I suppose this happens to everyone who gets involved with ITM and honors the 'by ear' tradition.
As a player advances, he/she should have learned (to varying degrees of expertise LOL) a large number of tunes. I, for one, am not blessed with a photographic (audionic?) memory, and have as well become familiar with the addage that I "know a hundred tunes and a hundred tune names. Problem is they don't necessarily correspond."
I don't know if it is true or not, but I am told that Matt Molloy keeps a small diary with tune names and the corresponding first four bars of his tunes. On the other hand again without being able to attest to the veracity of the story, I am told that Paddy O'Brien is a walking encyclopedia of tunes and titles and keeps them in his head.
How does everyone else here do it? I am thinking of buying a computer, setting up an access data base.....Sort of kidding.
I keep a notebook with titles and first few bars. I even add tunes to it sometimes, but since I don't keep it on hand and consult it, it doesn't really track very well with what I know. Mostly I use it to remind myself of tunes I'd forgotten I knew, or forgotten to play. Sometimes I'll use it as a prompt to work out fingerings for a tune that I don't usually play on one instrument. If I'm holding the box, I might not think of playing some tunes, even though I know them perfectly well, just because I don't have the habit of playing that tune on the box. Grabbing the notebook will remind me of the existence of some of those.
If you need a computer-based solution, why not try the tunebook that Jeremy has thoughtfully provided for your use?
I do something similar, sadly not as organised as the wonderful Mr Molloy but if I think of a tune I haven't played in a while or forgotten I usually jot down a few bars in a notepad or in my mobile if it happens to occur when i'm at a session. Sometimes when playing for a while tunes just come to you that you didn't even realise you knew or that hadn't been played in a while!
As for the access data base..the're only so many tunes you can play at any given time.I think it's nice the way we go through phases of playing certain tunes (well I certainly do depending on my mood or the type of music influencing me at that particular time). It's keeps the novelty real!
Like Jon, nowadays I always forget to add to it and look at it, but when I do it reminds me of many a forgotten tune friend.
I thought at one point someone had cooked something nifty up that would take your session.org tune book and actually download the list in a .csv format easily importable to Excel or Open Office or whatever you are using.
Your Molloy interview in question re:notes ->
'I'm beginning to forget tunes, unfortunately. What I do is note down say the first few notes of a tune, of the different parts. I just file them away. In abcd notation. I never learned to read music properly. But I have my own way of strokes and dots and dashes. I can red it. Over the years I've developed this sort of thing, but it's very basic, just reminders. We travel so much [with the Chieftains]. I listen to tapes, session tapes, and whatever else, when I'm on airplanes. A notepad and a tune I was interested in, I just take down a few notes off it: "I must take a note of that now. For again, you know."'
When I first learned to play, I kept a list of tunes I had learned. Then when that list got to around 100 tunes, I found I couldn't be bothered upkeeping it so it went by the wayside. Now I just forget and occasionally, if I am lucky, remember tunes.
I've actually had more success remembering other people's repertoires. I know it's odd, but I somehow remember who in my community plays what tunes, and as I look around the table on any given evening, construct sets based on who is in attendance that night. I even remember what tunes were played by the occasional twice a year seasonal visitors. Bizarre. Other than that, I just have a dozen or so "comfort sets" that I can trot out by memory if needed.
sol·ip·sism (slp-szm, slp-)
n. Philosophy
1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.
Jon - What a kick-ass word. Thanks for adding it to my vocabulary.
I can excuse that if it's a beginner, it might be all they know!
It's a great joy to see an old friend, think of an old tune, and then play it together. Might want to add a column to that spreadsheet to include names or little photos.
btw to answer the one question about how I post w/o a computer- I am on Herself's
I went 'unplugged digitally and musically a number of years ago. (Long story. Political intrigue. Emails being perused by government wonks because suspecting that I was somehow involved in seditious activities only to find out the most controversial thing I do is play the accordion LOL)
The new computer is because Herself is tired of findiing food remnants in her keyboard
Back to Zippy's original question - I used to keep a list - I also used to find a great deal of benefit by putting the list aside and forcing myself by memory to play, (for example) as many jigs as I could spontaneously recall once or twice through in one sitting. Sometimes that would be only a few before having to check my list, sometimes it could be dozens. That little expercise in itself helped me in my session playing tremendously. I also remember tunes in "families" - groups of tunes that share similar snippets of phrases. For example, a family like "Bag of Spuds/Congress Reel/Sligo Maid/Star of Munster/Down the Broom, etc,etc" where the B-parts share similar ideas. Right now I'm after trying to learn Crosses of Annagh which will soon be adopted into that family and remembered as such accordingly. Zippy find something that works for you. It may be a list, it may be something else. You'll find your own method through trial and error.
