how many songs can you learn ?

[smdc66]

I would say that you have learnt something when you dont have to think about what you are doing when you are doing it. :ch

i think this is very true but that non thinking stage must take years of practice to get to, if you can get to it (no im not going to ask :roll: )

it reminds me of martial arts believe it or not - if passionate you spend years doing drills to hone your skills so you can think of the best way to react to an attack, but this thinking (of everything you know) is what can hinder you doing the correct thing - unless you have reached a certain mental state (of not thinking) and then you can react quicker and in the best way eg bruce lee

:ugeek:

 

[TomBR]

I would say that you have learnt something when you dont have to think about what you are doing when you are doing it. :ch

= Wu wei - effortless action in Taoism.

(Ill get me coat)
Tom

 

[george garside]

to be able to learn to play a tune by ear/from memory it is absolutely essential to really master the mechanics the box without having to give any thought as to where or how a particular note is played. Praticing scales very thoroughly is an essential part of this learning process so that the fingers work when playing by following the pattern of the tune in the mind. eg next note is 3 up then 2 down then another of the same then 1 up etc etcc in more or less the same way as the mechanism of the gob is automatically regulated to match the thoughts of how a song goes - or something like that. Its easier to do than explain!

george

 

[Soulsaver]

to be able to learn to play a tune by ear/from memory it is absolutely essential to really master the mechanics the box without having to give any thought as to where or how a particular note is played. Praticing scales very thoroughly is an essential part of this learning process so that the fingers work when playing by following the pattern of the tune in the mind. eg next note is 3 up then 2 down then another of the same then 1 up etc etcc in more or less the same way as the mechanism of the gob is automatically regulated to match the thoughts of how a song goes - or something like that. Its easier to do than explain!

george

We could do with your recommendations on the Best Practice regime thread, George.

 

[Jim the box]

You can drive a car without having to think about it so why not play a tune or tunes on an accordion?

Just like driving it's practise, practise and practise. :tup:

 

[jarvo]

....except when your practicing the accordion you don't stand the chance or run the risk of leaving the road and ploughing through an ornamental flower bed , smashing through a fence, down a bank and into a river ....oh bugger....guess what ?

* squeak barble parp gurgle wheeze thhhhhhhh blubble blubble bubble ...........*


:roll:

 

[george garside]

I have never played a box whilst driving but in the days before I could afford ( or want) a car radio I used to keep a mouthie in the cubby hole to have a quick tune on if stuck in traffic

george

 

[george garside]

You can drive a car without having to think about it so why not play a tune or tunes on an accordion?

Just like driving its practise, practise and practise. :tup:

I often use that analogy. once you have learned to drive properly/well or whatever you can go anywhere provided you know where it is!. When you have learned to play the box properly/well you can play any tune you know

This may come quicker to by earists, especialy those who dont even know the names of the notes as they presumably think in terms of higher lower same again etc

However being able to flip up and down scales the length of the keyboard at a dead steady but reasonably fast speed is absolutely essential as is being able to change scales at any point eg start off with C scale until you get to A in the next octave then continue playing the A scale -- doing this exercise provides plenty of opportunity for arsing about and is therefore less boring than same scale stuff BUT - first master the ordinary scales including minors

Also beware of the myriad of so called tutor books that contain the standard few pages of theory and thereafter are nothing other than thinly disguised tune books..

george

george

 

[smdc66]

.... leaving the road and ploughing through an ornamental flower bed , smashing through a fence, ... thhhhhhhh blubble blubble bubble .......... :roll:

this should be on the list of 101 things to not do whilst driving..

i would say only play whilst a back seat passenger

:idea: actually just remembered a video posted by matt i think where he demonstrated this play safe code.

did he have his belt on tho (if fitted) :twisted:

:ugeek:

 

[Matt Butcher]

Yes I had my belt on, there's nothing more distracting than when your trousers fall down in the middle of a tune.

I think the tips on learning from session players on this thread are really valuable. I'm outside of the folk sessions world and I am always amazed at their powers of memory. I thik there's a lot in this thread on how the brain learns.

The thing about names of tunes is interesting because I know a couple of veterans of the hotel bar circuit who played standards on their accordions (often with simpler chords than would be on the sheet music, that's an observation not a criticism) and they tend to sit down to play with a list of tune titles. That's all, no notes, no chords, just the titles. But both said they would lose their way without the titles to trigger their memory.

On the other hand, my sister's a pro musician (West End shows, freelance orchestra and opera work, some pop recording) and you don't get that work unless you know what you're doing. Her sight reading skills are terrifying (and I'm talking about expressive playing, not just mechanically reproducing notes) and at any one time she has some complex classical pieces up her sleeve that she can play by heart. But how many songs/tunes/pieces does she know by heart at any one time? I don't think she has ever thought of even answering that question, it's not what she does. Totally different skills, totally different learning.

I'd like to be able to do all of it, but it's not going to happen.

David, to come back to your question, because of how you're learning, by ear, by memory, I suspect the answer will be that you can remember a lot of your tunes at any one time. I have found it helpful as memory training to play through all the simple tunes that I've learnt by ear (not the partly improvised stuff, the tunes that I learnt in a fixed form) in a medley, then have another go at the ones that gave me trouble. This seems to help me or give me confidence in my memory.

(Sitting with a sick person today so I might be rambling on a bit, time on my hands.)

 

[smdc66]

the thing is also over time you may knock out a few tunes by memory/ear or notes and forgot about them

as over time also i suppose you focus on different things and your area of choice may change

so you may know more than you remember you know or knew

that list idea is good as its also what i did for my 10 tune tiny tots concert (i also went a stage further and wrote a 1st note reminder down next to song in case i got stage fright(( :shock: well there was loads of them))

:ugeek:

 

[dunlustin]

I used to do this in my Folk Club days - adding key + capo position for guitar and found it very helpful.
I found the book the other day and had 132 song titles in it - songs I could get "back up" with a couple of play throughs.
I guess it's back to practice - couldn't do it now.