Methods for Learning Tunes

[alistair]

Yes this discussion has veered a bit from how people learn tunes.
Just two more thoughts: the first is about relative versus absolute pitch. Apart from the rhythm, which is of course a vital and defining component, a tune is defined by the relative pitch of its notes, which is why a tune if independent of the key it is written in or usually played in. Although I tend to feel quite uncomfortable at mention of augmented or diminished fourths or fifths, I nevertheless have a deep fascination for the mathematics (and physics) of music, which is to a large extent about ratios. [I got a wonderful book a couple of Christmases ago called "Music and Mathematics", edited by John Favel, Raymond Flood and Robin Wilson, which I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in this area, which could and maybe should be the basis for another thread.] I guess it would be simplistic to divide the world of players into "relativists" and "absolutists", but in this area I am among the relativists, and I wondered if this would be true of most people who learn tunes principally by ear. I still find it hard to decide when I hear a tune for the first time what key it is being played in. Watching the fingers of someone playing the whistle, or holding the final note in my head and trying to play it I can usually work it out, but not from the sound alone.

The second thought is about singing. Most people can sing a tune they know without thinking too much about how they produce the right notes. If you know your instrument well enough (and I agree it's a big if), then it should I feel be just as easy to play a tune as to sing it: and in principle in any key, though obviously after you have played it a few time muscular memory comes into play.

Anyway, no more for now. Maybe others will pick up the themes and explore them further, or maybe pracitce will suddenly begin to seem much more alluring …