I gave up keeping a list of tunes a long time ago. It had grown to 600 tunes, and it just wasn't worth the time. The more you use your memory, the better it works. So the tunes rattle around in my head. Even dusty, rusty ones come back with enough rooting around. Not relying on a list seems to help me have them ready at the drop of a hat to play. But the brain (some more than others) is a mysterious critter....
i've kept a list for years, and would have lost a host of tunes if i hadn't. it's organized alphabetically by dance (reels, horns, etc.), and i include key, provenance (player or recording), and my own homegrown abc notation (which has made it tough for me to follow the 'official' notation used here on the mustard). even so, i've lost more tunes than i like to think about -- i gave my list to a session friend, and the next time we met she started asking for all these tunes that i just couldn't recall; very embarrassing. i just added 'speed the plough' and 'the orphan', and i'm happy to keep them for reference. i'm in an isolated environment now, and there's no regular seesion for me to sharpen up in, but i'm working to change that.
Use ABC Navigator. Create a file named eg "My Reels" In it you can put all the reels you (think you) know. Use the sets facility to organise them. When practising, a browse through the sets will remind you of older tunes on which to freshen up. A brief listen to the first few notes is generally sufficient to get you started on the whole set.
I keep lists of tune titles on an Excel spreadsheet - just the names
I've kept the list for the last 7 years and I must confess that I struggle to play many of the less frequently used tunes from end to end at the first attempt
one reason is probably that I add tunes to the list before they're properly embedded in my memory
however, it doesn't usually take long for the fingering patterns to come back even on the most "forgotten" ones, so the list helps me to recover value from the original investment of time in the forgotten tune by adding further practice time now to finally perfect the tune and add it to current repetoire
So keeping any sort of tune/set list seems a good idea to me
its always the B parts that are hardest to remember so perhaps if you're going to set down a few bars on your database, some from the B part might be a good idea
I do the ABC Navigator as well and keep a file of my tunes. It's cool because I sort them chronologically (actually you have to select "no sort" for that). That allows you to see any snapshot in time-the tunes you learned in any period. Also the tunes at the end of the list will be the latest that you are interested in.
I also keep the list on my Ipod as a text file in the "Notes" section. If I'm really stuck at a session I pull it out and see "Oh ya those tunes are great...forgot all about those few .." etc. Now if I could just get a new phone that would store text files, I could look at it nonchalantly like I reading a text.
Every time I learn a tune I make a copy of it with something: Print Music (Allegro) Magix, ABC Navigator, downloaded Youtubes converted to MP3, iTunes, etc etc. I gather them into hour-long playlists, according to various criteria (slow reels, flute tunes, airs, need work, jigs etc.), whatever I fancy, on the pc, and play along with them on a roughly rotating basis. I still come across a tune from time to time that I'd forgotten about and add it to a list. The trouble with relying on memory, I think, is that you won't know if there's a tune you've forgotten.
Then of course, when I go out I get completely sidetracked.
I've been waiting years for someone to ask this question! When I first started learning tunes around 1982 I noted that there were an awful lot of tunes and so as not to forget them, or at least have easy access to them when if I did forget, in one of the few sensible things I've done in my life, I made the decision to write out each tune as I learnt it, and have done so ever since. I used to use a fountain pen back then but nowadays use Melody Assistant on a PC. I also sing a bit (if you use a fairly broad definition of the word "singing") and thus have all my songs written out. It also make teaching a breeze, I can put together 2 months of lessons for a student in less than an hour. I'd learn the vast majority of my tunes by ear but having a written record of them has definitely worked for me.
I use an Excel spreadsheet.
Information includes tune type (reel, jig, hornpipe etc), key, tune name, date memorized, and first 6-10 notes (in ABC format) as a memory jogger.
If I'm going to a gig and know what I'm going to play, I can sort the list to the chosen tunes, print that little bit off and have it handy if I need it. If the tune is freshly memorized, I sometimes blank out and gosh darn it, need those first few notes as a memory jogger..... that little printout has saved me!
