How many tunes do you know?

Adrian · Post by **Adrian** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:06 am

I'm interested to know how many tunes you have memorized and can play without written music, although they are not necessarily at peak performance standard. It would also be good to know how long you have been playing.

This is not a competition so please be honest.

Thanks

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:34 am

There comes a point where tunes come and go, you have a body of tunes active, the ones you play actively at the moment. But there's he tunes you haven't played for a while but you can if you think of them, there's the half forgotten and half learned ones you could bring out if you want to, the ones you don't really like but you play them with other people, the ones you really like but there's no call for them much so you don't play them often, there's the ones you hear all the time, that have entered you subconscious and you'll be able to play them on the fly even if you have never tried them, the ones you learned but forgot you did until you hear them again.

When there's music around you all the time there's tunes coming in on the wind all the time, it's a coming and going, a fleeting business.

How many tunes can I play? I'd say 'loads' but how to quantify it precisely?

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:06 am

Peter Laban wrote: .......
When you're around music there's always stuff entering through the subconscious, coming and going.

......

I agree with this.

If I may add also that a lot of stuff is also "original" - tunes that are being made up (composed spontaneously). They rise up any time: during practice, in a jam session and in the depth of depression. So what is it you're actually wanting us to count? Even set folk song tunes have changed over time as is the case with "Auld Lang Syne" if we are to believe Ed Reeder (is that how you spell her name?) and I do. What I am suggesting by this comment is that even countable (recognisable, established) tunes are themselves a distillation of a creative, ever changing continuum and what may be "countable" today may not be so tomorrow? So, what is the value of counting?

In the context of melodic folk traditions, musical aptitude and capacity would be better assessed by reckoning the variety of movements (for instance in ITM: slow air, jig, reel etc) one can perform in each of the predominant modes of a tradition (ie ITM _ Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian etc).

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:54 am

When I first started playing, I kept track of every tune I'd learned...that made it easy to go back and refresh tunes that I had forgotten I'd known. Otherwise, when I practice, I play the dozen or so tunes I'm hot for at the moment, and let some languish. I still do that, but I try to occasionally go back and refresh tunes I haven't played in a while.

After playing 5 or 6 years, I went back and purged a lot of tunes from my list...they were tunes I'd learned from tutorials that never got much play in sessions, and probably never would. Morris tunes, english tunes, that kind of thing. I could probably play them in a half-ass way if someone brought them up, but really, I prefer to keep them off the list

All told, I've learned probably 220 tunes since 1995 ...about a tune every 2-3 weeks or so. My learning slowed down quite a bit once my son was born. I probably went six months without learning a tune when he was new! but it just starting to pick up again. And I'm just now getting to the point where I've heard a few session tunes so many times that I can play them at session when someone starts them, kind of spontaneously. But I've never "learned" them in the "sit down at home with a recording or sheet music and learn them" so they're not on the list yet. Though one may argue that I've learned them in the way that counts the most.

Honestly, though, I'm a nerd and like to keep track of things. I wouldn't expect most people to know exactly how many tunes they've learned, except in the general sense. Unless they're still new and don't have many, or are as obsessive about lists as I am

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:59 am

Wanderer wrote: Honestly, though, I'm a nerd and like to keep track of things. I wouldn't expect most people to know exactly how many tunes they've learned, except in the general sense. Unless they're still new and don't have many, or are as obsessive about lists as I am

I used to do that, in more organised days. I had a little tabbed alphabetical note book, I gave up 20 years ago when tunes ran over 600 and new ones would be learned without getting them in the book and old ones would disappear. As I said above, there comes a point where it doesn't matter anymore.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:34 am

Peter Laban wrote:
Wanderer wrote: Honestly, though, I'm a nerd and like to keep track of things. I wouldn't expect most people to know exactly how many tunes they've learned, except in the general sense. Unless they're still new and don't have many, or are as obsessive about lists as I am
I used to do that, in more organised days. I had a little tabbed alphabetical note book, I gave up 20 years ago when tunes ran over 600 and new ones would be learned without getting them in the book and old ones would disappear. As I said above, there comes a point where it doesn't matter anymore.

I believe you there. My own list has gotten a lot less important to me in the last couple of years. I used to add a tune as soon as I could barely get out the base melody. By contrast, I sat down a couple of months ago and had to add a bunch of tunes I'd picked up but never added to it. I imagine that eventually, I'll give it up myself. Probably not for a while, though

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:39 am

Before I started going to a local session, I knew about 65. I'm way over that now but I haven't counted.

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:48 am

Is it experiance or is it age. I've been playing for a couple of years and have learned 35-40 tunes and dozen songs or so. I'm already losing track. And as Peter says, tunes that I've left for a few months tend to fade quickly.

I am still curious why some tunes are a constant struggle while others are playable in a matter of minutes. I don't think it's the actual difficulty of the tune. Right now we're playing Hag with the Money (just won't register in my brain) and Wee Johnny (knew it, felt it, could hum it in maybe 10 minutes).

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:25 am

Hmm ... define the term "know"...

I "know" *of* a bundle... and can hum along and even anticipate the next phrase on many, if not able to whistle the tune outright ... as long as I don't have a penny whistle in my mouth... put that six-holed (or seven if you are lucky enough to own a D+) tubular item up to my lips and it's like a thick brick wall has come between me and what I otherwise "know".

I "know" about 50 that I *can* play, but only about 30 I can play reasonably well... and I'm very hard pressed to come up with those without a list at my side... so "know" is a bit of an ambiguous term there too.

I "know" I've still got a lot to learn.

---
edited to add: I'm just talking whistle tunes here, not the ones I "know" on guitar, banjo, vocal or bass. And I didn't count Christmas whistle tunes (got about a dozen on that list) but I'm concentrating on the whistle right now, so the others seem 'OT' (not that that has ever stopped me before

)

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:09 am

I've got about 50 tunes in my head that I can play reasonably well. I'll be long gone before I'd learn as many as Peter has played and forgotten...

Philo

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:12 am

I've been playing seven years, and I've got 25 Newfoundland tunes down pat. I'd really like to have double that number before summer, so I guess I'd better get working!

John F. · Post by **John F.** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:17 am

How many tunes do I know? Like, three....(there are some advantages to being a beginner!)

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:28 am

I don't know how many tunes I know, but I do know that I know more tunes than I can remember the names of.

But due to the combined effects of age and a misspent youth, that's really not all that many.

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:51 pm

Atleast 50 that I really know, and would start at a session. Of course there are more those and the ones I pick up again. The best answer is "a lot." Been playing about 2 1/2 years.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:56 pm

About 40, playing serious for 7-8 months now. But I can't manage to start many of them myself since I can't remember the first few notes...but when someone starts the tune, I can play along without problems.

Still have to learn many many more though...maybe that goes faster with my new Bleazey coming these days.