Just wondering…
I choose to sight read and learn by ear. For some reason or another, I get really distracted by reading ABC format. Perhaps it is a genetic shortcoming.
I use a computer constantly to help me learn by ear. Using slow-down software lets me pick up great versions of tunes by great players. I can’t read ABC, and I’m very slow at dots.
djm
get off the computer and play your pipes!!!
My computer has been a great tool for learning the music especially since I’m rarely around other pipers. I haven’t purchased a tunebook since I became reasonably proficient at transcription and abc notation, and I can sight read abc notation as well or better than standard music notation. But, the computer and the associated software are just tools and a means to an end - and I’m a better musician and piper today than I would have been had these tools not been available. However, I still have to strap on the pipes every day to make it all work out.
I learn most of my tunes entirely by ear using Transcribe! to slow down recordings as well as shift tunings as required. For example, its the perfect tool to use to work out the tunes on Mick O’Brien’s B-flat set by slowing down the tune and shifting the pitch to C or D.
I’m not a big fan of ABC player software for learning piping tunes. I do think they have their use, for example, for practicing DADGAD backup on guitar. Its hard to find unaccompanied recordings of tune sets to use for backup practice.
I have found that what’s best for me is trying to play by reading the dots,
getting proficient at reading notation in tunebooks, which helps me learn the tune as well, and getting the finger-eye coordination… then trying to
listen to the tune as much as I can, so it sticks.
Then keep at it, hopefully until I’ll be able to play a tune by listening to it.
Hopefully.
Can’t do the computer and play at the same time.
..genetic shortcoming… :roll: …this coming from one of the most musically gifted people I’ve ever known…didn’t you once identify the key signature of one of my farts? …I seem to recall a table with guinness pints, jameson…nope…that’s all I remember!
No computers for me. My ears work fine, thank you very much.
Davey wrote: ..genetic shortcoming… …this coming from one of the most musically gifted people I’ve ever known…didn’t you once identify the key signature of one of my farts? …I seem to recall a table with guinness pints, jameson…nope…that’s all I remember!
To be honest, I’m a little foggy (no pun intended) on that one. But I DO remember the Guinness and the Jameson somewhat, perhaps the severity of said flatuation has had a lasting effect on my decidedly rusty memory banks…wait a minute…wasn’t it Ab? 
Gee, that’s so much more comfortable. My back feels better, now.
Thx,
djm
I play within arm’s length of the stereo where I can easily access the minidisc and CD player to listen to and play along with and am far away from any computer. In short I learn by ear with the printed music nearby to help with some of the notes I just can’t pick up. Some of that printed music does come from the computer though as well as ideas on new tunes to learn, such as from Clips & Snips.
Ailin
I spent so much time running from the computer to the stereo to the pipes and back (with twice-hourly bathroom breaks) that I’ve decided to cut out all the unnecessary steps, which would be me.
So.
Here’s what I’ve done;
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the CD/minidisc arcology is connected via a simple set of cables to;
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the computer, which reads the music, translates it into fully thirty-five thousand different tuning and notating systems and decides with lickety-split timing which one to use;
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packages that information into a lump so simple even mainland Chinese dissidents get the tune on the first go and sends it on to (and here’s the tricky bit)
-
a system of valves, gears, cogs, pressure-tubes and caltrops that imitates fairly accurately the playing and post-playing attitudes of modern pipers.
Needless to say, these valves, etc, actually play the pipes, while I, freed once again by science to not pursue my cherished personal goals, am able to sit in happy joy amidst the beauty that is the musique irlandaise.
Mark
P.S. Anyone interested in purchasing this simple, collapsable and hermetically sealed package can feel free to contact me privately here in my secret laboratory near the center of the earth.
My God! Its the evil and nefarious Dr. Fogbottom and his heinous invention, the Calliope of Death! 
djm
I have my entire CD collection encoded to ogg format on my hard drive (plus all the good mp3, real audio, etc downloads I have found on the internet) and one output of my sound card is plugged into my stereo, most tunes (hopefully soon to be all as I am transferring all my tapes and vinyls as well) in a playlist that I can easily search and play a tune I want. Most of the time, it runs random play, nice background music to drift off to sleep with. Hopefully I can learn some of the tunes in my sleep as sometimes new (to me) tunes will show up under my fingers on the whistle without me trying to learn them. Sadly, none have appeared without effort on the pipes yet.
I have all my favorite pipers (that I can afford CDs of) right there, so I definately use the computer in learning my pipes, whistles, bodhran, bones, etc. It is handier than a bent nail and I couldn’t stand not having it..
I used to have a life, now I have bagpipes, a computer and a modem..
I use the dots to jar my feeble mind in remembering what I heard when I use Amazing slow downer on my Mac. I scribble as best I can when I listen to the ornamentation S–L–O–W–L–Y.
I just can’t figure out how people stuff tight triplets and grace notes in when playing.
Practice…years and years of day-in, day-out practice…and not just random noodling. Triplets, cuts, rolls, double cuts, shakes/shivers, crans, and stitches get easier if you practice tunes that use these devices in a relaxed, steady, and methodical way.
Pat Michell’s book on Willie Clancy’s music can be very helpful if you study the transcriptions while listening to Willie’s recordings. Try to play the transcriptions, note for note, cut for cut, roll for roll etc as a way to educate your fingers. You don’t want to play these tunes exactly as written all the time but as object lessons on style and use of ornamentation they can be very helpful.
I mainly learn by ear. I used to learn them from playing with other people (sessions sometimes) though it has mainly been from tapes, cd, minidisc and sheetmusic. I used to think it would be impossible to learn from a recording playing at full speed but it has become easier (a bit like picking tunes up at a session). Between the recordings and all the sheet music I have amassed over the years I can put together a setting that suits me. I do sometimes try to imitate some or all of the ornament that is played on the recording (good for learning timing and accents of ornaments) but usually I prefer to interpret it how I feel most comfortable playing it. I think this is important as this way I develop my own style which is, of course, influenced by the style of the players I like to hear the most. The classes that I have been in with some great pipers has helped me no end in figuring out how to play a lot of ornaments, the Willy Clancy and the Seamus Ennis book have prooved helpful. I havent the Patsy Touhey one but I know that has loads of ornaments broken down in it.
I have been getting into The Standing Abbey/Liverpool Hornpipe lately, a mix of versions played by Ennis and Hannon though pared down for my playing, and a version of Currugh Races/Woman of the House played by Tommy Reck on a recording made by Pedar O’Loughlin in 1960, great fun!!
I learn by ear, and usually up to speed. I listen to the tune, like while driving…with my mind on other things. After a few listenings, I begin to complete the lines in advance. The melodies stick in my memory fairly easily. That’s the easy part for me. But I can’t remember names…like the names of the tunes…at least with the new ones. 
I prefer to learn tunes primarily by ear and second choice is to read music (my music reading ability is rudimentary). I am currently stubbornly avoiding slow-down softwear, deluding myself that I am some kind of purist.
However, I am a beginner, and as soon as the frustration of trying to learn a fast tune from CD becomes relevant, I will be the first to reach for the softwear!