A new learning experience

Whistle
1

I’ve been playing the whistle for a little over two years now. there’s nothing particularly unusual about how I learn a tune (I hope!). I hear a tune I like. I then listen to it many times. I do read music so most of the time I find the score on the net. Then I play it slowly (sometimes very slowly) until my fingers get the pattern. Then over and over until I am comfortable with it and it begins to speed up naturally. Likewise, ornimentation comes very late. That is true of just about every tune I have learned. That is until I came to Donnybrook Fair. The first time I tried to play it, it seemed that my fingers knew exactly where to go. My learning time for that tune was probably a third the time it usually takes. It was almost spooky. I just wondered if any of you have had the same experience. Not before or since has it happened.

I have no idea why that might have happened but I sure wish it would happen on some of the others! Have any of you experienced anything like that?

2

I think it’s just like you said, some tunes just feel right. I have had this happen many times. Some tunes, although they’re no more complicated just take so much more effort. It’s nice when you get one that just feels right to you… a possibility though, could be that you were just very familiar with that tune? How many times have you heard Donnybrook Fair? Did you listen to it for a long time before you tried learning to play it? I’ve found that being that familiar with a tune definitely speeds up the progress. Songs that I’ve known for years and have heard a thousand times take little effort to learn because you already know in your head where it’s going, your fingers just need to follow and work out the small details.