I'm sure that musicians don't deliberately sit down and compose tunes especially for beginners to learn so I'm wondering how the members here would define a "beginner's tune".
You might suggest that it's a session standard or something that's been done to death but these are not necessarily very easy to learn. I've been playing "The Atholl Highlanders" and "Jig of Slurs" for as long as I care (or want) to remember but I "vaguely" remember them being quite tricky at the start. So, is it something very simple? This doesn't necessarily seem to be the case either. Many simple tunes are also very obscure, relatively speaking, and not necessarily in a beginner's repertoire. In fact, they can be performed by experienced and excellent musicians where the are given imaginative and sensisitive treatment.
Perhaps more difficult tunes should be chosen so that the player can practise developing their technique. This doesn't always seem to be the practice either.
I'm at the stage now where I don't really care too much and choose to learn tunes which I hear or come across that appeal to me at the time. Possibly, this is the more natural approach. I realise that some guidance and direction should be given to beginners but , lately, I've noticed two extremes. Either the player has learned all the usual *insert whichever adjective suits* standards and chestnuts or they have acquired an *elite* repertoire which few other players know and they are often unable to participate fully in a session because of this. I've noticed that more and more sessions have become like this, especially in Scotland. You are never guaranteed to know a repertoire, no matter how experienced you have become.
Speaking only for fiddle, I think beginner's tunes tend to have adjacent notes not more than a fourth apart, all contained in the one octave, and with minimal string crossing. off the top my head, 'Leg of Duck', 'Tobin's Favourite', 'Saddle the Pony'. Contrast these with something like 'Maid at the Spinning Wheel' or 'Troy's Wedding' and there's a big difference. And that's just jigs.
I think simplicity of tunes has two benefits : easy for beginners, and session-friendly in seshs where most players are strangers. The down side of course is that some people think they're twee, trite and sh*te and argue about whether to play along with them or not ...and the antidote to this does result in some sessions springing up where they move into playing different and less common tunes.
I'd define a raw beginner as someone who is getting to grips with the instrument for the first time. A tune for such a beginner would be one that poses few if any technical problems and is easy to remember, so as to give confidence. Preferably, it would also be something that is fairly common in the local session repertoire, so that the beginner, when attending sessions, can hear it at its correct playing speed.
Paul McNevin and Matt Cranitch (and other teachers) in their tutor books for the fiddle give a number of technically easy tunes, some of which, e.g. polkas and jigs, are played in sessions.
When the beginner is comfortable with perhaps a dozen of these tunes then it is time to move on to the next stage which is learning other tunes which are regularly played in local sessions. This means attending sessions as often as possible and making a note of the tunes that are played. The easier tunes can then be identified for learning with the assistance of a teacher or other experienced player.
Some areas have sessions specifically for the beginner or inexperienced player where a repertoire of local session tunes can be acquired at an easy speed under the guidance of a teacher. Such sessions often precede a "real" session at the same venue, so the beginners can go and listen afterwards. There is a session for fiddles like that in Bristol, fortnightly at the Nova Scotia (see under Sessions).
Jim, Paul McNevin has in his tutor book what must be one of the technically easiest jigs around. It consists merely of the open D, and the E and F# above it. Not surprisingly, he calls it the Three Note Jig, and says it makes it easier for the beginner to concentrate on the rhythm. I think I'll submit it in the Tunes section.
Trevor
From how my fiddle teacher, Jimmy Devine, teaches it, he says that Polkas are the easiest to learn by ear and to remember. So although I didn't learn from him back then with the polkas... He'd usually start people off teaching them with the two polkas that go in a set quite well. "Bill Sullivan's/Mikey Chewing Bubblegum" and "Britches Full of Stitches"
The beginner's tunes that have stuck around in the tradition have one other quality, and that is that despite the fact that they tend to be crackingly good tunes.
I'm thiking of tunes like "The Boys of Bluehill" or "Harvest Home".
the first tune i teach anyone is the kerry polka. its only got 3 or 4 basic elemnts, one of the easiest tunes ever, and its one of the most fun ones out there. tho, not liked by everyone... but its always one of my favorites. plus years down the line, its easy to ornament with cuts and taps. just dont tell your students that. haha.
Funny you should bring this up! I just had a debate with my man. He said, "Wanna go to (anonymous host)'s session at (anonymous pub)?" And I said, in an uncharacteristic outburst of snottiness, "Nah, he only plays beginner tunes." The man said "Now, that's not a very nice thing to say! What's that supposed to mean?" But now that I'm pressed to actually think about it instead of slinking of to the bar mid-argument I realize I haven't got the foggiest notion what I meant when I said that.