I also have a "notes" section to throw in comments about the tune. Bear to learn, better in key so and so, nicer on Bflat whistle, goes well with tune so and so etc. so it helps me when I'm putting sets together.
It takes me a long time to learn a tune, and my list helps remind me that some need to be pulled out of storage from time to time, and put back into the rotation! Waste not, want not.
Names are over rated.
Just confuses the heck outta me.
They all just go like this like this, diddly yiddly yum diddle doo....... didddly yum diddle day etc. etc. so on and so forth ha ha ha laughing is a good thing.
Time to mention Joanie Madden's classic comment, "I've got the library, but I've lost the card catalog." Unfortunately I've got card catalog, but not the library!
I have a book, inspired by that Malloy article a few years ago.
I like to look through while practicing so I don't limit myself to
the same small group of tunes that pop into my head all the time.
I use Excel, at first I cut and paste the ABCs from this site and as I change it to match the recording I'm learning from, I note the changes (if I think it's necessary/complicated)
I update the last time I practised the tune, and the field changes colour if it has been a long time (Red, Orange, Green etc..)I note myself out of 10, so I know which tunes really need more work, I also have extra fields in the Excel file which when I click on them will direct me to the appropriate recordings of the the music either MP3 or Youtube etc.. and the final part is I record myself playing the tune and link from another column to the recording.
As you may have guessed, I don't have a proper session to go to where I am living at the moment.
For the time being I have loaded into excel. What is amazing, I filled the list from my binder and various piles, and notes to myself and such, started randomly chugging through the list last night and it was amazing how many things popped into the head that I knew, but hadn't written down.
The most frustrating were the ones I could play instinctively and had no clue what the name was!
I find keeping track or a repertoire ends up being futile in the end, as you cant keep up. However, maintaining a list of tunes you are working on or want to learn is great.
In general I am over-organized, neurotic, and so busy that I don't have time to eat, never mind practice. That being said, I am working on taking 8 of my favorite albums and learning every tune on them. I am writing out all the tune names, and will check off tunes based in where I am in my progress of learning them. The benchmarks for each tune will be:
1. Am listening to it regularly, and can lilt it along with the recording, and then unprompted.
2. I can play the general idea of the tune along with the recording at any pace.
3. I know the turning of the tune. This is a term my grandmother's cousin uses to describe when you know the individual notes, rather than just being able to get the main ideas of it.
4. I have mastered the tune to the point where I can say it is part of my repertoire.
I am going to give myself a year to do this, with the goal of being able to play an entire cd cold, unprompted, from start to finish. I have several cd's which I can do this part way, but then get lost, so it is not undoable. The worst that happens is that it takes me a few years rather than one. I am also including session tunes, but will be less vigorous in tracking the progress.
This may be a bit over done, but I think it is more valuable to PLAN the expansion of your repertoire, rather than track the contents of it. The first makes you a better player, while the latter is an exercise in futility.
I can't remember what tunes I know... tried keeping lists, but I don't know the names of 90% of the tunes, so that was useless. Or, I know the names and the tunes, but don't remember which name goes with which tune. I started recording a bit of each tune and keeping on the computer, but there are too many tunes to put down, so that never worked much either. My solution has been to not try to remember however many hundreds of tunes are mostly forgotten, as my fingers seem to remember once someone starts a tune. It's not a very good approach, but as long as I'm not leading a session it does ok.
That said, yesterday I started trying to put new recordings into the file on my computer. Not very useful when out and about, but good when practicing at home
Keeping track of one's repertoire
Keeping track of one's repertoire
I suppose this happens to everyone who gets involved with ITM and honors the 'by ear' tradition.
As a player advances, he/she should have learned (to varying degrees of expertise LOL) a large number of tunes. I, for one, am not blessed with a photographic (audionic?) memory, and have as well become familiar with the addage that I "know a hundred tunes and a hundred tune names. Problem is they don't necessarily correspond."
I don't know if it is true or not, but I am told that Matt Molloy keeps a small diary with tune names and the corresponding first four bars of his tunes. On the other hand again without being able to attest to the veracity of the story, I am told that Paddy O'Brien is a walking encyclopedia of tunes and titles and keeps them in his head.
How does everyone else here do it? I am thinking of buying a computer, setting up an access data base.....Sort of kidding.
Thanks for any advice.
