Methods for Learning Tunes

[alistair]

(14-01-2009 05:57 PM)Eric Renshaw Wrote:  I have gradually become aware that folks seem to learn how to play tunes in quite different ways. In Nigel’s lessons, for example, we gradually progress through a tune by playing a phrase of say 3 or 4 bars over and over, before moving on to the next phrase, which seems to suit students' needs. Whilst some of my friends just immerse themselves in pub sessions and presumably acquire tunes by osmosis (and alcohol). Whilst my only really successful method of attack is to get the music via tune books such as Nigel’s and SMG, or go online and convert ABC files etc., sight-read it to get the tune in my head and fingers, and then work on developing it. So for me, initially having the staff music around is paramount: though I believe that ‘Folk Music Tradition’ purists abhor this! So what methods do Gatherers actually employ?

Eric

Until a few years ago I only ever learned tunes by ear. I found (and still find to some extent) musical notation baffling and deeply mysterious, in the way that many people find mathematical notation completely inscrutable. (There ought to be word for this: dysmusica, perhaps?.) Since getting hold of the SMG Session Books and other printed music handed out in classes I have been able to work backwards from seeing how tunes that I know are represented in the notation. But I still am nowhere near being able to sight read and play a new tune straight off the music.

I think an acid test (and Nigel sometimes has fun with this in the pub) is to ask people to play a well-known tune in a different key. For those who primarily learn by ear, that's really just a test of facility with your chosen instrument, how familiar you are with the target key, and how easy or otherwise the key is to play. A tune is a tune is a tune, as Gertrude Stein might have put it: they key is basically irrelevant (although I know different keys have different tonal qualities on many instruments). I have seen some classically trained players though go quite pale when faced with this challenge, but maybe it's a false distinction, and anyone who knows a tune well and knows their instrument would, at least given time, be able to play it in any common key.

Before coming to ALP and SMG classes I used to play tunes I knew in the "wrong" key. I guess the key thing when playing in a group is that everyone agrees on the key.

I am interested in how others feel about this. In Oliver Sacks' fascinating book "Musicophilia" he talks about musicians with perfect pitch who feel uncomfortable, or in extreme cases physically sick, if they hear a familiar piece played in the wrong key, even if it is in all other ways played correctly.