Playing by ear

[Giovanni]

John,
Always interesting and witty, as usual!

I remember hearing Reg Varney (of "On the Busses ") fame being interviewed ( and playing a tune on the piano) on radio.

Evidently, Reg was quite an accomplished pianist in the "pop" music genre. He explained he'd never had any lessons, but one, when he had decided, as an adult, to see what a proper teacher could offer him. 

Apparently, his whole first (and, as I remember the interview, only) lesson was spent in the teacher enthusing over and trying to write down Reg's riffs.

That was his one and only formal lesson!

He was also the first person to use an ATM in the U.K.  in 1967.

Reg Varney was a very good variety act and also could play the Piano Accordion …...I once saw him on TV the accordion was a Cordovox …..one of the later models …..sorry to say it was not connected up to the tone generator box via the thick multicore cable ….so it was only played as an acoustic accordion . His comedy situation series "on the buses " is still being shown on UK free view TV   

 

[Dingo40]

"I'm glad Birmingham pounds are accepted in Worcestershire, where we do most of our shopping, as it would be a chore having to carry two different kinds of notes. That's the "United" Kingdom for you. Another county, another culture."

Thanks for the insight into the astonishing state of the monetary arrangements in the UK: you couldn't make it up! It could provide the basis of a plot for a classic British comedy film! 
We have only the one kind of notes across the Commonwealth, except for a brief overlap between different issues , but they are all issued by the same agency.

Giovanni,
Thanks for your post regarding Reg Varney: they don't make them like that anymore.

 

[maugein96]

"I'm glad Birmingham pounds are accepted in Worcestershire, where we do most of our shopping, as it would be a chore having to carry two different kinds of notes. That's the "United" Kingdom for you. Another county, another culture."

Thanks for the insight into the astonishing state of the monetary arrangements in the UK: you couldn't make it up! It could provide the basis of a plot for a classic British comedy film! 
We have only the one kind of notes across the Commonwealth, except for a brief overlap between different issues , but they are all issued by the same agency.

Giovanni,
Thanks for your post regarding Reg Varney: they don't make them like that anymore.

Dingo,

All of the petty squabbles we had about which note is valid where disappeared when the shops displayed "Card Payments Only" and "No Cash Transactions" signs during the current lockdown. 

Our definition of what constitutes "legal tender" is complicated, and only applies to civil debt in the courts. All retailers throughout the UK have the absolute right to refuse any banknote if they are not satisfied that it is worth the face value printed on it, doesn't matter which bank issued it. The issue of Legal Tender does not apply to retail sales.

In the case of the Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, they currently have two (yes really!) different versions of the £5, £10, and £20 notes in circulation. These are all what we call "Promissory banknotes", and are not even legal tender in Scotland. You may be interested to know that the current Clydesdale Bank operations in the UK were formed in 2016 by the National Australia Bank, so they are now about as Scottish as a didgeridoo. 

Danish banknotes in Northern Ireland and Australian ones in Scotland make for an interesting life. Somebody came up with the notion for the country ID of "DUK", for "Disunited Kingdom", but nobody was prepared to accept payment to make the new car stickers! I suggested replacing the "D" with an "F", but still no joy. 

I share two similarities with Reg Varney. I was "On The Buses" (the real ones) for 12 years, and my accordion playing is a comedy act.

 

[Dingo40]

John,
Thanks for the entertaining story

"All of the petty squabbles we had about which note is valid where disappeared when the shops displayed "Card Payments Only" and "No Cash Transactions" signs during the current lockdown. "

The above sounds familiar. We also had it here, though-surprisingly- the shopkeepers appear the have become blasé about it lately.

Another thing, whereas shoppers had to pack their own shopping into their bags at the checkout themselves (at the height of the crisis), now the checkout persons quickly pack your purchases just as they did before the pandemic, as If it's all over: an odd feeling! :huh:

I imagine it's because of the disruption to the flow of customers caused by the clumsy, inexpert self-packers

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

I thank my learned former police colleague for his useful guide to British Banknotes.

