Thanks and please do go on at your leasure. 
Tom
Help ...I can't read music!!!!
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boomerang
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Anne,
Never, ever, EVER, underestimate the intelligence of an Aussie Chick,
Its ok if you dont get things first time,
It took me 2 years as a teenager to understand how to read music properly, now at 37 i am still learning, and i hope i never stop learning.
Martins explanation was excellant, but dont be intimidated .
Take your time, and persevere...the fun and challenge is in the TRYING....and failure to understand the first time is not a failure at all.....its just food for thought, you will soon associate what fingers are necessary to play a defgabcdefgabcd etc and if you can try to associate those fingerings with a dot on a page of music...you will win...and intelligence has nothing to do with it, its determination and perseverence
good luck
David
Never, ever, EVER, underestimate the intelligence of an Aussie Chick,
Its ok if you dont get things first time,
It took me 2 years as a teenager to understand how to read music properly, now at 37 i am still learning, and i hope i never stop learning.
Martins explanation was excellant, but dont be intimidated .
Take your time, and persevere...the fun and challenge is in the TRYING....and failure to understand the first time is not a failure at all.....its just food for thought, you will soon associate what fingers are necessary to play a defgabcdefgabcd etc and if you can try to associate those fingerings with a dot on a page of music...you will win...and intelligence has nothing to do with it, its determination and perseverence
good luck
David
Never argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level then beat you with experience!!
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StevieJ
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Milner's mistake
Great crash tutorial Martin!
I should probably license it for use on Bro. Steve's site!
Only one little comment - the grace note you discuss in Jackson's mistake is separating Gs, not Fs. Perhaps you could edit your post so as not to confuse anyone who studies it in detail.
Steve
Sorry about the heading, couldn't resist.
I should probably license it for use on Bro. Steve's site!
Only one little comment - the grace note you discuss in Jackson's mistake is separating Gs, not Fs. Perhaps you could edit your post so as not to confuse anyone who studies it in detail.
Steve
Sorry about the heading, couldn't resist.
Martin Milner wrote:
OK then, you asked for it! Another jig stolen from Brother Steve's website.
In bar 2, there's an odd little note right in the middle of the bar. That's a grace note, and they're not often shown at all but left to the discretion of the player*. This indicates a way to separate the two Fs on either side of it, by tapping down from a G, i.e. you lift the G finger (L3 assuming you play left hand on top) for a split second and then tap it back down. This takes a little practise but is one of the simple ornaments that gets Irish music rolling along. We know it's a G to tap, because the note is sitting astride a mini-stave line above the normal five bar stave. This is only put on notes above the second octave F, and they're relatively rare as they're pretty squeaky.
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Martin Milner
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Martin Milner
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Stolen from the Wild Dismay Tune Database at
http://www.blackflute.com/music/tunes.html
Here we have a reel, which I can use to illustrate some new things. I know it's a reel because it says so!
First the key signature shows three sharps, C# F# and G#, which is the key of A. Again, you don't need an A whistle, you just need to cheat on your D whistle. In this case the F and C sharps are already there built into your whistle, but to get the G# you need to half hole on the third hole down, the G hole.
There are two different Gs in the treble clef, the second line up is the lower octave G on the whistle, and the note sitting on top of the top line is the high octave G. If you follow the second line up through the whole tune, you find that no notes are sitting astride this line, so the lower octave G is never played. The higher octave G only happens twice, in bar 4 and in the second bar from the end, so you don't have to cheat much.
One rainy afternoon I went through a book of Irish trad music and counted the key signatures. D (two sharps) accounted for roughly 60% of all the tunes, G (one sharp) for another 30%, and A (three sharps) for a further 5%, so if you can recognise these three keys signatures, you can attempt 95% of the sheetmusic tunes you'll ever come across.
Next, the time signature shows 4/4. This means 4 beats per bar, each lasting a quarter of a note. Compare this to the 6/8 of a jig, and look at the notes. I'd prefer this to be shown as 8/8 in ITM, because there's often 8 1/8th length notes in a bar, but there you go. Anyway, if you count 1&2&3&4& with emphasis on the 1 & 3, you have a good idea of the rhythm. The & beats can be played slightly shorter and the numbered beats slightly longer, to get a swing into the tune, but the music doesn't show this. One of the limitations of using sheetmusic to notate traditional Irish music, so it's best to hear the tune played properly first to get the idea.
