Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

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pauliewaulie
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Tell us something.: Whistle player for The Pogue Traders tribute band. Living in London, with an Irish background. Also play guitar (quite well) harmonica and tenor banjo (not so well) and trying to learn piano. Can play a few standard Irish tunes on the whistle and want to learn more.

Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

Post by pauliewaulie »

I can hum a lot of tunes accurately - I know them fairly well,

I can play them all very slowly on the whistle, and I have a handful of tunes that are session-ready under my belt, though if I played them solo, listeners would only be giving me about 6/10 for performance quality.

So what do others do? Do you play tunes very slowly without ornamentation, but with a metronome until you have them nailed, and then slowly speed up?

Any / all tips gratefully received!
AaronFW
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Tell us something.: I started with playing bamboo flutes. But I transitioned to primarily playing the Boehm flute a few lessons ago with the aim of getting good music instruction. However, I've been transitioning to playing Irish Traditional Music on simple flutes.
Location: Ohio

Re: Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

Post by AaronFW »

pauliewaulie wrote:I can hum a lot of tunes accurately - I know them fairly well,

I can play them all very slowly on the whistle, and I have a handful of tunes that are session-ready under my belt, though if I played them solo, listeners would only be giving me about 6/10 for performance quality.

So what do others do? Do you play tunes very slowly without ornamentation, but with a metronome until you have them nailed, and then slowly speed up?

Any / all tips gratefully received!
I am a novice in most ways, but I feel like I am learning songs faster at this point.

I record my local session in order to play along with the recordings and every week I write down the names of the songs are being played. This allows me to work on songs that are commonly played at my local session. The recordings allow me to become familiar with the tempo at which they play and any oddities peculiar to the group.

I also use sheet music a fair bit. I cannot play much from ear at this point. I do not have a great sense of rhythm, so I do use a metronome some.

That is what I do.

I don't know if I can be any help, but how do you go about learning songs right now? Are you able to learn by ear and hum them based on what you've heard from your local session? Or do you use some other methods?
Dan A.
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Tell us something.: I can only hope that my proficiency with the whistle is steadily improving. A few of my whistles get a workout on an almost daily basis. And I'm almost certainly afflicted with WhOAD.
Location: Detroit Metro

Re: Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

Post by Dan A. »

When I'm teaching myself a new tune, I play it slowly while looking at the fingering diagram. I repeat this process until I can play the tune free of errors. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. After I get comfortable enough with the mechanics of a tune, I'll watch a YouTube video of someone playing it. (Sometimes these are difficult for me to follow, as I play a whistle left-handed.) That is to get an idea if I'm playing the tune at the proper speed. In one case, I need to slow down a bit!

Hope I've been of some help.
BigBpiper
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Tell us something.: I have grown up surrounded by Irish music and culture and have played the whistle since first grade. I love playing the various instruments I have aquired over the years and would love to help others with their instruments in any way I can.

Re: Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

Post by BigBpiper »

Generally, when I have to learn a new piece, I listen to the tune while reading the notes. After doing this a couple times I'll try to "sneak" in my playing and repeat until I can do it accurately along with the recording. Only afterwards do I insert ornamentation. I have found this method most effective in instances when I'm handed long, elaborate reels the night before performance :lol:

Since you will eventually have to play along to a tune you don't know, it may help to learn improvisation as well. Improvisation will come in time as you continue to get more and more aquainted with both your playing and your instrument, but one exercise I do to encourage improv playing is to just harmonize to a recording of a tune you already know, and you will soon learn to intuitively harmonize to tunes you don't know. :)

Hope this helps!
Cheers!
carloslarge
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Tell us something.: Was talking to Ben, signing up using my old account details, had been locked out and set up new account
Location: Co. Roscommon, Ireland

Re: Top tips for improving fluency and accuracy of playing?

Post by carloslarge »

pauliewaulie wrote:I can hum a lot of tunes accurately - I know them fairly well,

I can play them all very slowly on the whistle, and I have a handful of tunes that are session-ready under my belt, though if I played them solo, listeners would only be giving me about 6/10 for performance quality.

So what do others do? Do you play tunes very slowly without ornamentation, but with a metronome until you have them nailed, and then slowly speed up?

Any / all tips gratefully received!

This exactly, slow down, use the metronome, and become totally sure and precise in your actions, then speed up. This improves accuracy and execution. Same goes for ornamentation, play through the roll/triplet etc, at walking pace to ensure clarity and that everything is where it should be, then speed up
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