I have just realised I have been playing the same tunes (Badly) for ages. (all 2 of them!)
What I am is asking is,
How do YOU learn new tunes?
Would you constantly play recorded tunes back and try by ear? Either taped at sessions or from other media?
Do you read the sheet music? ABCs? Tonic Solfa(Spelling?)Gin and Tonic Solfa!! (Bearing in mind I do not read music--- in any form or fashion)
This is what I do,
I have 1000's of tunes from years of listening to ITM in my mind, but when I try to play any of them, the tunes turn out to be the Bucks of Masons Cloud, or The Kesh up the Stairs.
My Hornpipes sound like Slip Jigs, and my Slip Jigs like a delivery room in Dublin... (a series of painful screeches and woeful moans)
and believe me, they do sound that bad.
Maybe I should just sit down and learn musical notation, and get on with it.
Oh! and honestly, I do not know what I want to play!
I have been introduced to flute by Jim Troy, and Troy Bannon... (a pattern there!)
And also Banjo years ago by Steve 6'4" Leech.
Any advice appreciated.
TIA
In roughly that order. I get my parts of tunes mixed up too, which is one reason why sessions are so valuable to me - I try to use written notes only to doublecheck. Sounds like a good teacher might be most helpful to you at the moment.
By ear, 100%, nowadays. Have tried dots but never got too good at it and that was several years ago, thus any skill in that brain sector has atrophied. Also ABC has me near killt.
All that said, I've got a quite good store of tunes. I can mostly pick up a tune started at a session, with the odd bit of wavering. So we're talking several hundred I could go along with. As for starting up a bunch of sets, at any one time, maybe I have 100 or so practiced tunes fairly ready at my disposal. My mates here can verify or otherwise.
1. Tune learning workshop (there's at least one near Bristol every week), which turns into a mini session towards the end.
2. Sessions.
3. The dots/abc, but now only to check out details I may have missed in 1 or 2.
I don't go much for recordings, except for ones like Ben Lennon's, which are almost session recordings in their own right, and music for set dancing - and here videos and live are best.
A few days ago someone posted a few websites for beginners- the tunes are played mostly on a whistle- slower then, up to speed. This is a great way to learn a new tune (loop it and try to learn it by ear if you can).
I'm also very curious about Trevor's "Tune Learning Workshops"- I would love to hear a little more about how these are conducted.. would love to start them in my neighbourhood!
Sometimes, I get all psyched up to learn a new tune, and often I'll try to work out at least some of it by ear, then fill in the blanks or uncertainties via sheet music. Depending on any number of factors, including my patience and energy level, I can get it down in a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Or, yes, even longer.
But there have also been occasions where I find myself playing a familiar tune I hadn't even _meant_ to learn, and before I know it I've got most of the notes down so that firming up the rest is pretty easy.
I learn 100% by ear. I never learned to read music, and I can't seem to really get a feeling for the tune or keep it in my head if I use ABC. Now I just listen to the tune on a recording until I have it memorized in my head and start working on playing it. Perhaps it's a little slow, but I usually pick up about 4-5 tunes a week. I listen to a lot of Diddly!
My apologies if my comment was interpreted diffferently than was meant. I've not made the aquaintance of Mr. Troy and meant no comment on his teaching. What I mean to say is that teachers are a valuable source of learning tunes, musical notation, and general musicianship - and if Mr. Troy serves you well here I do heartily encourage you to study with him!
Sessions and recordings plant the seed. Then one day maybe I'll be playing the recording or perhaps the tune will come to mind, and as luck would have it the fiddle's at hand, 20 minutes to spare, and I've the inclination to learn it properly, so it's endless repetition until I think it's right. Of course, if it was just heard in a session it usually isn't right, but it's often easy to miss crucial bits in recordings too, even playing one bit over and over (I often find that although I can "see" the note as it passes by, I can't for the life of me remember what it is a few moments later). That's the moment it's very useful to look the dots up somewhere and work out just what those fiddly notes actually are.
