Is it legitimate to just play by ear? I can read music pretty well because I sing a lot and used to play piano - but reading music for the whistle just doesn’t “click” in my mind, connecting the notes on the staff with fingers and holes. I have to mentally sing the music first. It ends up being time-consuming, so I usually ignore sheet music and just play tunes I know or hear somewhere else or improvise. Is that an inferior way to go about it? (I’m more used to the classical music scene, where reading music is a must.)
maybe then this is what your looking for, http://www.seventhstring.demon.co.uk/
http://www.ronimusic.com/
they both have free trails, cheers!
I think a great deal of people here will tell you that playing by ear is the best way to go for trad music. 
It’s a skill that many have to struggle to learn, so if you’ve already got it going on-- good on you!!
Best,
Ad
(who can play by ear, but is addicted to dots)
Ok, thanks! I’ve been feeling guilty because I have a couple of whistle music books, and I just never use them! 
Wow! I didn’t know things like that existed! Technology these days! Very cool.
like myself, before i discovered this board
Pearl, as mentioned there are some really knowledgeable and experienced folks on this board who would cheer you for learning by ear. It’s very hard to pick up Irish music from written notes - at least to play the way it actually sounds. If you did a search for the word LISTEN on this board, you’d be overwhelmed! Way to go!
Susan
The only thing about learning by ear is to pick a good example, if your example is crap you’ll end up like that too. if your example on the other hand is brilliant you’re on your way.
It might be worthwhile to work your way through Brother Steve’s site at http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/, which might help connect the sounds of rolls, cuts, and taps with what the fingers are doing, since those don’t occur as major parts of most non-Irish music.
The Grey Larsen books at http://www.greylarsen.com/store/books.php also have good descriptions along with recorded examples.
Then, as Peter says, it’s just a case of finding good examples to emulate.
Cool, cheers!
That may be so for learning by ear but not for playing by ear. Playing by ear is about the ability to present the music that you hear without the crutch of notation. You can listen to even a crap example and discern the musical potential and bring your best interpretation to it.
Man I hate learning stuff by ear. I’d rather sight read it, and then go look for recordings of it. Or listen to recordings and then go look for sheet music. Some of my favorite tunes I’ve never heard a recording of anyway.
I hate repeating myself but becaise you have vomit in your name let me just say again:-
Playing anything but symphonic music using sheet music is like making love using a how to manual.
I’ll just have to get by on my how to manual. I don’t learn it by ear unless I can’t find the music for it. Just my preference. I was raised on sheet music. I can pretty much sight read it at speed, and cover many times as much music as I would have learning by ear. Playing by ear comes easier for me than for most, at least that’s my experience in the matter. It’s not a handicap. It’s just more advantageos for me to read. Don’t get me wrong. I listen to a lot of playing. But reading is a shortcut to me that I can’t resist.
Yes, of course, VB. You have the nicest way of demolishing absolutist posturings. You are quite a clever rabbit.
Ay yi yi…tell me about it!!! I swear, I just can’t live without my dots. How pathetic is that??
Well what do you classify as sheet music? Is it anything less than hearing the song and playing with just that reference? Because I am whats known in some circles as an “egg-no-ray-moose”, and my lack of intellehence think, limits my ability to just pick stuff up by hearing. Learning by notes, or at least, what fingerings I need, is quite essential to my development.
Wow, this is the first time I actually agree with Tala. You know, I haven’t been playing for too long, but I can know right away if someone has learned the core of his/her music from sheet music or by ear. It’s just plain obvious to the trained ear and no matter what people who play from sheet music says, you just can’t have good swingy trad music if you can’t learn by ear.
The thing about these sorts of threads is I always seem to have strong urges to disagree with both sides. I think most people drastically oversimilify these questions, and then answer whichever way makes them feel better about themselves. (Of course, maybe my answer is still an attempt to do the latter for myself!)
Now, I cannot say what Azalin’s magic ear can detect. But I think the tunes I play best are mostly tunes where my learning pattern has been:
- Listen obsessively to great recordings of the tune.
- Learn the notes using sheet music as an aid.
- Listen obsessively to great recordings of the tune – and practice it obsessively, too.
Now I must instantly admit I think the form of step 2 is mostly incidental to the process – I would be just as good at the tune at the end if I learned it by ear. It’s the listening to great recordings and practicing that’s the key, IMO.
All those tunes I learned by ear listening to Boiled in Lead, Tempest, or the local neophytes at the session? My versions are crap.
All those tunes I learned listening to Peter Horan and following along with sheet music? Those are the tunes that get me compliments from the old, experienced musicians around here.
Seems to me the key is listening to the great stuff. How you figure out for the first time what the notes are is a relatively tiny part of really learning a tune.
Don’t forget to pass that manual on when you’ve finished with it, Az. 