learning new tunes by ear

[Robert Booth]

Like many others here, I never managed to teach myself to read the dots or any other written form of notation, and so have to pick up new tunes kind of haphazardly. This probably accounts for some of the odd choices I have learned since coming to the concertina, and some of the ...idiosyncratic versions that I eventually produce.

I have to hear a tune I like, identify it well enough to find it again (not always a possibility)* then hear it often enough to be able to whistle sing or hum it accurately before attempting it on the box.

 

How do you other by-ear players go about the business of finding and learning new tunes?

 

Cheers,

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

* I have an axe to grind with radio DJ's who play a lengthy list of songs then only manage to identify the last one played before trying to sell me things...

[Mark Evans]

Rob, I learn by ear and by the dots. Knocking about at session regularly is a way to pick up a lot of tunes by ear. Some I get quickly, others require my digital recorder and I steal away that week and knock it out. Comhaltas web site has a good number of tunes you can click on and I expanded my repertoire there as well.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Mark Evans

[Bill N]

How do you other by-ear players go about the business of finding and learning new tunes?

 

Cheers,

Rob

 

I've been listening to CDs, looking at Youtube, and attending sessions. When I hear a tune live that I like, I get a recording, or record it. I have a slow-down-play-back, and a looping feature on my digital recorder which helps. Once I have heard it enough that I can whistle or sing it, I can pick out the melody on the concertina. Or better yet, if I can play it on the harmonica first, the concertina follows easily. But then I have the problem of keeping it in my head! If it's a tune I didn't know previously, it seems to take about 2 weeks of daily playing before it's locked in there. Recently I made the mistake of thinking I'd learned a new tune for the play-around at the folk club after 3 or 4 days practice, and when it came my turn, it was absolutely gone from my mind!

 

I have been relearning to read music, but still start "by ear". But I find it very useful, and sometimes surprizing, to play through while looking at the music once I think I have the basic tune down. I try to do this before I get too set in how I play the tune.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Bill N

[Jody Kruskal]

Hi Rob,

 

Learning by ear is better in some ways that the dots method. There is more to music than standard notation records. If you record at a session or use a cd then you get all the details of the performance.

 

One ear player I know (a cnet regular) uses abc notation and the tune-a-tron decoder available here on the home page. He finds a title he wants to learn, googles it and finds the abc code for the tune, copies it into the tune-o-tron convert-o matic and bingo! He can hear the tune as played in midi right through his computer and learns it by ear. There a a number of sources on the web for tunes in abc notation.

[catty]

Repetition. But, of all the pieces I've learned for the various reasons, I find it goes most quickly if I really like the piece. It often flows in chunks: One year, my brother-in-law gave me a double-sided cassette of John Fahey. I feasted on that and nearly nothing else for probably 5-6 months and learned about half of that tape. One week when my girlfriend was away and I'd come across Leo Kottke's "6 & 12 string.." album, I learned 3 or 4 tunes from that album within the week.

 

So, for me, unless I'm learning pieces for performances, it's fairly random. If I have access to it on disc, youtube, or another player, I'll learn it if it inspires me.

Edited January 9, 2009 by catty

[Fiddlehead Fern]

I read music, and it takes me (nowadays) about the same amount of time to learn something by "dots" or by ear.

 

I generally hear a song I like and then try to find it again. Once I find it, I listen to it constantly and drill it into my brain until I can hum it, sing it, beat it out on pots and pans while I'm doing the dishes and sing it in my sleep. Around this time I start attempting it on either the fiddle or concertina, and eventually it emerges, shining and radiant and ready to be fully worked over until I can get something I like and will allow others to hear. After that, I'll play forever.

That's one way that music sometimes gets from a recording to my fingers via the brain.

Other times it's a lot less predictable, like when I sit down with the said fiddle or concertina and start goofing off (usually while avoiding schoolwork). I'll play a bit here, doodle a bit there, make funky noises and eventually come to realize that the song I'm playing is not due to my compositional genius (of which I have none), but that it's actually a real song. The hunt then begins, with me racking my feeble mind to remember where I heard the song so I can find it again and make sure I'm getting it right. A few torturous days follow in which the song haunts me and I try desperately to figure out where I heard it. Eventually I find it again, tweak a bit and then get to work some more on the song until I know I can play it and have the confidence to play it for others.

