Greetings all,
Haven't posted much of late. But am in one of those reflective moods that is often precipitated by the holidays.
So what is the first tune you ever learned? This is a trick question of sorts. The first tune you ever learned of course refers to that one tune that for whatever reason was the one you remember first starting to hammer out on your instrument perhaps "way back in the day" for some or more recently for others. It may be a tune you spurn now or one that you still treasure or hold in high esteem.
However, there is also another sense of your "first tune" which has more to do with that one tune that you first *really* learned well. It is the tune that for whatever reason "came together"; you can play it effortlessly with lift and interest. It is that tune you love (or at least respect) and it respects you back. It is that tune your fingers often automatically start playing when you're warming up, or you return to after a frustrating session or being overwhelmed by other stuff.
My "first tune" in the former sense was The Monaghan Jig. This tune in itself is a part of the very reason I got interested in irish music. I heard a recording of it on some instructional tape i'd gotten while traveling in ireland way back when. I still love this tune, with its minor/model flavor and four interesting parts. Great for the whistle. Don't play it much anymore, strangely.
This first tune I ever learned in the latter sense I'd have to say is Speed the Plow. Not a fancy tune or a party piece. But for whatever reason it is the one where everything clicked. I can play it with ease and a few variations. I do like the tune, although it is not "my all-time favorite." It's the tune I'll often slap at the end of a set, usually after some minor-ish tune. Took me about, oh, 7-8 years to really learn my first tune and, judging by the standard it has set, I reckon that I only really know about ten or twenty tunes tops.
Anyway, thought i'd toss this out into the fray for discussion...
Father John MacMillan of Barra, When I first tried to play the fiddle that's what I wanted to learn, and now I can play it , not very well, but from memory, which is good for me.
so however frustrating current practice is, I can go back to that one.
Dunno, can't remember for sure, but it was probably one of three polkas I was started off on in April 2001 - Newmarket, Henry's,and Riding on a Load of Hay. The Newmarket is the most likely contender.
TRevor
dman, zina, what a delightful tune! between that one and 'far away' you are two for two in my book. well, okay, you're two for three: exile of erin has too many fiddle settings for a fluter ;) ...but i'll work on it...
I think it was "The Rakes of Mallow", I later found out that it's also a song. I don't play it anymore, but I played it for about three years in a band and I even recorded it along with "Turkeys in the Straw".
Well, when I initially started tinkering with ITM, I memorized a few tunes, but really had no sense of the music at that point, so I don't really count those. In Galway I started taking lessons through the GSITM (Galway School of Irish Trad Music) and the first tune I was taught was "Sunny Banks". The tune was broken down for me and it was then I started to get a sense of the structure of ITM. I look back nostagically when I play that simple yet fun tune, even though that was only 3 years ago.
"Woody's Rag" on the mandolin, but learning tunes really started the day I opened "Kerr's Merry Melodies for Violin, Vol 1" and learned "Soldier's Joy" and "Flowers of Edinburgh", right there on the first page.
well, my first tune, "the orphan" was the one i learned so well after only playing the flute 2 weeks that i dared start it off by my self at a session. i played it for a couple of months, but nobody else seemed to be interested in learning the tune so i quite playing it at sessions, though i do still use it as one of my warming-up tunes. "the silver spear" was he one that gave me the feeling that i was really playing the music, it just rolled out of my flute as if it had always been in there and variations just come automaticely.
i still like both tunes.
very interesting, mm, it's sometimes as if a tune just plays you rather than the other way around...perhaps that when you know you've really learned it...
The Merry Blacksmith. I heard it played at a session in the early 80's and dusted off my fathers mandolin and pieced it together from memory. Only problem was when I went back a few weeks later and boldly/ignorantly started to play it,only a brave guitarist joined in and everyone else gave me looks of horror...as I had inadvertently transposed it from D to Bb.
Thanx for the hint Dow, now I know which tune to kick off with next time we cross.
First tune was the Exiles jig, from the sweeney's men first album. I bought the mandolin to learn it on and tortured my self for days ( yes it took days, infact probably as many days as notes in the tune ) Very easy tune, infact don't think I have heard anyone else ever play this tune..............probably far too easy.
