Commiting Tunes To Memory

[Roger Gawley]

A very real problem for many of us, touched on here, is that if you learn from dots you can become dependent on them and unable to play without.

 

There is a technique (this came to me with a name but the name has gone) of learning a tune from the dots but never playing while looking at them.

 

Put the dots at one end of you room and the instrument at the other. Memorise a bar or however much you can manage. Walk to the other end of the room, pick up the instrument and play what you just memorised. Put down the instrument, walk back, check that you got it right. Repeat that bar for security or move on to the next bar if you feel brave, walk back and play two bars.

 

Carry on in this fashion until you can play the whole tune. Or maybe the A part, you are probably allowed to start over again with the B part.

 

If this sounds terribly tedious: it is. But you have never played the tune while looking at the dots so you avoid the blind panic that sets in when they are not there.

 

This is not learning by ear and it does help to have a good idea beforehand what the tune sounds like, but it can work for some of us.

 

Give it a go! Roger

[David Barnert]

A very real problem for many of us, touched on here, is that if you learn from dots you can become dependent on them and unable to play without.

Dare I say... crutch?

Put the dots at one end of you room and the instrument at the other. Memorise a bar or however much you can manage. Walk to the other end of the room, pick up the instrument and play what you just memorised.

This is brilliant. I've never met it before, but I like it.

 

I once saw a demonstration of a related idea: A line of music was projected on a screen and we were asked to sight read it. Someone held a book between the projector and the screen and moved it slowly to the right, hiding the notes in shadow as they were being played. Then we repeated it (with different music) but the shadow moved a little earlier so we were playing notes that had already been hidden, looking ahead to what's coming next. Then again a little earlier, so we had to be looking a couple of measures ahead of what we were playing.

 

I'm not sure that contributes anything to the present discussion, but I found it interesting.

[Tom C]

Put the dots at one end of you room and the instrument at the other. Memorise a bar or however much you can manage. Walk to the other end of the room, pick up the instrument and play what you just memorised.

 

This is used in art schools - the life model is posed in a room on the floor above the art room, where the students and easels are located. Many journeys up stairs are required. The next day, the model is located two floors up. And so on. Tiring, but great for the memory.

 

Tom

[m3838]

A very real problem for many of us, touched on here, is that if you learn from dots you can become dependent on them and unable to play without.

Dare I say... crutch?

Put the dots at one end of you room and the instrument at the other. Memorise a bar or however much you can manage. Walk to the other end of the room, pick up the instrument and play what you just memorised.

This is brilliant. I've never met it before, but I like it.

 

I once saw a demonstration of a related idea: A line of music was projected on a screen and we were asked to sight read it. Someone held a book between the projector and the screen and moved it slowly to the right, hiding the notes in shadow as they were being played. Then we repeated it (with different music) but the shadow moved a little earlier so we were playing notes that had already been hidden, looking ahead to what's coming next. Then again a little earlier, so we had to be looking a couple of measures ahead of what we were playing.

 

I'm not sure that contributes anything to the present discussion, but I found it interesting.

 

I like the second idea. It's what alll them darn music teacher say: "read ahead". And the sence of urgency will ensure your body releases enough Burbles to aid you with the completion.

I didn't like the first idea. It's interesting, but more as a curiousity. Tedious is not the answer to wanting to play. I think my last teacher's idea was better: Simply not play from the start. Play with random beginnings (reasonably, at the beginning of a phraze, or a bar).

Start by playing the last bar. Then two last bars, then three. etc. This way you will really memorize the music, and if you make a mistake, you know how to carry it further, because you automatically recall the next bar. Sort of like disassembling the music.

He was even suggesting that I learn disassembled piece, then assemble it part by part. And at the very last put it all together.

[Samantha]

Put the dots at one end of you room and the instrument at the other. Memorise a bar or however much you can manage. Walk to the other end of the room, pick up the instrument and play what you just memorised.

 

This is used in art schools - the life model is posed in a room on the floor above the art room, where the students and easels are located. Many journeys up stairs are required. The next day, the model is located two floors up. And so on. Tiring, but great for the memory.

 

Tom

And the legs!

Samantha

[Samantha]

... Simply not play from the start. Play with random beginnings (reasonably, at the beginning of a phraze, or a bar).

Start by playing the last bar. Then two last bars, then three. etc. This way you will really memorize the music, and if you make a mistake, you know how to carry it further, because you automatically recall the next bar. Sort of like disassembling the music...

 

This is good, and I don't do it nearly enough (and I didn't realise that it was Burbles that were used in raeding ahead, thanks for that technical term - very useful !)

Samantha

[Tootler]

I had a realisation today which seems obvious but I have not noticed in this thread.

 

As others have mentioned, I have always found if I can sing or hum a tune I can learn to play it by ear. I found I can use the concertina to help that process because I can sing to it - unlike the recorder or mouth organ, the other instruments I mainly play.

 

I had a song tune to learn and I was playing it through from music and I found by singing along as I played the concertina, I got the tune into my head much more quickly than I would otherwise, so I am now in a much better position to learn to play the tune.

 

Although I can read music fairly fluently so as to know where to put my fingers, I have never got the knack of sight singing from music, so need to hear a tune played (or sung) to learn it.

 

This should work with any tune.

[ragtimer]

One advantage of written music that has only been slightly touched on here, is that it gives you a place to write down fingerings (in whatever notation you choose).

 

As I work a piece up to speed on my Hayden Duet, using the spots just as reminders, I find that I trip over lapses in fingerings -- running out of fingers because I forgot to substitute a finger for the "usual" one half a measure ago.

 

So for me, learning a tune requires learning fingerings (unless the tune is simple enough to have no surprises). And to practice the corrrect fingerings, I need to write it down somewhere. If the tune is just in my head, I can't "apply directly to forehead" the notations

 

Now, to contradict myself, I play a couple tunes of my own that I haven't notated, or at least haven't looked at the spots in months. And I did learn the correct fingerings by slow repitition of what worked.

 

But I like having a piece of paper -- printed or handwritten -- to note things on. Including chord changes (a big thing with us Duetters).

--Mike K.

[chris]

Hi

The problem that I have is that, whilst I can remember tunes on guitar, mandolin, flute, dulcimer etc. when it comes to remembering tunes on concertina -I can't It doesn't matter whether I learn them from the dots or by ear. I accept that sometimes it can be difficult 'letting go of the dots' but I don't have too much trouble with any other instrument. Just the concertina It has been suggested that all it requires is practice. Not so. I can play tunes on other instruments with a few passes but not concertina

chris (wishing the problem would go away)