 

I envy people who can go to a session and immediately play along with anything, learn the tune immediately and start improvising harmonies on the spot. I rarely get to sessions (maybe a handful a year), so I've never really had the chance to learn how to do that. I'm not entirely sure that I could anyway.....but one can dream. Actually one of the reasons I wanted to get a concertina was so that I could start learning more about chords and progress to accompanying myself. (It never occurred to get myself a guitar, since there always seem to be plenty guitarists around if they're needed. Silly me!) However, I've gone the easy route and haven't made much progress in that quarter save for about two pieces that I've figured out a way to make sound better by adding chords, for which I am very proud of myself.

 

Hopefully this makes sense and was on topic, it ended up a little longer that I expected. Hmm, for some reason my thoughts always seem to take up more space when they're written down.

[SteveS]

Dots are fine for learning the notes to play in a new tune, but they don't provide the insight into the the swing - necessary especially in dance music.

I've found myself relying on the dots, and it takes much longer to get 'inside' the tune than it does by ear.

Nowadays I try to play from the dots maybe 3-5 times through, then put the dots away and try from then on to play from memory, only bringing out the dots to serve as a refresher when needed.

I recently invested in an Edirol R-09HR digital recorder, which provides the ability to slow tunes down by up to 50% - great for learning tunes - previously I'd used software on my computer - now I can dispense with that and just plug in the digital recorder to the external speakers - a great tool for learning tunes by ear, tunes recorded in say a session.

I find though, like others, it takes a couple of weeks daily playing (and driving my missus crazy!) to really know the tune - and until a tune is 'in the fingers' I will not play it in a dance set.

 

Steve

[frogspawn]

I learn songs by ear almost exclusively and I get the same problem - an idiosyncratic version. As they are folk songs I tend to get away with this unless they are wellknown or have choruses!

 

When learning instrumental tunes I use ear and dots - ear for the rhythm and dots for the notes. I taught myself to read music very recently but can't read note length very well. I often put tunes into Noteworthy Composer. Then I record them to MP3 using Audacity and play them over and over again. Finally I play along with the tune with the help of Amazing SlowDowner. At first I read the score. Gradually I find I can dispense with it.

 

I appreciate that Noteworthy gives a somewhat mechanical rhythm - not quite right - but this process works for me.

[Chris Timson]

I find there's a lot in what everyone has said so far that applies to me. First off, going to sessions helps enormously in lots of ways, both in learning new tunes and learning how to pick up tunes you've never heard before. If there isn't a session near you, do what we did: start one. Can't recommend it highly enough. Develops you as a player in all sorts of ways as well as leading to great friendships.

 

Actually learning the tune is much like picking up a tune in a session, in that in your session playing you rapidly build up a repertoire of bits, arpeggios, going up and down the scales, typical endings and the like, because most tunes seem to consist of a number of these bits joined together by a few other notes. So getting a tune for me consists of recognising and playing the bits from my library of same, then picking up the notes in between. I always have a mental image of the bits being like trapezes or supports and I mentally "swing" from one to the next as I build up the whole tune.

 

The last stage before I can lead a tune off in a session is being able to bring it to mind on command. With very few exceptions I have to have a name for it to do this. After that I'll play it a lot a hum it to myself until it comes. Sometimes this stage can take longer than learning the tune, but then, hey, we're all getting older ...

 

Chris

[hjcjones]

I learn tunes from CDs or from sessions, which sometimes I record. Or I'll get the ABC or a midi version and play that back. If it's in a printed tune book I'll play it on recorder (the only instrument I can play from dots - sort of) or transcribe it as ABC. I've tried out OCR software which is supposed to convert printed or handwritten music to notation you can play back, but I haven't found anything that works.

 

I find once I've got the tune into my head, I can play most of it straight off. There might be some tricky bits which need some working out. I'm not too worried if my remembered version wanders a bit from the original, that's the folk process, and I probably won't play it exactly the same way twice in any event.

 

Improvising or picking up new tunes in a session is slightly different. The secret is that most folk tunes follow a similar structure and a lot of the phrases are repeated with only slight variations. Once you've got a few bars of the tune you've pretty much got it nailed. Also, a lot of note sequences are common to a lot of tunes, perhaps with slight variations. The chord sequences are usually fairly simple. Some tunes may have an accidental or odd phrase which needs a bit more work, but if you can't pick them up immediately then it's usually possible to fudge convincingly or just miss out the tricky notes - in a session no one will notice, or care!

