Been playing a bit this weekend, and am reminded of what I heard someone say, “You have to play a tune 100 times to really learn it.”
It seems that there is some truth to this. I think one has to play a tune perhaps 50 times at home and 50 times in public till it’s ready to go for session with nearly no mistakes and with the right pulse and rhythm. I think this all adds up to years of playing a tune till it’s fully in the fingers and the subconscience.
How long in your experience till a tune is learned?
I’m not sure this is the right way at all to think about the question of learning tunes.
It partly depends on your experience, technical facility, and ear.
Sometimes I’ll hear a tune in a session, and by the 3rd or 4th rep I’ve mostly got it. Other times it takes more work.
One simple answer is: As long as it takes you to play it. Warts and all. Tunes are made for playing. Just do it.
Another simple answer is: Never. A good tune is a never-ending adventure in discovering it anew each time you play it, by yourself or with others. It’s seldom the same twice. The arc from basic mastery to internalizing it as part of your personal musical landscape is not really a matter of counting repetitions.
Depending on the tune, it sometimes takes me months
or years. But I don’t mind. It’s fun to hang out in a tune
and to check out every niche and cranny.
It’s not so much a question of whether the tune was learnt but rather if was performed as intended, or more importantly, that it illicited the intended effect upon the audience. Having all the dots committed to memory is a good start.
I find there are many stages of “Knowing” a tune. Playing it through is a start - then being able to play it at session speed is another. Next, for me comes leading it at a session and connecting it to other tunes in a set.
I find the final stage of knowing a tune is when you hear the tune in a set at a session, recognize it and play it - and you have forgotten the title. Then you REALLY know the tune.
I have to agree with the poster that said you never really finish learning a tune. I find that I can pick up tunes rather quickly. Those learned by ear stick better. When I really feel I ‘know’ a tune, the variations just seem to come out on their own. The phrasing seems natural, and I find I am not thinking about it at all. I am comfortable taking liberties with the tune- playing with the rhythmic structure, adding variations, and using a variety of dynamics. Perhaps it is not so much about learning a tune, but rather having learned to ‘know’ a tune.
Arbo
Got LOTS of those! Can I count ones I’ve never known the names of, or would recognise the name but can’t associate it to the tune, but I can play the tune just fine at a sesh so long as someone else starts it…2 notes and away!?
Seriously, the latter category is very real for me and I would not count most of those tunes as ones that I “know properly”, although I can play them either perfectly or at least tolerably well with the right stimulus - to count them as learnt fully I feel I should know the titles and be able to start them myself and play them reasonably fluently from unaided memory. As for the OP “how long” Q, I agree mostly with MTGuru. Bit of a “piece of string” Q, really.
