What slow airs should we know?

[Chuck_Clark]

There's always Blind Mary. One of my true hexes - I can never play it slow enough.

[Tikva]

Blind Mary really sounds nice. - I'm definitely going to learn it by heart. Though I don't think it's going to be easy for me. There's this one part that sounds very much like the middle part of "You are my sunshine", a song I had to sing a lot back in 2001. So, everytime I get to this section my brain plays an evil trick on me making my hands continue playing the wrong song.

I guess I'll have to get the sheetmusic from thesession to solve this problem...

[pancelticpiper]

Sheet music to Carolan stuff is fine- it's all we have (as the harping tradition was broken).

But the sean nos airs cannot be learned from the "white page". Their timing cannot be forced into mathematical precision. The only way to learn those (and the best way to learn any Irish music) is to get a good recording of it and play along until you have it.

[Tikva]

But the sean nos airs cannot be learned from the "white page". Their timing cannot be forced into mathematical precision. The only way to learn those (and the best way to learn any Irish music) is to get a good recording of it and play along until you have it.

True. I don't want to use dots to learn the timing or intonation. That would be useless because eventhough I know how to read them, anybody has ever achieved teaching me how to read timing and rhythm and the length of certain dots from a sheet.

When I try playing an unknown tune from a sheet of paper, I end up sounding like a first grader reading a book. While he or she knows all the letters, the letters often don't form words or whole sentences in their brains so they stress the wrong syllables and nobody can understand their reading. - That's me on any wind instrument I pick up.

When I still used to play the clarinet in earnest, I often bought or lent me a cassette or CD featuring the song I was supposed to learn. I listen to it in order to know how the melody was supposed to sound, or rather to know how long each dot had to be played...

Using sheet music to me is like using a visual anchor when difficulties like the ones I mentioned above arise. Seeing the dots and practicing that one part that my brain confuses with "You are my sunshine" is supposed to help me avoid that mistake instead of re-doing it again, again and again.

[MTGuru]

There's this one part that sounds very much like the middle part of "You are my sunshine", a song I had to sing a lot back in 2001. So, everytime I get to this section my brain plays an evil trick on me making my hands continue playing the wrong song.

Yes, it's the last bar of Blind Mary that matches "Please don't take my sunshine away".

Whenever someone starts Con Cassidy's Jig in a session, I want to change immediately to "The Bear Came Over the Mountain". Which leads into "The Teddy Bears' Picnic". Which is a great way to end up fleeing the pub, chased by angry pipers.

[Tikva]

Thank God, it happens to someone else, too! This is soooo anoying. MT, have you developed any tricks over the years to stop this from happening?
No matter how hard I try, I always end up playing "Please don't take my sunshine away" and then continue playing the whole "You are my sunshine" song.

[Tikva]

Back to slow airs, now.

I've just come across "The Gentle Breeze" on Carey's homepage... It sounds so wonderful, I could listen to the tune for hours on end. Definitely one of the next I'm going to learn after I've overcome my problem with "Blind Mary".

[hans]

Thank God, it happens to someone else, too! This is soooo anoying. MT, have you developed any tricks over the years to stop this from happening?
No matter how hard I try, I always end up playing "Please don't take my sunshine away" and then continue playing the whole "You are my sunshine" song.

It is a matter of repatterning your memory.
Instead of playing from memory too quickly (in this case, because of the "wrong" association),
you could try to keep the focus on 'Blind Mary' by focusing on the written music,
so you follow visual clues rather than being side-tracked by the memory of the other tune.
Then just repeat and repeat and repeat, following the dots.
Eventually this new pattern will be strong enough
and you can abandon the crutch of following written notation.

~Hans

[benhall.1]

Thank God, it happens to someone else, too! This is soooo anoying. MT, have you developed any tricks over the years to stop this from happening?
No matter how hard I try, I always end up playing "Please don't take my sunshine away" and then continue playing the whole "You are my sunshine" song.

