What's in Your Tune Book?

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leydog
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Tell us something.: I first encountered C&F almost 20 years ago when I became interested in learning to play the whistle. I renewed that interest this year, with the help of the resources on YouTube. In addition to dedicating serious time to the whistle, I also decided to invest in learning to play the flute. Tired of hoping others would ask the questions I have, I decided it was time to join the discussion/session, rather than continue sitting on the sideline with my flute/whistle on my lap, so to speak. So I ask permission to make my contribution.

What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by leydog »

I've seen numerous posts that mention tune books. Some refer to historic compilations that provide source material for tunes. Some talk about collections of tunes that a particular session uses. Others seem to refer to personal
collections that the poster keeps.

I've been playing the whistle for a couple of years now. Just started the flute this past year during the pandemic. And I'm starting to collect tunes at various stages of playability--a few I've really worked on and am beginning to know well, some that I am acquainted with but don't have down yet, and others that I like and want to learn some day. So I wonder:

Do you have a tune book (a list, tunes with notes, ABC notation, something else)? If so, how do you use it (a memory refresher, annotations about versions, a source for practice material, a way to track tunes you know or want to learn)?

As always, I appreciate the group's reflections.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by pancelticpiper »

What I did, back in the 1980s, was get a pile of blank music paper and write down the first two bars of every tune I knew.

They were grouped by tune-type (reel, jig, etc) and by key.

This collection was a practice-tool, to keep me from forgetting about tunes and failing to practice them.

Like many gigging musicians I also have my "book" I take to gigs, a big 3-ring binder with sheet music for anything I might be requested to play at a gig. (Years ago I would play at 50 or so weddings a year, plus many funerals.)

Anytime somebody requested a tune not in my book I would write it out and put it in the book. Next time somebody requests that tune, there it is!

My book is well-organised because at a gig you might need to find something quick.

So what's in "my book"? Everything I've ever needed to play, much of it trad, much of it not.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by stiofan »

I just play for enjoyment, unlike Richard who's a gigging musician, but I have three notebooks (binders) for keeping sheet music (somewhat) organized. Since I'm playing flute the most these days, my primary one is for those I'm playing or learning on the flute, which consist of 1. tunes I know fairly well by memory but might need to refresh myself on, 2. those I can play from 'the dots' but have yet to commit to memory, and 3. those I'm just learning now. The second book is for 'whistle-centric' tunes, which are those I like playing on whistle rather than the flute, including some (but not only) more contemporary tunes (e.g., stuff by Calum Stewart, Ross Ainslie, Flook, Davy Spillane, Kila, etc). The third book is for tunes that are specifically session-related, much of them session standards, which aren't necessarily my favorites, but I practice them for a couple sessions I go to, or will go to, once in-person sessions resume where I live. The sheet music in these books is just that – music with standard music notation, since I had more of a classical background before coming to ITM, and never bothered to learn ABC notation.

You might post a query over on the 'mustard board' (thesession.org) for more input.

Cheers!
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by fatmac »

Only a 'part time' player for my own pleasure, but I have accumulated many compilations in book form, that I attempt to play from, the difficulty is that the print is always so small as you almost need a magnifying glass to read them.... :lol:

I also have quite a few bits of paper stashed away with note names of songs/tunes that I play from, (totally disorganised, I might add). :D
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by sfmans »

I’ve an abc file called MiscTune, and whenever anything that doesn’t sit in my various specific projects and collections grabs my fancy it gets appended to that file.

It’s now at about 800 tunes. Every now and then I’ll start at a random point and play through a few; some bring back memories, some I rediscover, and some I wonder why I saved it.

There’s English, French, Scandinavian, Irish, Scottish, Galician, Basque, kwela, and allsorts in there ....
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Gary90 »

pancelticpiper wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 6:56 am What I did, back in the 1980s, was get a pile of blank music paper and write down the first two bars of every tune I knew.

They were grouped by tune-type (reel, jig, etc) and by key.

This collection was a practice-tool, to keep me from forgetting about tunes and failing to practice them.

