 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Rasmussen
Date: 2000-12-21 03:30
Do you have any techniques for remembering melodies, either written or heard? I like to memorize tunes, and play from memory, but am not particularly skilled at memorization. I find that reading tunes shunts me into my left brain, and that getting the tune from there into my right brain is a chore. If I have to learn by reading I like to play the tune until I can do it pretty well and have a feel for how it sounds, then play by ear without looking at the music. When I come to parts I can't remember correctly, I sing them while looking at the music, and then play them without looking at the music. When learning from a recording, I practice playing with the recording until I can do it pretty well, then try to play without the recording, then go back to the recording for the troublesome bits, sometimes singing the troublesome bits, back and forth, and so on. So basically I'm doing a lot of repetition, some singing, and looking at the music as little as possible. I wish I were better at it.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2000-12-21 05:08
I know folk musicians (guitar, fiddle, etc) who play very well by ear, but despite their extensive experience and probable natural ability, I can see it is very hard work:
First, they play tunes over and over and over. They do this in jams. One thing which is very different about the folk musician world compared to the classical musician world is how much "practicing" is done together, with other people. Only it's not called practicing, it's called jamming. But it's really practicing. Hours of jamming together, interspersed with solid and liquid refreshments and story telling, is the folk musician's equivalent of long tones and Baermann etudes. Seriously, they play a lot.
Second, the tunes they play are generally not harmonically sophisticated, making them easier to acquire under the fingers. It's easier to learn a tune that's like one you learned before (you just need to keep them straight).
Third, they've all been doing it many years. This is the most important thing. I've yet to figure out how to have done something for many years I've only started doing:)
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-12-21 12:03
I used to be able to improvize jazz reasonably well, and vamp through chords and scales when I lost the meoldy. I started reading music about three years ago, with the result that now I can't play anything unless I have a score in front of me. .
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Author: Anji
Date: 2000-12-21 12:23
So,
When you have the chart in front of you, you don't need to look at it.
When the chart is off the stand, you don't know where to start... is that close?
It's simplistic, but my teacher has me hand scoring charts that are not written for Bb instruments. The combination of writing (in big print, no less) seems to engage my memory.
When studying a score or popular tune, I start with the catch phrase (pick-up note first) that is most distinctive, and work back from there.
My favorite local players understand music theory much better that I and follow the chord changes. That way if they flub a passage, they stay in key.
These guys also use your technique of singing the melody, this is also a proven mnemonic technique, just ask any medical student learning the digestive tract.
If'n it wuz easy, evribuddy wuddoit, and where' s the fun indat?
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-12-21 14:41
Ken i can play the same tune 110 times in a row and I couldn't tell you the first note. I have to read it.
My son can't read a note and picks everything out by ear.
I sound better then he does.
Do what you do and enjoy it.
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Author: Daniel Bouwmeeszer
Date: 2000-12-21 15:42
Ken
It depends on what sort of music you wanna play.. If you don't have the music for it, use a cd, and try repeating the music bar per bar, doing fast forward and rewind.
I like using my computer to copy difficult solos of jazz performers... converting the cd to wav, and then synchronize with the metronome of the sequencer.
If you have the music, my technique is :
- play the piece a couple of times reading the music.
- play the first 3 lines by reading the music
- try playing by memory as far as you can
- play by reading the music starting off where you got stuck playing by memory
- try playing by memory from the begining of the piece as far as you can
- And this continues like that, till you can play the piece from A to Z without any trouble
- When you work on clarinet repertoire you find out that after months of work on it you memorize it automatically.
Good luck
Daniel Bouwmeester
Geneva, Switzerland
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2000-12-21 16:18
One issue is your own memory strengths. How do you remember normal things? Another factor is being relaxed, if you are afraid that you will not remember, you won't. Also, try mentally playing from memory, that is imagine playing as much of the piece as you can (oh is this difficult!)
I know some who can see the score in their mind's eye.
Some actually use their ear, if they hear they can play it.
Many use muscle memory, just grind through it until its stuck there.
Some have the analysis in mind.