I guess I think of beginner tunes as the tunes I learned when I really really sucked, and that's why I hate them. I don't think of them as the elegant floaty melodies they CAN be, but the horrid, scratchy, traumatic riddles that gave me fits and sleepless nights five years ago.
So even though some of them were interesting and relatively complicated (Kid on the Mountain was my fifth tune), when someone plays one, I stick my nose in the air and say "Pish posh! What a boring tune!" and sneak out for a cigarette.
I imagine if I ever teach kids to play the fiddle I will teach them the first tunes I learned because I hate them already and I won't have to worry about the hideous imagery of a tortured cat trying to sing melodies I learned recently enough to love.
In common with some of the above comments, when I started I learned Boys of Bluehill, Harvest Home, Off to California, Kerry Polka
I think the easy rhythm of hornpipes (without having to think of the pick direction issue of jigs, or the speed of reels) is what makes them appealing.
I think for a beginner it is key to be able to play real tunes as soon as possible to make it interesting and motivating. No one wants to spend hours and hours for months and months before being able to put together a phrase or tune. And that is one of the joys of ITM is that you can! - even if it takes years to really be able to play with others.
At the Hibernia Centre at Bristol we have a fiddle teacher who can generally teach a raw beginner (i.e. someone who has never handled a fiddle before) to play a simple tune by the end of the morning.
Trevor
I've always wanted to play Father Macmillan of Barra,and started to learn it not long after starting the fiddle.It's taken quite a long time( several years) but I can manage it now, and enjoy it very much.
Our son goes to fiddle lessons on Mondays and has learned The High road to linton and Paddys leather Breeches as a relative beginner.
We enjoy tunes , the ones that catch our imagination, irrespective of whether they are for Learners or not
What is a "beginner's tune"?
What is a "beginner's tune"?
I'm sure that musicians don't deliberately sit down and compose tunes especially for beginners to learn so I'm wondering how the members here would define a "beginner's tune".
You might suggest that it's a session standard or something that's been done to death but these are not necessarily very easy to learn. I've been playing "The Atholl Highlanders" and "Jig of Slurs" for as long as I care (or want) to remember but I "vaguely" remember them being quite tricky at the start. So, is it something very simple? This doesn't necessarily seem to be the case either. Many simple tunes are also very obscure, relatively speaking, and not necessarily in a beginner's repertoire. In fact, they can be performed by experienced and excellent musicians where the are given imaginative and sensisitive treatment.
Perhaps more difficult tunes should be chosen so that the player can practise developing their technique. This doesn't always seem to be the practice either.
I'm at the stage now where I don't really care too much and choose to learn tunes which I hear or come across that appeal to me at the time. Possibly, this is the more natural approach. I realise that some guidance and direction should be given to beginners but , lately, I've noticed two extremes. Either the player has learned all the usual *insert whichever adjective suits* standards and chestnuts or they have acquired an *elite* repertoire which few other players know and they are often unable to participate fully in a session because of this. I've noticed that more and more sessions have become like this, especially in Scotland. You are never guaranteed to know a repertoire, no matter how experienced you have become.
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by Johnny Jay
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
Speaking only for fiddle, I think beginner's tunes tend to have adjacent notes not more than a fourth apart, all contained in the one octave, and with minimal string crossing. off the top my head, 'Leg of Duck', 'Tobin's Favourite', 'Saddle the Pony'. Contrast these with something like 'Maid at the Spinning Wheel' or 'Troy's Wedding' and there's a big difference. And that's just jigs.
...and the antidote to this does result in some sessions springing up where they move into playing different and less common tunes.
I think simplicity of tunes has two benefits : easy for beginners, and session-friendly in seshs where most players are strangers. The down side of course is that some people think they're twee, trite and sh*te and argue about whether to play along with them or not
Jim
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by Worldfiddler
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
I'd define a raw beginner as someone who is getting to grips with the instrument for the first time. A tune for such a beginner would be one that poses few if any technical problems and is easy to remember, so as to give confidence. Preferably, it would also be something that is fairly common in the local session repertoire, so that the beginner, when attending sessions, can hear it at its correct playing speed.
Paul McNevin and Matt Cranitch (and other teachers) in their tutor books for the fiddle give a number of technically easy tunes, some of which, e.g. polkas and jigs, are played in sessions.
