I’ve been messing around with playing by ear most of my life, but just recently got serious about it. I’ve started learning tunes by ear (using mp3s and slowdown). My current tune is connaughtman’s rambles… I was having a rough time getting it to sound right and then realized that I was memorizing finger patterns as I was piecing it together, and that I couldn’t actually sing it. I could hear it in my head, and thought that would be enough, but I couldn’t actually produce it. So I put down the whistle and worked on that for a bit.
The next day I found myself absently humming a tune and realized it was connaughtmans’ rambles. The next time I picked up the whistle, many more things fell into place like magic. I realized I was playing some of he triplets in the wrong order and now the transitions between phrases just flowed… where before there was a hesitation as I geared up for the next bit. Further, the tune had a nice “Yump-diddee Yump-diddee” sound to it (that’s how I sing it .. compared to my Geese in the Bog (learned from notes), which goes “Yump-bump-bump Yump-bump-bump”
It’s a neat feeling when it happens. I’m not thinking “finger, finger, finger”, but “note,note, note”.. and out it comes… not all the time by any means.. lots of trial and error.. but it DOES happen.
Maybe this is why I have such a hard time learning things by ear. I simply have never been able carry a tune with my voice – I can’t seem to control what notes come out when I sing. When I’m trying to get the rhythm right, I kind of semi-sing in a whispery way, but I’m really just articulating the rhythm. The notes come out kinda random.
I think that’s part of why I was drawn to the whistle – blowing into it is reminds me of singing, but I can use my fingers to aim the tune at the right notes.
Can you “sing” it in your head? Or remember
what it sounds like when you listen to someone
else playing it? This is really the important thing,
that you have what the tune should sound like
in your memory. The reason I suggest singing is
it’s easier for many people to concentrate on
just the tune rather than letting fingering get in
the way. But there are certainly exceptions… If
singing takes as much concentration as whistling
(or more) then it’s a wash.
I definitely play a tune better when it’s an active earworm, and before switching tunes I need to pause to summon the new into earworm status – when it refuses to be summoned, playing it anyway doesn’t usually work so well. There’s definitely an internal auditory event going on when I’m playing well, a model of what I want it to sound like. Sometimes too much so – it’s easy to neglect to hear the imperfections in my actual rendition of the tune I’m hearing in my head.
Tunes that I have learned to play on the whistle tend to generate more precise earworms than random tunes from CDs which I haven’t ever sat down to learn. It’s kind of like the difference between factioids that sound familiar when you hear them cited, vs. factiods you can regurgitate on demand in support of your personal diatribe-of-the-day. There’s a difference in intensity of the mental impression made.
After learning a tune and a song, I find that my method, so far, is to hear the tune/song several times until I know how it is supposed to sound. Then I look at the dots and write the note’s letter below the staff for each note (this helps me learn to read music, as well as figure out what note to play on my whistle). Then I work on a piece, phrase by phrase, slowly at first and then speeding up. I find that I can hear the difference in what I am playing on my whistle compared to what it sounds like in my head, faster than looking at the dots to see if I am playing it right. I guess, I am learning both at the same time.
I sing in my choir at church, but, I only sort-of read music. Mostly, I memorize the song and my part. I can hear the instruments, my voice, and hear how they are supposed to sound together when we sing the song. I can easily recognize when I am singing correctly and not. That seems to be the same approach that I am taking to learning whistle tunes/songs.
I am enjoying the journey and look forward to playing with and learning at my local session (it’s an open session).
When I first got my whistle, I went to listen to the session. One of the players asked me if I played, I said not yet…I JUST got a whistle. Then he asked if I brought it! I said no, I just came to listen. Later on the leader of the session asked if I had my whistle with me. Again I said no. He said to bring it next time, that is what an open session is all about. I said that I needed to learn to play something before coming to play. He said to learn a tune and they would play with me! I have only been able to return once since then, and they had taken the night off due to a funeral. It will still be a couple of weeks before I can return, but am looking forward to the experience!
Sounds like a good session. That happened to me a year ago after I had just picked up a guitar. I went along to one of the local sessions to listen having bought a guitar just 2-3 months earlier. I knew some basic chords and a couple of simple three chord songs. I was asked if I played anything and I said I had just picked up the guitar. When I was asked if I had it with me I said it was in the back of the car but in no way was I ready to play at a session. I was then told ‘If you’ve got it with you it means you want to play it. Go and get it’. So I did. Not looked back since. They were/are very welcoming and I’ve learnt to accompany quite a few tunes in the meantime. Just before Christmas I picked up the whistle and can join in on about 16 tunes. Go for it. It’s a really good way to learn.
.. compared to my Geese in the Bog (learned from notes), which goes “Yump-bump-bump Yump-bump-bump”