Learning Tunes by Ear

How to learn a tune without all those pesky dots.

by Art Friedman

Audience

WHY Learn By Ear? Notation is so handy.

• Ear learning is natural. People learn to speak before they read words, and learn to sing before they can sight sing. Playing by ear is just a small step from singing by ear. Many excellent musicians never learn to read―think of all the gifted musicians who are blind!

• Tunes are not always available in written form. Often you'll hear a great tune just whiz by without knowing its name or anything else about it.

• Much (most?) of the music in a tune is difficult or impossible to notate. For example, changes in bow pressure, subtleties of phrasing, ornaments, etc. There is standard notation for bow direction, but it's rarely used for folk music.

• Ear learning makes you a better player. Every player approaches a tune differently, and each repetition of the tune is unique. Learning by ear helps you become more attuned to these differences, and makes your own playing more varied and interesting. When you learn a tune by ear, the tune seems to enter a different part of your brain―the part that's directly connected to sound and music.

• The tunes become better tunes (really)! A tune has a life of its own―it's not static. People often notice regional variations in a particular tune, but that's only a small part of the story. As mentioned above, tunes are really works in progress. It's something like the "telephone game", coupled with natural selection―each playing of the tune is a little (or a lot:) different, and the better variants tend to persist. When you learn a tune by ear, you become an active part of its creation/development.

HOW To Do It?

• Carry and use a simple recording device. Some recording devices allow you to play the tune back at half speed, either at the same pitch or an octive lower. This can be very useful for working out the tricky parts of a tune.

• Listen to the tune many many times, until you can hum or sing it. If you have a recording you can play the tune as background music while you're washing the dishes. Then figure out what key it's in, and finally work out the notes on your instrument.

• Structured Memorization (a term I just made up) is a bit more formal. The idea is to break the tune into small chunks, learn each one well, and then gradually put them all together. A "chunk" can be as small or as big as you like. Its boundaries can be based on "measure" or on musical phrases. Some people like to learn the chunks in a simple linear pattern. Surprisingly, I've found that some of my students learn better when the tune is broken down in a more complicated "recursive" fashion.

• Tune Structure. Many tunes have an AABB structure, with each part being a standard length. In many tunes there are patterns, such as the B part ending the same way as the A part. It helps to notice this when it happens, because then there are fewer things to remember. Exceptions to standard patterns are also important. Here are some exlamples:
  • Trip To Durrow: B part is double the usual length and folds in some of the A part.
  • The Morning Dew: Has three short parts.
  • Texas: Has extra beats. [Unfortunately, I don't have a link for the tune Texas (I learned it by ear from a friend:). It's an American tune from Eastern Kentucky and is also called Newcastle. Some say Newcastle is actually its proper name.]

• Shape of the Tune (in terms of pitch). The American tune Kitchen Girl starts high and then falls in pitch.

• Tradition or Style (American, Irish, Scandanavian, etc.). Tunes from a particular tradition have common traits. Knowing something about them makes it much easier to learn a specific tune. Look for things like tune structure, rhythmic patterns, probable keys, and common phrases. Building up a phrase vocabulary is especially helpful. Irish flute player Margaret Sloan puts it this way:

  Tunes are like faces―most faces have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth arranged roughly in the same way. Most tunes in a given genre have similar patterns, but it's how those patterns are arranged that make the tune distinctive.

• Get physical with your instrument. Sometimes the phrase vocabulary of a tradition is best understood as a physical pattern on your instrument. Try to focus on what you actually do with your hands and fingers.

• Notice the "lilt" or pulse of the tune. Is it familiar? If not, what's different about it? Learn to accompany the tune on a drum or other simple percussion instrument.

• Chords. If you know how to recognize them, use them as a guide.

• Use "Hooks" to remember how a tune starts (B part of Hunter's House).

SKILLS To Work On

• Develop your Pitch Sense: Up or down? Recognition of intervals.

• Figuring out the Key: Where does the tune "resolve"? What is its mode?

• Recognizing Time signatures.

• Learn some chords on your instrument.

	This matterial originated with the handout written by Art Friedman for his workshop Learning Tunes by Ear presented at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival, 22 June 2003.

Art Friedman teaches fiddle in Mountain View and leads an Irish seisiun in San Jose, CA. You may contact Art at 650.224.5604 or friedman_art@yahoo.com.

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