This week I’ve been trying to learn 3 or 4 tunes at the same time (with sheets music). Generally, when learning a tune, I play it a lot of times and then it gets “fixed” in my mind/fingers so I can play it from memory with no problems.
Of those 3-4 tunes I’ve been learning, I could learn and memorize 1 perfectly, the same day I learnt it (ok, it was a national anthem, a very easy one) and I could learn and memorize quite well another one (a reel).
I’m having troubles memorizing the other ones, and not only that.. when I decide to take a break and try to play another tunes I already know, sometimes I make many mistakes, as if I were forgetting the older ones, LOL!
I think my “hard disk” is full. I don’t know a lot of tunes, maybe about 50, and I’ve been playing for 6~ months now.
Is it normal? Do I need a new brain? Is it possible to memorize perfectly 100, 200 or 500 tunes?
not a lot? I find 50 a lot haha. But then again I’m only just starting and I only know about 8 tunes. I only learn about 1 or 2 new ones per week right now.
Suffice to say I don’t have the problem of forgetting the old ones yet
This is addictive. When I started playing I was also new to ITM so I used to find a lot of tunes that I really liked almost everyday! So, each tune I found that I liked it, I tried to play it.. I used to learn about 2 or 3 per week too!
Only in WhistleThis you have a lot of beautiful tunes to learn!
I keep a list of tunes that I update every now and then.
It’s in 3 categories: “Learned”, “Working-on” and “Need to learn these”
When I get round to updating the list I find that there’s a few tunes in the “Learned” list that I’d forgotten to play recently. Then there’s some new tunes in the “working-on” list and a couple to add to “need to learn”.
Originally, I’d intended that the tunes would migrate from "Need’ to “Working” to “Learned”, but in reality, tunes will turn-up directly into the “learned”, Some “Learned” get demoted to “Working”, some “Working” get promoted to “Learned” and “Need to learn” tends to just grow with few of them getting any attention at all.
Having just a list of titles is very helpful.
There are about 150 tunes on my ABC player - of these I know about a dozen.
Thanks, Mitch. I had never thought in doing a list of the tunes, it could be quite helpful, indeed. Even I sometimes forget to play some tunes for a while and then it happens that I don’t remember very well how to play them.
I think I’ll do the list tomorrow, thanks for the idea!
My focus is always on singing, humming, lilting along with a tune until I can do so from memory. A small part of my strategy is to keep a folder with MP3s of tunes I want to learn. I sometimes listen to them at about 75% of the original speed over and over and over and over and over again. I know I’m getting a tune when it pops into my head when I’m taking the trash out, doing the dishes, driving, etc… Now the tune’s ready for the whistle/flute/whatever. (I read very well but have decided to save this skill for later.)
Lately, I’ve been listening to the Kitchen Sessions on the Clare FM website. I don’t worry about learning or remembering the tunes. I just try to hum along best I can with no expectation of results.
I’d actually like to quit worrying about “learning” tunes altogether. I’m hoping that this process of humming along with any session or recording with no set tune list will eventually lead to an ability to “catch on” to any tune while in a session, even if it takes YEARS. I think all the ideas about learning a language through immersion apply. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_immersion) Just a theory for now.
By the way, learning to play and identify the various types of rolls really helped me to pick up tunes faster. When I used to hear rolls, I didn’t know what was happening at all. They all sounded like bubbles coming up through a barrel of water, especially on the pipes.
Seems to me unless you’re of an advanced level, (which I doubt you are for only playing some 6 months) you shouldn’t be learning 3 or 4 tunes at once. I know this might sound boring, but try working on one tune at a time, making sure you really have learned it well, then once you feel (or your teacher feels maybe) you’ve got that tune down, try another tune. And while you’re learning the new tune, take a break, come back to the previous tune you just learned to see if you really have learned that one.
Also what helps in learning a new tune, is having listened to it and listened to it and listened to it and listened to it and listened to it, and you get the idea.
Yes, I’m in a beginner level to be sincere, lol.
I use to learn not more than 1 or 2 tunes per week as a maximum, but this week I’ve discovered some which I loved and couldn’t resist!
My teacher taught me to read music, which I didn’t know, and I’m being able to read faster and faster, so I don’t have problems in playing a quite difficult tune in less than an hour after reading the sheet music and listening it a few times.
I really like to play the tunes the best as I can, and not to play 200 and in a horrible way, so, I work hard on that.
I try to play all the tunes that I know every week and try to improve them every now and then.
By the way.. I did the ‘tunes list’. I play 49 tunes without counting the non Irish Traditional tunes/songs, which are about 5-6 more.
Start on some relatively “boring” tunes and develop somewhat of a familiarity with the instrument.