Anyone facing the puzzling dilemma of how to get rid of Bank of Scotland or Clydesdale Bank notes please take heart. I am more than willing to accept all notes, and all it will cost you is the postage.

In cases where the number and weight of the bank notes exceeds normal letter post charges, please stuff boxes full of notes and send them parcel post.

Please don't thank me .......... I'm always happy to help.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Dingo40]

Very droll, Stephen!

 

[maugein96]

Very droll, Stephen!

Stephen,

At Edinburgh bus station I was about to leave for the 3 hours and 40 minute trek to Carlisle, when two Irish ladies sprinted towards the bus. 

When I opened the door the ladies asked me if I accepted Irish banknotes. They both had Ulster type accents so I replied in the affirmative. First lady paid her fare with a Danske Bank £10 note, no problem. However, the second lady handed me a €10 Euro note, and when I advised her I couldn't accept Euros she explained she was from County Donegal, and all the shops "ower the watter" in Northern Ireland just accepted them and gave the change in GB pounds. 

I told her it was her lucky day, accepted the note, and using a rough calculation of one Euro to be worth 90 pence, gave her change in GB coins. I went into a Polish delicatessen shop in Carlisle, bought some Polish sausage, and they were happy to take the 10 Euro note from me. I actually made about three pence on the deal. 

If you look at the Bank of England website they explain how the currency system works, and in one sentence they advise you that if your UK corner shop only trades in Pokemon cards, then that's what you must use, as they are entitled to insist on payment by that means. Problem is all my Pokemon cards were issued in the Isle of Man, and nobody on the mainland UK will accept them!

All the hassles involving banknotes on our cross border bus services from Scotland to England meant that it was necessary for us to become familiar with all the different types, and rules concerning them. It was all pretty boring, but very necessary. One night a drunk guy in Carlisle asked me how far he could get for a can of beer for a local journey within the city. I asked him to go and try and buy cigarettes in a shop with his can of beer and see how he got on. He walked away muttering, which was fortunate, as I had no sweets left in my change machine! The two stop journey to Stanwix wouldn't have cost the price of a can of beer.   

For the last 12 weeks or so my wallet has been empty of all cash, although I carry a £1 coin for the shopping trolley, even although it says "Bailiwick of Jersey" on it. 

They say that money can bring happiness, but maybe not if you live in the UK. You can be a millionaire in Glasgow, and down and out in London, depending on what notes you have.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hi John,

I still have some Maltese Lira in my wallet, even though Malta has now adopted the Euro.

Some of the more cosmopolitan shops in the big cities will accept Euros, but shopkeepers in my neck of the wood would show the door to anyone attempting to pass "foreign money."

Once again, anyone wishing to send large bundles of notes (even Euros) can rely upon my complete discretion. The money would go toward a new V8 Jaguar, and possibly a swish accordion. Give generously !!!!

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[Montanagirl]

I think truly playing by ear would mean you can play a song you hear almost perfectly because you recognize the intervals. Like "sounds like it goes down a fourth" or "that's the dom 7th"etc.

What I've done is worked stuff out and then play it by memory. My guesses at intervals can be really dumb unless I'm unusually tuned-in at the moment and can really hear where it's going.

But learning to read helps you learn better technique and new material. I've learned more reading in the last 10 years than I ever did in my youth...I was in too much of a hurry for that.

 

[hais1273]

It really dosen't matter how anybody learns to play. Purely by "ear" and purely from "dots" both have pro's and cons. I  often play with an almost completely "by ear" melodeon player,  he rarely starts in unison and his time keeping can be suspect but his playing is much free-er and enjoyably ornamented when he eventually does get going. One of the other people I sometimes do a few tunes with can only play from the sheets, memory and by ear are alien concepts to her. Her playing is solid but unimaginative and she dosn't listen to what  other people are playing, she fully believes that if I'm reading and counting so will everybody else, her playing is technically correct but dull and mechanical.

So which is better solid and unimaginative? Or arty and a bit unreliable? I'm sure I don't know.

