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Author Topic: Teflon tunes!  (Read 2807 times)

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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #20 on: December 02, 2018, 07:52:57 PM »

George, that's good advice, and might well answer the problem with my original Teflon Tune.
It was one we really worked hard at over a weekend workshop. Then coming home, it just wouldn't stick despite me sort of half knowing it.
I suspect the 'force-fed' nature of a workshop tune meant it got stuffed down me without the normal time taken to digest it.
Given a break from it, the digestion process begins and the non-stick nature disappears as it gets learnt as per any other normal tune.
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Barlow

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #21 on: December 02, 2018, 08:25:42 PM »

I see the subject of memory and learning arise every now and again on Melnet, and it's an interesting one.

I am in awe of the people at one of my sessions who seemingly knows all the tunes. I managed to have a chat one evening as to how they managed to do this. I assumed she had been playing since a child and everything just falls into place as second nature. But no, she started playing in middle age and said some tunes had to be played literally 100s of times before they were anywhere near in memory. I was so relieved to hear this as my own small handful of tunes had taken many months and 100s of plays.

But something else I have discovered (for me anyway) is that the dreaded 'unlearning' to correct a tune or change a finger arrangement or the use of a reversal or whatever, is getting a little easier.

Brain: "What, you want me to now erase this bit of hard-wiring that I've spent so long to do? Oh OK then, if you insist".
And then a few days later "Ah, some more hard-wiring to be undone, yeah, I can do that. Leave it with me" etc

I suppose when we start experiencing the benefits of all this learning and memory, the brain is able to provide more of its resources to what is now no longer a seemingly fruitless task.

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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #22 on: December 02, 2018, 09:07:58 PM »


I see the subject of memory and learning arise every now and again on Melnet, and it's an interesting one.


It keeps cropping up because we've taken another turn around the goldfish bowl  ;D

I do find it odd, though, the way, the longer I play the more things seem to creep up to sabotage me.
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Greg Smith
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ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin. Ambrose Bierce

syale

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #23 on: December 03, 2018, 01:39:49 AM »

Reminds me of this joke:

Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"

"Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques-visualisation, association-it made a huge difference for me."

"That's great! What was the name of the clinic?"

Fred went blank He thought and thought, but couldn't remember.

Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"

"You mean a rose?"

"Yes, that's it!" He turned to his wife. . ."Rose, what was the name of that clinic?"

Stephen  :||:
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Mike Hirst

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #24 on: December 03, 2018, 09:04:01 AM »

In my experience time of day makes a difference.

I spent six years with busking my only source of income. I found that 10.00am to midday was my best earning slot. This was true regardless of location and passing trade. I play best in the morning.

Similarly, when I was working as a gigging musician I would sleep through the day and get up two hours before the gig. This way I was fresh and played to my best ability.

Now I take a more relaxed approach. I practice each morning for an hour, starting at nine o'clock. This is the time I play the best music. I'm alert, improvisation flows and I run through a wide selection of tunes - many of which I rarely play elsewhere. By contrast for sessions and gigs in the evening I always end up playing the same limited selection of hackneyed old chestnuts that I've been playing for the past 30 years.
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george garside

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #25 on: December 03, 2018, 09:51:13 AM »

I think there is a tendency for many when 'learning' to play the box and often 'self taught' to see the learning process as 'learning to play tunes' rather than the box!   I strongly recommend using a small number of carefully chosen (?graded)  tunes as vehicles to facilitate learning to play the box  including scales including the 'dusty end' fine bellows control  , intuitive use of bass etc etc.    When all that can be done without conscious thought  ( as in operating the gob) it enables many tunes that are in the head to be played  or session tunes to be picked up  more easily  as happens in 'singarounds' ( because the gob operates on auto pilot )

I usually have half an hour or so playing in the morning to loosen up arthritic fingers etc.  I  don't work from a list of tunes  but randomly roll from tune to tune  as they come into the head   and each mornings assortment will be different  .  I put this down simply to  being able to transfer   instructions down the arm,through the fingers and to the box  without  thinking about which button to press or bellows direction or bass.

Imagine having to send concious instructions to the gob to sing a tune.  open wider, blow harder, lreduce air pressure, purse lips etc etc etc  -its all done on autopilot

george

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Julian S

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #26 on: December 03, 2018, 10:30:15 AM »

I really ought to follow George's approach, particularly in warming up the fingers (and brain!)
My problem is not so much retaining melodies, but the variations, different chord patterns, cross rowing and so on which make all the differences. For Italian Rant for example - which I play in Gm on my D/G Dony (as requested by our fiddler) I'm really going to have to annotate the music as an aide-memoire. Auto-pilot - not yet !

J
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Teflon tunes!
« Reply #27 on: December 03, 2018, 10:50:19 AM »

I am in total agreement with Mike: Mornings is definitely my best time.
At weekends, a cuppa to wake up, then another cuppa to accompany me playing. I play the best then.
Evenings, after a long day at work I'm often too tired to be alert and doing justice to the tunes. Sometimes I simply stop as I don't want to start mis-remembering a tune through bad practice.
After an unexpected episode of events, it looks like after Christmas every morning will be a weekend  (:)

I haven't got into the habit of scales but do play through some random tunes that pop along and I know well as a form of letting my brain and fingers remember what a box is.
I'd happily go through some exercises such as scales but never too sure how to start, so my well known tunes are an easy option.

Julian: Thank goodness I'm a straight 2 row 8 bass person who plays only in the keys I want to  ;)
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!
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