Optimus - Posted - 07/26/2007:  20:29:45

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I'd say that I'm 2 for fiddle and 1 for classical music. Generally with fiddling, I learn completely by ear. It seems to me that sheet music cannot truly capture the feel of a tune like aural learning can. There are just so many subtleties in fiddling that it's impossible to play like the greats if you are confined to reading off a sheet of paper. Reading is always a great tool for learning, but most fiddle teachers will recommend dropping sheet music after the basics of the tune are mastered.

hucktunes - Posted - 08/02/2007:  16:13:25

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2 for me. I learn tunes from books but never read when I play. Many times the guitar player that I play with has a completely different interpretation of a tune, he's learned it differently. And then I'll likely change some keys to tunes I've learned from a book. Such as Satisfied, from Phillips Collection Vol. 2, is in F but I play it in D. Same with White River Stomp. Great tunes but I have a hard time intonating in F and guitar players don't like F unless they use a capo.

Beware The Musical/Industrial Complex

drypitstop - Posted - 08/02/2007:  23:35:22

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Hello all I am a five, although I took violin in junior high, a long time ago, and just a few years ago at the college level, they had a orchestra workshop, mostly adults, oldsters like me and some kids, I couldnt keep up even in the beginners section, I just wanted to start basic reading music, so I could learn to play all those wonderful fiddle tunes that some people had on sheet music. bummer I just couldnt get in line with class all thos fly speck on paper, and besides the teacher had a PHD in music and played a beautiful violin, but hated fiddle music, said it was a very crude and vulgar way of playing the proper way, some of it she said made her want to vomit,, "oh well " I quit taking lessons, I can read some of the scale but that is it,,, Every good boy does fine and F.A.CE have a nice day, check out my web page.....................DEnnis in Arizona

Dennis K Russell

Renaissance_Woman - Posted - 08/02/2007:  23:39:35

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I'm a 1 ~ and proud of it.

I say that because I get the impression that playing by ear is the more acceptable method. That surprises me because when my parents learned I had perfect pitch and was able to play my older sister's music after hearing her have her lesson, they shamed me and made me quit taking lessons.

I read music well which has served me whenever I've taken up a new instrument, the most recent being the mandolin. I don't always have access to hear the music played by someone else, so being able to read the notes allows me to learn new pieces.

If I play them often enough and on a regular basis, I'm then able to play them by heart. But, for me, learning a piece by reading the music first is the way to go.

Suze
Making music for the JOY of it!

ladymuse - Posted - 08/03/2007:  00:47:39

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Just thought I's mention this -

if you do want to get better at hearing deciphering by ear, or want to get better at reading - (basic music theory) try writing it down.

The more you write 'by ear' the faster you get at hearing, (and transcribing something you hear and want to remember.

It's the practical application that solidifies the process, and time after time spent on it will make it come easier.

(and the first few times, it just might seem to take forever - but start out even (with your fiddle) with mary had a little lamb, or row row row -

play it on your fiddle, and the try writing it down - (manuscript paper.

I have taught people to read that way, when no there reading would sink in.

practical application one note at a time, makes the dots real., if you have the hankering to learn to read -

Sometime reading comes way faster if you get the hang of why you are doing it one thing at a time - otherwise it will just be a blurry set of flyspecks with odd lines amd numbers and strange b.#. and curlicues.

When you choose to write it, it all starts falling into place and ceases to be a confusion -

Jen

All fid up and loving it!

Fidlmom - Posted - 08/03/2007:  01:32:40

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2) I don't use it much for my playing or teaching. I can never remember tunes I learn from sheet music. I believe it is important to hear the music to really do it justice especially within the Texas Style genre.

Preserve and Perpetuate!

dwoolsey - Posted - 08/03/2007:  02:57:05

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#5. I don't read music at all. I made a decision when I first started to play fiddle that I would try and play like my dad played---he played totally by ear. I had several friends that were also learning. They read music and would work together and before you knew it they were miles ahead of me. I'm glad that I stayed with my oringinal plan because I don't sound like everyone else. And I notice that I kind of feel out of place on this website --I'm completely in the dark on most of the subjects. I went down the path that my dad went down and I wouldn't change a thing.

fiddlepogo - Posted - 08/03/2007:  04:03:33

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dwoolsey,
I wouldn't feel <too> out of place.
I did a tally so far:

1/////
1.5/////////
2/////////////
2.5//
3//
3.5/
4//////
4.5/
5//////

While the reading end is heavier, (27)
there are 13 on the non-reading end.
6 of those are total non-readers.
(and some of your fellow non-readers are really good fiddlers!)
That's slightly more that those totally dependent
on reading notes!

The really lonely place is in the middle:
there are only 5 of us there....

