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Just an article I came across of a neat little place in Chattanooga:
Characterize people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words.
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OMG! 🤣
...kinda the opposite, though 🤨 looks like they would be 'aiding and abetting' my music addiction!
Jeez, I'm well over a 200-tune repertoire... nothing spectacular, but having a heck of a time remembering any of the tune titles that aren't English - can't lose my little 'purple' book! 🥴
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200!! What a feat! I applaud your accomplishment!
Gosh, if I ever get to 200 my brain will be so overloaded it will freeze up or explode!
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@Strabo -
Thanks, but it's probably not what you think... I can't sit down and write the list from memory.
The 1st hundred weren't too bad for me - a quarter of them were Xmas carols (many I was already familiar with), but after that... Let's just say I have too many tunes I haven't played in quite a while, so if I lose my little tune book with the names, or if the internet goes to pot - I'll be up a creek without a paddle. I need to hear the first few notes to many of them now, as a prompt.
You'd be surprised at what you can remember if you hear a tune start up - the first few notes can even bring a rhythm back to mind.
🤔... in my little 'tune book', I wrote down who I heard play a tune (if it was important), but I sure feel stupid NOW, for not writing down the first 3-4 notes next to the names - especially since I've got a lot of tunes with names that aren't in English! Feeling REALLY lucky if I can remember what Country a tune came from.
I've started stashing titles in my profile at The Session, but many tunes I've learned don't have notation there (so can't list them) & my list (there) also contains tunes I haven't learned yet... haven't exactly taken time to see if there's a way to organize it better.
I know there's a thread here, somewhere, that talked about good ways to store a tune list...
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ELCBK said You'd be surprised at what you can remember if you hear a tune start up - the first few notes can even bring a rhythm back to mind.
Yes, when I don’t remember a tune, hearing the first few notes usually gets me back in the groove.
The fact is that my memory is getting worse. I guess that’s a normal part of aging, but it does interfere with my music. A main reason that I left classical music was that I had trouble remembering music, and I did not want to depend on sheet music. I liked the idea of more improvisational (traditional) music. But poor memory impacts even OT and BG music. So: what to do?
I have considered learning ABC notation as a simple way to show the first notes next to the name of the tune on my list (not 200!). Of course the time devoted to learning ABC is time not spent playing.
What a conundrum!
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@Strabo -
I REALLY don't want to learn ABC notation right now, either!
🤔... if 3-5 notes could give me an idea of rhythm, I don't need much more. Instinctively, I'd want to know the octave numbers, but don't think I need to be reminded of note duration - 'if' I know what is accented. Tune type & key would help, too.
So, if I just wrote notes as small case letters (with accidentals), followed by the octave number - capitalized letters could be what's accented (bold type even better). ...would be kinda weird for b flat (bb), but I could get used to it.
For EXAMPLE: [Drowsy Maggie (The Session): Edor Reel - E4,b4,e4,D5,e4].
Could also add up/down arrows to visually show pitch/melody movement (E4↑b4↓e4↑D5↓e4).
Not keen on going back and doing this for my whole tune list right now! 😖 Think I'll wait until I get around to typing it all out neat, or do it a little at a time. Typing would let me use BOLD lettering and also easy colors. I can start with this handwritten, now - it's not really much more info for me to jot down. 🤗
For the heck of it, I quickly compared this to the ABC notation.
RATS! 🤨 ...because I did this, I've pretty much (inadvertantly) LEARNED ABC NOTATION! 😳🤣
ABC NOTATION:
- Capital letters: for the C4 octave (add commas for lower octaves)
- small case letters: for the C5 octave (add apostrophes for higher octaves)
- accidentals: _ for flat, = for natural, ^ for sharp
- main note length is indicated (like L: 1/8), numbers indicate change (D2 is a quarter), (D/2, or just D/, is a sixteenth)
- letters with no spaces are beamed
HOW ABC NOTATION SEES NOTES:
For my own personal list... think I prefer what I mentioned first, because it's easier for me (at this point) to think in terms of octave numbers (my 6-string violin has a HUGE range), plus I want to remember what 'I' emphasize with a heavy accent - don't need all the other stuff in my tune list.
HOW I SEE NOTES:
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Ive never needed ABC notation because ive never posted anything on sites like the session. BUT after watching some of Michael Eskins tutorials im liking some of the things about it. like the real quick copy and pasting from a text editor. now thats neat.
as far as memory and tunes... if i was only playing at home. idk.. i think sight reading would be just fine. It is nice if someone says...oh you play fiddle...play something..you can without saying hold on let me get my music.
at the sessions ive been to..sometumes all it takes is to hear the tune and it comes back. i can jump in so.ewhere and play along. i dont feel like its mandatory to play all of a tune.. in tunes nice ..lol.. and in time nicer.
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Rusty, your comments reflect my feelings exactly.
I quit classical guitar because shaky memory made the sheet music a necessity. I was perfectly willing to learn music from the dots, but I was accustomed to playing from memory. When I couldn’t reliably do that, I switched to more improvisational music. I was not willing to be shackled to the paper and the music stand.
Now, my crappy memory sometimes blocks me from starting tunes that I know. After the sometimes-required “How does that go?” question, I’m fully capable of playing the tune, the A part, the B part, the variations, whatever.
So I’d like to have a mnemonic to help me out. Maybe ABC will assist here. On my list of tunes it’s not feasible to write out the opening notes in standard notation or tab. But ABC might work. And at its most basic level, ABC is pretty simple -- simple enough to annotate most OT and BG tunes.
I think I could easily gain basic proficiency in ABC to do that. I’ll give it a try.
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