Hardware to assist learning by ear

[sponge]

Hi all,

I have my second proper whistle lesson tommorow night, and I am determined to get to grips with learning by ear, I have had a few attemps this week, and its not easy, but I do now realise that when I manage to crack a short passage I am much better off because my fingers are taking more control as they are not being guided so much by mean telling them where they should be, which is what happens with the sheet music and ABC, I can also enjoy playing these bits I have learnt without pinning music to the notice board or setting up my stand, now I have noticed that if I have the first 2 notes of a tune before starting thats a big help.

So a couple of question to you gifted guys and gals that do play by ear, if you wanted to learn something like The Gravel Walks or The Bucks of Oranmore, which I would consider quite complex, would you still use the same method, or would you back it up with some notation as a help, I would like to shed all my ABC and sheet music baggage and restart with a system that works best.

second question, I have used slow down software before Audacity mainly, but I travel quite a bit does and need something that fits in my pocket, does anyone have experience with the Tascam vt1 vocal trainer, there are a few in the Tascam range for guitars and the VT1 was geared towards vocals and instrument players, and from what I have read can slow down loaded mp3'S to a very slow rate without pitch change, a bit like a Audacity, and also loop a small selected section, I used to have an Edirol and a tascam portable recorder which had the half speed feature, this was fine on slowish tunes, but wasn't much good for anything played fast or very fast for me anyway.

any help appreciated

sponge

[Denny]

So a couple of question to you gifted guys and gals that do play by ear

'snot a gift....

ya just keep after it until yer fingers do what yer ears hear
without yer brain interferin' and makin' a mess of it

[Innocent Bystander]

Who was it said "The more I practice, the more gifted I become"?

[Innocent Bystander]

One of my old bosses in computers used to say "Tools, not rules". In other words, use what you have to enable yourself to do what you need. Don't limit yourself for the sake of it.
I play by ear, certainly, and there are tunes I can happily pick up once I've heard them about a hundred times. The Bucks of Oranmore is one that I still struggle with. I have the sheet music in my pocket as I type this.

I can't sight-read, but I can read so that I hear the music in my head. So my "slow-downer" IS the sheet-music.

[Dain]

Sheet music is good for a starter, but every once in a while (or rather all the time) you'll find it restrictive and/or totally different from what you've heard. Anyway, you should learn to read notes (it takes about two days, if you slept through all your music lessons) and after a while, (after the notes of the whistle saturated your brain) you will be able to pick it up as you go.

Practice, practice and more cheeseburgers.

I mean practice.

[MarkP]

If you just want to slow stuff down to learn from (with or without the dots) you can do this easily in Windows Media Player without installing any extras. Just go to 'Now Playing' - 'Enhancements' - 'Play Speed Settings'. Once that's switched on you will have a sliding speed bar whenever you a play a sound file, with no alteration to the pitch (although you can't loop sections).

[hans]

The SONY PCM-D50 is a portable field recorder with outstanding quality in built and sound.

You can switch to slowed down playback anytime with a dedicated switch. The playback speed for this is set via the menu, from -75% to +100%, in 5% steps. You can listen to the track while you change the speed, to hear the effect instantly.

There is also a dedicated Loop button, with which you can punch start and end of a playback loop.

It does not record in mp3 format, but you can load mp3 files for playback, and use it as a rather expensive mp3 player It has plenty of inbuilt memeory, and you can put in a memeory stick in as well, so to record in wav format is never an issue.

It uses 4 AA batteries, and you can use your own rechargeable ones. So there should never be an issue of battery cell failure. I expect this robust machine to last, same as the old favourite field recorder, the Sony Professional Walkman WM-D6C

[Feadoggie]

So a couple of question to you gifted guys and gals that do play by ear, if you wanted to learn something like The Gravel Walks or The Bucks of Oranmore, which I would consider quite complex, would you still use the same method, or would you back it up with some notation as a help, I would like to shed all my ABC and sheet music baggage and restart with a system that works best.

One person's "system that works best" may not be suitable for others. I think you use what you find that works and it may differ from tune to tune too. I wouldn't be quick to throw out the abc's or notation, it can be a time saver for getting the shape of a tune under your fingers. Now I will admit that I do not presently use any "devices" to pick out ITM tunes. I just let the tunes come to me as I practice and it's a strange experience when, while playing one tune, another finally reveals itself either whole or in part. But I still have to transcribe music other than ITM and have a few tools that help.

Oh, I'd caution against hardware based solutions only because they are cast in stone or at least burned into ROM. Software solutions can have a long life of improvements through version upgrades.

All the suggestions made above are worthwhile and I'll just add a few. There are tons of slow-down plug-ins for existing media players. Winamp has quite a few, all free of charge. Of course since one is now built in to Windows Media Player they may be redundant.

A company called World Wide Woodshed has made two products specifically to help musicians figure out tunes. They were likely aimed at helping young guitarists unlock the secrets of playing like Jimmy Page. The Rock Band and Guitar Hero generation may have negatively impacted their business model. Anyway they are called "Slow Blast" and "Slow Gold". They allow you to slice up a recording into manageable bits and then loop them at varying tempos until you have them down. Prices are modest but not free. They are both packaged as free add-ons sometimes with other recording/arranging software. Available from here" http://www.worldwidewoodshed.com/

One of the best packages I have used is "Transcribe" from Seventh String Software. It's purpose built for transcribing music. DOH! It's advantage over something like Slow Gold is that it has really good ears (pitch detection). You can highlight a moment in a recording and it will tell you the notes being played and weight how significant each is in the mix. It has limitations but it's really fascinating how well it works. You can see Transcribe here: http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html You will also find a page at the Transcribe site which has a fairly exhaustive list of other tools used for music transcription. And that's a bold move. Seventh String feel they are well ahead of the utility curve of all the other products listed. That's here: http://www.seventhstring.com/resources/ ... ption.html

And remember these are just tools, they are no substitute for knowing your instrument and how it is played. Personal experience playing many tunes is the best tool ever developed.

Hope that helps.

Feadoggie

[eskin]

I have to also highly recommend Transcribe, I've been using it for many years as my primary tool for learning tunes. Its simple to use, the interface is very visual, simple, and intuitive, and runs on both Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Here's a page I put together describing my system for learning tunes using the program:

http://www.tradlessons.com/?page_id=135

Cheers,

Michael

[highland-piper]

You can use audacity to slow the piece down, and then copy the files to an mp3 player, which will easily fit into your pocket.

[walrii]

1. Get an iPod or other small mp3 player. Listen to it a lot.

I have an adapter built by Dice (check Best Buy or a good automotive audio store) than wires my iPod directly into the car radio. You can get little FM tranmitters that transmitt the iPod signal to the car radio antennea but those don't work nearly as well as wiring the iPod directly into the radio.

2. Practice. Your brain has to learn that this finger position/breath pressure/etc makes that sound in my ear. With practice, your brain will be able to go the other way and know that when I hear that sound, my fingers/breath/etc must go to this position.

[Adrian]

If you just want to slow stuff down to learn from (with or without the dots) you can do this easily in Windows Media Player without installing any extras. Just go to 'Now Playing' - 'Enhancements' - 'Play Speed Settings'. Once that's switched on you will have a sliding speed bar whenever you a play a sound file, with no alteration to the pitch (although you can't loop sections).

I'd forgotten this easy option. Thanks for the reminder.