The crucial next step is to continue playing the tune for a few days, and to get to the stage where I can pluck it from mid-air. I usually find there is some "unlock sequence" that keys the tune in my mind, often only one or two notes. For instance my trigger for Morrison's is E2B. Once I've got that, the real object is to be able to recall that trigger while halfway through an arbitrary other tune, so it becomes one of those tunes I can string together on the fly.
To get to that stage depends completely on the tune. With some tunes, even some quite tricky ones, I've reached the final stage in a matter of minutes (of course being able to recall it doesn't necessarily mean I can play it adequately in a session); with other tunes I just can't get there, no matter how much repetition I put in. Strange thing, the brain.
Programs like Amazing Slow downer help me a lot. Some tunes that are at blazing speed on a CD can be slowed down to an air's pace if needed, without changing the pitch.It's helped me get the complete tune with all its sublties if it's hard to pick them up at normal recorded speed.
I hear you rog, I've been trying to get "Spike Island Lassies down for 6 months" I can get away with it at the session, but I'm still not happy with my playing of it solo.
I usually find a tune I like off a recording, and either write it down bit by bit in the simpler version of ABC, by which point I would have learned it and just use the notes as a guide, or the if the tune is really fast, or I'm feeling lazy, I'd see if it's on here and use the notes as a guide.
The slower tunes or ones I've heard for ages are very easy by ear.
Eoino - I think the advice to find a teacher is very good. As a trad. music teacher myself, there are two things I notice about your post. The first is that you seem a bit down on yourself. We often say these things "to be funny" but a more positive outlook will help you learn, believe me.
The second is that it sounds like you might be pretty disorganised/unfocussed. A lot of folk have this problem of starting one tune and ending up in another. So, for now, don't try to learn to many tunes at once. It also might help to only learn say one jig at a time, one hornpipe at a time, etc. (However, count yourself lucky that you have a big store of tunes in your head at all, and years of listening behind you. That is priceless!) But make sure you really learn the tune you're working on. Use whatever medium works best for you - dots, a recording or someone to take you through it. (If somebody does this, it might be worth recording, so you can refer again.)
If you do decide to find a teacher, do make sure you find someone you enjoy working with, who doesn't make you feel worse, and who helps you get more organised.
In answer to your question - I learn mostly from recorded sources at the moment. I can read the dots really well and put in the right style, lilt, whatever, but I find learning from recordings much more enjoyable. Several people above have mentioned referring to dots to iron out problem areas in tunes. That's assuming that the printed version you find is anything like the version you're trying to learn. Usually, when I feel lazy and try to do this I just end up saying "That's nothing like the setting I'm learning, oh, well - back to hitting the repeat button." I also learn tunes from friends, but I try to make a recording to refer to when I can. Mainly because these tunes are very precious to me, and I don't want to forget them.
If you don't read music, it might be worth learning to do so, but don't expect it to be a useful way to learn tunes for quite awhile. I think the best way to learn to read might be away from the medium of traditional music. This way you will actually learn to read accurately, rather that half playing by ear and calling it reading. For instance, you could try a book of simple exercise for one of the instruments you play (a beginning flute tutor, maybe). This will probably improve your technique, too.
This is probably more information than you wanted (!) but I really hope it helps in some small way. I'd love to hear how you are getting on in a few weeks/months. Let us all know!
You can learn to read music if you like, it's an option and there is nothing wrong with it. But you absolutly must learn to learn tunes by ear. There's no getting around it. If you can't, you can't play diddley.
Let me vindicate Michael's bold assertion by an example. My girl Roisin used to go to violin lessons as a wee girl. Her teacher at the time was a purely classical, pick it up by the dots type of guy. I heard him play an Irish jig one time - straight off the dots. Although accurately played it was terrible. No life, no rhythm, and the tune wasn't really recognisable as a jig. It was just another piece.
