Hints for the solo player

[BmacD]

For whatever reason, some of us can't or don't wanna play in a group .While messing with some of the midi sites I found that I could play along with the midi and quite a few , though not all, were in tune with my flute. It didn't take long to see why one would advance their skills faster if a group was available. It also gave me a better concept of "musicality" , my playing has an unhappy tendency to sound lifeless to me and this is helping to add more feeling to my playing.So if you are bashful or living where none of the local bands have ever seen a wind instrument there is a world of music at Barry Taylor's Tunebook or Mudcat Cafe midi's.
If you have trouble learning by ear a program called Midinotate will convert midi files to notation. The program can be downloaded as a demo for one month, after which it costs about $35.00 from the company that produces it. I spent considerable time downloading midi files to disk then used the demo version to print out the music notation.If you save the midi files to disk using the Midinotate program, when your month is up the midi you saved will not play. I have saved the midi files I want to learn using another midi player .Now when Midinotate expires I will still be able to play the disks I recorded the midi on and play along with them.If I need to see the music notation to better understand the piece I can open the midi file using Midinotate and look at on screen or print it out.
Hope this helps those who have to play " solo".
Bruce

[Eldarion]

For whatever reason, some of us can't or don't wanna play in a group .While messing with some of the midi sites I found that I could play along with the midi and quite a few , though not all, were in tune with my flute. It didn't take long to see why one would advance their skills faster if a group was available. It also gave me a better concept of "musicality" , my playing has an unhappy tendency to sound lifeless to me and this is helping to add more feeling to my playing.So if you are bashful or living where none of the local bands have ever seen a wind instrument there is a world of music at Barry Taylor's Tunebook or Mudcat Cafe midi's.
If you have trouble learning by ear a program called Midinotate will convert midi files to notation. The program can be downloaded as a demo for one month, after which it costs about $35.00 from the company that produces it. I spent considerable time downloading midi files to disk then used the demo version to print out the music notation.If you save the midi files to disk using the Midinotate program, when your month is up the midi you saved will not play. I have saved the midi files I want to learn using another midi player .Now when Midinotate expires I will still be able to play the disks I recorded the midi on and play along with them.If I need to see the music notation to better understand the piece I can open the midi file using Midinotate and look at on screen or print it out.
Hope this helps those who have to play " solo".
Bruce

Bruce, that may have been posted with good intentions but in all honesty you are doing a diservice by dispensing some very bad advice. I am one of those who, due to geographical reasons are limited to playing the music largely by themselves and I would definitely avoid midi files like the plague when it comes to learning or playing the music with. Devoid of expression, subtlety, or musicality. Its certainly not what you want to aspire to - I hope. If you cannot get yourself in a position where you can listen to good musicians live or have a musical mentor, buy yourself some decent CDs, listen and learn your tunes from there (assuming you are speaking of Irish music). Or if you're looking for freely available mp3s you'll get plenty here: http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=16618

If you have trouble learning by ear the solution is definitely not getting some midi notating software. Go download a free slowdowner software, then learn to play by ear. There's no other way around it buddy, you're missing out big time by not learning by ear. Learning through midi and printed notation will only help you sound more lifeless. Its also a fallacy that playing in a group necessarily advances your skills faster - depends on who you're playing with for one thing.

[Azalin]

Hey Eld, good to see you're alive! The good thing about what Bruce is doing is that one day he might get hired to play in an elevator: midi files make good elevator music!

[Cathy Wilde]

Hey, neighbor! (i.e., Greetings from a little white farmhouse in KY!)

As one who spent well over the first half of her flute playing experience in your situation (and we're still lucky to get one session a month around here), I just had to write and second the caution on midi files. If you're worried about lack of life in your playing .... don't expect those to provide CPR, alas. I do agree they're useful for learning the basic framework of a tune (and I'll argue with Eldarion here about the usefulness of "dots", i.e. sheet music, for that purpose, too) -- indeed, for learning the basic tune I've found both sound files and sheet music helpful and expeditious tools. However, there comes the point where you do have to develop the ear and the "lift." For this I recommend lots of listening .... then, if you hear a tune you like, get the Amazing Slow Downer (www.ronimusic.com, I think) and sure, get the dots and read along (don't be surprised if they're different from the recorded version, tho'! ) .... but listen to the tune over and over again to hear the life in it, because that, more important than anything else, is what you want to capture, and it's definitely best to get that at the beginning, even before ornaments.

Also, you might want to check out madfortrad.com or scoiltrad.com (if they're still around?) and get yourself a tutorial. It's a pretty great day when we can get flute lessons from Seamus Egan or Conal O'Grada!