Zip
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Access? Oh, Zippy, please.
I keep a notebook with titles and first few bars. I even add tunes to it sometimes, but since I don't keep it on hand and consult it, it doesn't really track very well with what I know. Mostly I use it to remind myself of tunes I'd forgotten I knew, or forgotten to play. Sometimes I'll use it as a prompt to work out fingerings for a tune that I don't usually play on one instrument. If I'm holding the box, I might not think of playing some tunes, even though I know them perfectly well, just because I don't have the habit of playing that tune on the box. Grabbing the notebook will remind me of the existence of some of those.
If you need a computer-based solution, why not try the tunebook that Jeremy has thoughtfully provided for your use?
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I do something similar, sadly not as organised as the wonderful Mr Molloy but if I think of a tune I haven't played in a while or forgotten I usually jot down a few bars in a notepad or in my mobile if it happens to occur when i'm at a session. Sometimes when playing for a while tunes just come to you that you didn't even realise you knew or that hadn't been played in a while!
As for the access data base..the're only so many tunes you can play at any given time.I think it's nice the way we go through phases of playing certain tunes (well I certainly do depending on my mood or the type of music influencing me at that particular time). It's keeps the novelty real!
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by tradcracker
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Thinking of buying a computer? Well zippy, it's about time! Imagine how much better your posts will be on here if you use a computer!
Incidentally, how exactly do you post now?
I use a spreadsheet. I'm cheap so I use: http://www.openoffice.org/
Like Jon, nowadays I always forget to add to it and look at it, but when I do it reminds me of many a forgotten tune friend.
I thought at one point someone had cooked something nifty up that would take your session.org tune book and actually download the list in a .csv format easily importable to Excel or Open Office or whatever you are using.
Your Molloy interview in question re:notes ->
'I'm beginning to forget tunes, unfortunately. What I do is note down say the first few notes of a tune, of the different parts. I just file them away. In abcd notation. I never learned to read music properly. But I have my own way of strokes and dots and dashes. I can red it. Over the years I've developed this sort of thing, but it's very basic, just reminders. We travel so much [with the Chieftains]. I listen to tapes, session tapes, and whatever else, when I'm on airplanes. A notepad and a tune I was interested in, I just take down a few notes off it: "I must take a note of that now. For again, you know."'
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/molloy.html
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
When I first learned to play, I kept a list of tunes I had learned. Then when that list got to around 100 tunes, I found I couldn't be bothered upkeeping it so it went by the wayside. Now I just forget and occasionally, if I am lucky, remember tunes.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I've actually had more success remembering other people's repertoires. I know it's odd, but I somehow remember who in my community plays what tunes, and as I look around the table on any given evening, construct sets based on who is in attendance that night. I even remember what tunes were played by the occasional twice a year seasonal visitors. Bizarre. Other than that, I just have a dozen or so "comfort sets" that I can trot out by memory if needed.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I started playing when this site was already in existence and I had broadband Internet access. Voila!
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Elvellon
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Not bizarre. I know the feeling - you're playing with someone, you're reminded of other tunes you've played with them before.
What would be bizarre would be if you just always played the same sets regardless of who was there. That would seem a little solipsistic.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
sol·ip·sism (slp-szm, slp-)
n. Philosophy
1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.
Jon - What a kick-ass word. Thanks for adding it to my vocabulary.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Glad to oblige.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I'm like Jon and Jusa. I look around the session and choose tunes according to who's there.
I've met people who play the same sets regardless of who is in the session. They exist.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I can excuse that if it's a beginner, it might be all they know!
It's a great joy to see an old friend, think of an old tune, and then play it together. Might want to add a column to that spreadsheet to include names or little photos.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Same sets serving selfish solipsistic sessions Silver Spear? Simply shameful.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Absolutely amazing alliteration!
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Bloody brilliant, by the big brass balls of Baal!