I try and find simplified versions of tunes. There are plenty of mp3's of these around ( see recent discussion about mp3's). If I sound bad ( which I do a lot) I slow down until it sounds OK.
This might sound glib, trite, or oversimplified - but it really is what happens. Michael describes it very elegantly above - but the fact is that you listen, and then when you know how it goes, you play it.
You may choose to do this in sections, and then put them all together.
You may choose to start from the dots, and work through until you have heard it played (by you) enough times to know how it goes.
But until you have the tune in your head, you haven't learned it.
Strangely enough, when I hear a new tune that sounds interesting enough for me to want to learn it, after the initial euphoric buzz of "wow! what a cracking tune!", I get this feeling of resigned grimness, the way I used to when I had to do homework or write an essay for college...I suppose I must be sort of conscienscious after all...
Because I guess the process of hearing a tune, getting it into your well enough so that you can reproduce it (with your own bits in it) on your instrument, is an active one.
Ha ha Conán, that is indeed brilliant. I'd previously never thought there was a difference, just that I'm a crap speller, but now I know and shall be more specific in the future
Well, they are closely associated with one another.
Tell me, is there a tune called the Humours of Diddley?
And how would you spell diddl(e)y in Gaelic?
díodlaigh?
You're right Danny - it's not just a passive hearing of the tune, but an active listening, that get's it into your mind to the point where you can play it. I find that when I'm in the process of assimilating a new tune it is going through my mind continuously all my waking hours for a few days.
In an earlier post I referred to weekly tune-learning workshops near Bristol. These are held at a teacher's private residence so it's not appropriate that I should give out names, addresses and telephone numbers on a public website. However, if a member would like to contact me via this website's email system I'll put them in touch.
To continue on-topic, I find it very difficult to listen passively. If you're even faintly obsessed with this music, it's not easy to listen to a CD or whatever without absorbing some of the melody. Each time you hear it, you absorb more whether you realise it or not. If you make a conscious effort to learn the tune, you're just speeding up what is, in my experience, a natural process.
Last week I learned Reel de Montebello like this: A band member brought the dots to the dance and we practiced it a few times from the sheet. I learned it only partially, but we performed it anyway. I had heard it many times before and it is not difficult, so it went okay for me. At home the next day I did a search on the internet trying to remember where I'd heard it and who had made the recording that was going around in the back of my head. Well, I found it was Domino, a fantastic band from Quebec. A while back my husband had picked up the cd and their book with all the tunes in it. I keyed the tune into Noteworthy Composer and played it a hundred or so time slowed down, and TA DA now I know new tune.
I have two fiddles, one "good" fiddle that I play the tunes on once I get the basic fingering down, and one "old" fiddle that doesn't have a chin rest. Sitting at the computer, I use a guitar pick and play along with the download sheet music file on the "old" fiddle until I learn the tune. Then I print the sheetmusic and put it in my songbook. Once I get the tune learned, I play the tune using the "good" fiddle, bowing vice picking. I use the sheetmusic to get started again when I am not at the computer. Sometimes the tunes run together in my head, but once I get the first few notes started, my fingers "remember" the tune. I can't really sight read, but I can read enough to kick off the first few notes and polish up the triplets and other bits my "ear" doesn't remember. You can use this method even if you don't have an "old" fiddle, it just helps not to have a chin rest when you are using a flat pick.
I think I should make it clear that the teacher-run tune-learning weekly workshop I referred to above is for fiddles only. The Hibernia Centre caters for most other instruments as well.
Hi Eoino, I started with sheet music then switched to learning by ear, as everyone says its quicker and the tunes stick better. My teacher plays a tune realy solwly, and I record it on the minidisk. Then it's just a matter of headphones and many repeats.
Folks.. thanks..
a lot of very good advice here....
Kris,
you nailed me on the head... fair play.
I suppose I wasn't looking for such constructive criticism, but there ya go.