On fiddle, Da Slockit Light, a major favorite. I learned it by ear from a recording, on my harp, so when I pickedup the fiddle again it was a natural first tune. (Although the first tune that "played me" was Da New Rigged Ship.)
On harp, Blind Mary; first tune I could do chords with. (Dyspraxia is fun; it took 3 1/2 years to get to that point.)
On psaltery, way back when I first started getting into ITM, Boys of Bluehill. Still enjoy that on harp or psaltery, although when I play it on fiddle it seems to somehow escape me. Just can't get the right feel to it. Still trying.
Nice thread, especially when I'm sitting up late feeling philosophical after an amazing fireworks display across the street from my new house.
Must be Irish Washerwoman - when I was 13, my school's wind band played it, and of course the flutes had the tune... but of course that was a good many years before my first session.
Chief of Neill's favourite on the mandolin. I spent two weeks getting right, learning it from the Dubliner's version. Still love playing it.
A musicologist I know said that very often people who teach themselves to play start by learning a difficult tune. Well, I think that if you have the patience to get that first difficult tune right, everything else is plain sailing.
The first tune I was taught on fiddle was Seamus Cooley's jig. I was very excited since I recognized it from a Martin Hayes Cd. As soon as I had it, I played along with him on the Cd.
The first tune that miraculously seemed to play itself was Off to California. I had heard it enough times for it to imbed itself in my brain, and I guess I was by then fairly comfortable with the workings of the fiddle for it to just come out with little conscious effort from me. I still really like it, and find it to be one of the happiest sounding tunes ever.
Way back when, the first tune on harp I learned was either The Three Drummers or Rakes of Clonmel.
First tune I learnt would be The South Wind
and it was so bad that only my faithful springer spaniel Snoopy would listen to it - he went deaf later on in life - wonder why.
I suppose my better first tune would probably be Fig for a Kiss mainly because i love it so much I can enjoy playing it.
I don't remember for sure, but the first tunes I learned were probably off of the first two BOL albums, way back when. I still play and love "Sleep Soond in the Mornin'". It was probably the first tune that I learned well enough to play in public without feeling *toooooo* embarrassed. I guess other tunes at the beginning for me would have been 'Ships are Sailing', 'Drzy Maggie', 'Flwrs of Edinbro' and 'The Scholar'.
Actually, the first tune I learned was not the first I played--not by a long stretch. I suppose that I had to learn where the notes were on my instrument but I already had many of them in my head. If I recall, the first tune I made a conscious effort to learn was "Jig of Slurs" because it was a "four parter" I still play it regularly, not that I've any choice in the matter of course.
Brendan, Exile was first pointed out to me by my friend Pat Japenga, who is a fluter, and she loves playing it, so I know you should be able to have fun with the thing!
Oddly enough, Pat first played the tune at a session and pointed out that it was on a recording we both owned. Then Myron Bretholz played it for me, and THEN Eliot Grasso played it for me and told me that I *had* to learn it.
The first tune I learned was Lark in the Morning...I learned that one from notes and then just committed it to memory. The first tune I ever learned by ear (and one of the few I ever have) was Dunmore Lasses.
Michelle might have been from County Cavan....
and aint it the truth,, you think it's the music that hooked you, but you look closer and it's the musician......
Brendan, tonight I was over at Sam and Pat's for a house session, it was a great time, and I talked to Pat about how she plays Exile -- she says she doesn't really like playing it herself, because she has to pop up the octave on that low section and she prefers to have a fiddle there to growl away down there. But learn it anyway. When you get back from parts yonder, we'll play it, yeah?
reread the post,, yer right Q it has to be Irish washerwoma for me too. i think getting that rythem in the head helped my antennae go up. The first time i heard Kid Mt.. it was: wha/same sound? but different.....
I don't remember the first tune I ever learned. But I remember the first tune I didn't learn - ever. Does that count?
Coming from classical music, being a decent sightreader and way too lazy to ever bother learning any music by heart (my piano teacher made me learn a Chopin waltz as a show piece once so I wouldn't have to embarrass myself with Chopsticks if somebody asked me to play something), I had a hard time in the beginning learning tunes by heart. I don't know how much time I spend on this tune but for the life of me, I just couldn't get it into my head and fingers: Lucy Cambell's. I still remember my utter frustration at my defeat.
And since nobody around here plays it, I still haven't learned it, although it wouldn't take very long now.
