Re:[Harp-L] Really old newcomer

[Snaruhn@xxxxxxx]

Hi old newcomer,

up to the moment you make your last breath it´s time enough to start playing 
the 
harmonica and your last note will be surely a blow. You write:

< I have a hard time actually memorizing any songs. >

Well, I´m a 73 old guy from Germany and have the same problem to memorize 
songs. It´s not that I´ve forgotten the first name of Mr. Alzheimer (most 
people 
in their best years have never leaned that he was called Alois, heehe), but 
because 
I know hundredh of tunes over the years and it can happen that a favorite 
song isn´t
available right away. 

I helped myself by installing a mnemonic aid knowing that songs learned as a 
child
or wellknown folk songs or often heard melodies are engraved in memory so 
deep 
you will never forget them. Here´s an example how that works for me:

My absolute harp icon is Toots Thielemans and his "Quiet evenings" is one of 
my 
favorites. In order to know immediately how this song starts, I looked for an 

"engraved" song with a same or similar beginning and found the "Tennessee 
waltz".

Indeed, "Quiet evenings" and "Tennessee waltz" have the first 4 notes in 
common 
and even the tempo is identical. 

Of course, I have to mention that in my case the beginning of any known but 
just 
not availlable melody is enough to visualize it in toto.

Keep on harpin´

Siegfried (an old "oldcomer")