By "ear" seems to be a skill you have to learn if you are lucky a good teacher will help you learn. You are incredibly lucky if you can play ear instinctively.

Personally I think Mr Hobos is about right, dots for introducing a tune and then have them availible for support, but not to be followed slavishly.

 

[donn]

I haven't troubled myself to learn to read music while playing the accordion, so the ear is all I have - but I am not super adept at learning a tune, if it's at all interesting.

I see someone mentioned the cassette tape recorder above. Oh how the computer has improved this process, and it has given me another tool I can use: the musical notation editor. The music player and the notation editor, together, give me a way to go through a tune bit by bit, maybe listening to a harmony or run over and over until I think I have it, and write down what I heard. (I can read music, just not on the accordion.) I'm sure if I did a tune a day or something, in varied musical traditions, I'd get so I could manage without, but this copying out method is a way to get a toe-hold. It also gives me a record of what I learned, where I may forget something I learned just by ear.

The other way to get a manageable size problem, of course, is to learn tunes that are easy, because they follow familiar patterns. Conversely, the copy-to-notation method has been obviously less useful with music where I can't figure out how to write the rhythmic structure, which has happened.

 

[Alans]

Ronen Segall has many videos online teaching people how to play by ear. He also performs and takes questions on you tube every Sunday afternoon. He runs a web site called accordion love which has many pieces for learning by ear. Personally it’s not an approach I would want to follow as in all of my other instruments I’ve been classically trained. Check out Ronen’s videos. He’s a wonderful,incredibly kind accordionist who loves playing and teaching. His Sunday concerts are Ronen accordion live. People send in requests on chat and if he knows the piece he plays it for his viewers. Really a great guy and wonderful advocate for the instrument, I just don’t believe his method is best for my learning.

 

[embers]

I'd like to add more dimension to the ears and dots discussion. Maybe no one will find this interesting, but that's okay.

During my late teens I participated in our music center's accordion band. One evening after rehearsal, the band director asked us to stay for a brief musical "demonstration" by one of the band members. So Tom went up front, and the director had him sit in a chair with his back toward us. Then whenever the director pointed to one of us, we played a RH note on our accordion. Tom immediately identified the note and the octave. This is one dimension called "perfect or absolute pitch." I've read that this happens rarely....maybe one in 10,000 persons has it. So this is how Tom's ears acted into his brain.

The other dimension Tom was gifted with was a photographic memory. However he was able to repeat a piece by memory he performed only once was beyond me. It would have been even more interesting if continued demos by Tom would have showed us that he could perform with no errors or deviation from those dots on the staves, and maybe all the musical directions which applied to the piece. I guess it is a good thing that Tom was not continued as an "experiment" at our studio! Anyway, this time Tom's eyes acted into his brain.

Would anyone like to try on these two capabilities for say maybe a week or so? I would. Just cannot imagine. BTW, Tom was an excellent accordionist and played other instruments. That was cool as he did go on to university for his musical studies. ~Bob

 

[Deleted member 101]

The great Shetland fiddler and teacher Tom Anderson said something like "you should never learn a tune you don't know!" meaning you need to be able to "sing" or "visualise" the tune.

Sound advice TomBR, from start to finish.
Orma

 

[TomBR]

Thank you Orma.

embers - That's interesting what you say about "Absolute pitch" (I think that's a better term than "perfect".) It's a gift in some ways, but I believe it has its downsides. For some people that have it, if a tune is played in a different key from what they're used to, it sounds like a different tune. If you're used to A440 and you hear music at A445, it's going to sound continuously sharp. If you play an instrument that's a semitone flat you're going to want to play your C major music in C# major!

 

[embers]

TomBR - Thanks for your thoughts on "absolute pitch." Yes, I'd say that your downside example might happen. Seems you've posed it that it could "trap" a person into letting go of what they are used to hearing. Very interesting. Certainly there must be scientific studies/research out there, which would address that. I think the alternatives to both gifts are numerous. Not much different from the suggested ways to play by ear. ~Bob

 

[Tom]

Probably if a person spent the same amount of time learning to play by ear as by note they would get it.