Well lets see, I believe it was honestly Mary Had a Little Lamb, with my dad's beginner whistle book But once I had that down pact I graduated to a tune he wrote for my mom called the cricket, its a wicked cool hornpipe. I learned that and The Cup of Tea
Speaking of Daleks, I hear the new BBC Dr Who series *won't* have 'em. I guess a main villain whose single weakness is that they can't climb stairs isn't as impressive as it used to be.
Back onto topic: Doctor Who's first tune: Tripping up the Stairs.
Re: The First Dalek You Ever Learned to climb steps
One of the later Docs, Sylvester McCoy, was interviewed on the radio last week,on the non-return of the Daleks. He assured us that the Daleks were modified to climb steps in some of the later episodes, by hover-jet or whatever, but he also said, you never actually see them climb the steps, they magically appeared at the next level.
They started doing Dr Who repeats over here in Oz a few months back, right from the very first episode. Ahem, sorry, yes, back to the topic. The very first tune I learnt was "Salmon Tails Up The Water". I think I must get the thesession prize for "daggiest first tunes learnt". Unless people out there are keeping it quiet as usual, or lying maybe.
Hmm. Still working on learning a first tune (among a small set of contenders). I hope I look back at my choices with fondness in 2 or 5 or 8 years, not horror or sorrow, when I finally get one right.
I played bluegrass mandolin for years and had no thoughts about ITM when I happened to catch Alisdair Fraser on PBS playing "Calliope House/Cowboy Jig" I'd no idea what it was but it really caught my attention and I caught most of it on tape. I decided I had to learn it. "How hard can it be for a mandolin player to learn fiddle?", says I. so I went out and bought an old fiddle and painstakingly taught myself to play those two tunes. From there I learned about the other 30 - 40 thousand tunes in the tradition and started in to learn them all. At my current rate, I should be done on July 23rd, 2956AD at about 3 in the afternoon.
So, walking in front of the TV at just the right time resulted in learning a new instrument (after 4 years, now my main one) and a whole new type of music.
Generally, Scott, even if you do remember the tune itself fondly, the horror comes in remembering what you did to the poor, defenseless tune as a beginner...
Off to California. I first heard it played by D'Arcy Broderick who was the fiddler with The Irish Descendants. I loved the tune and still do. it's one I can play quite effortlessly now so it's all the more enjoyable. By the way this is my first post to The Session. I stumbled upon this great site via Fiddle-L List.
What do you mean what I did to it as a beginner? I'm still doing horrible things to it. In fact, I've found many new and even more grotesque ways to mangle it than I could ever have managed as a rank beginner.
BTW, the estimated completion date that I casually threw out turned out to be a little optimistic, I'd have to learn a new tune every week for 952 years, and I'm not quite on that pace. I'll have to ask for an extension to at least 7 in the evening.
Tut, tut, Zina. How do you learn tunes at festivals? Do you "noodle away" in the background at the sessions?
It's true , though. Festivals are great places for picking up tunes. Even you can't manage to learn them all there and then, you'll pick up few ideas to work on when you get home.
I do attend workshops too but, of course, not all festivals offer tuition. Most have a session scene complementing or, in some cases, dominating the festival. Actually, I usually find that festival sessions can be a good test of what you have actually learned over the last year as you don't have the "safety net" and familiar repertoire of you regular session(s) to rely upon. It was really gratifying that so many tunes which I learned over the last year came up at Newcastleton last weekend. It made all the effort worthwhile.
The Swallowtail Jig - I heard it on 2 or 3 recordings on the internet
(mp3.com) - then I decided to learn it. Before that I played the
melodies of Irish songs such as The Foggy Dew on tin whistle.
Scots Wha' Hae---on the Highland Pipies. The first time I solidly struck up the bag, got all three drones going at once, and hit the "E" was better than any sex ever. What a noise!
Irish tunes --"Tim Finnegan's Wake" --on the whistle
I get the sense that few who've replied to this discussion have got the right idea about the subject. I don't think it was intended to elicit one sentence replies about one particular tune that came along early or that was prominent in your early career. It seems to me to seek detailed experiences of how you got on with the instrument of your choice thanks to this one tune. I still play few tunes melodically on guitar but remember vividly learning Fermoy Lasses from a Dubliner's album. At one point the whole tune began to kind of hum as one thing: even though I was probably trying to play it too fast and hitting plenty of wrong notes. That hum gives me hope. In gaelic it's called crónán.
