Why learn a new tune?

[Jennie]

Here are some of the reasons I try to learn new tunes. Life is complex...

I heard it and I liked it.
Everybody else plays it and I feel left out.
I read about it on C&F.
It's really hard, so it must be good for me.
One of my music buddies wants to play it with me.
I found it leafing through a tune book and liked the title.
It sounds complicated and impresses people.

Am I normal?
Jennie

[Wanderer]

I've learned tunes for most of those reasons..notable exceptions being the "it must be good for me" one. Never learned one for that reason. Never learned one I just read about here on C&F either (though I've learned a couple after hearing them on Clips and Snips)

[colomon]

For me:

I heard it and I liked it.
Everybody else plays it and I feel left out.
One of my music buddies wants to play it with me.
I found it leafing through a tune book and liked the title. (More likely, liked the tune!)

And my addition:

Because X plays it.

[steph_c]

I made up my mind in the beginning to just learn the tunes I've heard and liked...and certainly you can't go wrong with learning tunes out of the collections of compositions by Vincent Broderick, Sean Ryan and Paddy O'Brien.

I also learn tunes when Sol writes them.

[SteveK]

I recently learned (or re-learned) a tune called Aunt Jenny's Good Enough for Anyone. How could you resist learning a tune with a title like that?

[jbarter]

Because it's there.

[Jennie]

I recently learned (or re-learned) a tune called Aunt Jenny's Good Enough for Anyone. How could you resist learning a tune with a title like that?

You're right! I think I need that one!

Lately, the community aspect of the music has been taking priority for me, though. I learn tunes a little quicker than some of the folks I play with (forget them quicker, too) so I'm spending more time on tunes that they already play or are working on.

Invariably the tunes I like best are the ones that are hardest on concertina. So I keep trying to find new ones that fit that instrument, too.

Jennie

[SteveK]

OOps. I think I was influenced by your name Jennie because the title of the tune is really Old Aunt Sally is Good Enough for Anyone. There are plenty of Jennys in old time music though.

Steve

[colomon]

I also learn tunes when Sol writes them.

Come to think of it, so do I! This actually occupies a significant portion of my practice time.

[Jennie]

Just went back and listened some more to those. Think I'll put "Wayward Girls' Farewell" on my "heard it and liked it" list to learn.

'Course, there are also the tunes that just learn themselves because I hear them enough times. I call them the "back door" tunes. The ones recorded next to the tunes I'm working on.

Jennie

[Unseen122]

Yeah pretty much those reasons except the 3rd. Of course recently I have been learning tunes at a really fast pace and usually pick up 2 or 3 a week.

[Jennie]

OOps. I think I was influenced by your name Jennie because the title of the tune is really Old Aunt Sally is Good Enough for Anyone. There are plenty of Jennys in old time music though.

I like that title too. My old Aunt Sally died last week and she surely was good enough for anyone. Maybe I'll look it up and learn it in her honor.

Jennie

[Caj]

I used to learn tunes I liked (or that I was assigned in classes.) But now I have to learn the local session tunes to keep up.

I'm still only between 100-200 tunes, and in an arbitrary session that means you sit out about 95% of the time.

Caj

[SteveK]

OOps. I think I was influenced by your name Jennie because the title of the tune is really Old Aunt Sally is Good Enough for Anyone. There are plenty of Jennys in old time music though.

I like that title too. My old Aunt Sally died last week and she surely was good enough for anyone. Maybe I'll look it up and learn it in her honor.

It's pretty much a 5-string banjo tune but maybe you could make something out of it. There's a version here:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=4829/singles

[Martin Milner]

For me:

I heard it and I liked it.
Everybody else plays it and I feel left out.
One of my music buddies wants to play it with me.
I found it leafing through a tune book and liked the title. (More likely, liked the tune!)

And my addition:

Because X plays it.

Same as Colomon, plus

I need to play it for Morris Dancers (on melodeon)

X is usually my musical partner or a friend, not a professional.

I also note that while I do have some tunes I started in workshops and at festivals, the vast majority of such tunes don't make it into my memory banks, which suggests I'm wasting my time attending workshops, at least as far as tunes go. Technique is another matter.