It is a matter of repatterning your memory.
Instead of playing from memory too quickly (in this case, because of the "wrong" association),
you could try to keep the focus on 'Blind Mary' by focusing on the written music,
so you follow visual clues rather than being side-tracked by the memory of the other tune.
Then just repeat and repeat and repeat, following the dots.
Eventually this new pattern will be strong enough
and you can abandon the crutch of following written notation.

~Hans

I could hardly disagree more with that approach. Follow the dots, and you'll always follow the dots, even if they're just in your head. The answer is to listen. Then listen again. And again. Then some more. Do it 'til you can't help humming the tune to yourself all day. Get the sound of the one recording that you really like of it thoroughly in your head. Meanwhile, don't even attempt to play it.

But, whatever, just throw those dots away.

[Tikva]

I could hardly disagree more with that approach. Follow the dots, and you'll always follow the dots, even if they're just in your head. The answer is to listen. Then listen again. And again. Then some more. Do it 'til you can't help humming the tune to yourself all day. Get the sound of the one recording that you really like of it thoroughly in your head. Meanwhile, don't even attempt to play it.

But, whatever, just throw those dots away.

Okay folks, no reason to enter a fully fledged quarrel about learning techniques. Let's settle for this: When talking about ITM theory, benhall definitely would be right. No matter what book or online publication I've read so far, learning ITM was all about listening. When talking about learning theories in general, hans' approach would be more correct as it is scientifically proven that learning is more effective the more sensual "channels" are being used: tactile, visual, aural, olfactory, ...

I never said I was going to use one of these methods exlusively. As I've said before, I know how to read dots, but I've never learned how to translate them into rhythm and tone length. To me, they are just a visual crutch, much like a dictionary.

My take on learning music is much like my take on learning languages: language books just like dots help me to understand the structure of a sentence or score. Once I've learned the rough structure, the only way to learn the correct pronounciation is to go to the country or else listen to records of native speakers/players...

[hans]

Follow the dots, and you'll always follow the dots, even if they're just in your head.

I did not mean to suggest to create a new dependency on dots/sheet music.
In my own playing, I have music in my head, not dots. I cannot visualize sheet music in my head, perhaps my visual memory is too poor*. For me learning a tune from dots does not make me a slave to the written music, and I like to internalize the music as quick as possible, then the dots serve only at times as a prop, to remember how part A or B starts etc., until it is all in heart and fingers. - Maybe what you say it true for some, but it was never true for me. YMMV. And to do lots of listening is certainly good advise.

* I don't think it is poor. It is the same thing with written words:
To remember a poem I would not see it written out in words in my head,
but hear the words spoken.

Cheers,
~Hans

[hans]

My take on learning music is much like my take on learning languages: language books just like dots help me to understand the structure of a sentence or score. Once I've learned the rough structure, the only way to learn the correct pronounciation is to go to the country or else listen to records of native speakers/players...

Only in traditional music there is no "correct" way of playing a tune. You may like somebody's version and playing, and you may start imitating. But in the end for the music to be alive it has to be your own. Neither dots nor records help there, only your own experimentation and emotional expression.

[Tikva]

For me learning a tune from dots does not make me a slave to the written music, and I like to internalize the music as quick as possible, then the dots serve only at times as a prop, to remember how part A or B starts etc., until it is all in heart and fingers. - Maybe what you say it true for some, but it was never true for me. YMMV. And to do lots of listening is certainly good advise.

* I don't think it is poor. It is the same thing with written words:
To remember a poem I would not see it written out in words in my head,
but hear the words spoken.

That sounds very much like me. I don't learn written words by heart but their sense and sound. It's much the same for me with music.

Only in traditional music there is no "correct" way of playing a tune. You may like somebody's version and playing, and you may start imitating. But in the end for the music to be alive it has to be your own. Neither dots nor records help there, only your own experimentation and emotional expression.

Nope, they don't, however they can teach you the "rules" and ways of how to apply certain ornamentation techniques.

[Claughaun]

These are my favs in no particular order...

My Lagan Love
My Singing Bird
Limerick's Lamentation (Marbhna Luimni)
Eire, Ni neosfainn ce h-i
Skibereen
Sliabh Galleon Brae
An Cuilfhionn
Mna na h-Eireann