Memorized Tunes

goesto11 · Post by **goesto11** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 12:20 pm

I'm curious how many tunes people know by memory. When you go to sessions, do you just play them from memory? Or just figure them out as you go?

John Mac

Edited to appease Bloomfield. I guess he doesn't have any tunes memorized.

[ This Message was edited by: goesto11 on 2002-10-16 10:55 ]

[ This Message was edited by: goesto11 on 2002-10-16 11:33 ]

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 12:34 pm

Do you mean tunes?

TubeDude · Post by **TubeDude** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 1:01 pm

On 2002-10-15 14:20, goesto11 wrote:
I'm curious how many songs people know by memory. John Mac

I know all the songs I've memorized.

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 1:01 pm

Well, recently I posted a list of a hundred-and-something songs/tunes that I 'knew' (though I've since added 6 to the list.)

I'm not sure about anyone else, but the only music that makes it to my list is stuff I can play from memory, without sheet music, or having to go "how does that tune go again?".

Learning the notes has always seemed easy for me..after all, there's only about 96 notes in a jig like Legacy Jig (less when you group rolls and the like into a 'unit'). Within that tune, there's a lot of repetition, so the actual amount of data to learn is a pretty smallish number. The harder part has always been teachin my fingers to play what my brain knows. Then again, I'm the only guy at our session who knows at least one of the names of every tune I play. Just a good memory I guess

Isilwen · Post by **Isilwen** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 1:16 pm

I know quite a few, actually. Somewhere around 30-40 tunes I can just 'rattle off' by memory, however that's probably nothing compared to some of the Whistler's who've been playing for many years...

sweetone · Post by **sweetone** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 2:38 pm

I think one of the difficulties is that quite a lot of tunes are alike. I sometimes mix them up, going from A in one tune to B in another. I also know quite a bit of tunes I can't even name.

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 3:49 pm

Not many, John. But when I do go to a session, I find out what tunes are on their play list and take a stab at memorizing a few of those at home - for the next time.

Many of the folks in the last session that I went to used music, but the most effective players had them memorized. Some would just glance at the music to see which name went with which tune. Since it was OK to tootle a bit (session ediquette allowed), I would try playing from the dots on the tunes that I didn't have memorized, but I was never particularly good at it.

My suggestion would be not to play a tune at a session unless you have it memorized.

Erik

p.s. How's it going? I suppose that I should e-mail you

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:27 pm

There's about 50-60 tunes I can play and another dozen or so I could play at least one part of, but for all but about 25 of them I would need either someone else to start it off or refer to my cheat sheet for the beginning notes.

I have a 'kick-start' memory

Caoimhin · Post by **Caoimhin** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 3:02 am

2 ... only ... pure memory.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 4:44 am

The man who said it doesn't matter how many tune you play, it matters how many you play well, he had a point.
On the other hand, you are expected to play just a bout anything when sitting in with good players. And good players do have loads of tunes, I have a good few, or at least I like to think I do. Still it happens I sit down with players I play with regularly and have been for years and they tap into some layer of their brain and they come up wit ha full night of tunes I have never heard before.
After a while it becomes less a matter of how much you have memorised, when you have music around you a lot, you'll absorb a lot of tunes and if you play a lot you'll find people start a tune and you play it without knowing what you are playing or whethter you played it before or not.

Wizzer · Post by **Wizzer** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 6:45 am

Regular pensioners I have spoken to:
IE Frank Ryan at the IAC in NYC. They play Sunday afternoons in Central Park. Frank plays Guitar, Mandolin, Flute, and Whistle. He says they usually have a group of about 20.
Frank says that most of the musicians he know have between 120 to 200 tune that they play from memory. Although certain tunes lend themselves to being played together which makes them a little easier to remember.
As for myself I have about 20 and a long way to go.

[ This Message was edited by: wizzer on 2002-10-16 08:46 ]

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 6:59 am

I'm having a lot of fun recently noticing tunes I didn't think I knew being used as TV background music.

Last week I heard Fairy Dance being played at a Scottish Ceili in the background. It's a tune I'm learning from a CD recording, and I don't know to play it yet, but I recognised it anyway.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 8:45 am

On 2002-10-16 06:44, Peter Laban wrote:

After a while it becomes less a matter of how much you have memorised, when you have music around you a lot, you'll absorb a lot of tunes and if you play a lot you'll find people start a tune and you play it without knowing what you are playing or whethter you played it before or not.

I've played in rock groups with bass players who were deputising for an ill band member and who got through, without rehearsal, with a word or two before each number and then watching what I was doing on guitar. I once did much the same with a New Orleans jazz band playing guitar to cover for an absent banjo player. I had a chord book to get started on each tune but had to watch the other band members during the tunes to get the breaks right, so I had to play by ear. It's just a matter of having a good ear and knowing the style of music.

As for numbers of tunes, I don't know very many Irish tunes yet—I'm fairly new to the style as a player—but all up, counting other kinds of tunes, I might know about 30 by heart on whistle by now. It's a bit misleading to say that though. Any slowish tune I can hum I can play through straight away with perhaps only a couple of fumbles. If I come back to it in a week's time, I'll play it through again with a couple of fumbles. They might be in the same place or in a different place. Perhaps, with enough practice, I'll eliminate the fumbles and be able to do the same with fast tunes. I think that's where top session players are at.

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 8:49 am

On 2002-10-16 08:45, Wizzer wrote:
Frank says that most of the musicians he know have between 120 to 200 tune that they play from memory.

Most accomplished Irish musicians that I've run into have well over 500 tunes...

fiddling_tenor · Post by **fiddling_tenor** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 9:41 am

All of 'em.