Start learning a few more interesting tunes. Maybe some jigs or reels.
Become addicted to the fun of discovering new tunes. Start learning more and more tunes.
Become frustrated with inability to remember what you’ve learned.
Eventually begin to see real progress. Start seeing patterns that repeat among tunes.
Start being able to play tunes you don’t even know, at least bits and pieces.
7)…after a while, play tunes you don’t know, don’t remember any that you do know, and just play whatever you hear.
I do exactly the same thing even down to the names of my lists! Great minds think alike? Small minds stuck in the same rut? I also keep three playlists on my iPod with those sets of tunes in them. I find the “Learned” tunes stay in memory better if I regularly listen to them played well and of course listening to the “working-on” and “need to learn” tunes makes the learning easier.
ditto to both the lists and the ipod playlist. I do both and it seems to work pretty well. of course the ‘learned’ tunes need refreshing occasionally, especially if they’re ones that don’t get played at sessions much. I also have a list of sets that I like to play, so a tune may appear on that multiple times.
And when you know 500 tunes you will inevitably start the A part for one tune and go into the B part for another, similar tune, and maybe not even realize it. You won’t even know the names of them all. You won’t be able to start them all on command but if someone else plays the first few notes you’ll be able to jump in. When you know 500 tunes you will still play with a group and someone will say, “Can you play XXXX?” and you’ll say no. Then you’ll decide you need to know 1000 tunes and you’ll really be screwed.
Bothrops,
FJohnSharp wrote…“if someone else plays the first few notes, you’ll be able to jump in”
This is very true and a good way to help with your memorization. You can memorize the tune but you should also memorize something about the tune that will help to bring it back to you - a few notes that are unique to that tune. If you have that association fixed in your mind you’ll be able to supply your own first few notes. You should also make that same association for part B so that you understand that the “starter notes” for parts A and B fit the same tune. Those who play popular commercial music sometime refer to this as the “hook” which may not be so pronounced in ITM. My wife says that all ITM sounds the same but, it doesn’t if you listen to it - there is something about each piece that identifies it. I hope this is helpful. kbr
You are absolutely right. I know a fiddler who knows “tons” of tunes. Can play along with almost anything. He claims to remember about three names, two of them being “Gan Ainm”.
I really know what you mean and I think it should be true.
My teacher, for example, doesn’t use to remember the names, but when I play a few notes of a tune she starts playing it along with me.
Fortunately, I’ve a quite good memory for names (for example, my other passion are reptiles, and I know probably 500+ scientific names and know each of those animals).
I’m still not having problems remembering the names, and I hope to be able to know at least 100+ tunes perfectly from memory, including their names. It’d probably be difficult, but not impossible with a lot of practice!
Anyways, we know that it’s not the same “mental memory” than “muscular memory” (unfortunately )
I’ve been practicing the new tunes today as well, and I can play them all from memory now.
They are: “The Tenpenny Bit”, “Bag Of Spuds” and “Saint Anne’s Reel”. Funny tunes, aren’t they?
I like to keep a list, though it’s very short for now (still a relative beginner). But it keeps me from feeling like Boxer learning the alphabet from “Animal Farm”…learning ABCD and getting all excited, then learning EFGH and completely forgetting ABCD.
I think this was already mentioned on the thread…but immersion in the music is an amazing tool. There have been a few times when I’ve picked up my whistle and starting playing around, only to find that I’m playing a tune that I recognize. After sifting through my iTunes list I find that it’s a Chieftains or Laurence Nugent tune I’ve heard a million times but never tried to play before. It’s amazing what the mind picks up without us…er…minding it.
The naming of tunes in ITM is problematic since many of the tunes have more than one name. I’m guessing that every jig and reel titled “XXX’s Favorite” was a tune by some other name but. because a well known musician always played it, it became known as their favorite. Imagine if popular commercial music used that convention, we’d have “Bennet’s Favorite” or (shudder) “Lulu’s Favorite”. kbr
Bothrops,
I would suggest that you take your list of 49 tunes and play through the first 10 (middle 10, last 10 etc) each time before you start to practice a new tune. I think a mistake often made by beginners is the ‘Alright, I know that tune, now where is the next one?’ mentality.
‘Why are we doing this tune, we learned that last week?’
I am not saying this is what you do, but a lot of beginners do.
I reinforce when I am teaching that before we work on anything new we go through a lot of the tunes already learned. That may mean playing 20 or 30 tunes before even starting on a new one. Each repetition of the tune at each lesson just reinforces the ease of playability of the tune, and I notice while watching the students, that with each ‘boring’ repetition of tunes already learned, the more relaxed and flowing the already learned tunes start to become.
)