Yes I am VERY disorganised in my approach and yes, I also beat the living shidt out of myself for not learning quicker...
the "I want it yesterday" syndrome has crept in somehow, and I suppose I have to deal with it.
I have a good teacher, but that's where if falls. My teacher does not have a good student.. bottom line..... )-:
To all.... thanks again...
I will try harder as soon as I nail this new hornjig, Planxty George Bush Up the Stairs or was that Jenny Sporting the Yellow Heifer???? !
Don'tbe down on yourself, how can you be a bad student? everyone learns at different rates so don't keep focusing on the things you can't do and just enjoy the things that are good or getting better.
How do YOU learn new tunes?
How do YOU learn new tunes?
I have just realised I have been playing the same tunes (Badly) for ages. (all 2 of them!)
What I am is asking is,
How do YOU learn new tunes?
Would you constantly play recorded tunes back and try by ear? Either taped at sessions or from other media?
Do you read the sheet music? ABCs? Tonic Solfa(Spelling?)Gin and Tonic Solfa!! (Bearing in mind I do not read music--- in any form or fashion)
This is what I do,
I have 1000's of tunes from years of listening to ITM in my mind, but when I try to play any of them, the tunes turn out to be the Bucks of Masons Cloud, or The Kesh up the Stairs.
My Hornpipes sound like Slip Jigs, and my Slip Jigs like a delivery room in Dublin... (a series of painful screeches and woeful moans)
and believe me, they do sound that bad.
Maybe I should just sit down and learn musical notation, and get on with it.
Oh! and honestly, I do not know what I want to play!
I have been introduced to flute by Jim Troy, and Troy Bannon... (a pattern there!)
And also Banjo years ago by Steve 6'4" Leech.
Any advice appreciated.
TIA
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Eoino
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
1. sessions
2. recordings
3. sheet music
In roughly that order. I get my parts of tunes mixed up too, which is one reason why sessions are so valuable to me - I try to use written notes only to doublecheck. Sounds like a good teacher might be most helpful to you at the moment.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by reenactor
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Flatland...
is Jim Troy deemed to be a good teacher???? !!
Or possibly he would say I am a bad student (-:
I do know I need to work at ITM...
thanks for your comment
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Eoino
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
By ear, 100%, nowadays. Have tried dots but never got too good at it and that was several years ago, thus any skill in that brain sector has atrophied. Also ABC has me near killt.
All that said, I've got a quite good store of tunes. I can mostly pick up a tune started at a session, with the odd bit of wavering. So we're talking several hundred I could go along with. As for starting up a bunch of sets, at any one time, maybe I have 100 or so practiced tunes fairly ready at my disposal. My mates here can verify or otherwise.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
1. Tune learning workshop (there's at least one near Bristol every week), which turns into a mini session towards the end.
2. Sessions.
3. The dots/abc, but now only to check out details I may have missed in 1 or 2.
I don't go much for recordings, except for ones like Ben Lennon's, which are almost session recordings in their own right, and music for set dancing - and here videos and live are best.
Trevor
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
A few days ago someone posted a few websites for beginners- the tunes are played mostly on a whistle- slower then, up to speed. This is a great way to learn a new tune (loop it and try to learn it by ear if you can).
I'm also very curious about Trevor's "Tune Learning Workshops"- I would love to hear a little more about how these are conducted.. would love to start them in my neighbourhood!
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by CC
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Sometimes, I get all psyched up to learn a new tune, and often I'll try to work out at least some of it by ear, then fill in the blanks or uncertainties via sheet music. Depending on any number of factors, including my patience and energy level, I can get it down in a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Or, yes, even longer.
But there have also been occasions where I find myself playing a familiar tune I hadn't even _meant_ to learn, and before I know it I've got most of the notes down so that firming up the rest is pretty easy.
I'm sure there's a moral in there somewhere.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by sts
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I learn 100% by ear. I never learned to read music, and I can't seem to really get a feeling for the tune or keep it in my head if I use ABC. Now I just listen to the tune on a recording until I have it memorized in my head and start working on playing it. Perhaps it's a little slow, but I usually pick up about 4-5 tunes a week. I listen to a lot of Diddly!
