I’ll get the hang of this yet!

[annathepiper]

solarbird and I have been doing this thing for the last several weeks where we go to session only every other week–and use the off-week as a practice night. Meanwhile, I’ve shifted from taking the General to session to taking my piccolo instead, and focusing on learning the actual melody lines for various tunes.

This is working out pretty well! I can only play five or six tunes semi-reliably–by which I mean, I can actually play “Si Bheag Si Mhor” by heart, and about five others if I’m reading the sheet music at the time. I ALMOST have “Banish Misfortune” down by heart but the C part is still eluding me. What this tells me though is that by practicing, I CAN learn these things. And it gets noticed in session, too! Once you start showing up and being able to play the tunes, you get significantly more cred, even if you’re still pretty much a newbie like me.

Right now I’m focusing my efforts on the handy dandy PDF session leader Matt gave me, with about 25 tunes he’s fond of and considers a good introduction to sessions in general. From that, I’ve been working on “Banish Misfortune”, “Road to Lisdoonvarna”, “Morrison’s Jig”, and a bit of “Blarney Pilgrim”. Although I haven’t actively practiced them yet, I can also whip through “Kesh Jig” and “Foggy Dew” if I’m reading the PDF.

Meanwhile, I’ve got TunePal on the iPad and I spend a good chunk of session these days just listening to what the others are doing–and seeing if TunePal can figure out what the tunes are so I can save ‘em for later exploration. Half the time, the app has a pretty good idea of what it’s hearing. If it wibbles and has no goddamn idea, I’ll just ask! Then I can look it up manually. And once you have a tune in the app, you can make it play it for you, adjusting the tempo if you need to. It’s a GREAT learning/reference tool for session newbies. Highly, highly recommended if you have an iPad.

Last night’s session in particular was relaxed and groovy, with just me, Dara, Matt, and a couple new folks Dara and I hadn’t met before, a woman who played fiddle and mandolin and a guy who played guitar and bodhran, and from them I picked up a couple more tunes to add to TunePal for later investigation: “The Yellow Tinker” and “The Frieze Breeches”. Plus, I had to giggle and giggle at one particular wibble TunePal had trying to identify tunes–when it offered me “Whiskey Makes You a Lunatic”. Which had NOT A GODDAMN THING to do with what was actually being played, but the title alone made me LOL, so I had to add it to my list.

And to tie back to my French Canadian fangirling post, I’ve also decided I have designs on learning “The Jig of Slurs”, “Irish Washerwoman”, and “Atholl Highlander”, which make up the “Fortierville” set that’s track one on La Volee d’Castors’ kickass live album. It’ll be approximately oh, I dunno, EIGHT YEARS before I’m able to play that set nearly as fast as they do, but TunePal helpfully provided me the sheet music to each. I’m armed. I’m dangerous. I HAVE A PICCOLO. BRING IT.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[pippins_scarf]

I have yet to brave any sessions, but when I lived in Phoenix, I took whistle and Irish flute lessons at the Irish Cultural Center. My teacher (a lovely Welshman) used to constantly chastise me for being too "paper trained." As a "paper trained" musician, I had to really stop looking at the notes and start trying to learn by ear.

I started to get the hang of it eventually. Much of the issue was just really getting to know the whistle/flute.

Now in my band, I'm doing quite a bit more playing by ear, though it's for accompanying the melody rather than playing it. Generally, I'll ask the fiddle player what key or mode we're in, then I start messing about with chords in that key. Most of the time you get away with combinations of I, IV, V, with bits of vii and possibly ii thrown in.

TunePal is a great app. Have you spent much time on thesession.org? Such a great resource for tunes of all kinds.

[annathepiper]

Hee, "paper trained" is a good way to describe it, and I'll cheerfully admit that's an issue I've got to fight--just because the main bulk of my musical training in my formative years was in band, wherein I was always reading off of sheet music and was expected therefore to play what was in front of me.

However, I've found that TunePal often gives me three or four different interpretations of the same tune, and so I've started using those more for a sanity check rather than directly following every little note. I've been trying to follow what the people in the circle who actually know what they're doing are playing, so I can blend with them. :) I've been asked about why I don't just get a whistle, but on the other hand, I know my piccolo's fingerings backwards and forwards, since I've had this specific instrument since I was in seventh grade. So I can just worry about learning the tunes rather than figuring out how to finger them. (Well, aside from just getting them into the muscle memory.) I wouldn't have the luxury on a less familiar instrument. (E.g., my bouzouki, on which I ALSO want to learn these tunes, but that'll take me longer.)

What you're describing with the accompaniment is also something I've tried in session when I've had my guitar with me, and I've done my share of asking what key is being played, though my ear's still kind of shaky on that. I fall over on recognizing A minor or B minor when I hear it, and I haven't really gotten down the proper known set of chord patterns for some of the odder keys or modes. If we're in G or D, I'm TOTALLY there, but you start throwing Mix or Dorian in there and I lose track.

I have been missing my guitar though so I need to show the General some love. I gotta break out the zouk too and practice on some finger work.

I know of thesession.org! I have yet to actually brave it, though, mostly because I rarely have time to spend on online forums. I have sneakily consulted it though for information on tunes questions occasionally, and I have noticed that TunePal uses it as one of its sources for where it gets its tunes from.