How are you learning to play?

[CRC]

Thanks for all the tips. I'll have to give learning by a ear a chance.

[CRC]

Yeah, I wouldn't know how to learn by ear. That would be impossible for me! Where would you even start?

Listen A LOT, play. Listen some more, play. Rinse and repeat until you've got it. If the tune is too fast for ya, use windows media player to slow it down, or get some other slow downer software.

How do you use windows media player to slow something down?

[Wynder]

I'm not so good at learning by ear... my mind can't coordinate my ears and fingers quickly enough. So, I'll generally hit session, wait for a tune I enjoy, ask what it's called, whip out my "Fiddler's Fakebook" and mark the page... I'll go home and for that week, try to learn the music.

My biggest issue was motivation -- hence, the Whistle This website which will probably be a big part of learning tunes for me now.

[straycat82]

I'm not so good at learning by ear... my mind can't coordinate my ears and fingers quickly enough. So, I'll generally hit session, wait for a tune I enjoy, ask what it's called, whip out my "Fiddler's Fakebook" and mark the page... I'll go home and for that week, try to learn the music.

My biggest issue was motivation -- hence, the Whistle This website which will probably be a big part of learning tunes for me now.

Learning by ear (at least for me anyways) requires listening to the tune more times than I could possibly count, get it imprinted in my brain to the point that I know the tune (I.E. I can hum it or whistle it). Then I start trying to play it, going a couple of bars at a time, stopping to repeatedly listen to small clips of the parts of the tune that I can't figure out, I also will use a slow-downer for faster tunes if need be. It's not a quick process and I imagine it's much slower than the amount of time it would take a sight reader to learn a tune from a book, but I believe you get a better feel for the tune this way because it involves listening repeatedly.

[Jennie]

The learning by ear process is using different connections in our brains than we're used to. Traditional culture was all oral/aural. Now most of us are wired for the written word, hence written music. It's a huge paradigm shift.

Good mental exercise! And not so terribly long, once you've activated all those synapses. The fortieth tune comes quicker than the first ten.

(I'm obviously not a brain researcher. But it makes sense to me.)
Jennie

[lyrick]

Learning tunes by ear definitely gets easier the more tunes you learn. It may seem slow and impossible at first, but I think it's an acquired skill that anyone can develop with patience and commitment. Try learning 10+ tunes by ear before you start saying you can't do it (the first 2-3 it seems like your wasting your time, but keep at it). We're capable of doing way more than we realize--the brain is a pretty miraculous instrument. I'm convinced that when I learn by ear, I'm exercising/rewiring my brain in ways that are super healthy for me.

It's probably harder at first for someone who's played by the notes, but I think it can still be done. I used to use sheet music to learn from, even though I couldn't read it very well, now I learn 99% by ear, using slow downer software when I have to.

I think the underrated thing about learning by ear is that by forcing yourself to listen that closely to the music, you become a much better listener. In the end, you can hear where your own playing is off or needs to be improved. If you're not a super good listener, is it possible to listen to your own playing and know what it really sounds like? I don't think so.

[Key_of_D]

Yeah, I wouldn't know how to learn by ear. That would be impossible for me! Where would you even start?

Listen A LOT, play. Listen some more, play. Rinse and repeat until you've got it. If the tune is too fast for ya, use windows media player to slow it down, or get some other slow downer software.

How do you use windows media player to slow something down?

Upload the cd you want to learn from, assuming you have it on cd, onto Windows Media Player. The music has to be uploaded onto here or else you won't get the slowdown/speed up feature.

While the tune/song is playing, click on View. Then Click on Enhancements, then click on Play Speed Settings. You should have a bar with numbers on a line, like 0.5, 1.0, 1.4, then 2.0. Adjust it to however you like and you're set. However, this isn't the greatest feature to use, but it's free. And unless you already have Windows Media Player, you don't have to download anything. However, when you download stuff way down, some of the material might start to get distorted, and not very clear, but it can work. So, give it a shot and see for yourself if you like it or not.

