discard everything but the actual ABC text from the web page. bonus now is when i see some new tunes come in, i can just do (e.g.) "sessionget 2247 2251" and it'll get me the latest tunes...
Choosing tunes for your tune book
Choosing tunes for your tune book
A slightly lighter subject, today :>))
)
A fellow member (Hi Ross) complemented me the other day on the choice of tunes in my tunebook. Unfortunately, I had to admit not having got around to learning most of them yet.
I was wondering what criteria members adopt when selecting tunes.
In my case, I will add them to my tune book for a variety of reasons. Some of these would be;
1.The title appeals to me for some reason e.g "The cat in the fiddle case", "The Rat in the oven" etc. Once, I downloaded "The Cheating bastard" which caused some "Tut tutting" among the elderly ladies of the local fiddle society.
2. A particular tune is recommended by another member or friend from outside.
3. I am looking for a tune which I've heard played either live or on a CD and wish to learn. Sometimes, I'll seek a particular type of tune suitable for a set.
4. The tune is one which I've already known about but haven't got around to learning.
5. I admire previous work by the composer.
Perhaps, the most logical way to pick tunes would be to try them out as they are added to the database and download those that I like best. Surprisingly, I don't do this. Probably, it's because I'm not well enough organised.
How do you pick your tunes?
John
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by John J.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I use the tune book as tunes that I've conquered i.e. have learnt well enough to play with my piper friend. I'm relatively new to this so I'll go back over my tune book and brush up on tunes that want to slip away from me. If I've forgotten a tune all together I'll delete it (not that often thank goodness)!
I also keep seperate tune book for bluegrass and other genre.
This site is awesome. Thanks again to Jeremy and the usual contributors who keep it going!
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Robby B.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I shall also have to make an effort to post some tunes but this will require some practice with the ABC stuff first.
Incidentally, Robby, I have the Braes of Castle Grant in a tune book. I could scan a copy and e-mail it to you if you wish. It's maybe not in the "spirit of this site" to do that but it would take me ages otherwise.
John
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by John J.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Thanks John! - one other thing, I have a keyboard with a floppy drive bay. I download the midi's to disk, plop them in then I can slow the tempo to a crawl and even transpose. It's pretty slick and if anyone was going to spend money on a gadget that does this, think about going the way of the keyboard.
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Robby B.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Funny thing -- I've never taken a look at anyone's tunebook except for once when I realized that you could and so tried it. I use mine only when I want to print out tunes in a certain order on the same page. Otherwise I usually am only looking for variations on a tune or a different setting or clarification on a section of a tune that I'm missing off a recording or something. If I need the printed music for something, then I just print it out directly without putting it in the tune book...
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Once in a while I'll take a look at someone's tune book just to see their repertoire, but I really don't use mine since I have a "hard copy" tunebook already and it really works for me.
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Andee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I use my tunebook to keep track of tunes I want to learn.
If I do "conquer" the tune though, I usually just leave it in the tunebook. This is because the other way I use the tunebook is just to remind myself of some good tunes. Occasionally I'll trawl through the tunebook tune by tune, wondering "now, what was that one again?" and then click through to the tune to remind myself "oh yeah, that one".
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Jeremy
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I put tunes in my tune book if I like them and want to learn them. Of course, I don't know the entire contents of my tunebook yet, but it is something to work towards.
-Max
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Max Becher
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
your tune book is in your head not some crazy cyberspace nonsense
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by llig leahcim
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I agree with Jeremy 100%, I use it to keep track of tunes I want to learn, but do not delete them once 'conquered' so they can jog my memory later. It's a brilliant feature. I'm the kind of person who is terrible at keeping lists like these in my head. There are hundreds of movies I want to see, but when I get to the video store, I can never remember a single one. I also love to be able to see what other folks are learning/have learned. Yay for crazy cyberspace nonsense!
One feature I wish was here, was the ability to search for tunes by the member who had submitted them in the past, like Will, Gian Marco, Dow, etc, beyond the most recent 5 or 10. Know what I mean?
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by emily_bmore
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Oh, lighten up Michael! It's fun to be able to sneak a look at other's lists and compare repetoires. Since we are all here in cyberspace communicating, including you Michael, it's really the only way to do that. Hmm, maybe I should start utilizing my tunebook more for that very reason...
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Andee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Nor all that 'crazy' *printed* nonsense, Michael? I have any number of printed tunebooks as well. I'm just grateful that Jeremy's saved all those trees, myself...
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
every sunday morning i sit down with my third cuppa and go throught the newly submitted tunes and print the ones that hum good, then play through the pile and pick the ones i really like and put them in my tune book. i teach students my new favorites often and when i do i give them a printed copy to take home which is a big hit with them. i've got way too many now and have to go through the whole bunch and weed out some that i don't ever play.
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Dont
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I agree with Michael up to a point. All the tunes that I can play really well ARE in my head. Once I've learned them by either dots or ear, there's no need to look at the tunebooks whether they be in cyberspace or, as often as not, scattered around my living room floor.
John
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by John J.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I went through a stage of choosing tunes for my tune book in case I ever learnt to read music, but so far havent. I usually like the name or know that I want to learn that particular tune.
