Methods for Learning Tunes

[alistair]

Well you could argue that all use the G mixolydian mode. At least, this would be the conclusion from the web page referred to earlier ( http://www.hotpipes.com/tuning.html ), which is the source of what little understanding I have gleaned. To quote:
'A final dollop of confusion is tossed in the stew by the way the notes of the Great Highland Bagpipe are labeled. The piper simply ticks off whole letters, in sequence, starting with the lowest note, G, then A, B, C, D, E, F, G and finally the highest note, again A. This is very convenient and makes the written music easy to read for the piper, but it again deviates widely from standard musical practice. When one plunks out this series of notes on a piano the sequence doesn't sound anything like the scale of the bagpipe, even when ignoring the already explained overall higher pitch and the lack of "equal tempering." It's a whole different set of intervals than the conventional musician would expect. This is because the wily piper, having only one C available, simply discards part of that note's conventional label, which is C-Sharp (written C#). The same applies to the F - it's "really" F#. Within the tight confines of the GHB and its music, it's just more convenient to call (in speech and written music) these tones by their first names only - but it can drive a non-piping musician nuts. So, in conventional musical language and notation (and again ignoring overall pitch and tempering) the scale of the GHB would read G, A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A. If the G were sharp, this would be an A-Major scale, but as it is, it's called a Mixolydian Mode. (Don't worry, I'm not going to attempt to explain "Mixolydian" except to mention that it's a neat word (pronounced mix-o-lid'-ian) that will impress your musical friends when you utter it.) What's important here is to understand that there is a gap between the GHB and the rest of the world in the way music is described in words and in notation. So, as a piper you cannot play even the most simple tunes as written in your kid's third-grade music book, and likewise you won't hear anything recognizable when you hand your pipe music to a guitarist.'