Michael

http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1088
for mp3s, blog, and "Michael's Old Time Fiddle & Banjo Hour"

"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" - Walt Kelly's Pogo

Abenaki - Posted - 08/03/2007:  14:20:52

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quote:

---

Originally posted by dwoolsey

#5. I don't read music at all. I made a decision when I first started to play fiddle that I would try and play like my dad played---he played totally by ear. I had several friends that were also learning. They read music and would work together and before you knew it they were miles ahead of me. I'm glad that I stayed with my oringinal plan because I don't sound like everyone else. And I notice that I kind of feel out of place on this website --I'm completely in the dark on most of the subjects. I went down the path that my dad went down and I wouldn't change a thing.

---

I read music, but I feel that we have a lot more in common than differences. The Fiddle Hangout has me questioning many opinions and beliefs that I have concerning the fiddle, how it is played and other aspects that I had not considered. I have learned more in the past 6 weeks than I have in the past 6 years. This is good!
I have been in the dark, or have ignored several different aspects of fiddling without knowing so. At lest you acknowledge being in the dark.
As far as having your own style goes, I feel that no matter how much you borrow from other player either in the written note or by listening/watching, you will always have a unique style.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Scales, scales, scales. The fish will come later. . .
Aw the heck with it, I gotta fiddle!

Swing - Posted - 08/03/2007:  14:48:47

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Both... I can read notation and can learn by ear.... sometimes I use both to get the version of a tune I want to play.

I would comment that the people I know who learn only by ear have a better sense about a tune and perhaps learn it more quickly. I feel that learning a tune and playing a tune are close to the same skill and it is really up to the individual to make up their mind which they feel most comfortable with... it is certainly not a right or wrong issue.

Just don't bring a music stand to our session....unless you can lay it flat so we can put our evening snacks on it.

Play Happy,

Swing

Monkey - Posted - 08/03/2007:  16:07:05

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I'm a "1". It isn't the "only" way, but certainly the fastest way for me to learn anything moderately difficult is to have it written down. At a reasonable tempo I can play most traditional fiddle times through without ever seeing/hearing them. It really didn't take that long to get to where I could do that, just consistent repetition and putting forth the effort to make it happen.

I improvise a lot too. I use chord charts (with measures notated, so you can count) and lead sheets (chords with a simplified melody) for jazz and traditional music. I memorize too, but not everything - just what I have time to fit in.

Position changes, fingerings, dynamics - it would really be slow going if I couldn't write those down. And arrangements for other people... that would be impossible. I just can't imagine how long things would take and how limited my playing would be if I were not be able to read music.

dwoolsey - Posted - 08/03/2007:  18:50:26

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Abenaki--you're right about all the wonderful information that is being shared here. Everyone is so helpful and the differences of opinions are very interesting to read. I guess "birds of a feather do like to fly together" and it makes me feel really nice to find out I'm not the only one that doesn't read notes.

dwoolsey - Posted - 08/03/2007:  18:59:22

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Fiddlepogo-- thanks for posting this topic. It helps me in getting a clearer picture of our group and where I fit in. :)

oriley - Posted - 08/04/2007:  08:36:55

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Number 2. I can read, but why would I want to? I don't want to be beholden to no stinking music - because then I fear dependence on the page. I'd rather be able to play with the group (or not be able to play with the group but at least try). Mostly I'm like that guy who said, "Hey Wild Bill...Wait for me!"
Laura

brian2 - Posted - 08/04/2007:  23:30:21

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2 for me.

I know how, but why should I be bothered? I could pick up something by ear faster than I could get to the fourth measure reading something.

fiddlenbanjo - Posted - 08/15/2007:  10:57:47

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I can read and mostly use it when learning a tune, never when playing.

Amazing Slow Downer works great for me too. I can slow it down as little or as much as I want.

Jessi - Posted - 08/15/2007:  14:25:29

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I think of myself a 1.

I can sight-read most things tossed my way as long as there aren't more than 4 sharps or flats. For those pieces I need to work through the music a little to get it right. Since I had band teachers through school, I learned to sight read with good timing and rythym.

I was in a string quartet where we were always reading through lots of material to pick out a few for our performances. I needed to be good, since my comrades were top players in the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

I love being able to pick up a Mel Bay book and run with a tune, but my ability to memorize sucks.

I'm working on that.....

Daniel - Posted - 08/16/2007:  22:14:55

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I guess I'd be a #4. I play piano, but I never read music for fiddling. I used to, but it's just easier for me to do it by ear, and with a lot of the really obscure tunes I play, I don't think there's sheet music for them anyway.

"A banjo will get you through times of no money, but money won't get you through times of no banjo."