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by bb
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I'm not dissing the collection here, just peoples desire to keep lists. It reminds me that you are all philatalists
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by llig leahcim
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Have you got a problem with that Michael?? I think its pretty rich you putting us all in one category, if you ever read any of the posts - I mean - actually read them, you'd see that we are all as diffrent as chalk and cheese. Sometime you just make me laugh...
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by bb
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Michael always makes me laugh. He has an amazing ability to annoy lots and lots of people by only typing one or two words. I can't believe you're ALL so stupid that you fall for it every time
(notice smiley - don't go taking me seriously)
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Every bridge has its troll, and every troll has its goats.
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Q
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Trip trap trip trap...
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Ha ha, the grass is green enough on my side
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by llig leahcim
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Fair play to yer, but can you put in your pipe and smoke it?
# Posted on December 7th 2003 by Q
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I do love lists, Michael. It works for me. I have to work at this stuff, and the more organized I am about it, the more I succeed, and hence the more fun I have!
I have a friend who was so completely unorganized about her whole life, not just with the tunes. She refused to write *anything* down. It came to the point where she would rely on me and ask *me* "Do I have anything planned on such-and-such a date?" "Do I know that tune?" "Did I ever learn this tune?" Frankly it got to the point where it almost ruined our friendship.
Sorry to vent, I guess it just goes to show you having an organized life has it's down side...
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Andee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Yes, but Michael, it seems to be crabgrass over there...*grin*
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I'm confused. Did he mean philatelists, or fatalists, or Philistines, or possibly (gasp!) Philadelphians...?
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Stamp collectors, possibly.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
LOL Zina. I was thinking more needle-and-thread, the stuff with the pointy seeds that get stuck in your socks and jab you in the ankles. Reminds me of the line in Master and Commander where Capt. Aubrey asks the good doctor to name a Galapagos shrub after him, "someting prickly and difficult to eradicate."
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
LOL -- haven't seen the movie...but I might have to, now...
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Hmmmm. If I was a plant, I wonder what i would be? I rather like the prickly and difficult to eradicate, so I'd probably be bindweed, or something.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
We saw it last night. Good fun. The battle scenes are chaos and a bit hard to track, but that's realism for you. Crowe and company do a masterful job of the acting, and the script has its moments.
As for plants, I intend to have my ashes scattered up in the mountains, when the time comes, so I'll no doubt come back as low bush cranberry, grouse whortleberry, and lupine, fine by me. I suppose I could ask to be dumped along this high elevation stream I know of, and come back as columbine and monkeyflower....
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Just don't have it done by plane. The ashes end up all over the propellers and then down the drain at the airport.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
No, no. Evan and Ben get to hike in to a spot just below the continental divide in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness. There's a nameless meadow and a nameless creek, and acres of wildflowers. I lived there once, and don't get back often enough.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Sounds like a nice place for the Big Sleep. Guess I've never really thought about it. Dunno, I guess probably under a rose bush someplace is just as good as anything else.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
One of my reasons for this particular meadow is to coax the boys up there. The fresh air will be good for them, even if they are in their 50s (or older) when the time comes.
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Once a dad always a dad?
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Hey, it'll be my last chance for a little character-building exercise.
My real reason behind this is that, as a land mammal I have a bias. I want my carbon atoms and whatever else is left to start reincarnation way up near the continental divide, so with any luck I won't end up as shrimp food in the gulf for quite some time. Hmmm...maybe I should make a list of all the critters and plants I could end up in....
# Posted on December 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
So, talking of tunebooks- were we? I've just printed off hard copies and emptied out my "cyberspace nonsense" version. Who said that? Now, it's a case of playing them through. Hopefully, a few a will stick. Wish me luck.
John
# Posted on December 9th 2003 by John J.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
while vaguely on the subject, i can't really be bothered with the tunebook thing, but is it possible to download the ABC for all the tunes on the site in one go?
# Posted on December 9th 2003 by rog
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
John, dear, that's *crazy* cyberspace nonsense. We like to get things right around here.
*snort*
# Posted on December 9th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Great stuff. At lasr I've been given a *snort* from Zina. I must be getting accepted, at last.
)
# Posted on December 9th 2003 by John J.
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
if anyone was interested, i did manage to get all the tunes from the site (it wasn't entirely straightforward). it's maybe interesting to note that it looks like 78 tunes have been deleted...
# Posted on December 10th 2003 by rog
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
Good heavens, I didn't realize you didn't think you were before, John! I'd have snorted at you long since if that had been the case. Heh.
# Posted on December 10th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
I've noticed too that a number of tunes have been deleted. I think it's usually a case that the tune is a duplicate (not necessarily by name) of a tune already on the list. What seems to happen is that someone posts the ABC and a title, and then someone notices it is a duplicate and comments to that effect. Or Jeremy might spot it himself. The upshot is that it gets deleted before the sheetmusic comes on line.
Less frequently, a tune might be deleted because the ABC is manifestly incomplete or meaningless. And rarely, a tune might be pulled because it is inappropriate for this particular website.
BTW, Rog, what technique did you use to get all the tunes? - other than downloading the ABCs one by one
Trevor
# Posted on December 10th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Choosing tunes for your tune book
exactly that: i just wrote a little script to do that, and automatically discard everything but the actual ABC text from the web page. bonus now is when i see some new tunes come in, i can just do (e.g.) "sessionget 2247 2251" and it'll get me the latest tunes...
# Posted on December 12th 2003 by rog