I didn’t take any written music with me on my 2-week trip, no ABC, no dots, not even a list of tunes I know, because I wanted to force myself a little bit to practice what I already knew instead of learning new stuff. Here at home I have a small notebook where I put down the names of the tunes I’m playing at the moment.
Now I don’t have huge amounts of tunes in my head (definitely less than 100 ), but I already notice that I need the list of titles to remember which ones I know. Remembering how they go is much easier.
Sometimes, I visualize the book I learned it from - really! Somehow, knowing what other tunes I was learning at about the same time helps me keep them in order. I’ve lost count of how many I keep in my head - more than 50 for certain - ?60? at a guess - but I already have to stop and think about them to pull out the right one. (But hum the first measure or so and I’ll pick it up automatically).
What’s really frustrating is forgetting the opening of a tune I know or confusing it with a similar one - then I may have to go back to the sheet music to verify it. Had a problem yesterday with “Rufty Tufty” and “The Helston Furry” - once I’d played the first measure of each correctly I had no problem - but the first measures of each start out the same and I kept finding myself playing “Furry” when I wanted the other.
I think of a player, and the tunes I’ve learned from them, thus not neglecting any tunes. I used to have a sheet with all the tune titles written out. Useful if you can remember all those tunes/titles. I’ve also run into the playing the other tune in the middle problem.
I was at a gig one time and a whistle tune I have been playing for years (some St. Steven’s day march) just wouldn’t come out. I am supposed to start the tune and everyone joins in the second turn. A different tune started every time I tried. That was really embarrassing.
I have a tune I like on the pipes, The Little Black Pig, that no one will play with me because it sounds like another tune they know and they can’t help but play the one they know when they try.
Some tunes are like that now.
I can’t remember tune names much any more, but if someone will diddle the first bar, I can play it (if I know it, of course). Tunes and faces stick, names just fall off now…
I keep a list of the tunes I’ve been given in lessons. Name (when I find it), first 2 bars in abc, and the first 2 bars of the turn in abc also. But tell you the truth its only good for practicing. Once in a while at home I can go look up a tune that I have the title for but forgot how it goes. In real life, I remember the tune if it comes to me out of the blue, and that’s it. I never bring my lesson list outside of lessons, cos its too unwieldy and there’s no time for that in a session anyway.
For gigs I would keep the tunes (that were supposed to be played) on the setlist with the first 2 bars in abc. This I started to do after a similar situation of having the next tune go completely out of my mind when I was supposed to start it. (eck, as my cat would say.)
me too!(but not in the near future)
i keep a list of the names of the tunes i know.
i keep the mp3 of every tune on the computer.
to remember how they’re played, i do rehearsels every now and again.
Once you get by knowing a certain number of them, it’s just not practical to “have an index” into the tunes you know. Especially if you have been learning tunes by ear, lots of times you won’t have a handy name for the tune from the start, or you learned the tune by accident, or…
I can remember the names of some tunes easily, because I heard them then found out what they were called, then learned to play them.
But because I tend to read straight through tune books, I have a familiarity with a lot of tunes, but can’t give a name to many of them from just hearing them played.
I wish I was industrious enough to actually make a list of the names of the tunes I know. Who knows? Maybe I’ll do just that someday when I’m feeling more on the ball…
Since any one tune can have several names, it does seem a little more direct to just say, “The one that goes like…with the part that goes…” (Can you imagine writing out a set list like that? "The first one is diddly dum di dum da diddly. Then we’ll break into diddle dum diddle diddle, and finish with bumba diddly bumba bumba diddly… )
I keep a list of sets too, with the titles. I think sometimes it’s good to look at the list and practice the tunes/sets you havent played for a while, to make sure it’s fresh in memory. Also, a good exercise would be to try to make up sets on the fly, as someone who can play sets he’s creating on the fly is much more impressive, less predictible and less boring, anyway from my point of view.
I must admit that I’m not terribly organized in that way. Normally I just sit down to play, and whatever comes out is what I play. Wouldn’t go very well in a session, though!
I can’t remember for beans. My teacher says to play Buck on the Mountain and I have to ask how it starts. Or, “Can I just peek at the music for a sec?”
I have absolutely no problem with not remembering the names of the tunes I know. I think I probably know about 15 by name, but the rest (I’m guessing I know just under 50 - I’m still a serious newbie here) I call “the first few bars go like this”. No one has ever complained, and I know several other folks who use this same method and it doesn’t bother me when they do it, too.
I’m always going back through my books and sheets of paper, playing anything that looks familiar, or anything with a name that sounds like it came up in session. Occasionally I dip into a ‘new tune’ and recognize it from session (“oh THAT’s what they were playing!”).
But as for remembering what tune goes with what name not a chance! Nine times out of ten at our sessions the sets are put together via we’ll-play-the-one-that-goes-like-this-fiddlefiddlefiddle-then-the-one-that-goes-like-this-fiddlefiddlefiddle-then-the-one… method.
I have so much trouble remembering tunes! I don’t read, so the music doesn’t help, and I forget most of the titles as soon as I hear them. Fortunately I have always been blessed with other musicians to play with who have better memories. I guess my tune archives are other people!
I too have a list with the name and starting measure in a hybid notation system I invented which puts the letter names on staffs to show the rhythm. The staff goes up or down to signify octave.
My list is divided Jigs, Reels, Waltzes and so forth.
It’s easy to remember the names of the ones you play all the time.
The list helps you remember the other ones and is great for practicing, too.
I don’t!
And therefore I have to give up on requests unless they can lilt or hum the first bar or so. I usually have to hear the initial three or four notes before the muscle memory starts to work and I’ll start to play along. Eventually my brain begins to function and I’ll know where I’m going.
Could it be Alzheimer’s?
), but I already notice that I need the list of titles to remember which ones I know. Remembering how they go is much easier.
me too!(but not in the near future)