-Eric

[chrisoff]

I'm learning to play (slowly) using the Bill Ochs book that came with my clarke whistle. It seems a good way to get the basics. One of the reasons I decided to learn the whistle was to learn to read sheet music though as I've never bothered learning enough theory to make it worthwhile in the 11 years I've played guitar.

Now I'm finding I'm just as lazy with the whistle. I use the book to get the notes but I use the CD to hear the phrasing rather than read it off the notation. I think this is just because that's how I've always leanred a song on guitar using tab.

Just wish I had more time between all my other commitments to make the beginners stuff go a bit faster...

[Wynder]

Oh sure... The tunes I'm attempting to learn now I've played backup guitar or bodhran with over the past year or so -- more time than I have counted. I still, for the life of me, couldn't pick up a whistle and try to figure it out when I could grab the sheet music and learn it that way, applying what I've heard in session.

Learning by ear (at least for me anyways) requires listening to the tune more times than I could possibly count, get it imprinted in my brain to the point that I know the tune (I.E. I can hum it or whistle it). Then I start trying to play it, going a couple of bars at a time, stopping to repeatedly listen to small clips of the parts of the tune that I can't figure out, I also will use a slow-downer for faster tunes if need be. It's not a quick process and I imagine it's much slower than the amount of time it would take a sight reader to learn a tune from a book, but I believe you get a better feel for the tune this way because it involves listening repeatedly.

[Wynder]

Now I'm finding I'm just as lazy with the whistle. I use the book to get the notes but I use the CD to hear the phrasing rather than read it off the notation. I think this is just because that's how I've always leanred a song on guitar using tab.

There's definitely nothing wrong with listening to tunes for phrasing, articulation and interpretation -- that's a big part of the learning experience. Irish trad is a culture of melody music -- you have a basic melody and you play and ornament around it... In the end, what really makes the tune is what you do with it ornamentation-wise.

Learn the melody of a few tunes well, then listen to how other people play them... learn how to do the ornamentations and toss them into your tunes to make it sound to your liking. Once you get a decent repetoire of tunes that you can ornament regularly, when you play other tunes, you'll find yourself automatically ornamenting similar notes and phrases in other tunes -- that's what'll eventually speed up your learning process in the future.

At least, that's how it worked for me.

[King Friday]

It is very easy to get lazy about reading music on the tin whistle. I've been playing clarinet in bands and orchestras for the past 7 years and therefore have a fair deal of experienleace in music theory, but I don't even read music for whistles. Once you get used to your instrument it gets a lot easier to play by ear.

I will admit it is very frustrating when you think you've learned a song and then you try to play along with the recording and realize your in the wrong key entirely.

[CRC]

Key_of D wrote:

Upload the cd you want to learn from, assuming you have it on cd, onto Windows Media Player. The music has to be uploaded onto here or else you won't get the slowdown/speed up feature.

To bad. None of the songs I have are on cd. Although, that's easily fixable.

[Key_of_D]

I will admit it is very frustrating when you think you've learned a song and then you try to play along with the recording and realize your in the wrong key entirely.

In my past experiences, it wasn't being in the wrong key, more like playing some of the notes wrong..

[Key_of_D]

Key_of D wrote:

Upload the cd you want to learn from, assuming you have it on cd, onto Windows Media Player. The music has to be uploaded onto here or else you won't get the slowdown/speed up feature.

To bad. None of the songs I have are on cd. Although, that's easily fixable.

There's gotta be some recording from band who plays the tunes you want to learn. And actually I think it doesn't always have to be uploaded from cd's. If you goto www.thesession.com (might be .org) and they have thousands of tunes. If you register a name, you can make your own tune book, download a midi of the tune, and have sheet music for it. And I believe when you download the midi, it should come up in Windows Media player, and I believe again, you can use the slow down feature for those midi's.

[Key_of_D]

Checking again, it is www.thesession.org, and you can use the slow down feature for their midi's that you can listen to in Windows Media Player. But you need to register a name before you can do this.

-Eric