acquisition-practise-polish-perform

[Martin Milner]

Having the sheet music actually slows down my learning of a tune!

Thinking about how I go about adding a tune to my (small) repertoire, I can break it down into four stages:

Acquisition - whether off a CD, from a tutor, or off sheetmusic.

Practising - trying out the notes, making sure they're all there in the right order, and basically memorising them

Polishing - playing the tune innumerable times, getting the feel right, the ornaments sorted out, planning my pre-rehearsed spontaneous variations etc.

Performing - I've reached the stage where I feel I could actually try it out on someone else's ears, and be ready for constructive criticism.

I have two places I practise regularly, at home and at work. At work I sneak off to the emergency stairs during the lunch hour and polish pieces I feel I know. At home I'm more likely to tackle something new.

Today it occured to me that as long as I have the sheetmusic visible, I'll probably look at it, and I stay in the acquisition stage. Only when I can put it away and play without looking can I consider I'm actually practising.

I'm all for sheetmusic as a potential source of new tunes, and of getting all the notes sorted out, especially if I can hear them too, but I've realised (probably not for the first time) that it can become a burden very quickly, an anchor that actually stops me sailing off with the tune.

[LeeMarsh]

Martin, nice post, I like your stages.

One of the things I do with sheet music is reduce it down with a xerox or printer until a score that was 5" x 8" is down to 2" x 3". This is so small I can barely read it and have to hold it up close to see it clearly. It lets me double check a melody line but I can't sight read for such a small copy. When I'm sitting somewhere that I can't play, I can pull out one of my little worksheets and review the tune in my head to further memorize it.

When I learned previous genre's and instruments I was very much bound to the written score so this is a way to keep that from happening with Irish tunes and whistle or flute.

[BillChin]

A few thoughts: Sightreading is a skill and talent unto itself. Some people can pick up a piece of sheet music play it once or twice through, then play it in public and sound polished and professional. The pianist at my church has this talent and it is widely appreciated.

Me, I am a more of a play by ear person. If I don't hear the tune, sheet music only helps a little. For this finding MIDI files to download helps me learn a song much faster, though I am still rather slow.

Improvisation and songwriting are other talents. With original tunes, the acquisition phase is often the least amount of work. I find that on average, it takes me less time to write a song, than to learn one. (Acquisition usually takes me a long time.)
+ Bill
P. S. For the curious, some of my original tunes are posted at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/billchinmusic.htm
Be warned that the first song on the list is about a sick friend, and does not make for light entertainment.

[Wombat]

Today it occured to me that as long as I have the sheetmusic visible, I'll probably look at it, and I stay in the acquisition stage. Only when I can put it away and play without looking can I consider I'm actually practising.

I'm all for sheetmusic as a potential source of new tunes, and of getting all the notes sorted out, especially if I can hear them too, but I've realised (probably not for the first time) that it can become a burden very quickly, an anchor that actually stops me sailing off with the tune.

My method probably won't work for you because I'm actually a poor reader and tend to learn by ear more quickly. You won't be able to unlearn your reading skills. I'd do without music altogether but, it's convenient for just finding out where the notes are and so many tunes have passages that are only slightly different from others that it's easy to misremember. So, for a while after I've just got the notes down, I look at the music to remind me of which phrase is coming next. After a while I notice that I'm not actually following the music at all. Then I put it away.

Music gets me over that period that pure ear learners take listening hundreds of times until they can lilt the tune accurately. I don't need the ear training. Recently I wrote out a jazz sax solo for a friend by working it out by ear from the record at full speed and playing it on guitar to check. Working it out took me about 20 minutes; two or three times played through for each phrase. Writing it out took me twice as long. So if I ever get better at reading I might find it less useful.