Like many gigging musicians I also have my "book" I take to gigs, a big 3-ring binder with sheet music for anything I might be requested to play at a gig. (Years ago I would play at 50 or so weddings a year, plus many funerals.)

Anytime somebody requested a tune not in my book I would write it out and put it in the book. Next time somebody requests that tune, there it is!

My book is well-organised because at a gig you might need to find something quick.

So what's in "my book"? Everything I've ever needed to play, much of it trad, much of it not.
Pancel I am fascinated by the music scene in the decades passed, they way it changed how people dressed etc. I see you mention the 80's, were you playing trad then and if so what do you think has changed from then if anything has.
This is a genuine question, sorry if it comes across as odd.

I was born in 1990
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Mr.Gumby »

I have some perspective on this.

''The past is a foreign country, they do things diffrent there', as they say. And it's true enough. The Ireland and the trasditional music environment as it was when I first came into it only exists as a memory.

Just look at footage of Irish music from say, the 1980s. There are a few documentaries of the WIllie Clancy week from the early eighties, I remember it well but am struck each time I see them how the place has changed and how young everybody that survived from those times looked.

It was a different world. Generations of great players that have now departed were there, playing away and a link to the early part of the last century. No false nostalgia about that although I miss some of the people (and their music) but the world moves on and changes, that's the way.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by pancelticpiper »

Gary90 wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 11:34 am I am fascinated by the music scene in the decades passed, they way it changed how people dressed etc. I see you mention the 80's, were you playing trad then and if so what do you think has changed from then if anything has.
This is a genuine question, sorry if it comes across as odd.

I was born in 1990
Mr Gumby has addressed the scene in Ireland, he's your man for that.

My experience is extremely limited and "colonial" one could say, because the whole time I've played Irish trad I've lived in Southern California, quite cut off from the main stream of it.

We have had over the years some very good Irish-born-and-raised players come to live here, and some local players who have spent significant time living in Ireland, so we're not quite living under a rock. Yet it's a different musical scene here. I'm sure the same could be said of many areas around the world, each of which has probably developed its own local flavour.

I started playing Irish trad around 1977.

As far as people dressed, it would be the same as other Southern Californians dressed. You could often tell the Irish guys from their clothes, they in blue jeans, we in shorts! Too hot for blue-jeans down here, for many of us. (I hadn't owned a pair of blue jeans since I was a kid, but a few years ago I bought some for a trip to a cold snowy place.)

Actually most of my time has been spent in the Scottish piping world, and I think that scene has evolved more dramatically than the Irish trad scene. Since I started playing Highland pipes in 1975 the pitch has gone up a quartertone, synthetic reeds and bags have become the norm for pipes, and all the drums have been completely redesigned. Pipe bands have more than doubled in size. The outfits have completely changed. I would say three-quarters of the tunes Pipe Bands play nowadays didn't exist in 1975.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by fintano »

I first started writing tunes in a book because I didn't know many tunes. I would just ask people the names of tunes and try to find them in a book, or transcribe them from a record. Later I became a little more affluent, so I was able to buy my own copies of tune collections like Bulmer & Sharpley, CRE, etc., although they were not necessarily easy to find in those days. But people often played tunes from popular recordings, so that was more transcriptions. Plus I began to know people with deeper repertoires, so I started taping tunes at sessions (this was in the 1980s) and transcribing them. The situation did not always lend itself to asking what the tune was, so I ended up with lots of nameless tunes. Over the years I've been able to find names for many of them, but not all. In some cases I went back to the person I got the tune from, only to have them say oh that was one of so-and-so's, I never did get its name.

I also transcribed tunes that were in odd places, like in a magazine article, just so I would have them in a single place.

I started transcribing versions of tunes that I particularly liked, very exactly with all the details of ornamentation, so I could try to learn them that way.

Things have changed since those days. A lot of tunes can be found on The Session and ABC Tunefinder. But there are still many tunes that can be heard on YouTube, but it is difficult to find a transcription online, or an accurate transcription anyway. Plus I am still transcribing performances that I like. The slow playback options on YouTube and other players are much more convenient than the things we had to do back in the old days, like playing an LP at 16 RPM.