Onto the tune then, and you immediately notice letters above the stave, Bm, D and A. These are guitar chords for an accompanist, so as a whistler we can ignore them.
Notice a ~ symbol above all of the dotted notes - this indicates a roll, if you feel up to it, or you can ignore it and play the note straight to begin with and chance a roll or two when you have the tune down pat. Some tunes have this sort of suggested ornamentation, some don't. I generally prefer without, because it just clutters up the sheetmusic. Any dotted note in a reel is likely to get the roll treatment from most players.
The next new thing comes just before the repeat. There's a line and a number 1 above one bar, and the bar following the repeat has a line and a number 2. This simply means that the first time through you play the 1 bar, but the second time through you skip that and play the 2 bar instead, then go straight on to the second half of the tune.
Also in the bar just before the repeat is a note with no tail on its stick and a hole in the middle of it. This note lasts for two beats, or the 3&4& of the bar in this case. You'd probably want to cut it short anyway to 3&4(gasp) to get a fresh breath for the restart. You won't often see notes held for this long in Irish dance tunes, because the music just moves too fast to have one note hogging all that airtime, but they will appear in songs and slow airs.
In the third and seventh bars of the second part, we have three notes tied together with a number 3 underneath (it may be on top if the notes are lower on the stave). This indicates a triplet or triple, also sometimes called a run, where the three notes must be played in the space of two.
This is a common feature in reels, the apparent increased pace building excitement before the high B. The B is sitting on top of the mini-stave line, which is how we know it's a B. If you recall, the G sits on top of the top line, the A sits astride the mini-stave above the line, so the note sitting on top of the mini-stave must be a B.
That's it for the new stuff this time. Notice the grace note, a C, that separates two Bs in the first bar on the bottom line. I'd have added that myself without having the music tell me, but they've put it in anyway. The other way to separate the two Bs would be to tongue the second B, so I guess they're telling you not to tongue in this instance.
http://www.blackflute.com/music/tunes.html
Here we have a reel, which I can use to illustrate some new things. I know it's a reel because it says so!
First the key signature shows three sharps, C# F# and G#, which is the key of A. Again, you don't need an A whistle, you just need to cheat on your D whistle. In this case the F and C sharps are already there built into your whistle, but to get the G# you need to half hole on the third hole down, the G hole.
There are two different Gs in the treble clef, the second line up is the lower octave G on the whistle, and the note sitting on top of the top line is the high octave G. If you follow the second line up through the whole tune, you find that no notes are sitting astride this line, so the lower octave G is never played. The higher octave G only happens twice, in bar 4 and in the second bar from the end, so you don't have to cheat much.
One rainy afternoon I went through a book of Irish trad music and counted the key signatures. D (two sharps) accounted for roughly 60% of all the tunes, G (one sharp) for another 30%, and A (three sharps) for a further 5%, so if you can recognise these three keys signatures, you can attempt 95% of the sheetmusic tunes you'll ever come across.
Next, the time signature shows 4/4. This means 4 beats per bar, each lasting a quarter of a note. Compare this to the 6/8 of a jig, and look at the notes. I'd prefer this to be shown as 8/8 in ITM, because there's often 8 1/8th length notes in a bar, but there you go. Anyway, if you count 1&2&3&4& with emphasis on the 1 & 3, you have a good idea of the rhythm. The & beats can be played slightly shorter and the numbered beats slightly longer, to get a swing into the tune, but the music doesn't show this. One of the limitations of using sheetmusic to notate traditional Irish music, so it's best to hear the tune played properly first to get the idea.
Onto the tune then, and you immediately notice letters above the stave, Bm, D and A. These are guitar chords for an accompanist, so as a whistler we can ignore them.
Notice a ~ symbol above all of the dotted notes - this indicates a roll, if you feel up to it, or you can ignore it and play the note straight to begin with and chance a roll or two when you have the tune down pat. Some tunes have this sort of suggested ornamentation, some don't. I generally prefer without, because it just clutters up the sheetmusic. Any dotted note in a reel is likely to get the roll treatment from most players.
The next new thing comes just before the repeat. There's a line and a number 1 above one bar, and the bar following the repeat has a line and a number 2. This simply means that the first time through you play the 1 bar, but the second time through you skip that and play the 2 bar instead, then go straight on to the second half of the tune.
Also in the bar just before the repeat is a note with no tail on its stick and a hole in the middle of it. This note lasts for two beats, or the 3&4& of the bar in this case. You'd probably want to cut it short anyway to 3&4(gasp) to get a fresh breath for the restart. You won't often see notes held for this long in Irish dance tunes, because the music just moves too fast to have one note hogging all that airtime, but they will appear in songs and slow airs.