Anyway, I hope I haven't stepped on your toes or anything; I just had to write because I think I have a pretty good appreciation of your situation. And don't be discouraged. Keep listening and plugging away; you'll have a breakthrough soon!

All the best,

Cathy Wilde.

P.S. And lest anyone think otherwise, IMO playing solo and playing in a group are two TOTALLY different things...each is a learning experience in itself, and I think both are vital for becoming a well-rounded player.

[GaryKelly]

Or indeed something like this:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=23756

where you can eventually replace the flute-player in the 'virtual' band.

[BmacD]

Eldarion and Cathy make some very good points. Midi files are not a good thing to emulate.But they are a very quick way to access a lot different material.
Eldarion's point about playing by ear is well made , however , not everyone is equally gifted in the auditory department. My brain is wired so that my eyes are connected to my
fingers but my ears rate only as a sidetrack.It's plain that people with Eldarion's gift for music have a closer connection between their ears and fingers than those of us with lesser gifts.I can memorize faster from sheet music than by ear . Working out a melody by ear then doing the memorization for me is a waste of time that I would rather spend on getting the "interpratation" down on.If you are musically talented this method probably isn't for you. At my age {pushin' 60 }I have a very long list of things to do while learning a lot of new things.
The biggest advantage of the midi files is that there are so many of them. When there is a lot of anything there is usually a reason. It would seem that alot of people find them useful.There are a lot of beautiful melodies on file there that you could go a long time and not hear in a session or on cd. If one looks long enough I'm sure you will find Flower of Scotland somewhere but I 've never seen MO Shiul Ad' Dheidh or John Cope anywhere, but I've only been interested in Celtic music for four years.Also , I've not given up my interest in classical music and no one with a background even as casual as mine would advocate midi as the definition of how classical music should be played.But it is still a good 'casual " source of ideas.None of the few musicians I know can read music and they can play for hours without a repeat and they all learned on the front porch at home. I didn't have that advantage, darn it,
but there are other ways for those of us with less talent to have a good time making music.
Cathy-- Your suggestion about the Amazing Slow Downer is a very good idea and will go on my short list of " to do's " . Getting involved at Scioltrad would undoubtably be a step forward but I'm currently needing 27 hr. days to get done the other " courses of study " that hold my attention. More hobbies than good sense.
About learnig from cd's-- Of course, a really good idea . But at $10.00 to $19.00 a pop around here that would limit one to only what finances allow.I already own the computer, the midi files are free.I might note the referance to midi FILES . Does anyone ever call them music? Sort of some kind of truth in advertising simile I guess.
Midi's are only one tool in the bag. For those with real musical talent probably not needed. Though I think Eldarion could learn new unheard before tunes there and I am certain that when he played them they would be as musical as if he'd learned them in session.
Eldarion-- thank you for your taking time to reply and making the points you did. I didn't make clear originally that there are problems inherent in the approach I advocated. There is more than one road to travel on this musical journey. I have enjoyed hearing your opinions even when I can't travel your path.We all have our own gifts and happily they are not all the same.
Best to all
Bruce

[Cathy Wilde]

Bruce --

Like you, I'm one of the "notes-wired," which is why I refuse to pooh-pooh them ... I think anything that gets the tune into your head is a good start. And if you could see the stacks of tunes I've downloaded via JC's Tunefinder or irishtunes.net or thesession.org ... anyway, after spending years working on my sightreading skills I ain't letting go of them that easily. But I am pleased to report that after more time spent playing this stuff I'm also able to pick things up by ear better. If nothing else, a whole lot of similar patterns start emerging ... but even when I can't play I try to listen; again, they're CDs I've been accumulating over the years, but every time I return to one after a while I hear new things depending on where I am with my playing. Anyway, haave fun!

I guess my main point is that musicality takes work too, and the more musical you can make your repertoire of even 10 tunes, the better off you are. I've heard lots of players reeling off sets and sets and sets, but with so little style or flow or life I can't tell one tune from another -- and I'm coming to the conclusion that it isn't just my ear, because when I hear, say, Frankie Gavin or someone with a lot of life in his playing, well, the tunes just stick. Anyway, while I'm always trying to learn more , I'm finally grokking the importance of playing the ones you do know WELL -- with style, substance, and the kind of life that makes people want to listen, and even tap their feet. Anyway, good luck to you, and there's a good flute player in Nashville if you ever find yourself over that way .... let me know, and I can try to track him down for you.



good luck!

cat.