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by meemtp
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
My apologies if my comment was interpreted diffferently than was meant. I've not made the aquaintance of Mr. Troy and meant no comment on his teaching. What I mean to say is that teachers are a valuable source of learning tunes, musical notation, and general musicianship - and if Mr. Troy serves you well here I do heartily encourage you to study with him!
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by reenactor
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Sessions and recordings plant the seed. Then one day maybe I'll be playing the recording or perhaps the tune will come to mind, and as luck would have it the fiddle's at hand, 20 minutes to spare, and I've the inclination to learn it properly, so it's endless repetition until I think it's right. Of course, if it was just heard in a session it usually isn't right, but it's often easy to miss crucial bits in recordings too, even playing one bit over and over (I often find that although I can "see" the note as it passes by, I can't for the life of me remember what it is a few moments later). That's the moment it's very useful to look the dots up somewhere and work out just what those fiddly notes actually are.
The crucial next step is to continue playing the tune for a few days, and to get to the stage where I can pluck it from mid-air. I usually find there is some "unlock sequence" that keys the tune in my mind, often only one or two notes. For instance my trigger for Morrison's is E2B. Once I've got that, the real object is to be able to recall that trigger while halfway through an arbitrary other tune, so it becomes one of those tunes I can string together on the fly.
To get to that stage depends completely on the tune. With some tunes, even some quite tricky ones, I've reached the final stage in a matter of minutes (of course being able to recall it doesn't necessarily mean I can play it adequately in a session); with other tunes I just can't get there, no matter how much repetition I put in. Strange thing, the brain.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by rog
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Programs like Amazing Slow downer help me a lot. Some tunes that are at blazing speed on a CD can be slowed down to an air's pace if needed, without changing the pitch.It's helped me get the complete tune with all its sublties if it's hard to pick them up at normal recorded speed.
I hear you rog, I've been trying to get "Spike Island Lassies down for 6 months" I can get away with it at the session, but I'm still not happy with my playing of it solo.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by meemtp
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I usually find a tune I like off a recording, and either write it down bit by bit in the simpler version of ABC, by which point I would have learned it and just use the notes as a guide, or the if the tune is really fast, or I'm feeling lazy, I'd see if it's on here and use the notes as a guide.
The slower tunes or ones I've heard for ages are very easy by ear.
Athena
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by act
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Eoino - I think the advice to find a teacher is very good. As a trad. music teacher myself, there are two things I notice about your post. The first is that you seem a bit down on yourself. We often say these things "to be funny" but a more positive outlook will help you learn, believe me.
The second is that it sounds like you might be pretty disorganised/unfocussed. A lot of folk have this problem of starting one tune and ending up in another. So, for now, don't try to learn to many tunes at once. It also might help to only learn say one jig at a time, one hornpipe at a time, etc. (However, count yourself lucky that you have a big store of tunes in your head at all, and years of listening behind you. That is priceless!) But make sure you really learn the tune you're working on. Use whatever medium works best for you - dots, a recording or someone to take you through it. (If somebody does this, it might be worth recording, so you can refer again.)
If you do decide to find a teacher, do make sure you find someone you enjoy working with, who doesn't make you feel worse, and who helps you get more organised.
In answer to your question - I learn mostly from recorded sources at the moment. I can read the dots really well and put in the right style, lilt, whatever, but I find learning from recordings much more enjoyable. Several people above have mentioned referring to dots to iron out problem areas in tunes. That's assuming that the printed version you find is anything like the version you're trying to learn. Usually, when I feel lazy and try to do this I just end up saying "That's nothing like the setting I'm learning, oh, well - back to hitting the repeat button." I also learn tunes from friends, but I try to make a recording to refer to when I can. Mainly because these tunes are very precious to me, and I don't want to forget them.