The First Tune You Ever Learned
The First Tune You Ever Learned
Greetings all,
Haven't posted much of late. But am in one of those reflective moods that is often precipitated by the holidays.
So what is the first tune you ever learned? This is a trick question of sorts. The first tune you ever learned of course refers to that one tune that for whatever reason was the one you remember first starting to hammer out on your instrument perhaps "way back in the day" for some or more recently for others. It may be a tune you spurn now or one that you still treasure or hold in high esteem.
However, there is also another sense of your "first tune" which has more to do with that one tune that you first *really* learned well. It is the tune that for whatever reason "came together"; you can play it effortlessly with lift and interest. It is that tune you love (or at least respect) and it respects you back. It is that tune your fingers often automatically start playing when you're warming up, or you return to after a frustrating session or being overwhelmed by other stuff.
My "first tune" in the former sense was The Monaghan Jig. This tune in itself is a part of the very reason I got interested in irish music. I heard a recording of it on some instructional tape i'd gotten while traveling in ireland way back when. I still love this tune, with its minor/model flavor and four interesting parts. Great for the whistle. Don't play it much anymore, strangely.
This first tune I ever learned in the latter sense I'd have to say is Speed the Plow. Not a fancy tune or a party piece. But for whatever reason it is the one where everything clicked. I can play it with ease and a few variations. I do like the tune, although it is not "my all-time favorite." It's the tune I'll often slap at the end of a set, usually after some minor-ish tune. Took me about, oh, 7-8 years to really learn my first tune and, judging by the standard it has set, I reckon that I only really know about ten or twenty tunes tops.
Anyway, thought i'd toss this out into the fray for discussion...
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Brendan
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Father John MacMillan of Barra, When I first tried to play the fiddle that's what I wanted to learn, and now I can play it , not very well, but from memory, which is good for me.
so however frustrating current practice is, I can go back to that one.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by gummidge
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
It was either Limerick Lasses or Christmas Eve. I don't play LL that much any more but Christmas Eve is still a favorite.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by jdave
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Dunno, can't remember for sure, but it was probably one of three polkas I was started off on in April 2001 - Newmarket, Henry's,and Riding on a Load of Hay. The Newmarket is the most likely contender.
TRevor
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Belles of Tipperary, also known as The New Policeman. Everything before that was probably still ground through the mill of inexperience...
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
dman, zina, what a delightful tune! between that one and 'far away' you are two for two in my book. well, okay, you're two for three: exile of erin has too many fiddle settings for a fluter ;) ...but i'll work on it...
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Brendan
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
It was the Kildare hornpipe, learned it from a tin whistle book, but I play it on my mandolin.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Justintime
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I think it was "The Rakes of Mallow", I later found out that it's also a song. I don't play it anymore, but I played it for about three years in a band and I even recorded it along with "Turkeys in the Straw".
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Dark Raven
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Well, when I initially started tinkering with ITM, I memorized a few tunes, but really had no sense of the music at that point, so I don't really count those. In Galway I started taking lessons through the GSITM (Galway School of Irish Trad Music) and the first tune I was taught was "Sunny Banks". The tune was broken down for me and it was then I started to get a sense of the structure of ITM. I look back nostagically when I play that simple yet fun tune, even though that was only 3 years ago.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Jason G
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
the first ever tune was the dawning of the day and the first 'biggy' was mcdermott's reel
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by marymccaffrey
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
"Woody's Rag" on the mandolin, but learning tunes really started the day I opened "Kerr's Merry Melodies for Violin, Vol 1" and learned "Soldier's Joy" and "Flowers of Edinburgh", right there on the first page.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Bren
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
well, my first tune, "the orphan" was the one i learned so well after only playing the flute 2 weeks that i dared start it off by my self at a session. i played it for a couple of months, but nobody else seemed to be interested in learning the tune so i quite playing it at sessions, though i do still use it as one of my warming-up tunes. "the silver spear" was he one that gave me the feeling that i was really playing the music, it just rolled out of my flute as if it had always been in there and variations just come automaticely.
i still like both tunes.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by MM
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
very interesting, mm, it's sometimes as if a tune just plays you rather than the other way around...perhaps that when you know you've really learned it...
