POLL: How Many Tunes Do You Have in Your Head?

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:10 pm

While reading Wanderer's response in another thread on tune lists I noted two things. First, Wanderer described exactly what I do. Second, he's had hundreds of tunes in his head. That blew my mind, because I only have about 40 that I can sit down (or stand) and just play without reading.

So, how many tunes do you have in your head? These would be tunes that you can just pick up your whistle or flute and play.

Philo

chas · Post by **chas** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:40 pm

I was talking to someone awhile back who was trying to get me to start going to sessions. He was giving me the hard sell on one in particular, saying that it was good for beginners. He said something to the effect that they have a pretty small tune list, "maybe five hundred in all, but not more than 100 in a given month." That blew my mind.

Me, I'm probably in the 50 or so range, and I suspect that fewer than half of them are session tunes.

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:50 pm

I would phrase the question "How many tunes can you start?"

Otherwise it sounds like you are asking about those tunes that you find running through your mind in the middle of the night while you are trying to fall asleep.

I think I can start about 50, although I probably know hundreds...I think I'm particularly bad at thinking of tunes compared to other people I know, though. Even the tunes I can start, I don't usually have "in my head" before I play them. They are more in the fingers for me than in the head; that is, I'll just start playing and messing around and some tunes I know suddenly come out.

Justine

Easily_Deluded_Fool · Post by **Easily_Deluded_Fool** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:14 pm

At the weekend, I was playing me whistle, and somebody asked how many tunes do you know.
So I played some tunes (once only) and gave the title.
Then time ran out, and we had to be elsewhere.
They wrote down 101 tune titles!
I was surprised to be honest.
It sounds a lot, but I'm sure it isn't compared to some people here.

Jen. · Post by **Jen.** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:15 pm

I'm afraid my only answer to that question will always be "not nearly enough!", whatever my number is.

*sigh*

--Jen.

Rocky Road · Post by **Rocky Road** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:17 pm

None so far, would love to learn Dirty Old Town :roll:

Jennie · Post by **Jennie** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:41 pm

feadogin wrote:I would phrase the question "How many tunes can you start?"

Otherwise it sounds like you are asking about those tunes that you find running through your mind in the middle of the night while you are trying to fall asleep.

And are we allowed to use our tune list? If I have my list, it's nearly a hundred (given that there are some I can't recall even with the title in front of me). But it'd be interesting to try the experiment of just sitting down and playing as many as I could come up with. Likely not more than fifty.

Jennie

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:51 pm

Over 100, but it seems like any time I'm actually sitting down at a session and it's my turn to play I'm always balking trying to think "uhhhhhhhh...... now what should I play...... oh! that's a good one! Crap, now how does it start again?....."

Of course sitting around at home I can just pick one and star playing any old time I want!

Take care,
John

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:52 pm

I think you should have put more options above 100, like more than 100, more than 200, more than 500. After that point it doesn't matter much anymore, I think.

I was at around 150 last time I counted, but I think I was counting some tunes I shouldn't be counting, since I they may come out a bit wobbly when I try to play them now. But then, there are also many that I can play along with at a session, but can't really claim to have yet.

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:02 pm

That's a good point too Bloomfield, if you go that route, there are literally hundreds of tunes I can play ALONG with and rather well at that, once it starts, but still - as far as just pulling it up from memory or 'out of my hat' so to speak and ripping it off on my own I can't really say more than 100 - 110 or so. Even then I get lost in the titles sometimes due to the multiple title problems of some tunes. I'd say 1/4 of those I have to play through a few times to get into them good too since I don't play them often enoughany more!

-John

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:06 pm

I think I've got 180ish on the "official" list...

But that list has had a lot of deletions over the years...most of the tunes I learned from the Ochs tutorial are no longer on it, morris dances aren't on it any more, all of the kids songs and christmas songs aren't on it any more. I'd imagine that there's easily 50 tunes I've learned (and could probably still play with various degrees of skill) that I no longer have on my list.

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:03 pm

I have, perhaps, 60-70 tunes I can pull out of my head and start - though John McHaffie's comments about some being rusty certainly applies.