If you don't read music, it might be worth learning to do so, but don't expect it to be a useful way to learn tunes for quite awhile. I think the best way to learn to read might be away from the medium of traditional music. This way you will actually learn to read accurately, rather that half playing by ear and calling it reading. For instance, you could try a book of simple exercise for one of the instruments you play (a beginning flute tutor, maybe). This will probably improve your technique, too.
This is probably more information than you wanted (!) but I really hope it helps in some small way. I'd love to hear how you are getting on in a few weeks/months. Let us all know!
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by kris
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
This is important:
You can learn to read music if you like, it's an option and there is nothing wrong with it. But you absolutly must learn to learn tunes by ear. There's no getting around it. If you can't, you can't play diddley.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by ...
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Michael HELP!! What's the difference between diddly and diddley? (Should this be a new thread?)
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Let me vindicate Michael's bold assertion by an example. My girl Roisin used to go to violin lessons as a wee girl. Her teacher at the time was a purely classical, pick it up by the dots type of guy. I heard him play an Irish jig one time - straight off the dots. Although accurately played it was terrible. No life, no rhythm, and the tune wasn't really recognisable as a jig. It was just another piece.
So you're right there Michael.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
diddly -> whisky -> Scotch
diddley -> whiskey -> Irish
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Nice!
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Q
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Good one Conan, wish I thought of that !
And the listening thing should be the most obvious thing in the world. All other devices won't hurt - unless you use them instead of listening.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by BegF
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
10 out of 10 for lateral thinking, McDonnell. Go to the top of the class.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I try and find simplified versions of tunes. There are plenty of mp3's of these around ( see recent discussion about mp3's). If I sound bad ( which I do a lot) I slow down until it sounds OK.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by harry
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
How do I learn a tune?
I listen to it until I know how it goes.
Then I play it.
This might sound glib, trite, or oversimplified - but it really is what happens. Michael describes it very elegantly above - but the fact is that you listen, and then when you know how it goes, you play it.
You may choose to do this in sections, and then put them all together.
You may choose to start from the dots, and work through until you have heard it played (by you) enough times to know how it goes.
But until you have the tune in your head, you haven't learned it.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Strangely enough, when I hear a new tune that sounds interesting enough for me to want to learn it, after the initial euphoric buzz of "wow! what a cracking tune!", I get this feeling of resigned grimness, the way I used to when I had to do homework or write an essay for college...I suppose I must be sort of conscienscious after all...
Because I guess the process of hearing a tune, getting it into your well enough so that you can reproduce it (with your own bits in it) on your instrument, is an active one.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Ha ha Conán, that is indeed brilliant. I'd previously never thought there was a difference, just that I'm a crap speller, but now I know and shall be more specific in the future
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by ...
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Cheers! I think it's 'cause I have a two-track mind. Alcohol and music - deadly combination.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Well, they are closely associated with one another.
Tell me, is there a tune called the Humours of Diddley?
And how would you spell diddl(e)y in Gaelic?
díodlaigh?
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
*splorf*
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Q
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Here's one for you: Is Gary Hastings "The Vicar of Diddley"?
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
They are are called The Humours of Diddley.
(Except the Scottish ones which are all called Pipe Major Diddledy Diddly of Diddly Dee)
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by ...
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
...or Pipe Major Diddley's diddles to Lady Diddle of Diddleshire
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
So, if Gary Hastings was telling a joke, would that be the Humours of the Vicar of Diddly?
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
heehee :¬)
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
You're right Danny - it's not just a passive hearing of the tune, but an active listening, that get's it into your mind to the point where you can play it. I find that when I'm in the process of assimilating a new tune it is going through my mind continuously all my waking hours for a few days.
Ah - the agonies of being an artist.
French player = Beau Diddly?
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
In an earlier post I referred to weekly tune-learning workshops near Bristol. These are held at a teacher's private residence so it's not appropriate that I should give out names, addresses and telephone numbers on a public website. However, if a member would like to contact me via this website's email system I'll put them in touch.