[djm]

Sorry to disagree. Learning by ear is a skill, not a gift. Like anything else, it is learned by practise. The more you practise playing from dots or midi, the further you get from learning to play ITM correctly. No-one is notating this stuff the way it is meant to be played, so listening to top players, and especially older players, is really the only way to learn to play it correctly.

djm

[peeplj]

If the BBC Virtual Session is still around, it's great fun and IMO a much better way to learn some session tunes.

You have the dots in front of you which can really help a beginner, and the tunes are played at a little more moderate speed than they often are at a live session.

It's at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/

I do think that even those who don't learn tunes by the dots should check the dots and make sure they get the notes right. I've run across a few learn-by-ear-only players who sound a bit like psychotic songbirds. It's good to check that you really do know the tune as well as you think you do as a courtesy to the other players.

--James

[Cathy Wilde]

Amen to that! Psychotic songbirds are hard to keep up with in a session, even worse than the limp and lifeless mechanically-measured., or the overornamented tune rapists. But seriously. If I hear a tune I like I don't see anything wrong with finding the dots and getting the basics; then listening and listening and listening to others play it for variations, style, nuances, etc. Used properly, the dots are just an effective aid, like a stile over a fence. And in every workshop I've attended (even Mary Bergin's!) there's been some sort of notation whether it's ABC on a chalkboard or sheet music handouts -- but either way, I think it's a good way to at least get thru the bones of a tune in reasonable order. But no, dots aren't the end-all & be-all by any means. Like you said, djm, no one's (except maybe Grey Larson's) transcription efforts ever capture the idiosyncracies.

And hey, you're not supposed to play them as written anyway!

[Azalin]

James, there is no true version of a tune. In the many different sessions I've heard, in many different areas, the same tune might have come up 5-6 different ways. Sometimes, different counties will play the same tune a different way. Good players will usually adapt their version to the person who started the tune/set.

It's not because you've heard some well known player play a version of a tune that this version becomes the official one, that would be a disrepect for the person who wrote the tune or other very good musicians who've added their own spice to it.

Now, that being said, I think we need to respect the basic structure of the tune, I agree that psychotic songbirds is a good way of describing certain versions of tunes

[Eldarion]

Hmm Bruce I disagree there. I don't think I'm particularly gifted or anything, its just a matter of putting effort in the right directions. Now learning by ear, as djm has said, is a skill and can be learnt. You just have to be determined to do it and drop all that midi-files and sheet music crap. Play a phrase of the recording, then try to emulate the notes. Then repeat the phrase to see if you got it right, then go on to the next phrase if you get it right. Keep on doing this until you get the whole tune. Do it even if it takes you a week. The next time you do, it'll probably take you half a week. Keep doing it until eventually you'd be able to pick up most of the tune when its played 3 times through on a recording. Use a slow downer programme if you have to, at the beginning.

The advantages of learning by ear are many, for one thing the tune stays in your head better. You play it more like its supposed to be played, and most importantly by training your ear you start to able to pick up more and more nuances in a good musician's playing. When you have refined the listening skills of your ear, each time you listen to the music becomes a lesson in music by itself. You learn more and more by listening with a well trained ear. To those who have not experienced this it is of course unfathomable what the extent of the benefits are. If you try it people might eventually start to think that you're talented too.

Now people get this knee jerk reaction whenever someone says learn by ear and not sheet music. I'm not saying that sheet music is BAD per se, its just that people are using it in ways that hinder their progress. It is useful when for example, showing bow directions for bowing patterns to a beginning fiddler. Well transcribed sheet music can also be used as a tool for musical analysis - you're basically borrowing someone else's ear while yours is in development.

It is mentioned that CDs limit one to only what finances allow, and thats a fair point. However there are other online sources of good recorded music that are free, as I have posted above. That along with the stuff you get off net radio archived programmes like Ceili House or the Late Session, you actually have access to tons of well recorded tunes due to the internet. Definitely a much better alternative to all that midi stuff.

At the end of the day, playing the music isn't about memorising notes faster. I frankly see no use in learning all the notes to a bezillion tunes if what comes out sounds lifeless. It takes time and listening. One cannot expect a beginner to learn a tune off sheet music or midi files in a stilted manner and add "lift" or "expression" later like you would add some salt and pepper to a stew. It has to come together and be integral within the playing. If I learnt a tune from a midi file and play it "like I learnt it from a session" its only because time has been spent getting familiar with the idom of the music by listening to it lots played properly in the first place. And even so it wouldn't be the same thing at all.

Hey Az I read your post on the whistleboard. You lucky basmati!!