[Harp-L] Memorising Tunes

[Aongus Mac Cana]

I am eighty years old and an indifferent harmonica player  having come back
to it after a sixty year lay off.

To tell the truth I was not even terrific at it sixty years ago.

I have discovered at this late stage that I am totally an ear player. Harp
tab is about as much use to me as Sanskrit - I find ABC tab marginally
better. I only use sheet music or tab for forensic dissection of the bar I
can't get.

I have been lucky enough to be able to attend the harmonica classes at the
Willie Clancy Summer School  given every year  by  Rick Epping and Mick
Kinsella. 

Rick Epping gave us one useful piece of advice: "If you have not got the
tune in your head you are unlikely to get it  out in your mouth."

The advice from some of you  to learn the lyrics sounds good to me. This
ties in with a belief in Irish Trad circles that you won't  play a slow air
properly unless you know the words of the associated song (if there is one).

At the Willie Clancy School Rick and Mick teach us new tunes a bar or two at
a time working through until we finally have the whole tune. I just ignore
the harmonica tab they give out as "I might as well be looking into a bush"

I used to learn tunes by listening, then whistling them until I had them in
my head. Unfortunately a bang I got on my head a few years ago left me no
longer able to whistle. Now I have to rely on my imagination to play them in
my mind. 

Life is too short to get hung up on playing a tune or a lick exactly as some
other guy does it. Hell! The take you come up with yourself might be better.

Beannachtai

Aongus Mac Cana