Some see what the fingers do.
A combination of the above may help.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2000-12-21 16:20
Oh yes, very important... Learn to sing the piece using solfege!
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-21 17:04
Ken -
You're doing the right things. It gets easier with practice. Always imagine you're singing.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: mary
Date: 2000-12-21 19:51
If you have a recording of the piece, listen to it over and over and over again. When I'm learning a new tune by ear, I put it on a short little cassette and listen to it in the car, rewind, listen again. I often do this before even undertaking playing it. It helps to know it really well in your brain before your fingers get involved.
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Author: Liesel
Date: 2000-12-21 20:15
Play the first bar until you can play it from memory. Then the first and second. Then the first thru third. Until you play the whole piece. By the time you get to the end, you should have most of it nailed. That's what I usually do. If that's too much than maybe try phrases one at a time. That's just the way I usually do it.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2000-12-22 00:43
is harder to memorize than those in C.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-12-22 02:17
??
When I memorize music it doesn't quite have a key. It's the tune I memorize, and transposing it comes naturally. eaning, the first time I heard the beginning of K.622 I picked up my Bb clarinet and played it - the correct absolute pitch, automatically transposed. Or playing "Oye Como Va" on the clarinet - you play the pitch, not the key. Who really cares what the key is - the notes lay under the fingers, and you play what you want to hear since there's nothing written.
NB - Solos by Santana are fun to copy on clarinet, as are the lead trumpet/flugelhorn/cornet lines of anything by Chuck Mangione. They're easy to follow and are "memorable".
I played guitar and bass "by ear" for many years - playing "on pitch" without thinking about transposition has always been pretty easy - i think it comes about by playing along with records a lot. But ... put a piece of sheet music in front of me and ask me to transpose it and I'll curl up and die ...
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Author: Ken Rasmussen
Date: 2000-12-22 02:45
I practice scale, chords, and patterns in all keys, from memory. I find that it puts things "under my fingers". I don't have much difficulty playing in different keys. It is always a bit easier to play something in a key I've practiced it in, but it usually isn't too difficult to play in other keys with a small amount of practice. Sometimes I encounter fingering problems that I have to solve. That slows me up a bit. I'm basically doing the same thing as Mark C, but not as skillfully. My question that opened this thread was prompted by difficulty I was having in memorizing Ave Maria. It has a lot of accidentals, which kept causing accidents for me. I've got it memorized now, but it seemed to be a bit tricky for me, and I was curious how others approach the memorization problem. I definately agree with Mark, that transposing by ear is easy, and sight transposing is impossible. I try to sing the notes mentally when I'm playing, and as long as I remember the song correctly in my mind I'm apt to play it correctly. My problem is that I often don't remember the song accurately. If I only had a brain!
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-12-22 12:17
Ken Rasmussen wrote:
>
> ... If I only had a brain!
Emulate the scarecrow and visit the Wizard of Oz!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-12-22 16:25
Ken Rasmussen wrote:
>
> That slows me up a
> bit. I'm basically doing the same thing as Mark C, but not as
> skillfully
Well, I don't know how skillfull I am :^) I think I started by ear and it's just the "baby duck" syndrome at work. I had a really hard time learning to read music - I started with piano in my late 30s, and while I never had problems with counting when I played jazz or blues or rock or whatnot - seeing the same rhythms on paper totally threw me. I still have trouble counting (and I hear I'm not alone, even up to the semi-pro ranks!).
> I definately agree with Mark, that transposing by ear
> is easy, and sight transposing is impossible.
Some people would reverse that statement. 8^) I think it really depends on your early exposure to music - but I've no proof.
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Author: Ken Rasmussen
Date: 2000-12-22 22:14
I started music late in life, and was a self taught reader. I became unhappy with my progress and deliberately switched to ear playing. It was quite difficult to make the change. For the longest time I couldn't play note one. I gradually became more skillful at it. Now I avoid reading as much as possible because it takes me the wrong way. Playing by ear uses a different part of the brain, and that is the part I want to develop, and play from. My natural tendency is to read, but I'm combating that.
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