Memorizing

[PallasAthena]

One difficulty with memorizing a peice is after you've been playing it without music for a while aspects of what you play are likey to end up different than what's actually written (ie. changing a rhythm or adding/dropping a note). I've noticed I have a tendency to do this. With peices like the Foggy Dew that I've had memorized for over a year, trying to correct this problem is quite difficult as the incorect rhythms have become second nature to me.

Any advice for preventing this from happening or am I too obsessed with playing everything note for note?

[Martin Milner]

You're too obsessed with playing everything note for note.

A major part of this music is the variation within the tune. The "printed" music is merely the way one person remembers the tune having been played on one occasion. It's not graven in stone.

Listen to the same tune played by different peopel, and at different times. There's a lot of variation.

Most tunes are printed in a very basic form, and it's expected and desireable that you vary the tune, both rhythmically and melodically. If you get the same tune from different sources, chances are there will be variations here and there

Don't try to stick to one "pure" version of a tune. Letting the tune evolve over time is part of the joy of making youyr own music.

[lenf]

Any advice for preventing this from happening or am I too obsessed with playing everything note for note?

A short session of electro-shock therapy immediately after playing would prevent variations from becoming embedded into memory.

Of course, after some episodes you'd then have the problem of excessive drool while playing.

I agree with Martin... learn to enjoy your own versions, even if they vary from time to time.

[Craig Stuntz]

Any advice for preventing this from happening or am I too obsessed with playing everything note for note?

Find recordings you like and play / lilt along with them.

-Craig

[Blaydo]

Adding or dropping a note is fine once your timing is still right though! If we heard a clip of you playing what you think might be wrong, we can tell you if what you're doing is ok.

For example, you can drop a note or shorten a longer note and take a breath instead. Or you can add a note to make a triplet but those 3 must be played in the same timing that the 2 were. These are common variations that people use.

[Learning Piper]

I'd have to agree with Martin about the note by note aspect. The main problem with notation (in my experience at any rate) is that I have yet to find a certain variation of a tune that is universally accepted. So, you can work and work and work to learn a tune exactly by notation, and then head off to a session and have the confusing experience of trying to play with other people who are playing the tune completely differently. Some people recommend scrapping notation altogether, but I think this should be a matter of personal preference. So, I would recommend that you find as many recordings of tunes as you can from as many sources as possible (even bad recordings can be helpful if you're careful) and listen your little heart out. (My poor family has had to put up with ITM coming out of every single speaker in the house at one point or another. (And they have born like heroes. (Maybe I should buy the all whistles as a thank you. ))) If your ready to commit some time, I would also suggest getting Grey Larson's "Complete Flute and Tin Whistle Tutor" and working through it. Grey has tons of great advice on this sort of subject. Anyway, good luck and have fun.

[Meadhbh]

If you're ready to commit some time, I would also suggest getting Grey Larson's "Complete Flute and Tin Whistle Tutor" and working through it. Grey has tons of great advice on this sort of subject. Anyway, good luck and have fun.

This is a great book to work through. I am just about through it myself. Grey has taken several tunes and placed different embellishments in each one. An example is the Sporting Pitchfork...it has eight settings all of which have been lined up down the page so that you can see measure by measure the variations. There is also a great collection in the back with reference to the recordings of each and the metronomic markings. - The metronome is a handy dandy little gadget to practice with too. Using a metronome keeps me in check of the rhythm and consistency in playing. The tick tick tick makes me fully aware of the areas that I may start to speed through or drag a little.

[Celtic983]

Sheet music is like a road map. It shows how to get from one point to the other. However, it doesn't mean that its the most senic route. As long as you stay near the road you can veer off a bit and still get to the same point

[picardy third]

A short session of electro-shock therapy immediately after playing would prevent variations from becoming embedded into memory.

We must have the same warped sense of humor. As I was reading the original post I thought to myself "well, a shock collar would do it". I nearly died when I saw your response!