When the beginner is comfortable with perhaps a dozen of these tunes then it is time to move on to the next stage which is learning other tunes which are regularly played in local sessions. This means attending sessions as often as possible and making a note of the tunes that are played. The easier tunes can then be identified for learning with the assistance of a teacher or other experienced player.
Some areas have sessions specifically for the beginner or inexperienced player where a repertoire of local session tunes can be acquired at an easy speed under the guidance of a teacher. Such sessions often precede a "real" session at the same venue, so the beginners can go and listen afterwards. There is a session for fiddles like that in Bristol, fortnightly at the Nova Scotia (see under Sessions).
Trevor
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
Jim, Paul McNevin has in his tutor book what must be one of the technically easiest jigs around. It consists merely of the open D, and the E and F# above it. Not surprisingly, he calls it the Three Note Jig, and says it makes it easier for the beginner to concentrate on the rhythm. I think I'll submit it in the Tunes section.
Trevor
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
From how my fiddle teacher, Jimmy Devine, teaches it, he says that Polkas are the easiest to learn by ear and to remember. So although I didn't learn from him back then with the polkas... He'd usually start people off teaching them with the two polkas that go in a set quite well. "Bill Sullivan's/Mikey Chewing Bubblegum" and "Britches Full of Stitches"
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by armandale
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
The beginner's tunes that have stuck around in the tradition have one other quality, and that is that despite the fact that they tend to be crackingly good tunes.
I'm thiking of tunes like "The Boys of Bluehill" or "Harvest Home".
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by s1m0n
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
the first tune i teach anyone is the kerry polka. its only got 3 or 4 basic elemnts, one of the easiest tunes ever, and its one of the most fun ones out there. tho, not liked by everyone... but its always one of my favorites. plus years down the line, its easy to ornament with cuts and taps. just dont tell your students that. haha.
# Posted on September 26th 2004 by daiv
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
Funny you should bring this up! I just had a debate with my man. He said, "Wanna go to (anonymous host)'s session at (anonymous pub)?" And I said, in an uncharacteristic outburst of snottiness, "Nah, he only plays beginner tunes." The man said "Now, that's not a very nice thing to say! What's that supposed to mean?" But now that I'm pressed to actually think about it instead of slinking of to the bar mid-argument I realize I haven't got the foggiest notion what I meant when I said that.
I guess I think of beginner tunes as the tunes I learned when I really really sucked, and that's why I hate them. I don't think of them as the elegant floaty melodies they CAN be, but the horrid, scratchy, traumatic riddles that gave me fits and sleepless nights five years ago.
So even though some of them were interesting and relatively complicated (Kid on the Mountain was my fifth tune), when someone plays one, I stick my nose in the air and say "Pish posh! What a boring tune!" and sneak out for a cigarette.
I imagine if I ever teach kids to play the fiddle I will teach them the first tunes I learned because I hate them already and I won't have to worry about the hideous imagery of a tortured cat trying to sing melodies I learned recently enough to love.
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by Kerri Brown
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
In common with some of the above comments, when I started I learned Boys of Bluehill, Harvest Home, Off to California, Kerry Polka
I think the easy rhythm of hornpipes (without having to think of the pick direction issue of jigs, or the speed of reels) is what makes them appealing.
I think for a beginner it is key to be able to play real tunes as soon as possible to make it interesting and motivating. No one wants to spend hours and hours for months and months before being able to put together a phrase or tune. And that is one of the joys of ITM is that you can! - even if it takes years to really be able to play with others.
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by nick b
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
At the Hibernia Centre at Bristol we have a fiddle teacher who can generally teach a raw beginner (i.e. someone who has never handled a fiddle before) to play a simple tune by the end of the morning.
Trevor
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
I've always wanted to play Father Macmillan of Barra,and started to learn it not long after starting the fiddle.It's taken quite a long time( several years) but I can manage it now, and enjoy it very much.
Our son goes to fiddle lessons on Mondays and has learned The High road to linton and Paddys leather Breeches as a relative beginner.
We enjoy tunes , the ones that catch our imagination, irrespective of whether they are for Learners or not
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by gummidge
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
Providing they have learnt their scale(s) for that tune, is there such a thing as a "beginners tune"?
Isn't a "beginners speed" the main obstacle?
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by geoffwright
Re: What is a "beginner's tune"?
haha. egan = kerry. der der der der der
# Posted on October 2nd 2004 by daiv