How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
I sometimes wonder at my musicianship, at times I can hear it once and play it, other times the tune is played and over and I never really caught on. Alister Frazier told me one time that he never forgets a tune. Can you hear it once, play it the 2nd time thru and remember it the next time played?
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
For me this is an unanswerable question along the lines of how long is a piece of string. For example, the speed and nature of the tune will make a big difference. Tunes that have very few or no jumps of more than one or two notes are (for me at least) much easier to pick up after only a couple of hearings, but if there are large intervals then it can take many attempts, and I may never get it at full speed.
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
Probably, Alastair meant that he never forgets a tune which he once learned or knew, consciously or otherwise. If he's like me, I'm sure he'll not always remember how to start it, i.e to put a melody to the name, although he would be able to play it as soon as he recognised the tune.
It would have to be a very simple tune before I could "pick it up" and remember it the second time around. I'd say that very few of us actually manage this. The chances are that we've heard the tune before and the melody is "in our head" already.
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
I've learned lots of tunes that I don't know. I have played so often in jam sessions where I can't hear the name of the tune called but I can hear the tune and I play it. The songs are in my fingers. I rarely need more than once through a tune to be able to play the bare bones. If I really like the tunes than I'll work on them, of course I rarely worry about starting tunes/sets so I guess it isn't a big deal if I currently don't have room in my brain next to my sonata for a thousand odd tunes.
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
For me it depends on the tune. In sessions, if it's a new polka, for instance, I can usually jump in on the 2nd time through, if not before. But there are many others, though, where I can just about manage to get the last note in time on the 3rd time through
What I'm finding as very good "training" is playing with a band (as one of the "and friends") about once a month for set dancers. This is in a village about an hour's drive from home, and at that distance they very much have their own indigenous tune sets - only about 20% of which are anything like familiar to me. So what I'm learning to do is aural "sight-reading" (is there a specific word for it, anybody?) on the hoof as we play for the dancers. No time to think, no time to panic - just watch the leader and the dancers and go for it.
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
On guitar, I can usually jump in with something fairly suitable after a full time around--it might take me a turn or two extra if it is an unusual tune harmonically. For the melody, it takes a lot longer. The only tune melody I ever learned on the spot was The Road to Lisdoonvarna, because they played it slowly, and repeated it a bunch of times. And even after I learn a tune to recognize it, it can take a long time to teach my clumsy fingers what to do....
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
If they know the idiom well and have a quick musical mind, some people can predict what is coming and have a good stab at it first time around.
I find that watching the leader's fingering is often a help - piper's fingers are easy to follow, fiddlers much harder.
Nevertheless, ITM (and Scottish to some extent) tunes, can be harder to follow first time around than morris and english tunes. Reels much more so than jigs or polkas.
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
Ugh, as a fiddler I never watch other fiddler's fingers unless I want to get confused. Especially if I'm just working to catch the melody - I don't want or need all of their extra stuff.
How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
I sometimes wonder at my musicianship, at times I can hear it once and play it, other times the tune is played and over and I never really caught on. Alister Frazier told me one time that he never forgets a tune. Can you hear it once, play it the 2nd time thru and remember it the next time played?
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by pick&bow
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
For me this is an unanswerable question along the lines of how long is a piece of string. For example, the speed and nature of the tune will make a big difference. Tunes that have very few or no jumps of more than one or two notes are (for me at least) much easier to pick up after only a couple of hearings, but if there are large intervals then it can take many attempts, and I may never get it at full speed.
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by NeilC
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
Probably, Alastair meant that he never forgets a tune which he once learned or knew, consciously or otherwise. If he's like me, I'm sure he'll not always remember how to start it, i.e to put a melody to the name, although he would be able to play it as soon as he recognised the tune.
It would have to be a very simple tune before I could "pick it up" and remember it the second time around. I'd say that very few of us actually manage this. The chances are that we've heard the tune before and the melody is "in our head" already.
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by Johnny Jay
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
As Tom Anderson said, "You should never learn a tune you don't know!"
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by TomB-R
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
I've learned lots of tunes that I don't know. I have played so often in jam sessions where I can't hear the name of the tune called but I can hear the tune and I play it. The songs are in my fingers. I rarely need more than once through a tune to be able to play the bare bones. If I really like the tunes than I'll work on them, of course I rarely worry about starting tunes/sets so I guess it isn't a big deal if I currently don't have room in my brain next to my sonata for a thousand odd tunes.
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by musicfan
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
For me it depends on the tune. In sessions, if it's a new polka, for instance, I can usually jump in on the 2nd time through, if not before. But there are many others, though, where I can just about manage to get the last note in time on the 3rd time through
What I'm finding as very good "training" is playing with a band (as one of the "and friends") about once a month for set dancers. This is in a village about an hour's drive from home, and at that distance they very much have their own indigenous tune sets - only about 20% of which are anything like familiar to me. So what I'm learning to do is aural "sight-reading" (is there a specific word for it, anybody?) on the hoof as we play for the dancers. No time to think, no time to panic - just watch the leader and the dancers and go for it.
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by Trevor Jennings
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
On guitar, I can usually jump in with something fairly suitable after a full time around--it might take me a turn or two extra if it is an unusual tune harmonically. For the melody, it takes a lot longer. The only tune melody I ever learned on the spot was The Road to Lisdoonvarna, because they played it slowly, and repeated it a bunch of times. And even after I learn a tune to recognize it, it can take a long time to teach my clumsy fingers what to do....
# Posted on November 10th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
This thread should have been titled: I'm the Emperor -- how do you like my new clothes?
# Posted on November 11th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
Varies with the tune.
Some I can pick up on the second A part, some that I have heard for years and just can't play.
Jack - your nakedness is putting people off their breakfast.
# Posted on November 11th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
If they know the idiom well and have a quick musical mind, some people can predict what is coming and have a good stab at it first time around.
I find that watching the leader's fingering is often a help - piper's fingers are easy to follow, fiddlers much harder.
Nevertheless, ITM (and Scottish to some extent) tunes, can be harder to follow first time around than morris and english tunes. Reels much more so than jigs or polkas.
# Posted on November 11th 2005 by geoffwright
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
Ugh, as a fiddler I never watch other fiddler's fingers unless I want to get confused. Especially if I'm just working to catch the melody - I don't want or need all of their extra stuff.
# Posted on November 11th 2005 by musicfan
Re: How many times thru a new tune until you can jump in?
I just jump in and noodle since there's only 7 notes some are bound to be the right ones.
# Posted on November 12th 2005 by Phantom Button