[MurphyStout]

Martin (BTW I love the profanisaurus and I've been meaning to email you but life gets in the way[and I didn't spill coke it was pizza by LMAO!]), I've been sheet music and ABC free for 3 weeks now and I don't even recognize myself. I wasn't really relying on the sheet music I was just using it to cheat. But since I've kicked it, I've learned about ten tunes and they all sound amazing, while the tunes I've been playing for a year still sound like grime bubbles. Just don't use sheet music PERIOD. It's really hard getting over the totally learning by ear hump but once your there it's like butter.

[susnfx]

... planning my pre-rehearsed spontaneous variations etc..

You too?!?

And, at least for right now, when I'm preparing a tune for a lesson I also have to plan the breathing spots - sometimes they come naturally, sometimes they don't.

I'm almost entirely sheet-music-free. I use it only rarely when trying to sort out a difficult passage. I honestly don't notice that I'm learning the tunes faster, but I'm definitely learning them "by heart" - and by that I mean not just memorizing, but hearing the feel of the tune and attempting to translate that to my playing.

Susan
*** pondering "grime bubbles" ***

[Martin Milner]

I've been sheet music and ABC free for 3 weeks now and I don't even recognize myself.

Hint: Take the mask off.

... the tunes I've been playing for a year still sound like grime bubbles...

One problem is getting a good recording that I want to listen to enough repeats of to acquire the tune. Tutorial CDs seem the way to go, but they can be a dit dry.

[TonyHiggins]

I'll use anything and everything as convenient to learn a new tune (even my brain if I get desparate). The tunes I like the best, I usually hear on cd's. If I listen a lot of times, most of it will stick, but there are often small pieces of melody that just fake me out and I want them the way I heard them. Then, it's the slow speed software and a pencil and paper.

I'm not ashamed to use sheet music or abc's to get a melody line, but the written stuff usually seems less interesting than what I hear on recordings (kind of watered down). Once the thing is memorized (I don't feel I know it at all until it's solidly memorized), I don't go back to the cd source for awhile (no special reason for that) and I find when I do, the tune has shifted a bit and isn't entirely like what I originally learned from. I never return to the sheet music after I know a tune, so who know's what's evolved there.

If there's an interesting rhythmic thing built around certain ornaments/triplets that grabs me, I'll copy that part from the cd, otherwise, I put in my own ornamentation, and that changes and evolves as my skill and taste (or lack thereof) does.

Certainly, learning entirely by ear is the best way to go if it works for you. Learning from print is tedious. But, like I said, I'll use anything and everything at hand.

I would suggest that if one really focuses on a steady, discernable rhythm as the first element to nail down, a lot of the other stuff will eventually fall into place- breathing, grace notes, etc. (And the listening part is essential for ideas.)
Tony

[illuminatus99]

I tend to read from the sheet music a few times through or until I get the melody stuck in my haed, then I ditch the sheet music.

[Walden]

Martin, glad to see you got over your tateritis.

[bjs]

I started playing about 2 1/2 years ago. I used Phil Ochs book and played each tune from the sheet music until I could play without. I struggled to pick out `Happy Birthday' and eventually got it without a score but thought `listen and play' wasn't for me. Only recently I tried to play some tunes I know without benifit of a score and surprise surprise I can now do it - well more or less. I guess my fingers have learn't where to go when the next tone is in my head without any conscious thinking. So maybe I will try more of this listen and play business which so many of you rave about.

By the way - my 2 cents - the whistle is a wonderful instrument so don't knock the classical flute repertoire. Bach Bouree I, Haydn serenade, Air on a G string sound great on the whistle.

Brian

[madguy]

Man, I've hit the jackpot today! Two great threads in the same day!!!

Martin, even though I took piano lessons for 6 years (my Mother thought I could be a classical pianist, despite my short, chubby fingers ), I never got past using sheet music. When I started playing keyboards in a rock band in high school and college, the sheet music disappeared (most likely because I was so familiar with the instrument). But with the whistle, I need the sheet music untill I've played a tune a good 10 or 20 times before I feel comfortable enough to have a go without it. And even then, if I haven't played the tune in a long while, I need to have a glance at the sheet music to remember forgotten notes or passages.

~Larry