What I want to make clear about my own experience in ITM is it’s not an either-or thing, ear-playing and sightreading.
I’m just saying that at an ITM session, sheet music has almost no usefulness.
When I’ve taught Irish flute or whistle or whatever workshops at festivals or camps, I’ve found the ability of the attendees to sightread to be VERY useful.
Yes I breathe a sigh of relief when everybody at a workshop is a reader, because then I can hand out music and we can get to work right away.
I write out everything the way I want us to play it, and from the get-go the entire class is literally “on the same page”.
We can get through a lot of material, cover a lot of tunes and techniques and points of style, in one hour.
What drags everything down to a snail’s pace is when somebody can’t read and has to labouriously figure out each note by ear.
Of course good ITM players aren’t like that: they have terrific ears and can immediately play anything they hear.
Most good “legit” musicians (classical or jazz or whatever) can sightread well AND have great ears and can pick up a tune right away by ear.
Though teasing, I think you’ve missed the point. Nobody here is (far as I can tell) arguing about the right and wrong way to do it; that’s another discussion entirely. Most of this discussion has to do with the role that sheet music plays (or doesn’t play) in Irish traditional music. The issue that I’ve been carrying on about (which seemed to be what initiated your “police” post) is that of people who show up and do whatever they want regardless of what the group’s purpose is. As I said before I don’t care what stage of playing you’re in- we all have to start somewhere- but if you show up with no respect for the music and no respect for what the other musicians in the pub/house/etc. are doing then you will not be welcome. It’s just rude and extremely inconsiderate. It has nothing to do with skill, brother, but a mind set and chosen attitude. I’ll welcome anyone who is interested in playing the music. I won’t be as likely to welcome every djebme player, bluegrass guitarist, classic flautist and egg shaker who shows up only because they want another jam session to goof off in. If there is not a genuine appreciation for the music (at the very least) and a desire to play the music in some manner that resembles the tradition, then a session is just not the place for you. You said something to the effect that there is a place for everyone in music. I can agree with that, however, there is not a place among this specific genre for just any musician who wanders in. 'Nuff said.
I began with reading music. Then I would memorize tunes verbatim. Later on I learned to play by ear. Playing by ear is quite different than memorization. Tunes that I memorized didn’t really stick with me that long. On the other hand, tunes that I picked up by ear were always with me. I feel there is value in reading and understanding music, and there is value in playing by ear. It seems to me that the two camps are divided with each looking down on the other, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With the kind of music we are playing, by ear seems to be the way to go and it certainly has its advantages. We are playing single notes and so it really isn’t rocket science. However, there are some very good reasons why in certain music domains the written sheet music is king. A composer may write his music to be played in a certain fashion by say four violins. Each violin has its part to play (four part harmony). The violinist cannot do as he pleases if the piece is to remain as the composer intended it to be. It can be the same way for instruments such as the piano where one is playing multiple notes, both melody and harmony. Sure a pianist can improvise and do as he likes, but within the classical field these tunes are written to be played in a certain way with set bass/harmony lines. Classical guitar tends to be that way too. Classical guitarist don’t seem to be encouraged to play by ear. I think it is a question as to how complex the piece is and what one is trying to achieve. That said for our purposes here in ITM the ear seems to be the way to go. I find some pieces are easier to pick up by ear than others though. I am glad I can read music. It is a very good reference.
straycat82: That sums it up perfectly IMO. I play every Wednesday now with a trad band in my local and I play the tunes the way they play them, which is often different to the way I’ve learned them. Theres so many ways to play a tune that it’s just silly of someone to think they can bring along sheet music, sight read from it and think it’ll blend in. What makes them think they have the sheet in the same key even? For next week I’m going to learn a simple tune called the Eagle’s Whistle, the sheet music I found on the net and in books were in D and G but the pipers I play with play it in A so I’ll just shift it up to A as I don’t have an A whistle. I’m certainly not going to argue with them as to what key it’s more commonly played in. Likewise if I introduce them to a new tune they’ll play it the way I do. Respect the people you play with, otherwise as you rightly said you won’t be welcomed.
Howie: Again this isn’t any kind of anti sheet music thread, the OP’s question was about why trad muso’s have their entire repertoire in memory rather than in written notation.
I am very delighted to see through this thread that there is people, even people learn principaly from sheet music, who understand why it’s important to go out of your way and do the extra effort to respect local tradition or ‘way of doing things’. There’s also many folks in this thread who share my strong opinions about this, and well, it makes me happy.
I would imagine you’re right. There IS a classical guitarist who regularly attends the local ear-learning group, though, and he’s proved to become quite good at working that ol’ ear-memory muscle; sometimes he forgoes a recording device altogether, and just listens with his eyes closed, working at “catching” the tune right then and there. Props to him. Of course he has no illusions that his instrument is traditional in ITM terms, but that’s okay.
If anyone has ever seen a dot-dependent person sit in at a session in full swing, asking for the names of tunes and filing busily thru the reams of notated paper and finding the right one by the time the tune’s nearly over and the next one’s almost begun, only to repeat the frustrating exercise over and over again, you will know that pancelticpiper speaks the truth.
