Memory aids?

[Bloomfield]

EVERYBODY I've ever spoken to says that at some point it clicks and then it's so easy. But until then they all struggled in whatever ways to get to that point.

I think the point is that it's about that struggle and hard work of picking out tunes by ear. I remember listening to tunes a 1,000 times and slowing them down and still not getting the twiddle transition bits and mixing it all up the minute I try on my own. There is something that the process teaches you that people tell me can't be learned another way (I am still learning it myself). I guess you have to strain a bit to develop your ear for the music.

I can understand about wanting to play in sessions right away and about learning the tunes from the sheet music. I did the same thing, I guess (but I cringe thinking back).

[sbfluter]

But when you are playing the tune, what do you think about to stay on track? Do you keep a running count of where you are? Do you play an ornament or some kind of variation only in one place to remind yourself? Or do you do something I hadn't thought of. That's what I'm asking about.

I know there is one tune where I just slam my finger down to remind myself the A part has to have this finger, the B part has the finger that wants to come down without a prompt. But this only has marginal success because it's more like giving myself a spanking rather than doing something useful.

[jim stone]

Spankings are fun!

I can hear the tune in my head.
I learn by playing the tune on an audio
one line at a time. I repeat that line.
Then I play that line on the flute.
After a gazillion times I have it.
Then I play the second line on the
audio. I repeat it. Then I play
it on the flute....and so on.

The next day I've forgotten the tune.
So I do it again. etc.

'She will leave you and then,
Come back again...
A pretty girl is just like a pretty tune.'

Obviously it helps to listen to the tune
a whole lot when you are washing the
dishes, etc.

[Bloomfield]

But when you are playing the tune, what do you think about to stay on track? Do you keep a running count of where you are? Do you play an ornament or some kind of variation only in one place to remind yourself? Or do you do something I hadn't thought of. That's what I'm asking about.

I know there is one tune where I just slam my finger down to remind myself the A part has to have this finger, the B part has the finger that wants to come down without a prompt. But this only has marginal success because it's more like giving myself a spanking rather than doing something useful.

Where tunes are easily confused like George White's Favorite/Humours of Lissadell or the B parts of the Legacy and Saddle the Pony, etc etc, I pay attention to the characteristic note at which the tunes diverge. Otherwise I just hear the tune in my head as play. Some tunes I only seem to be able to play by not thinking at all while I'm playing. When I've learned a tune by ear usually I just know how it goes and what to do without knowing how I know it. It's neat but a bit startling at first.

[crookedtune]

Here's something we should all remind ourselves of:

We live in a modern world where there are thousands of tunes available to us on recordings and in books. Going to a session these days can be a pretty intimidating experience. But the traditional artists we revere often came from insulated environments where a very limited number of tunes evolved over a period of very many years. They got played a lot! Consequently the players grew up with those tunes, and the tunes became a part of them. (Much like you'll never forget the TV ads and jingles you probably grew up with, as much as you'd like to.)

To really play a tune requires living with it for awhile. What we do is short-cutting, to put it mildly. Let's give ourselves the occasional break! Diane, don't sweat it. You're doing great, so concentrate on enjoying the ride!

[srt19170]

I challenge everyone to play "Off to California," "The Faerie's Hornpipe," and "Garret Barry's" in succession. That will test whether you have the tunes straight in your head!

I have this same problem to some extent. I've noticed in my case that my confusion is often between two tunes I learned at the same time (or were playing heavily in the same period). To combat that, I try to learn one tune at a time and practice a variety of other tunes during the learning period. I also don't try to learn two tunes in a row that are very similar musically, e.g. with same sort of pedal figures, etc.

A practice method you can borrow from Suzuki is to play the A-B transition (say, 4 bars) 3 or 4 times in isolation every time you practice the tune. Hopefully this will burn that little part into your fingers and carry you into the correct B part.

That said, in my session people are constantly playing the wrong parts, particularly in tunes like the hornpipes where 4 bars are the same in both parts and it is easy to lose track. It isn't that horrible, as long as you notice the problem and drop out until you've got the right tune.

[Aanvil]

Heh... I've done nothing today but break down a few tunes and learn them.

Ok, I've done all the cooking and fed my wife while she works on homework... a few loads of laundry... the dishes... cleaned the cat box... but other than that just flute playing, tracking down recordings and listening.




I'm very new to ITM. Just over two years now but I practice everyday without fail unless I'm sick. I keep a flute and whistle with me always.

You are most likely struggling to play the instrument itself and learn the music at the same time.

This makes your task exponentially more difficult.

It will take some time. Don't rush it and do not dispair. It will come. Enjoy yourself.

I do use sheet music often but only as a very basic guide. I can read and write it so its a useful tool.

The brain connected to the ear connected to the fingers is a better one though.

The brain/ear/finger is muscle. It needs training.

I find I better retain it if I breakdown the tune by ear and write out the notation myself in ABC the use a converter for staff notation. Makes a keen PDF and midi too.

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

Everyone has different settings for same tune. Its unlikely you'll find the exact notation for what you are hearing in session online or in a book.

I record the sessions I attend and try to ask the names of the tunes that catch my fancy when ever possible and speak the name into the recorder.

If I have a name I can remember it better and I have it recorded so can listen to it over and over.

It seems we all get the "wrong off ramp" condition at some point. It happens much less now. Why?

