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Author Topic: Playing/learning by ear.  (Read 8059 times)

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sidecar

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Playing/learning by ear.
« on: November 02, 2011, 04:49:12 PM »

I started playing the melodeon about two years ago, a pokerwork D/G.  I use Maggie Moores and George Garsides books, plus various lessons, and practice for a minimum of an hour a day in total.  By using what seems to be the standard melodeon notation  (button numbering and push pull symbols)  I can play about 18 tunes from memory and and bits of various others.
     The problem is this is all very 'automatic' . When playing with others, and they play a tune I have not memorised, (which is very often)  I am lost.   I cannot even pick a few notes out to play along.
      Any suggestions how one can learn to learn by ear would be most welcome.

Thanks Denis.
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Lester

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2011, 05:00:49 PM »

For starters I would try to play tunes that you know really well but don't play yet. As it is now November I would suggest Christmas carols, the likes of Good King Wensleclas is a tune most of us know from an early age and is a relatively simple tune.

Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2011, 05:09:22 PM »

Hi Sidecar,
welcome to the merry throng.....

Lester is absolutely right, try to 'find' a tune that you know well on the melodeon and work out which sound comes from which button in order to play it.
Then try another tune... and another.
Like any learnt skill, you have to actually learn to do it, it's not some strange mystic art, just acquiring a skill.
Best of luck!
cheers
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

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

Lester

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2011, 05:15:49 PM »

Oh and my main learning point when trying to pick out a tune if you can't find the next note and you have stabbed around at all the adjacent buttons and it's not here 9 times out of 10 the note you are looking for is a repeat of the one you just played.

Bob Ellis

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2011, 05:48:14 PM »

It took me a long time to become any good at playing tunes by ear and some tunes still baffle me. For me, there were several steps in the process. First of all, I found it helpful to be able to play up and down an octave in G, D and E minor without thinking because they are the most common keys heard in English sessions (this assumes you are in England). That helps towards knowing instinctively where the notes are to be found, which will come with practice.

When trying to learn a tune by ear, the first thing I do is to identify the key. With most tunes, the A and B music both finsh on the key note, so play whichever one you think it is when the note comes around. If it doesn't sound right try other likely ones until you find the key. Then try and identify the structure of part of the tune. Many patterns of notes are repeated across a lot of different tunes (e.g. runs and arpeggios). If you know that a run is coming or an arpeggio, try to pick out the first note. Once you have got that, the rest of the phrase will follow naturally.

As you get more confident at doing this, you will also become more proficient: you will find yourself filling in other parts of the tune and you will more of these little patterns will embed themselves into your subconscious until you find yourself able to play whole tunes. It won't happen overnight, but the more you practise it, the better you will become.

Success is a combination of patience, determination and repetition. Good luck.
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Tufty

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2011, 05:51:12 PM »

I learn entirely by ear, no music, no ABCs or notation and like others have said I need to know the tune before I can play it. So lots of listening! I also find a mini recorder invaluable to record my early attempts and identify where I am going wrong. Occasionally I can pick up a tune in a few minutes but mostly it takes time and repetition  :Ph. If you find a short cut please let me know  ;D
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stevejay

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2011, 06:18:30 PM »

Play slowly. It really isolates every note. I'm trying to do this more (make every note count), especially with fiddle tunes. Easier to mash away at them, but trying to get away from that.

Edit

Having the tune in your head is the main thing though, absolutely, and a few phrases at a time etches it in.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2011, 07:56:10 PM by stevejay »
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ladydetemps

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2011, 06:45:24 PM »

Playing by ear is a dark art. Well its a mystery to me but I'm having a stab at it myself. I find a good way to practice is stick i-tunes/ipod on shuffle (all session tune in playlist) and then attempt to pick out tunes as they come along.
Oh and listen out tunes that sound like tunes you've already memorized.