[Tony McGinley]

Variation is the very essence of ITM.
You can have dozens of variations of
a song or tune. In fact the real art in
ITM, apart from basic good playing or
singing, is in adding subtle variations to
the tune, timing and/or rhythm, and in
adding tasteful grace notes.

Many ITM players don't read music so
never suffer from your particular affliction.
That would include myself. Our difficulty
is learning the tune - but modern science
has come to the rescue with the PC Slow
Downer and Re-tuner programmes like
"best practice"

Don't think about it too much
and it might go away!

[picardy third]

Sheet music is like a road map. It shows how to get from one point to the other. However, it doesn't mean that its the most senic route.

Yeah. I mean, listen to all the detours Christina Aguilera or other R&B divas take when going from one note to the next.

Yaa~~~ya~ya~ya~yayaya~ya~~~~whoa~~whoa~~~~~~WhOA. (How I ended that phrase with WhOA is beyond me.)

[missy]

now, keep in mind we don't play in sessions.....

We purposely take songs and change things around to make them "our own". We'll change a note to a harmony one, put songs that are major into minor, change rhythm or timing or patterns, etc.
To me - that's the FUN of music.

We can still play along with others, but we may not be playing the main melody of the song. We may be getting one of the other notes of the
chord triad or something. Or accent one note of a phrase.

I spent a lifetime playing piano music EXACTLY as it was written on the page. I do not want to approach music in that vein anymore.

[King Friday]

One of my favorite songs to play is Chief O'Neils hornpipe, and my fmaily can tell you I play it over and over. I heard the Chieftains play it one day and Paddy Maloney's timing is totally different than mine. Now his is probably correct considering he is Paddy Maloney, but thats the great thing about folk music, everyone has their own variation.

[peeplj]

When I was a music major in college, I often had to memorize the music I'd be performing.

Learning a tune in session is a far different thing then just memorizing music, in my opinion. In sessions, as you learn a tune you tend to learn not just the notes but the structure of the melody, the chord progression...you wind up knowing the tune inside and out in a far more intimate way than music you have simply memorized.

That's the secret of how eight or more people can play together, all playing slightly different takes of a tune, and yet it all works together. And sometimes you get a wonderful interplay between musicians which is hard to describe but incredibly fun to play and listen to, where you hand pieces of the melody back and forth to each other.

--James

[bepoq]

If we take a tune in our type of music and play it straight off a page, then I think it is something that is musically exceedingly simple; a child's tune. If we then play it a second, third or fourth time the same way, it can easily become something simple minded and posssible boring to player or listener. What makes our music great - complex, difficult and magical - are the variations, the ornaments, the phrasing, the rhythm; that we never play it the same way twice; that we are always looking for different ways to play the same tune and that when there is more than one of us, there is a dialogue of musical variation between us. Not that it needs to be particularly wild variation or mad ornaments to be good music, just listen to Micho Russel.

If you are learning tunes from written music (odd phrase "written music") I think that your best hope of really getting the tune is to get away from the music as fast as possible, probably before you have it note perfect, and embrace the changes and variations that follow - the unconscious ones as well as the ones you are trying for. I have always found it harder to get away from one way of playing a tune when I have learned it from sheet music and mostly feel more free with a tune when I have learned it by ear (where there was never any fixed version for me because the player I learned it from was varying it.) When you are learning a tune, there is much more to be learned when picking it up by ear - all the style elements of the individual playing it. A great side effect is once you get accustomed to it, it is much, much faster. If you are learning from paper, I would suggest that you never go back if you can help it, and then only to use it as a mneumonic. After all, you can't pick up style (regional or personal) from the page. If it is the case at all that recordings or live playing is to quick, try not listening directly to pick up a tune. Instead, try learning tunes of recordings that you've listened to so much that you have them running through your head when the Hi Fi is off. It is amazing how quick they come. If you are bored with what you've been listening to, grab a new album and listen to it every opportunity for a week and you'll have a whole new batch of tunes to get under your fingers.

Really hope that doesn't sound too pedantic. All apologies if it does.