How many tunes do you know by heart?
- bayswater
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How many tunes do you know by heart?
Just curious... I've heard of a guitar player living in my area that should know about 500. That's wild
- Jumbuk
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Re: How many tunes do you know by heart?
Hmmm ... as a guitarist, I have to ask if he actually "knows" them - can he play the melody? If you count being able to play a believable accompaniment to a tune, then I can probably "play" about 500 too - hell, I can play 500 that haven't even been written yet! I can probably only play the melody for about 20 though.bayswater wrote:Just curious... I've heard of a guitar player living in my area that should know about 500. That's wild
- bayswater
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Re: How many tunes do you know by heart?
That's true. I don't know; maybe he plays banjo too, I'm not sure. But yeah - I guess there's a difference between knowing the melody part and the accompaniment I was told it like he knew the melody part for 500 tunes. That's waaaaaaay in the future for me But 1 has clicked the "> 500" option so I guess it's not impossible. I wonder how many the pros know - like Mike Rafferty?Jumbuk wrote:Hmmm ... as a guitarist, I have to ask if he actually "knows" them - can he play the melody? If you count being able to play a believable accompaniment to a tune, then I can probably "play" about 500 too - hell, I can play 500 that haven't even been written yet! I can probably only play the melody for about 20 though.bayswater wrote:Just curious... I've heard of a guitar player living in my area that should know about 500. That's wild
This subject has been up on the whistle forum recently. There I replied that at some point it becomes a fleeting thing, you know loads of tunes, some ready to play, some will come back as soon as you hear them, some come some go, someone may start a tune you have never played but know to hear and you play along instantly. I ticked the 500 in the poll but probably have three times that. Again: if you have music around you all the time your head is full of tunes and if you've been playing long enough you'll be able to bring them out without too much of a problem.
- colomon
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I've got some compositions up at http://www.harmonyware.com/tunes/SolsTunes.html - Location: Midland, Michigan
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Yeah, eventually you reach that point where you join in on a tune, play it with a few rough patches but basically okay, and then realize it's one you've never actually played before...
Sol's Tunes (new tune 2/2020)
- Ro3b
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I used to keep a list of the tunes I knew. I stopped about ten years ago when a) I realized/decided it was a pointlessly dorky thing to do, and b) I'd reached the point that Peter and Coloman are talking about: I'd hear a tune and be able to play it and not even know if I'd ever bothered to "learn" it. I just knew it. Which meant I could probably play tons more tunes than I had on my silly little list, which by then was about 800 or 900 tunes long. It just takes lots of listening and playing. It's a long, happy path.
- BrendanB
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Rob, was that before or after you pounded the nail up your nose? Although, I suppose the real question is whether you play better with the nail or without it?Ro3b wrote:Which meant I could probably play tons more tunes than I had on my silly little list, which by then was about 800 or 900 tunes long.
- David Levine
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Silly....
Rob is right. It is dorky to keep track of how many tunes you know. A pointless exercize of ego.
Jimmy Noonan will tell you how many tunes you should know: "Three, well."
There will always be somebody in a session who knows a tune that you don't. And you'll know a tune that nobody else knows... so you'd better know it well!
In the final analysis we're all tunevores.
Jimmy Noonan will tell you how many tunes you should know: "Three, well."
There will always be somebody in a session who knows a tune that you don't. And you'll know a tune that nobody else knows... so you'd better know it well!
In the final analysis we're all tunevores.
Time will tell who has fell and who's been left behind,
Most likely you'll go your way, I'll go mine.
Most likely you'll go your way, I'll go mine.
- rama
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...one suddenly realizes how little one actually 'knows' when there is silence in the audience, attention is given, everyone is waiting, and it's your turn...
...i guess that's when you find out what you know and don't know.
what i do know is i have made many an aquaintance along the way, mosty casual and fleeting.
...i guess that's when you find out what you know and don't know.
what i do know is i have made many an aquaintance along the way, mosty casual and fleeting.
- Cathy Wilde
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- Jayhawk
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On bodhran, I can play several thousand tunes (or at least I think I can), but on flute I'm much more limited.
There are just so many tunes out there to learn - it's amazing. You can feel all safe and secure in your local session, travel to another town, and realize you know nothing at all (as I reminded in Baltimore last month). Then again, I think that's half the fun - going somewhere else and finding a bunch of tunes you want to pick-up.
Eric
There are just so many tunes out there to learn - it's amazing. You can feel all safe and secure in your local session, travel to another town, and realize you know nothing at all (as I reminded in Baltimore last month). Then again, I think that's half the fun - going somewhere else and finding a bunch of tunes you want to pick-up.
Eric
- Ro3b
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Oh yeah, man, there's nothing like a nail right up there in the forebrain.Rob, was that before or after you pounded the nail up your nose? Although, I suppose the real question is whether you play better with the nail or without it?
Not that there's nothing better, mind you, there's just nothing like it. Kind of like eating hay when you feel faint.
- Unseen122
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Of course if a different person is leading the session each time, this problem does not usually occur.Jayhawk wrote:
There are just so many tunes out there to learn - it's amazing. You can feel all safe and secure in your local session, travel to another town, and realize you know nothing at all (as I reminded in Baltimore last month). Then again, I think that's half the fun - going somewhere else and finding a bunch of tunes you want to pick-up.
Eric