Unlike Wanderer, I haven't finished the Ochs tutorial yet, largely because of three things:

1) I've been picking up tunes from other places (about half the tunes I know come from other books and CDs)

2) I've been spending a lot more time on each tune as I learn it - instead of 2-3 tunes a week (and being satisfied if I could play it back at all) I often spend a couple of weeks per tune trying to get it right.

3) I've been trying to retain at least some the older tunes, so I practice them - and this cuts into time for learning/practicing new pieces.

I've recently made a conscious decision to let the earlier pieces that I'm less fond of go - as soon as I can play each one well enough it sounds decent when compared to Bill's recording. And that I'll try to get each tune from the Ochs tutorial to that standard before I quit working on them.

That being said, I also agree with Wanderer that many of the earlier pieces aren't all that interesting, and probably aren't worth keeping. But even the ones I haven't practiced in months (and don't count in my "60-70") I can usually play after hearing the first few notes.

So there appear to be two different values of "know" working. It seems that most musicians have a current "working set" of tunes that's some where in the 50-150 range (I'd guess most fall at or below the middle of this range, but that might be my own limitations speaking) and a larger, possibly much larger, set of tunes learned at one time, easily resurrected, but now dormant. I don't have any idea what the average number is for the latter, but I suspect that over time this can grow to several times the size of the current working set.

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:53 pm

DCrom wrote:So there appear to be two different values of "know" working. It seems that most musicians have a current "working set" of tunes that's some where in the 50-150 range (I'd guess most fall at or below the middle of this range, but that might be my own limitations speaking) and a larger, possibly much larger, set of tunes learned at one time, easily resurrected, but now dormant. I don't have any idea what the average number is for the latter, but I suspect that over time this can grow to several times the size of the current working set.

You're way off on the numbers here, or perhaps you need another category. I'm pretty sure the working set of tunes I could start in a session is well over 200. And I know there are at least a dozen people in the Metro Detroit area who could utterly humiliate me with the number of tunes they know.

Here's a very rough breakdown for me:
20-40 -- set of tunes played regularly at home
100-300 -- other tunes I could start and play through successfully (perhaps only if you reminded me of their existence)
100-300 -- tunes I could play if someone else started them and played them through a couple of times to let me catch it again
50-200 -- tunes that are dormant in my head

Sorry for the large range of uncertainty, but without a list, it's really hard to know what the numbers are. And it's sort of complicated by the fact that lots of tunes are easy to pick up on the fly.

There are a couple of players here who could play along with 99% of the Irish tunes I could start, and start hundreds of tunes I'd be completely clueless about.

Bretton · Post by **Bretton** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:03 pm

I've got about 40 or 50. I seem to be stuck at around that number. If I learn more, older ones I haven't played for a while go away. I guess, like my PC, I need more memory.

-Brett

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:27 pm

colomon wrote:
DCrom wrote:So there appear to be two different values of "know" working. It seems that most musicians have a current "working set" of tunes that's some where in the 50-150 range (I'd guess most fall at or below the middle of this range, but that might be my own limitations speaking) and a larger, possibly much larger, set of tunes learned at one time, easily resurrected, but now dormant. I don't have any idea what the average number is for the latter, but I suspect that over time this can grow to several times the size of the current working set.
You're way off on the numbers here, or perhaps you need another category. I'm pretty sure the working set of tunes I could start in a session is well over 200. And I know there are at least a dozen people in the Metro Detroit area who could utterly humiliate me with the number of tunes they know.

Here's a very rough breakdown for me:
20-40 -- set of tunes played regularly at home
100-300 -- other tunes I could start and play through successfully (perhaps only if you reminded me of their existence)
100-300 -- tunes I could play if someone else started them and played them through a couple of times to let me catch it again
50-200 -- tunes that are dormant in my head

I'm way off on the numbers, I guess - I'm still a relative beginner (and I play almost entirely by myself, not in sessions).

But I think we need to define our terms: I'd lump your first two categories into "working set" and the second two into "dormant". So your numbers would be WS: 120-340, D: 150-500 the way I was using the terms, and mine would be around WS: 60-70, D: 30-50

I know I've got a long ways to go, yet. It sounds like you've forgotten more tunes than I've learned.