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Thanks
btw to answer the one question about how I post w/o a computer- I am on Herself's
I went 'unplugged digitally and musically a number of years ago. (Long story. Political intrigue. Emails being perused by government wonks because suspecting that I was somehow involved in seditious activities only to find out the most controversial thing I do is play the accordion LOL)
The new computer is because Herself is tired of findiing food remnants in her keyboard
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Back to Zippy's original question - I used to keep a list - I also used to find a great deal of benefit by putting the list aside and forcing myself by memory to play, (for example) as many jigs as I could spontaneously recall once or twice through in one sitting. Sometimes that would be only a few before having to check my list, sometimes it could be dozens. That little expercise in itself helped me in my session playing tremendously. I also remember tunes in "families" - groups of tunes that share similar snippets of phrases. For example, a family like "Bag of Spuds/Congress Reel/Sligo Maid/Star of Munster/Down the Broom, etc,etc" where the B-parts share similar ideas. Right now I'm after trying to learn Crosses of Annagh which will soon be adopted into that family and remembered as such accordingly. Zippy find something that works for you. It may be a list, it may be something else. You'll find your own method through trial and error.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Explains why they can't find any 'terrorists'. They're too busy bothering accordion players.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I gave up keeping a list of tunes a long time ago. It had grown to 600 tunes, and it just wasn't worth the time. The more you use your memory, the better it works. So the tunes rattle around in my head. Even dusty, rusty ones come back with enough rooting around. Not relying on a list seems to help me have them ready at the drop of a hat to play. But the brain (some more than others) is a mysterious critter....
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Will Harmon
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
i've kept a list for years, and would have lost a host of tunes if i hadn't. it's organized alphabetically by dance (reels, horns, etc.), and i include key, provenance (player or recording), and my own homegrown abc notation (which has made it tough for me to follow the 'official' notation used here on the mustard). even so, i've lost more tunes than i like to think about -- i gave my list to a session friend, and the next time we met she started asking for all these tunes that i just couldn't recall; very embarrassing. i just added 'speed the plough' and 'the orphan', and i'm happy to keep them for reference. i'm in an isolated environment now, and there's no regular seesion for me to sharpen up in, but i'm working to change that.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by 'tinamatt
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Use ABC Navigator. Create a file named eg "My Reels" In it you can put all the reels you (think you) know. Use the sets facility to organise them. When practising, a browse through the sets will remind you of older tunes on which to freshen up. A brief listen to the first few notes is generally sufficient to get you started on the whole set.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by deeor
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I keep lists of tune titles on an Excel spreadsheet - just the names
I've kept the list for the last 7 years and I must confess that I struggle to play many of the less frequently used tunes from end to end at the first attempt
one reason is probably that I add tunes to the list before they're properly embedded in my memory
however, it doesn't usually take long for the fingering patterns to come back even on the most "forgotten" ones, so the list helps me to recover value from the original investment of time in the forgotten tune by adding further practice time now to finally perfect the tune and add it to current repetoire
So keeping any sort of tune/set list seems a good idea to me
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by millionyears_bc
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
ps
its always the B parts that are hardest to remember so perhaps if you're going to set down a few bars on your database, some from the B part might be a good idea
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by millionyears_bc
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I do the ABC Navigator as well and keep a file of my tunes. It's cool because I sort them chronologically (actually you have to select "no sort" for that). That allows you to see any snapshot in time-the tunes you learned in any period. Also the tunes at the end of the list will be the latest that you are interested in.
I also keep the list on my Ipod as a text file in the "Notes" section. If I'm really stuck at a session I pull it out and see "Oh ya those tunes are great...forgot all about those few .." etc. Now if I could just get a new phone that would store text files, I could look at it nonchalantly like I reading a text.
Salt
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by saltcast
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Every time I learn a tune I make a copy of it with something: Print Music (Allegro) Magix, ABC Navigator, downloaded Youtubes converted to MP3, iTunes, etc etc. I gather them into hour-long playlists, according to various criteria (slow reels, flute tunes, airs, need work, jigs etc.), whatever I fancy, on the pc, and play along with them on a roughly rotating basis. I still come across a tune from time to time that I'd forgotten about and add it to a list. The trouble with relying on memory, I think, is that you won't know if there's a tune you've forgotten.
Then of course, when I go out I get completely sidetracked.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by gam
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I've been waiting years for someone to ask this question! When I first started learning tunes around 1982 I noted that there were an awful lot of tunes and so as not to forget them, or at least have easy access to them when if I did forget, in one of the few sensible things I've done in my life, I made the decision to write out each tune as I learnt it, and have done so ever since. I used to use a fountain pen back then but nowadays use Melody Assistant on a PC. I also sing a bit (if you use a fairly broad definition of the word "singing") and thus have all my songs written out. It also make teaching a breeze, I can put together 2 months of lessons for a student in less than an hour. I'd learn the vast majority of my tunes by ear but having a written record of them has definitely worked for me.