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Brendan
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
All the Ships Are Sailing, in 1979 on the whistle.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
That bloody FABA polka was my first Irish tune.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The Merry Blacksmith. I heard it played at a session in the early 80's and dusted off my fathers mandolin and pieced it together from memory. Only problem was when I went back a few weeks later and boldly/ignorantly started to play it,only a brave guitarist joined in and everyone else gave me looks of horror...as I had inadvertently transposed it from D to Bb.
Thanx for the hint Dow, now I know which tune to kick off with next time we cross.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Greenwiggle
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Knowing you you'll play an incredible version of it played high up on the neck of your banjo in the key of F# major
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Awwwww, the FABA...it's soooooo cute and sweet...(jeesuz, I've got to stop drinking at weddings....)
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
No Zeens, the FABA is *not* cute. It's evil.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
First tune was the Exiles jig, from the sweeney's men first album. I bought the mandolin to learn it on and tortured my self for days ( yes it took days, infact probably as many days as notes in the tune ) Very easy tune, infact don't think I have heard anyone else ever play this tune..............probably far too easy.
KS
http://www.chinatogalway.com/
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by KS
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
No, it's not, Mark! You've just allowed yourself to become tired and jaded. *grin*
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Is so.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
On fiddle, Da Slockit Light, a major favorite. I learned it by ear from a recording, on my harp, so when I pickedup the fiddle again it was a natural first tune. (Although the first tune that "played me" was Da New Rigged Ship.)
On harp, Blind Mary; first tune I could do chords with. (Dyspraxia is fun; it took 3 1/2 years to get to that point.)
On psaltery, way back when I first started getting into ITM, Boys of Bluehill. Still enjoy that on harp or psaltery, although when I play it on fiddle it seems to somehow escape me. Just can't get the right feel to it. Still trying.
Nice thread, especially when I'm sitting up late feeling philosophical after an amazing fireworks display across the street from my new house.
Sara
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by sara g
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Must be Irish Washerwoman - when I was 13, my school's wind band played it, and of course the flutes had the tune... but of course that was a good many years before my first session.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Q
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Chief of Neill's favourite on the mandolin. I spent two weeks getting right, learning it from the Dubliner's version. Still love playing it.
A musicologist I know said that very often people who teach themselves to play start by learning a difficult tune. Well, I think that if you have the patience to get that first difficult tune right, everything else is plain sailing.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Cath
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
First tune on the banjo was the Glenbhiegh Polka,and the first on the whistle was Of to California.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by banjo billy
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The first tune I was taught on fiddle was Seamus Cooley's jig. I was very excited since I recognized it from a Martin Hayes Cd. As soon as I had it, I played along with him on the Cd.
The first tune that miraculously seemed to play itself was Off to California. I had heard it enough times for it to imbed itself in my brain, and I guess I was by then fairly comfortable with the workings of the fiddle for it to just come out with little conscious effort from me. I still really like it, and find it to be one of the happiest sounding tunes ever.
Way back when, the first tune on harp I learned was either The Three Drummers or Rakes of Clonmel.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Andee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Out on the Ocean, the way Martin Hayes plays it, still a favourite too...
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by oraghalm
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I learnt classical flute first, then switched to Celtic. I started by playing Morrison's Jig on a pennywhistle.
# Posted on July 4th 2004 by Sam2
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The Cork Hornpipe on the whistle. Still love that toon.
Joe
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Joe Quinn
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
First tune I learnt would be The South Wind
and it was so bad that only my faithful springer spaniel Snoopy would listen to it - he went deaf later on in life - wonder why.
I suppose my better first tune would probably be Fig for a Kiss mainly because i love it so much I can enjoy playing it.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by MollyB
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I don't remember for sure, but the first tunes I learned were probably off of the first two BOL albums, way back when. I still play and love "Sleep Soond in the Mornin'". It was probably the first tune that I learned well enough to play in public without feeling *toooooo* embarrassed. I guess other tunes at the beginning for me would have been 'Ships are Sailing', 'Drzy Maggie', 'Flwrs of Edinbro' and 'The Scholar'.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Tusong200
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
My first Irish tune was Kerry Dancers.