 

My biggest problem is remembering tunes! I don't know the names to most of the them, and where I know the name I can't remember the tune to go with it. For my band repertoire I have sheet music to hand which might prompt me, althought I can't read well enough to play if it doesn't jog my memory. But in a session without music to hand I sometimes find my mind goes blank, and I'll end up either playing one the tunes I play every week, or start something which has popped into my head, only to realise part way through that I haven't played it for years, and usually do it in a different key on a different instrument!

 

Some of the old players had little snatches of song to remind them of tunes, just enough to get the first few bars, or even just the rhythm. So "Soldiers Joy" goes "From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fourteen miles"; "Old Mrs Huddledee came to bed to cuddle me, cocked her leg right over me to keep her belly warm-oh" is "Kafoozalum"; "The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin" for "Redwing" and a host of others. Somehow it's easier to remember these than the actual tune.

[tombilly]

I learn songs by ear almost exclusively and I get the same problem - an idiosyncratic version. As they are folk songs I tend to get away with this unless they are wellknown or have choruses!

 

Not sure if it's a problem - isn't that how folk tunes evolve and mutate - people pick them up by ear from someone else but hear them slightly differently. Someone else learns from them and so on. So you end up with families of tunes and versions of songs for that matter that are clearly related.

[Simon H]

I think one of my biggest disappointments with learning has been how tunes that I have learnt really well can fade to borderline incompetance if they are not practiced for a few weeks. It makes practice a bit tedious, because as well as doing new stuff there is a constant need to go back and refresh the old tunes too. But I suppose this process helps finesse them...

 

When I discovered that my memory for tunes was not permanent I decided to write the title and first two bars of each tune I know in a notebook which I carry with my concertina. That way I have a list I can draw on to practice tunes that I might otherwise have forgotten for too long. it also reminds me of my progress and gives me ideas for tunes in our little sessions.

 

As for learning I'm trying to be as wide as possible - I use sheet music (slowly) ABC, Midi ( I can't recommend Midi Illustrator highly enough), slowdowners (Tascam DR1), recordings from sessions etc.

 

Plus I have a fantastic teacher for weekly lessons.

 

Simon

[michael sam wild]

I learn songs by ear almost exclusively and I get the same problem - an idiosyncratic version. As they are folk songs I tend to get away with this unless they are wellknown or have choruses!

 

Not sure if it's a problem - isn't that how folk tunes evolve and mutate - people pick them up by ear from someone else but hear them slightly differently. Someone else learns from them and so on. So you end up with families of tunes and versions of songs for that matter that are clearly related.

 

 

That's how Lads a Bunchum became Laudanum Bunches or The Worsborough Hornpipe became The Gooseberry.

 

I think too much reliance on recordings dots or ABc can lead to rigidity. How often have you been told 'you played that wrong!' But of course they are a great aid in learning and records help to develop style, we all start by imitation of a master or two don't we, the highest form of flattery

[Takayuki YAGI]

I like to learn a new tune by ear both from CD and from session. Some tunes take long long time to learn and some tunes don't.

When I want to learn a certain tune quickly I sometimes google for dots but I seldom learn a new tune only by dots.

It is difficult for me to learn a new tune in keys other than C D G A (I play C/G anglo) only by ear.To learn a new tune in lower keys, I often use C-whistle or Bb-whistle to play along.

 

--

Taka

[Mark Evans]

I think too much reliance on recordings dots or ABc can lead to rigidity. How often have you been told 'you played that wrong!' But of course they are a great aid in learning and records help to develop style, we all start by imitation of a master or two don't we, the highest form of flattery

 

I hear you sir...but the "you played that wrong" has been said to me 10 to 1 by someone who cannot read the dots, has learned a version by ear and accepted it to be the one and only holy grail. If one keeps their ear open, many different credible versions of tunes come across. As my Prostestant Great Grandmother said to me "moderation in all things Mark."

[catty]

moderation in all things...

 

Except in ear training, I would propose.

[Ishtar]

I learn new tunes best from the dots. I know, I know, I know, people have a very low opinion of sheet music, but I have an extremely low boredom threshold, and if I can't "get going" with a tune quickly, I'll nip off and do something else and forget to come back.

 

So the dots give me that instant gratification, if you like. After that, it's like the rest of you have said - constant repetition, with the aim of putting the partition away sooner or later.

[Mark Evans]

moderation in all things...

 

Except in ear training, I would propose.

 

 

One would think so....but my ear is my ear. All my dot reading from piano lessons started at age 7 on and my ear is still the stronger.