# Posted on January 5th 2011 by Tony O'Rourke
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I use an Excel spreadsheet.
Information includes tune type (reel, jig, hornpipe etc), key, tune name, date memorized, and first 6-10 notes (in ABC format) as a memory jogger.
If I'm going to a gig and know what I'm going to play, I can sort the list to the chosen tunes, print that little bit off and have it handy if I need it. If the tune is freshly memorized, I sometimes blank out and gosh darn it, need those first few notes as a memory jogger..... that little printout has saved me!
I also have a "notes" section to throw in comments about the tune. Bear to learn, better in key so and so, nicer on Bflat whistle, goes well with tune so and so etc. so it helps me when I'm putting sets together.
Hope this helps!
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by CW
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
It takes me a long time to learn a tune, and my list helps remind me that some need to be pulled out of storage from time to time, and put back into the rotation! Waste not, want not.
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Names are over rated.
Just confuses the heck outta me.
They all just go like this like this, diddly yiddly yum diddle doo....... didddly yum diddle day etc. etc. so on and so forth ha ha ha laughing is a good thing.
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by Gone to work
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
Time to mention Joanie Madden's classic comment, "I've got the library, but I've lost the card catalog." Unfortunately I've got card catalog, but not the library!
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by cboody
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I have a book, inspired by that Malloy article a few years ago.
I like to look through while practicing so I don't limit myself to
the same small group of tunes that pop into my head all the time.
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by Hup
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I use Excel, at first I cut and paste the ABCs from this site and as I change it to match the recording I'm learning from, I note the changes (if I think it's necessary/complicated)
I update the last time I practised the tune, and the field changes colour if it has been a long time (Red, Orange, Green etc..)I note myself out of 10, so I know which tunes really need more work, I also have extra fields in the Excel file which when I click on them will direct me to the appropriate recordings of the the music either MP3 or Youtube etc.. and the final part is I record myself playing the tune and link from another column to the recording.
As you may have guessed, I don't have a proper session to go to where I am living at the moment.
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by Theirlandais
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
For the time being I have loaded into excel. What is amazing, I filled the list from my binder and various piles, and notes to myself and such, started randomly chugging through the list last night and it was amazing how many things popped into the head that I knew, but hadn't written down.
The most frustrating were the ones I could play instinctively and had no clue what the name was!
# Posted on January 6th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I find keeping track or a repertoire ends up being futile in the end, as you cant keep up. However, maintaining a list of tunes you are working on or want to learn is great.
In general I am over-organized, neurotic, and so busy that I don't have time to eat, never mind practice. That being said, I am working on taking 8 of my favorite albums and learning every tune on them. I am writing out all the tune names, and will check off tunes based in where I am in my progress of learning them. The benchmarks for each tune will be:
1. Am listening to it regularly, and can lilt it along with the recording, and then unprompted.
2. I can play the general idea of the tune along with the recording at any pace.
3. I know the turning of the tune. This is a term my grandmother's cousin uses to describe when you know the individual notes, rather than just being able to get the main ideas of it.
4. I have mastered the tune to the point where I can say it is part of my repertoire.
I am going to give myself a year to do this, with the goal of being able to play an entire cd cold, unprompted, from start to finish. I have several cd's which I can do this part way, but then get lost, so it is not undoable. The worst that happens is that it takes me a few years rather than one. I am also including session tunes, but will be less vigorous in tracking the progress.
This may be a bit over done, but I think it is more valuable to PLAN the expansion of your repertoire, rather than track the contents of it. The first makes you a better player, while the latter is an exercise in futility.
# Posted on January 8th 2011 by daiv
Re: Keeping track of one's repertoire
I can't remember what tunes I know... tried keeping lists, but I don't know the names of 90% of the tunes, so that was useless. Or, I know the names and the tunes, but don't remember which name goes with which tune. I started recording a bit of each tune and keeping on the computer, but there are too many tunes to put down, so that never worked much either. My solution has been to not try to remember however many hundreds of tunes are mostly forgotten, as my fingers seem to remember once someone starts a tune. It's not a very good approach, but as long as I'm not leading a session it does ok.
That said, yesterday I started trying to put new recordings into the file on my computer. Not very useful when out and about, but good when practicing at home
# Posted on January 10th 2011 by fiddletreegypsy