TheWind That Shakes The Barley was the first one I learned "right".
-Kelly
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by seisflutes
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Actually, the first tune I learned was not the first I played--not by a long stretch. I suppose that I had to learn where the notes were on my instrument but I already had many of them in my head. If I recall, the first tune I made a conscious effort to learn was "Jig of Slurs" because it was a "four parter" I still play it regularly, not that I've any choice in the matter of course.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by John J.
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
On fiddle the Pig Town Reel which I now link to The Merry Blacksmith.
When I first started to learn music on the recorder it was The First Nowell!
SUE
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Susie-Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
hewlett on fiddle and garret barry on pipes-
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by I_Fel
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I think it was the Merry Blacksmith. Or Morrison's. Can't remember which came first.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Max Becher
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Brendan, Exile was first pointed out to me by my friend Pat Japenga, who is a fluter, and she loves playing it, so I know you should be able to have fun with the thing!
Oddly enough, Pat first played the tune at a session and pointed out that it was on a recording we both owned. Then Myron Bretholz played it for me, and THEN Eliot Grasso played it for me and told me that I *had* to learn it.
Funny how some tunes make the rounds all at once.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The first tune I learned was Lark in the Morning...I learned that one from notes and then just committed it to memory. The first tune I ever learned by ear (and one of the few I ever have) was Dunmore Lasses.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Crysania
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
My first tune ever was Seamus Cooley's jig. I still love this one
Joyce
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by JMH
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I think my first tune was Kid On the Mt, and what a GODAWFUL MOUTHFUL THAT WAS...woops sorry didnt mean to shout
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by vboyd100
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
My first was also Kid on the Mountain - well, it certainly made me learn how to roll
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by dave73
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Michelle might have been from County Cavan....
and aint it the truth,, you think it's the music that hooked you, but you look closer and it's the musician......
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by vboyd100
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Brendan, tonight I was over at Sam and Pat's for a house session, it was a great time, and I talked to Pat about how she plays Exile -- she says she doesn't really like playing it herself, because she has to pop up the octave on that low section and she prefers to have a fiddle there to growl away down there. But learn it anyway. When you get back from parts yonder, we'll play it, yeah?
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
reread the post,, yer right Q it has to be Irish washerwoma for me too. i think getting that rythem in the head helped my antennae go up. The first time i heard Kid Mt.. it was: wha/same sound? but different.....
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by vboyd100
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I don't remember the first tune I ever learned. But I remember the first tune I didn't learn - ever. Does that count?
Coming from classical music, being a decent sightreader and way too lazy to ever bother learning any music by heart (my piano teacher made me learn a Chopin waltz as a show piece once so I wouldn't have to embarrass myself with Chopsticks if somebody asked me to play something), I had a hard time in the beginning learning tunes by heart. I don't know how much time I spend on this tune but for the life of me, I just couldn't get it into my head and fingers: Lucy Cambell's. I still remember my utter frustration at my defeat.
And since nobody around here plays it, I still haven't learned it, although it wouldn't take very long now.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by heike
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Well lets see, I believe it was honestly Mary Had a Little Lamb, with my dad's beginner whistle book
But once I had that down pact I graduated to a tune he wrote for my mom called the cricket, its a wicked cool hornpipe. I learned that and The Cup of Tea
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by starvingactress7
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Joyce, we will Seamus Cooley's together in the Catskills, Ok?
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Andee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Hello Starvingactress7 - what happened to the first 6?
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Q
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The daleks got them and she got reincarnated.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Hahaha starvingactress is a funny name. Some of the names on this site make me laugh, like "needaliver" is another good one.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Speaking of Daleks, I hear the new BBC Dr Who series *won't* have 'em. I guess a main villain whose single weakness is that they can't climb stairs isn't as impressive as it used to be.
Back onto topic: Doctor Who's first tune: Tripping up the Stairs.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Q
Re: The First Dalek You Ever Learned to climb steps
One of the later Docs, Sylvester McCoy, was interviewed on the radio last week,on the non-return of the Daleks. He assured us that the Daleks were modified to climb steps in some of the later episodes, by hover-jet or whatever, but he also said, you never actually see them climb the steps, they magically appeared at the next level.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by geoffwright
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
They started doing Dr Who repeats over here in Oz a few months back, right from the very first episode. Ahem, sorry, yes, back to the topic. The very first tune I learnt was "Salmon Tails Up The Water". I think I must get the thesession prize for "daggiest first tunes learnt". Unless people out there are keeping it quiet as usual, or lying maybe.
