Learning Tunes
Opinion
19/9/2008, Liz Patton
Celtic music is a divided world – and I’m not talking about the rift between the traditionalists and fusion.
Time and again someone new to Celtic music asks the fateful question: “What’s the best way to learn these songs?”
This inevitably breaks into two camps. One side is learning from sheet music and the other is learning by ear.
There are pros and cons to each method and I’ll give you my opinion on how to navigate the educational maze.
Sheet music
A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with sheet music. It is a permanent, easily reproduced and
fairly universal method of sharing music. If you read sheet music it can be a very easy way to learn. If you
don’t read it well it can be a nightmare to decipher.
Pros:
Permanent – if you forget the song you can relearn it easily.
Accurate – if it was written down properly it can record enormous detail about the different ornamentations.
Copyrights – sheet music is more likely to be in public domain or released with free access (think open-source software
licenses).
Cons:
Reading it accurately – it can be very hard to accurate reproduce the difficult notations
Finding an accurate version – it can be hard to find an accurate copy.
Ornamented for the wrong instrument – it’s hard to notice until you swap between instrument families or learn from someone
on a different instrument but ornaments that work on one instrument can be nigh impossible to play at speed on another.
Variations – sometimes it’s just the ornamentations that differ from region to region, other times it’s known by a totally
different name.
Learning by ear
Traditionalists emphasize this method, because it’s been the main method of learning for centuries, since
most of the people who played folk music weren’t literate much less able to read sheet music.
Pros:
Precise – you can learn ever nuance of playing and fingering if you’re learning from a person or video.
Patience – CD’s, DVD’s and files don’t care how many times you play them to get it right.
Computer aid – programs like Transcribe! and Slow Gold can slow down recordings and make it worlds easier to figure out a tune.
Cons:
Skill – transcribing songs takes a lot of time, and can be very difficult.
Audio – just audio often misses small but important details like odd chords, tuning variations and, especially guitar,
fingerings that can make it very hard to learn from pure audio.
Copyrights – if I remember this right, by U.S. law pretty much every audio recording in existence is still under copyright.
Now there are some things being released for ‘open use’ but not much. And the Napster debacle wasn’t so long ago that we’ve
completely forgotten it.
Well I hope this has given you some ideas about the different learning methods. That said, I prefer to transcribe
stuff from audio files because I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out what’s going on and modifying the ornaments
to my playing ability. Once I’ve figured out a song I will notate it so I don’t forget it.
- Liz Patton
Things to help you:
| Online sheet music references: | www.TheSession.org |
|---|
| Videos | ? |
|---|
| Programs | Finale |
|---|
| Audiophile |
| Transcribe! |
| Slow Gold |
About the Author
Liz Patton is the founder of Celtic Music Nations, an avid Celtic musician and fan. She has played guitar and bass for over a decade, and occasionally dabbles in other
Celtic instruments like mandolin, bodhran, fiddle and tin whistle. She wrote and edited for the University of Texas at Arlington's student paper for two years.
She has an Associate's in Commercial Music from South Plains College, and a Bachelor's of Music from UT Arlington.
|