EDIT: E.g. I know princess royal off by heart, heard the last few bars of bodmin riding and thought 'ooh, that has a bit like princess royal in it' so I can play that bit every time it comes round.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 09:03:21 AM by ladydetemps »
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TomB

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2011, 07:15:26 PM »

Hi Sidecar, welcome to Melnet.  I don't know if you have ever studied music to any degree, but if you have you will recognise the wisdom of the Bob Ellis post. Contrary to popular belief, learning music is not just about 'playing from the dots'. It's more about learning and becoming familier with your chosen instrument, learning where the notes are and being able to play those notes in any order required. It's also about listening to the music and trying to understand it, breaking it up into small bits and associating those bits with your practice playing scales and series of notes on your instrument. I'm just not a believer in the 'playing by numbers/colours' systems, learn your instrument thoroughly and the tunes will take care of themselves. If you are having trouble understanding that yourself, enlist the help of a teacher, their job is to recognise your problems and help you to understand and overcome them. If after an hours practice, you don't come away feeling you have learnt something more/new, then there's an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed.
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Gromit

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2011, 07:21:23 PM »

I try and learn most tunes by ear - sometimes looking at the dots to see where it's going but mainly using them to remind me how the tune starts.
What works for me is to start by learning to sing/lilt or hum the tune and then get a decent recording of it on to the computer, slow it down and learn it a couple of bars at a time so that I can play along with the recording at a very slow speed.
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2011, 07:52:10 PM »

LdT has made a very good point up there ^^^
If it's a new tune you want to learn - listen to the tune first.
Then listen again!
I know a tune's 'ripe for learning' when it pops into my head when I'm doing something else, and I can tumpty it a bit to myself. That's always a good sign that it's sinking into the grey matter. If I can hum it then it's only a short step away from reaching the fingers.
Then it's time for....  :|||:
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

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

malcolmbebb

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2011, 09:10:21 PM »

Oh and my main learning point when trying to pick out a tune if you can't find the next note and you have stabbed around at all the adjacent buttons and it's not here 9 times out of 10 the note you are looking for is a repeat of the one you just played.
Yeah, all right then smartass... I was just trying to recall a tune, on a hexagonal box, ???, couldn't find the note I wanted - then I recalled your post and it sounded all right - and then I found the dots and it was right.
Eight more to go, then.
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george garside

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2011, 10:05:09 PM »

 playing 'by ear'  ( more correctly learni;ng a tune by ear & playing from memory) is an art that can be learned  just as can the art of dot reading.  Over the years I have had far more students ( melodeon, buttn acc & piano acc) wanting to learn to play 'by ear than from 'the dots'

AT the risk of sting the obvious the key to success is learning listening skills. sopmething that many dot readers are not very good at -0 but then they are good at dot reading.

A few pointers!

When we listen to a CD or whatever for pleasure we listen to the overall effect & sit back & enjoy it so to speak.  To learn (memorise)  a tune we need to listen much more analytically to whats going on , particularly to repeated phrases, bars  , groups of bars etc. Thankully  there are a lot of 'repeats in much of our type of ;music.

AS otheres have rightly mentioned we must get   a tune stored in the head  before it can come down the arm to the box.  Therefore it maakes sense to start  by attempting to play bits of tunes that are already in the head


A fundemental difference is that the dot reader will start at the beginning  of a tune (where else!)  but the by earist  will play any bit of the tune that is in the head i.e start with little 'jingles' and then gradually fill in the gaps in any order!. If playing in a session work on same basis - join in with the bits of tune you can & doon't worry about playing the whole tune - with luck each time you play it you will get a few more notes in somewhere . This is one of the reasons why it is common practice to play tunes through 3 times  in a session.

Start with slow tunes ( airs, waltzes etc) 'cos you will be in with a chanace of playing them at something like correct speed whcih is more satisfying than playing a fast tune slowly!

As Lester has said - the next note may well be the same as the one you have just played & & if it isnt it can't be that far away.

Just a thought  - when singing , humming or whistling we don't send concious instructions to the gob - open wide, purse lips,etc etc we 'think' the tune & out it comes.  The ultimate aim of by ear playing is the same  i.e. think the tune & the computer in the head will automaticallysend instructions down the arm to the box .