Because I have started to internalize many of them not just memorize them.

You hear a few notes and boom... your fingers are off on their own.

That only comes from playing them over and over and over. Then trying different variations over and over and over.

You asked about what you think about to keep on track.

I try not to think. I take a Zen approach. Literally.

Thinking about what I'm playing will screw me up faster than anything.

It takes too long to think and it stops the flow.

By the time you do the moment has passed.

Listening to what I am playing... now that is important.

Once you've got a tune on automatic then you can pay attention to yourself and perhaps more importantly... everyone else.

Keep it up... you'll get there.

[MTGuru]

But when you are playing the tune, what do you think about to stay on track?

I think about ... the rest of the tune. Really. No kidding.

It's a bit like language. When you're in the middle of speaking a sentence, do you need to make special noises to remind you where you are? Of course not. Because you've internalized the grammar - the structure - of your language. You know where the sentence is going, because you understand how your language works. Should you say a verb next, or a noun? You don't need to think about it consciously, it happens so fast.

I think this is what the posters were trying to say about structure. Once you understand the phrasal structure of a tune, and the "tune grammar" that underlies the tunes in general, the way that the phrases follow each other simply makes musical sense.

If you're not yet at the point where the phrase structures are obvious to you, then you're simply not hearing the tunes that way that a "native speaker of Irish trad" (or good second-speaker) hears them. Until you do, the secondary problems you're describing are likely to persist. And the more you rely on the false security blanket of the written dots, the longer you'll delay your progress in learning to really listen and absorb the grammar in a way that you don't even yet realize is possible, even natural. That's all.

[awildman]

I used to have the same problem. My solution was to stop trying to force things. I relax, and listen to the feel of the tune. Not the notes. I need to feel the emotion, the phrasing, what the tune is really like. As others have said, it's all about the phrasing and the feel of the music. To expand on mtguru's language analogy, I like this to reading. When I read, I don't see individual letters. I see words. In fact, I often see whole phrases or sentences when I read. Only occasionally do i have to look at individual letters. Most folks read like that after they've been at it a while. Same thing with music. Except ears instead of eyeballs.

One other thing I did was to stop playing alongside recordings to learn. Listening at the same time as I played was like using a crutch. I now either listen or play, not both. This has forced me to improve my listening and retention skills.

All that being said, not everybody is going to find this easy. Some folks will have a harder time than others. And some tunes are just harder to remember than others. A month ago my fiddle teacher gave me some slides to learn. Three of them. I've never been given more than two tunes to learn, and mostly one. I've always struggled to learn one tune, and found two of them almost impossible. The three slides were learned in two days flat, and I spent the nest two weeks working solely on technique. This week I've been given two slip jigs, An Phis Fliuch and something else, and I've struggled again. I've been working on the first for a week, and just now have it down good. I haven't even touched the second tune and I'm afraid I won't get it down before my lesson.

[Cayden]

But the traditional artists we revere often came from insulated environments where a very limited number of tunes evolved over a period of very many years. They got played a lot!

It's a nice consolation thinking that but unfortunately the old guys usually had thousands of tunes they could fall into effortlessly.

[sbfluter]

It's funny but I took the time to learn a tune a fellow session member wrote himself and there are some parts in there that are very similar to another very common session tune. Now when I try to play the common tune I will often end up in the B part of his tune.

I know this is a common problem because at the last session, even though nobody else played along with the home-grown tune (they all say they don't know it but we play it every week), they all launched into the other common one right afterwards.

[jim stone]

finally your body learns to play the tune.

I play a good deal with a metronome set low,
the tune repeated very slowly. That certainly
helps learn the tune and develop speed.
I find I can do this watching TV or whatever,
doesn't seem to matter.

[skh]

sbfluter:

can you sing / hum / lilt the tunes before you play them? Do you have the same problem then?

peace,
Sonja

[sbfluter]

Sometimes I can sing or hum them, but sadly my voice lacks the range so I can't do it out loud.

I find that playing the instrument gets in the way of my memory much of the time because just getting my fingers to do what I want is a struggle in itself. Much of the time it's my fingers taking the wrong offramp, not the music in my head, but once my fingers have played it I've heard it with my ears and now I'm all mixed up.

[FLUTEinVT]

sbfluter:

I think that there are vast differences between how individuals process and remember information and learn - this applies regardless of whether its music or math or history. You obviously have the ITM bug, and you can only benefit by continuing to chip away at it, regardless of how difficult or easy it comes to you. The wonderful thing about the brain is that it can be trained to do and learn new things, and subtly change and adapt itself to the task at hand in the process of learning, even when parts of the learning process prove difficult.

I think in general, different learning tools will either work or not work for any given individual, dependent on how a given individual uses his/her brain to learn new things. The bottom line is do what works for you, and take a long-term view of the process of learning ITM.

I've been plugging away at ITM for 5 years, and am often more frustrated than not by my lack of proficiency, despite a background of over 20 years of music playing (mostly guitar and bass guitar). But most importantly, the process of learning ITM and flute playing (depsite my lack of refinement and skill) has re-invigorated my interest in and passion for music and has kept me from becoming musically stale (musical tastes change as youthful hormones subside in early middle age). In the end, maybe the most important issue and gift is finding a passion and being able to engage and follow it, rather than how skillfully you can play.

Paul