How do you guys remember names of tunes?
I have a real problem with this. While I can remember tunes for the most part I very rarely remember the names or connect the name and the tune.
I remember a post by Azalin from Ireland that eluded to some other Irish musicians that didn’t know the names of the tunes they were playing. However I have noticed that here in N.A. most people do know the names. Playing by ear may be a drawback in this case.
Comments??
Cheers 
Gerry
Gerry,
I have a terrible memory. When I am introduced to new people I instantly forget their names - very embarassing!
I find that to help me remember a new tune, while I am learning it (always by ear), I will look at the name of the tune (usually the CD jacket) I find that way the two become linked in my brain. It works for me…
Sue
Yeah that works well Sue when you have the CD. However a lot of the tunes that I learn are in sessions and even though I ask the names and try to remember them, I forget them the minute I walk out the door.
I am getting better though as I have a few now that I know the name of. It has taken a real conscious effort though.
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry,
You are right. Tunes that I learn on the fly at a session, I can never remember the name of. We have a great Irish Festival here in Wpg every Oct and get some great Trad. Irish Musicians here for workshops & concerts. I discovered that if they didn’t remember the name of a tune, most would make it up! With so many different names for the same tune, how would anybody know??
Sue
This topic reminds me of something similar that happened a few years ago - I took a workshop at a music camp from Larry Nugent and Jim DeWan on playing Irish music in a group. It was for all instruments (I was the only whistle player besides Larry). Anyway, the first day of class, Larry was supposed to play the first tune (a jig) that they were going to teach us, while Jim went and got some coffee. Larry knew the name of the jig (which escapes me of course, tho I can now play it in my sleep), and he and Jim had just practiced it before they came to the class, but he couldn’t place the name with the tune and remember how it went. He kept playing different tunes and couldn’t get it right until Jim got back to tell him how it went. So it can happen to the best of us I guess
I can certainly relate…I’ll play tunes all evening and go to bed with all of these running through my head. It is so frustrating..because I can rarely remember the name of any of them. How can you play it until you have it memorized and not know the name. Hmmmm…maybe that’s the answer right there…while I am memorizing the tune…why not memorize the title at the same time! I’ll let you know how it works. 
[ This Message was edited by: Grannymouse on 2001-09-03 01:04 ]
Once you start learning tunes by ear in session (or from session tapes), it’s hopeless. I’m lucky if I have names for half of the polkas I know. Lot’s of times there’s just no good oppertunity to learn what the name is.
You’ll find most professional Irish musicians are terrible with names. For instance, the Lunasa Otherworld set “The Butlers of Glen Avenue/Sliabh Russell/Cathal McConnell’s” is actually “The Roaring Barmaid/Sliabh Russell/The Cock and the Hen”. In fact, I’ve got three or four recordings of “The Cock and the Hen”, and not one of them gets the name right.
And hey, anytime you see a tune with just a place name or a person’s name attached, odds are there real name has been lost somewhere. The Ballydesmond Polkas, for instance, have “real” individual names, though it seems like nobody (including me) knows them. The tune Dervish call “Jerry Holland’s” is called “Andy De Jarlis” by Jerry Holland. And the only reason it’s called that is Andy used to play it. And so on and so forth…
The answer is “D - All the above.”
I put the music books away a year ago when a friend suggested that it would be easier by ear. And he was right—and here it comes—But like all of you, I can’t remember their names or how they start.
So my theory is the “Cockroach Theory.” You start running (playing) after a bar or so not having a clue what the tune name is, but you are playing it and take the turn to the next tune in line. Three tunes later you stop with everyone else, with a glow on your face and warm feeling inside and nobody talks to you about your playing.And as above you ask the name and forget when you pack up an leave for the night.
And as you leave with a friend you utter “Great Session wasn’t it!” Nods, Humms, Yeses—see you next week.
Next day I’m whistling (lips not embouchure) the tunes without a thought to what the title was.
Ya Gotta love it !!!
Boy, how many times have I heard this? I can relate. I was part of a church group for 11 years. And I cannot tell you how many times we were getting ready to play a hymm (or tune at a session) and I have to lean towards the “music reader” in the bunch and say “How does this go??”. The person would then say “Dee, dee dee da dum de dum, etc.” and then I’d go “Ohhhhh…got it.” If I had a buck for every time…I’d own ten thousand whistles.
Best,
Bob Pegritz
Now occasionally it is pathetically EASY to remember the name of a tune. For me, Saddle the Pony (aka Priests Leap, I think, but I don’t think of that) “looks” precisely like it sounds. It goes D| G B A G… on the D I grab the saddle on the first G I start swinging it up, and it lands on the pony’s back by the second G.
Or Sweeps…that’s a hornpipe you can actually see in your mind. Swinging on a Gate…I can see that gate closing, and it hits the post on the bottom G.
But the ones with names. . .no, I can’t remember Sean Ryan from any other until someone plays it.
In session, when someone says “What was the name of that?” if no one comes up with it quickly I maintain that people actually make them up. “Oh yeah. That’s the Old Maid and the Chicken!”