There must be many more  thoughts & opinions  yet to come on this topic!

george

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TomB

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2011, 11:53:22 PM »

On a Transatlantic Sessions prog some time ago (can't remember which series) there was a Scots lady doing mouth music. She explained one of the uses was that pipers would learn a tune 'by mouth' before attempting it on the pipes. Maybe we should all diddle the new tunes before doodling on the melodeon  :||:  I quite often learn new tunes on piano first as I'm more at home with a keyboard and that helps to give me a head start on the button box.
[bit of thread drift here] I'm not sure about dots readers starting at the beginning, I was always taught to look at the whole piece first to get a general idea of the layout of the tune, sort of like looking at a graph, then when I started playing it, my fingers would have an idea of where to go.
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TomB

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #14 on: November 03, 2011, 10:57:55 AM »

That system of writing things down works great for me as far as words go, say the words of a song I want to learn, once I write them out they seem to go straight to my little grey memory cells, but it doesn't seem to work with me for musical dots and I can't read ABC fast enough yet. The quickest way for me to learn a tune is still to hear it being played. So I guess I'm a dots reader who mainly plays by ear. I'm normally right handed but I write with my left hand, so when I write out the dots with my left hand I reckon my right hand is too far away to receive the signals 'play this'  :D
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folkypete

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Re: Playing/learning by ear Thanks Sidecar
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2011, 12:08:45 PM »

Thanks for raising this issue Sidecar - I'm a dot man and rely on the written formula far too much.  I think to the extent that I'm lost if I do not have the music in front of me.  The advice that has been give here is really excellent and I'm taking heed of what is being said and will try my hardest to put all this into practice - as from today!
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Stiamh

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #16 on: November 03, 2011, 12:09:11 PM »

Lots of good advice here. Just remember that learning by ear is a skill that has to be developed. And you can develop it. Set yourself achievable tasks and don't give up. Start somewhere easy - Christmas carols etc. as suggested above - and keep at it. Don't give up. It takes time but it gets easier and easier as you go on.

Oh, and remember - don't give up.  (:) If you persist you'll be very glad you did later on.

MandoC

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2011, 06:52:19 PM »

I learn by ear by slowing down recordings of tunes I like to the point I can play along with them.  I use the computer program Transcribe! to slow the tunes down in pitch. Often I use the first time through the tune on the recording because it is the most unadorned version of the tune.  Transcribe! allows me to select how many times the clip is repeated. Once I get what I want, I export the tune either in Wave or MP4 file to Itunes.  I then make a playlist in Itunes of all the tunes I want to practice. I find this is more fun than practicing with a metronome and just as rhythmically correct because most artists these days use a click track on recordings.  There are many slowdowners (most popular is the Amazing Slow Downer, I think). I also write tunes out in notation using Allegro which is a lesser version of Finale.  I find figuring out the tunes and writing them out, accelerates me learning them.  I also have notation to refer to if a tune falls out of favor after a while.  I also have a playlist of the recordings at full speed, which I also practice once I get them up to speed. I can't sight read at all on the accordion.  Charlie
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Katie Howson

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2011, 12:44:56 PM »

I'm running a workshop on just this subject at next year's Melodeons and More in Suffolk (24th March 2012). All the ideas on here are just what you need to know to improve your ear-learning skills.

All tutors are now booked and details to follow on our website www.eatmt.org.uk - look at the news page and follow the links, or click the link at the top for Melodeons.

Katie Howson
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Steve C.

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Re: Playing/learning by ear.
« Reply #19 on: November 07, 2011, 01:19:38 PM »

Following along with all the good suggestions above, I share some of your "issues" one of which is very poor sense of tone and pitch.

So, when I want to learn a tune "by ear":

1.  Find a tune, usually a TOTM one, that I really really like.
2.  Find a recording of it, on YouTube or wherever, convert to MP3 and listen to it over and over and over and over, until it is so in your head....
2a.  Pick a version of it that is really simply done, no fancy keys, no ornamentation, done in your key and same box as yours
2b.  Stick to tunes in G, maybe D
3.  Look it up on tunefinder to determine the key, and starting note.  (slighy "by ear" cheat here).
4.  Then, just noodle it out
You'll be surprised, but once you have done it, your confidence with be up and it will be easier next time, and easier the time after that.
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