I really CAN do this! A breakthrough!!!

[andreaz54]

I am so excited this week that I just had to share this. It is like entering a new world! I'll explain.......

After taking Wendy Morrison's class it became abundantly clear to me that I really needed to start learning to play by ear. Nothing like the humiliation of not being able to follow along with everyone else in the class cuz you don't have sheet music in front of you. And this after TEN months of playing. ERRRRRRRRR..........

So...for the last 10 days I have really worked to make myself HEAR the song. I stuck to tunes I have been playing all along, but made myself hear them IN MY HEAD and then try to play them!! What a revelation!! They were there all along! I found my fingers just moving on to the next note without thinking anything like.."now play a D,now play an E".......I was just really listening! And when I did hit a sour note, I just kept trying until I hit the right one! I am up to SIX tunes now! I'm not ready to listen and play along with CDs yet and I still need the sheet music to learn a new tune...BUT...I now have the confidence I was lacking before....I really CAN remember a tune and play it from memory! I feel like I have reached a new level in my playing...........ITS FUN!!!!

Just wanted to share!

[Nanohedron]

Fabulous! This is so important. It's good to be able to read, but learning by ear is paramount in trad.

[Jack]

Congratulations, Andrea. :):)

[blackhawk]

Very cool, Andrea! What an epiphany, huh? It opens up whole new worlds to you. Keep up the good work.

[McHaffie]

Allright! Good job! I'm glad to hear you've broken a barrier like that. And just think of this... you have the ADVANTAGE of reading the sheet music to learn a new tune and THEN learning it by ear and memory.... wish I could do that! Someday I will breakdown and learn to read sheetmusic, but for now I'm still 'audio only'


Now we'll just have to get you down here to Springfield, MO for the local hoolie sometime! You'd fit right in!

Take care and keep playing!

[Martin Milner]

Excellent Andrea! That's a great leap forward.

Now a idea, with the six tunes you have - are they reels, jigs, slow airs, etc. or a mixture of different types?

If you have, say, three jigs, can you play them one after the other, to make a set, so the transition between the tunes is smooth?

By stringing tunes together into sets, I can remember more tunes, because the set is really just one big tune.

e.g. One of my favourite sets of Polkas is called "Mimi and the New Generation Polkas". It's really three polkas, but because I learnt them as a set, I only really think of it as one tune.

I then tack on another set I learnt in class under the title "The Altan Polkas" because the teacher didn't know the names of the individual tunes, but they were played on an altan album. So now I have a six polka set I can play just by remembering the first few notes of the first tune!

[StewySmoot]

Great to hear, Andrea!!

Thanks for sharing!


Chris

[Kar]

I learned music simply by sitting down with a beginning music book and working it out on the re****er (hadn't discovered whistles yet), so I have never been able to even begin to play by ear. I just took a workshop this last weekend about learning tunes by ear, after realizing how essential that skill would be if I ever wanted to play with others--which I DO!

So, I sat down and sweated out Happy Birthday and about half of Somewhere Over the Rainbow (I figure, start with the THE most simple tunes possible and then go from there). Anyway, it was SUPER EXCITING! And even though the process is painfully slow, I am relieved to know that yes, I can do it!

[chas]

I know it's been mentioned a thousand times before on the forum, including quite a few times by me, but there are always new people:

If you have trouble learning by ear, get some slowdown software. I use a program called Transcribe, which is available for PC and Mac (about $35 shareware); there's also one called Slowdowner or something like that, only available for PC.

I have always played by ear, but often miss a few notes here and there in fast pieces. Slowing them down, I can pick up every note. It's even more useful for those for whom ear-playing is difficult. Plus it allows one to hear how the pros ornament their playing.

[brianormond]

-Congrats!
-Both note reading and ear-learning help. I can't play the most vague approximation of a tune by ear sometimes, and resort to The Whistle Shop's tutorial note/fingering diagram:
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/beginners/tutor/tutor.htm. -Printed out, trimmed and laminated for durability, its a good learning aid. The first uncertain phrases can be hashed out using Thom Larsen's chart, and the rest usually falls into place by ear.

- To an ear learner, note reading opens up additional possibilities, likewise
ear learning to a note reader. Ideally, we could all play a tune by ear right after hearing it.

Best Regards,

[Bloomfield]

I am so excited this week that I just had to share this. It is like entering a new world! I'll explain.......

I stuck to tunes I have been playing all along, but made myself hear them IN MY HEAD and then try to play them!! What a revelation!! They were there all along! ...

I just love the way you describe it. Good going!

I'm not ready to listen and play along with CDs yet and I still need the sheet music to learn a new tune...BUT...I now have the confidence I was lacking before....

You'll learn your first tune without sheet music soon. That's fun, too, even though it feels like walking without crutches for the first time in years. And you'll show Martin Milner, ha!

[artguy]

So...for the last 10 days I have really worked to make myself HEAR the song. I stuck to tunes I have been playing all along, but made myself hear them IN MY HEAD and then try to play them!! What a revelation!! They were there all along! I found my fingers just moving on to the next note without thinking anything like.."now play a D,now play an E".......I was just really listening! And when I did hit a sour note, I just kept trying until I hit the right one!

I sure am glad to hear your newly-found skill the way you've described it(as bloomfield pointed out, I too enjoyed how you described it). I've been thinking, "Man, I should give that whole playing-by-ear thing a try sometime." But according to what you've described, I've been pretty much known how to do it, just never realized it. eg. When I first got my whistle a few months ago and was playing around on it, my daughter came up to me and said, "Cool, Daddy! Now play "Jesus loves me." and I could play it with out much thinking and my wife said, "how'd you know how to play that?" I guess that means I can kind of play by ear, kind of rudimentarily (if that is such a word) since it was a kid's song but I guess playing by ear none the less. Am I correct?

At any rate, keep up the great listenin' and tootin', andrea!!!!

bob

[cowtime]

So...for the last 10 days I have really worked to make myself HEAR the song. I stuck to tunes I have been playing all along, but made myself hear them IN MY HEAD and then try to play them!! What a revelation!! They were there all along! I found my fingers just moving on to the next note without thinking anything like.."now play a D,now play an E".......I was just really listening! And when I did hit a sour note, I just kept trying until I hit the right one!

I sure am glad to hear your newly-found skill the way you've described it(as bloomfield pointed out, I too enjoyed how you described it). I've been thinking, "Man, I should give that whole playing-by-ear thing a try sometime." But according to what you've described, I've been pretty much known how to do it, just never realized it. eg. When I first got my whistle a few months ago and was playing around on it, my daughter came up to me and said, "Cool, Daddy! Now play "Jesus loves me." and I could play it with out much thinking and my wife said, "how'd you know how to play that?" I guess that means I can kind of play by ear, kind of rudimentarily (if that is such a word) since it was a kid's song but I guess playing by ear none the less. Am I correct?

At any rate, keep up the great listenin' and tootin', andrea!!!!

bob

You are correct sir! Ain't it grand?

[klezmusic]

Andrea, what a great step forward! I'm so happy for you - so nice to hear about the pleasure you are taking in your new-found ability. Having played by ear for as long as I can recall, I tend to take this skill for granted. It's great to see it from a fresh new perspective and imagine what it must feel like to accomplish this for the first time.

[janice]

Ain't it a great feeling? Congrats.