# Posted on July 5th 2004 by Dr. Dow
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Hmm. Still working on learning a first tune (among a small set of contenders). I hope I look back at my choices with fondness in 2 or 5 or 8 years, not horror or sorrow, when I finally get one right.
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by scott.r
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Lady Forbes Reel and I still play it everytime I sit down to play.
# Posted on July 6th 2004 by Antikhntr
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I played bluegrass mandolin for years and had no thoughts about ITM when I happened to catch Alisdair Fraser on PBS playing "Calliope House/Cowboy Jig" I'd no idea what it was but it really caught my attention and I caught most of it on tape. I decided I had to learn it. "How hard can it be for a mandolin player to learn fiddle?", says I. so I went out and bought an old fiddle and painstakingly taught myself to play those two tunes. From there I learned about the other 30 - 40 thousand tunes in the tradition and started in to learn them all. At my current rate, I should be done on July 23rd, 2956AD at about 3 in the afternoon.
So, walking in front of the TV at just the right time resulted in learning a new instrument (after 4 years, now my main one) and a whole new type of music.
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by ScottC
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Generally, Scott, even if you do remember the tune itself fondly, the horror comes in remembering what you did to the poor, defenseless tune as a beginner...
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Off to California. I first heard it played by D'Arcy Broderick who was the fiddler with The Irish Descendants. I loved the tune and still do. it's one I can play quite effortlessly now so it's all the more enjoyable. By the way this is my first post to The Session. I stumbled upon this great site via Fiddle-L List.
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Slaney
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Welcome to The Session, Slaney.
# Posted on July 7th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Zina,
What do you mean what I did to it as a beginner? I'm still doing horrible things to it. In fact, I've found many new and even more grotesque ways to mangle it than I could ever have managed as a rank beginner.
BTW, the estimated completion date that I casually threw out turned out to be a little optimistic, I'd have to learn a new tune every week for 952 years, and I'm not quite on that pace. I'll have to ask for an extension to at least 7 in the evening.
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by ScottC
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Attend a few festivals. You learn quite a few tunes at them, so you'll catch up for the weeks you didn't learn any.
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Tut, tut, Zina. How do you learn tunes at festivals? Do you "noodle away" in the background at the sessions?
It's true , though. Festivals are great places for picking up tunes. Even you can't manage to learn them all there and then, you'll pick up few ideas to work on when you get home.
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by John J.
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Some of us actually take the workshops, Johnny J... *grin*
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I do attend workshops too but, of course, not all festivals offer tuition. Most have a session scene complementing or, in some cases, dominating the festival. Actually, I usually find that festival sessions can be a good test of what you have actually learned over the last year as you don't have the "safety net" and familiar repertoire of you regular session(s) to rely upon. It was really gratifying that so many tunes which I learned over the last year came up at Newcastleton last weekend. It made all the effort worthwhile.
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by John J.
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
The Swallowtail Jig - I heard it on 2 or 3 recordings on the internet
(mp3.com) - then I decided to learn it. Before that I played the
melodies of Irish songs such as The Foggy Dew on tin whistle.
# Posted on July 8th 2004 by jensis
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
Scots Wha' Hae---on the Highland Pipies. The first time I solidly struck up the bag, got all three drones going at once, and hit the "E" was better than any sex ever. What a noise!
Irish tunes --"Tim Finnegan's Wake" --on the whistle
# Posted on July 10th 2004 by father tulane blacktop
Re: The First Tune You Ever Learned
I get the sense that few who've replied to this discussion have got the right idea about the subject. I don't think it was intended to elicit one sentence replies about one particular tune that came along early or that was prominent in your early career. It seems to me to seek detailed experiences of how you got on with the instrument of your choice thanks to this one tune. I still play few tunes melodically on guitar but remember vividly learning Fermoy Lasses from a Dubliner's album. At one point the whole tune began to kind of hum as one thing: even though I was probably trying to play it too fast and hitting plenty of wrong notes. That hum gives me hope. In gaelic it's called crónán.
# Posted on January 7th 2006 by patchsong