In the third and seventh bars of the second part, we have three notes tied together with a number 3 underneath (it may be on top if the notes are lower on the stave). This indicates a triplet or triple, also sometimes called a run, where the three notes must be played in the space of two.
This is a common feature in reels, the apparent increased pace building excitement before the high B. The B is sitting on top of the mini-stave line, which is how we know it's a B. If you recall, the G sits on top of the top line, the A sits astride the mini-stave above the line, so the note sitting on top of the mini-stave must be a B.
That's it for the new stuff this time. Notice the grace note, a C, that separates two Bs in the first bar on the bottom line. I'd have added that myself without having the music tell me, but they've put it in anyway. The other way to separate the two Bs would be to tongue the second B, so I guess they're telling you not to tongue in this instance.
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Martin Milner
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Hi Tom,TomB wrote:Martin: Again thanks.
For some reason though, I can't get the link to the tune to work, but it's probably something on my end.
All the Best, Tom
The link at the top of post is just to the database of on-line tunes where I stole this example from; it doesn't actually play the tune, which may be what you thought it was supposed to be doing. There is a midi of the tune on that database that you can download, but of course it's more like listening to an ice cream van than anything.
The sheetmusic should just appear in my post as before - that's why I used this database, because a link doesn't work to JC's to actually show the tune in my post.
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TomB
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Martin: I get what you are saying now. My confusion stems from the fact that for some reason, my computer just won't load this page up properly, and the sheetmusic won't display- anybody else having that problem? I guess my computer is just not working right or something. Oh well, hopefully it will clear up at some future point.Martin Milner wrote:Hi Tom,TomB wrote:Martin: Again thanks.
For some reason though, I can't get the link to the tune to work, but it's probably something on my end.
All the Best, Tom
The link at the top of post is just to the database of on-line tunes where I stole this example from; it doesn't actually play the tune, which may be what you thought it was supposed to be doing. There is a midi of the tune on that database that you can download, but of course it's more like listening to an ice cream van than anything.
The sheetmusic should just appear in my post as before - that's why I used this database, because a link doesn't work to JC's to actually show the tune in my post.
Thanks again for doing this stuff.
All the Best, Tom
"Consult the Book of Armaments"
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glauber
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Hmmmm.... Ice Cream....Martin Milner wrote: There is a midi of the tune on that database that you can download, but of course it's more like listening to an ice cream van than anything.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!
--Wellsprings--
--Wellsprings--
just for the latest entry, I get the first two fine. Any ideas/suggestions?-
Nanohedron
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Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
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Martin Milner
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Hi Tom,
how wierd, however no big shakes. Here's plan B.
Go to the link I gave at the top of the post, and pick Sweeney's Buttermilk from the list of Reels you will find there. That's the tune I chose for this example. You can view that online or print it off.
If you ever get this, right click on the red cross box and in the properties box it'll show you where the link is supposed to go. Paste that into the address line on your browser and it should take you to the right place.
I'll probably pick another tune from this database to illustrate the one or two things you still might come across, so I'll give a normal link to the site as well.
how wierd, however no big shakes. Here's plan B.
Go to the link I gave at the top of the post, and pick Sweeney's Buttermilk from the list of Reels you will find there. That's the tune I chose for this example. You can view that online or print it off.
If you ever get this, right click on the red cross box and in the properties box it'll show you where the link is supposed to go. Paste that into the address line on your browser and it should take you to the right place.
I'll probably pick another tune from this database to illustrate the one or two things you still might come across, so I'll give a normal link to the site as well.
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that schwing
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TomB
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Hello again, Martin: Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately, the really weird thing is that I cannot access the Blackflute site, for some reason. I don't have a firewall or anything "odd" like that, and I have no problem accessing any other sites that I try, so no idea why I'm having this difficutly 
I'm unhappy about this, but at this point, I guess I just can't get the sheetmusic
All the Best, Tom
I'm unhappy about this, but at this point, I guess I just can't get the sheetmusic
All the Best, Tom
"Consult the Book of Armaments"
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lixnaw
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help...i can't read music!!!!
i can't read music either, if i feel the need, i go to http://www.sharewaredirect.co.uk/ .this programe is free and it plays midi's. you can find plenty midi's at http://supersearch.mudcat.org/@NewSSResults.cfm