How many tunes do you know?

[burnsbyrne]

Atleast 50 that I really know, and would start at a session. Of course there are more those and the ones I pick up again. The best answer is "a lot." Been playing about 2 1/2 years.

This is also my answer, exactly.

[Craig Stuntz]

I've been playing for eight months or so and have learned about eight tunes. I say "about" since I can fake my way through a lot of non-dance tunes like Christmas carols and the like. I'm really only counting dance music in the eight since they're more challenging for me.

I'm not trying to learn large numbers of tunes; I'm practicing a couple tunes of each style (jigs/hornpipes/reels/polkas/marches/etc.) to work on getting the meter and "feel" right. This might come easily to someone raised on Irish music, but I'm still learning how to make the tunes sound right.

[tin tin]

Going on four years of playing Irish music, I think I might be approaching 100 tunes.

[anniemcu]

... Honestly, though, I'm a nerd and like to keep track of things. I wouldn't expect most people to know exactly how many tunes they've learned, except in the general sense. Unless they're still new and don't have many, or are as obsessive about lists as I am

Well... I don't think anyone would exactly call me a 'nerd', but since I am ADD (as in I can watch a movie today that I just saw last week and still be surprised, ), I actually *need* a list to help me keep track of what I am learning, want to learn, and have (supposedly) already learned. I go so far as to write out the starting notes, as I have a very hard time putting a name with a tune... though I am getting better.

I suppose the day may come when I've run through it so many times that I can *finally* just jump to a tune... I actually named two from the first few notes last session. ... before anyone else did, and That's an accomplishment!

[Wormdiet]

When I last updated my list it was hovering around 80. THis was tunes that I deliberately sat down and listened to or read dots, that I knew (at one point) that I could play through, at speed, with minimal errors, from memory. THis was back in August or september.

BUt That's a pretty arbititrary number. . . I would suspect based on that criteria alone my current number would have topped 100. BUT. . . there are a lot of tunes that I can play through at a session but I have no idea what they're called. . . . so going to the extreme end of common "fakeable" tunes would probably get me anywhere between 120 and 150 total.

Then there are the piping tunes I knew 18 years ago really, really well, that I could probably transpose to flute pretty easily if somebody hummed the melody. That would add at least 20-30 more tunes to the list, but since nobody else knows them they are kinda meaningless.

I've been playing flute specifically since last february but I try to make as many sessions as possible - I also live alone and have very, very tolerant neighbors

[khl]

I've been playing for a year. I've got about 20 tunes taken from "tin whilste" type books and sites that I know by heart now, without looking at the notes at all. More where a slight reminder could get me going. There are probably about 50-60 other hymns, carols, or folk tunes I could play without the notes in front of me. Being familiar with the hymns or tunes makes them easy to pick up.

(Playing these beautifully, of course, is another story.)

[Tiff]

so far i'm on 5 tunes...and a few bits of tunes

been playing for about 3 or 4 weeks

not too bad

[Ann]

Tonguing is very hard. It came as a relief to me that so many people recommend against it, I haven't bothered to learn how to tongue. This is a great thread though because I think I'm learning where tonguing belongs, which is on the beat. When I'm working on a new tune I'll play it over in my head all day long, taping the beat with my foot and the notes with my fingers on the desk. I can't play and tap out the beat at the same time, so I guess I should be keeping the beat with my tongue in order to give the tune a stronger sense of rythm? I love the sound of a strong rhythm, will this technique help? It bothers me that my playing doesn't have the same strong beat that I hear in recordings.

(sorry, this was supposed to be in the tonguing thread, don't know how it ended up here! )

[Jennie]

The "how many" question is one that is more interesting than vital. Seems there are scores of tunes in various stages either under my fingertips or on the tip of my tongue, so to speak.

The reason I keep a list of sorts is so that I can start to carry some of my own weight when I'm playing with friends, instead of looking around blankly and saying, "I dunno, what tune do _you_ want to play?" Last weekend I sat down with a friend to list tunes we both know, and we came up with a common list of about fifty. Now, the next time I'm with him anyway, I can remember which ones are most likely to elicit the response I want (which is playing along together).

I've started a list that has not just the names, but the first few notes of the A and B parts. That way when I'm all alone I can jog the ol' memory. I know I've probably at one time "known" three hundred tunes. But most of them lie dormant.

We had a discussion about tune lists before; check the archives (my computer won't let me) and you'll find more of this ilk.

Jennie

[anniemcu]

Tonguing is very hard. It came as a relief to me that so many people recommend against it, I haven't bothered to learn how to tongue. This is a great thread though because I think I'm learning where tonguing belongs, which is on the beat. When I'm working on a new tune I'll play it over in my head all day long, taping the beat with my foot and the notes with my fingers on the desk. I can't play and tap out the beat at the same time, so I guess I should be keeping the beat with my tongue in order to give the tune a stronger sense of rythm? I love the sound of a strong rhythm, will this technique help? It bothers me that my playing doesn't have the same strong beat that I hear in recordings.