So I'm still putting tunes in my book (I'm up to volume 3), although not at the rate I once did. I still write them by hand with a calligraphy pen, partly because I enjoy the craftsmanship of it, but also it's handy to have them all in one book. Much easier than searching through all the music files I have on my computer.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Gary90 »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 12:13 pm I have some perspective on this.

''The past is a foreign country, they do things diffrent there', as they say. And it's true enough. The Ireland and the trasditional music environment as it was when I first came into it only exists as a memory.

Just look at footage of Irish music from say, the 1980s. There are a few documentaries of the WIllie Clancy week from the early eighties, I remember it well but am struck each time I see them how the place has changed and how young everybody that survived from those times looked.

It was a different world. Generations of great players that have now departed were there, playing away and a link to the early part of the last century. No false nostalgia about that although I miss some of the people (and their music) but the world moves on and changes, that's the way.
Thanks for answering my question.
And thanks to Pancelticpiper aswell.
Just like most things evolve, I suspected that the trad scene has changed, and maybe lost some off its roots.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Mr.Gumby »

Just like most things evolve, I suspected that the trad scene has changed, and maybe lost some off its roots.
It'sa broad church with many branches around the world. How you look at it probably depends on where you are and the company you keep. WHile transmission and contacts have changed and various influences are explored (by some) at its core the tradition (whatever that is) is sound and possibly healthier than ever. With the new ways of transmission also comes much easier access to music of 'those who went before' and all that, perhaps to the point where young people may take it for granted but its there for those who want it and loads of them do want it, absorbing influences from here there and everywhere. It's a good thing mostly.

At one time I joked here that I was playing tunes with people who have been playing together for generations. That aspect is still there too and it is at the heart of it. I know some very fine musicians to who I could say I have played music with their parents and grandfather. For the past twenty five years I have been living on a tiny little road with maybe fifteen houses spread out over three or four miles. Several world class young players have come up during the time I lived here, third generation players. The continuity is still there and the community is till at the heart of it.
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Gary90 »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 10:13 am
Just like most things evolve, I suspected that the trad scene has changed, and maybe lost some off its roots.
It'sa broad church with many branches around the world. How you look at it probably depends on where you are and the company you keep. WHile transmission and contacts have changed and various influences are explored (by some) at its core the tradition (whatever that is) is sound and possibly healthier than ever. With the new ways of transmission also comes much easier access to music of 'those who went before' and all that, perhaps to the point where young people may take it for granted but its there for those who want it and loads of them do want it, absorbing influences from here there and everywhere. It's a good thing mostly.

At one time I joked here that I was playing tunes with people who have been playing together for generations. That aspect is still there too and it is at the heart of it. I know some very fine musicians to who I could say I have played music with their parents and grandfather. For the past twenty five years I have been living on a tiny little road with maybe fifteen houses spread out over three or four miles. Several world class young players have come up during the time I lived here, third generation players. The continuity is still there and the community is till at the heart of it.
Thats cool Mr.Gumby playing with generations of a family who are keeping the interest. I didn't really come from a family with musicians in it. My great uncle used to play the accordion in my grandmother's house that was about it.
I think that the scene never really got taking off in Belfast around the 70's and 80's with those decades being the height of the troubles. It's here now though
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Re: What's in Your Tune Book?

Post by Mr.Gumby »

I don't know if you find yourself in the company of people whio have been playing together since childhood (not to mention what came down from their parents) it can be daunting, there's so much in the way of shared experiences and shared repertoire between them that is just taken for granted that it can make you realise there's lot you don't know or are part of.

There used to be a lot of Belfast players (or generally Northern) at the Willie week during the eighties, sitting out the marching season in Clare and having tunes like there was no tomorrow. The McPeakes always brough a busload of students, for example, but many others too. A lot still come down, or were before Willie went online for the duration of the pandemic.
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