There is also the Hibernia workshop classes every other Saturday at Avonmouth, near Bristol. For further details see
http://www.thesession.org/sessions/display.php/297/comments
The next Hibernia classes are this Saturday, 13th November.
Trevor
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Player caught short: Diddley Squat
To continue on-topic, I find it very difficult to listen passively. If you're even faintly obsessed with this music, it's not easy to listen to a CD or whatever without absorbing some of the melody. Each time you hear it, you absorb more whether you realise it or not. If you make a conscious effort to learn the tune, you're just speeding up what is, in my experience, a natural process.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/07/diddly.html
:~}
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I try to listen to as many different versions of the same tune I'm busy learning as I can. Dunno if it helps, sure feels that way.
Lilting lip-syncher - Faux Diddly?
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Q
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Last week I learned Reel de Montebello like this: A band member brought the dots to the dance and we practiced it a few times from the sheet. I learned it only partially, but we performed it anyway. I had heard it many times before and it is not difficult, so it went okay for me. At home the next day I did a search on the internet trying to remember where I'd heard it and who had made the recording that was going around in the back of my head. Well, I found it was Domino, a fantastic band from Quebec. A while back my husband had picked up the cd and their book with all the tunes in it. I keyed the tune into Noteworthy Composer and played it a hundred or so time slowed down, and TA DA now I know new tune.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by rocking bow
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Conan - faintly obsessed - that's a bit like "slightly pregnant".
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I have two fiddles, one "good" fiddle that I play the tunes on once I get the basic fingering down, and one "old" fiddle that doesn't have a chin rest. Sitting at the computer, I use a guitar pick and play along with the download sheet music file on the "old" fiddle until I learn the tune. Then I print the sheetmusic and put it in my songbook. Once I get the tune learned, I play the tune using the "good" fiddle, bowing vice picking. I use the sheetmusic to get started again when I am not at the computer. Sometimes the tunes run together in my head, but once I get the first few notes started, my fingers "remember" the tune. I can't really sight read, but I can read enough to kick off the first few notes and polish up the triplets and other bits my "ear" doesn't remember. You can use this method even if you don't have an "old" fiddle, it just helps not to have a chin rest when you are using a flat pick.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Johnny Jeffries
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
I think I should make it clear that the teacher-run tune-learning weekly workshop I referred to above is for fiddles only. The Hibernia Centre caters for most other instruments as well.
Trevor
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Conán: "Alcohol and music - deadly combination."
Or "Diddly combination", as they say in Clare.
# Posted on November 9th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Hi Eoino, I started with sheet music then switched to learning by ear, as everyone says its quicker and the tunes stick better. My teacher plays a tune realy solwly, and I record it on the minidisk. Then it's just a matter of headphones and many repeats.
# Posted on November 10th 2004 by clunk999
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Folks.. thanks..
a lot of very good advice here....
Kris,
you nailed me on the head... fair play.
I suppose I wasn't looking for such constructive criticism, but there ya go.
Yes I am VERY disorganised in my approach and yes, I also beat the living shidt out of myself for not learning quicker...
the "I want it yesterday" syndrome has crept in somehow, and I suppose I have to deal with it.
I have a good teacher, but that's where if falls. My teacher does not have a good student.. bottom line..... )-:
To all.... thanks again...
I will try harder as soon as I nail this new hornjig, Planxty George Bush Up the Stairs or was that Jenny Sporting the Yellow Heifer???? !
# Posted on November 10th 2004 by Eoino
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Jenny Sporting the Yellow Heifer was always a favourite of mine. Goes well with Milking the Tits of a Bull.
# Posted on November 10th 2004 by kris
Re: How do YOU learn new tunes?
Don'tbe down on yourself, how can you be a bad student? everyone learns at different rates so don't keep focusing on the things you can't do and just enjoy the things that are good or getting better.
# Posted on November 10th 2004 by clunk999