(sorry, this was supposed to be in the tonguing thread, don't know how it ended up here! )

I should think that taping your feet and the notes and your fingers onto the desk would interfere pretty severely. (I, of course, never type incorrectedly... noooo)

Just messing with ya.

I have taken to tapping ... well... more like stamping... my foot to the beat while I play... especially the more challenging rythymic types, like the strathspeys I'm trying to learn. It's practice and physical exercise at the same time!

[mutepointe]

i don't keep count of the number of tunes that i have memorized but i do know that i can play for over an hour without repeating. i don't play ITM but i am playing slow folk, old rock, old 40's torch songs, country, and religious music. the whislte and flute are the first instruments that i have ever played that i can just "figure out" what a tune is as long as it doesn't have accidentals. when it comes to piano and guitar, i need to see the sheet music. sometimes, i play along to country and mountain gospel radio and find that i can jump into some songs without really ever knowing them or playing them before. i wish i could play fast.

[chrysophylax]

I guess i've learned over a few hundred. but i think it's definitely a fluid resevoir of music. Some days I'll be humming a couple of phrases without knowing what it is, then when I pick up a whistle and can play it and carry on to the rest of the tune I'll finally realise I learned it 5, 10 years ago. Been playing 15 years now.... wow!

[Adrian]

Thanks for all the input. It has been very helpful.

Just in case in might help. For those that want to keep the list of their song repertoire in their heads there is an ancient method that was used by the Greeks and Romans that is still used here in Greece today. It is called the ‘in loci’ method of memorisation and it is powerful, effective and easy to use to keep list. It works well even for thousands of things. I read that in classical times Greek doctors had very long lists of things they were expected to learn as part of their training for which they used this method.

Simply go for a walk either in your memory or really go for a walk. On the way remember precise locations (door, stairs, letter box etc) and write them down. Now connect each location with your song title and the first few notes of the tune. Use exaggeration, colour, movement etc to come up with a good vivid picture you can fix in your mind.

Examples:

Foggy Dew – See a picture of the location in foggy dew
Battle of Aughrim – a bloody battle and hear the tune playing
The wind the shakes the barley – see the barley shaking, feel and hear the wind
Merrily kiss the Quaker – obvious
Fanny power – use your imagination!
The bag of spuds – think of an enormous sack of potatoes
Etc

You can have several of these ‘walks’ in your mind. Use one for reels, another for hornpipes, another for airs, another for your performance songs etc if you have large numbers. It works very well and I find it invaluable for practicing the songs I know. I simply divide my list into three and play through one section every day so that each week all my songs are practiced twice and so songs don’t fade.

If you need to keep track of numbers insert into the mental picture a coloured flag or something e.g. red for every 10 and green for every 50 or 100 etc. Whatever works for you.

It works and I have used it for at least 30 years.

[Key_of_D]

There comes a point where tunes come and go, you have a body of tunes active, the ones you play actively at the moment. But there's he tunes you haven't played for a while but you can if you think of them, there's the half forgotten and half learned ones you could bring out if you want to, the ones you don't really like but you play them with other people, the ones you really like but there's no call for them much so you don't play them often, there's the ones you hear all the time, that have entered you subconscious and you'll be able to play them on the fly even if you have never tried them, the ones you learned but forgot you did until you hear them again.

When there's music around you all the time there's tunes coming in on the wind all the time, it's a coming and going, a fleeting business.

How many tunes can I play? I'd say 'loads' but how to quantify it precisely?

I've only been playing now for exactly 2 years this month. And I would have to say this is the best answer, even for me. Everything's put in this paragraph that needs to be and it's oh so true once a person plays enough. I've played and learned tunes I hardly remember playing. I still know the tunes I first played. There's tunes I've learned last month that I probably couldn't play on a dime if asked. There's the tunes I'll never forget how to play; even if I don't play them hardly at all. Then there's the tunes I've yet to learn...

I'd say Peter's got this point Well put. But, I also think this only holds true to people who have a lot of experience with music. Obviously if you're fresh, you could probably count the tunes on one hand, but if you've been around the block a time or two, it's just like, if not pretty close to how Peter said it.

-Eric

[anniemcu]

... Just in case in might help. For those that want to keep the list of their song repertoire in their heads there is an ancient method that was used by the Greeks and Romans that is still used here in Greece today. It is called the ‘in loci’ method of memorisation and it is powerful, effective and easy to use to keep list. It works well even for thousands of things. I read that in classical times Greek doctors had very long lists of things they were expected to learn as part of their training for which they used this method....

I've used similar methods for other things. I wil try this. It sounds like it should work, even for me.

Thanks!!