-- John Hartford

John Gent - Posted - 08/17/2007:  00:52:12

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I guess I'm a 3.

I've always wanted to learn to read music and now I'm learning. My teacher wants me to learn - but doesn't push it (much).

So far I've been reading a tune long enough to commit it to memory and it's been working well. Of course I haven't been at it that long so the list is pretty short.

- John Gent

strokestyle - Posted - 08/17/2007:  17:21:26

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#5 for me...

zoukie - Posted - 08/19/2007:  09:22:58

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No. 3, sort of. I read a little, if it's simple music, written with no dots or breaks or other stuff other than quarter notes and eighth notes. I use written music sometimes to learn new tunes.

ladymuse - Posted - 08/19/2007:  16:41:51

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One of the reasons I am glad I read, is that i have 2 newbies that come to play, and since they want to go to the NNBA Jams, that means that until you hear the tune, you can't really learn it by ear if you haven't a clue what it is -

But I have been able to take what I know and note it down, or find royalty free workshop sheet music (I transpose it if it' s not the key (rarely), and then I learn it by writing it down -

but since one doesn't read at all, which is fine too, I can then do a midi/mp3 simple melody for them to listen too - (if we can't find an actual version)

Of the 100 top played (lead sheets, lyrics and chords}, so far I have 61 down, so that there is a reference for those who need to hear, or need to read -.

they can tatke it and play it anyway they like, but I have found that "melody players" aside from singers are somewhat at a loss if they are new, and I think that may be one reason there are wonderful amounts of banjos and rhythm guitarists, but few mandolinists, and fewer melody (harp and fiddle) players.

they just get too overwhelmed. Change the "too many tunes. too little time" to too many tunes, not enough time to even begin get them down"

I am seriously looking at starting back up on the fiddle jams, so that those who are newer , (and those who just want to play more, have somewhere to go and get or keep the feet/chops wet - have a place or a reference point -

We had one lady, a Cindy, who was doing that awhile back. but that seems to have become nonexistant for awhile.

Besides I am on a crusade to find, make or get fiddlers playing -
(yeah, there is a fiddler's association still in my head, and working it's way out, bit by bit)

Sigh - anyone know where there are a couple kegs of cash stashed? LOL! It would be great to go at this full time, instead of piecemeal between jobs -

So the only way I can teach 'em is to be very thankful I read and can hear to note down the ones I have to research for me -

And I keep it simple - (no ornaments, etc. Straight rhythm and then they can embellish or add when they are at that stage - or we would work on variations -

Jen!

All fid up and loving it!

Chester & Chloe - Posted - 08/23/2007:  00:03:29

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1 Reading is great! But being able to memorize and devlop your own style is good too.

ladymuse - Posted - 08/23/2007:  04:03:41

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Hey! Yes there are readers, but remember in fiddling, and any music - it's a TOOL. It's not everyone's necessary tool -

when I am playing or jamming I play by ear. If I hear a tune I like, I'll learn it by ear -

I just enjoy reading thru manuscript on my own time - and if I can hear it in my head, and I like it, I play it - but only to get it off the page and into my ear!

(The key word hear is HEAR it!) So just look at those who use little hieroglyphs, or squiggly bobs. as writing too -
Chord charts and cheat sheets are writing, too - just different ways of noting it down -

It's a tool for me, in order to get music out - and to turn on others who need/want to hear how something"goes" and I don't know it, I can find it, "get " it, and thus play it for them until I and they have it -

I find it a handy and useful tool - but I don't go around with a marching band lyre attached to my fiddleneck! LOL!

Just depends on the purpose you are going for - by ear or writing -
notes to self, or a record of something in case anyone needs to hear it. It's great for beginning jammers, to have something tangible if they want.

I don't force anyone to read, nor think less of them if they don't - after all - it all leads to the real thing ! -playing the music!

Jen

All fid up and loving it!

Ozfiddler - Posted - 08/23/2007:  06:07:18

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Can read a bit but very slow. Luckily seem to be able to play by ear so learn all my toons from CD's. At least as a novice they become "my" versions. If I really struggle as I did trying to learn "Little Billy Wilson" from Bobby Taylor's CD, I use notation to fill in the gaps.

Ozfiddler

dblespresso - Posted - 08/23/2007:  14:16:27

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1.5 for me. I've played a lot from sheets over the years in other genres. I'm fairly convinced that it was my ability to sight read that kept me in my college chorus, because it certainly wasn't the quality of my voice. However, with fiddling, few transcriptions do justice to a tune, so I might seek out sheets to get a skeleton, remind myself of how something goes, or survive in a performance situation after missing the several previous practices.

Drew

Scoville - Posted - 08/23/2007:  15:44:09

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I'm a 3: I read poorly (getting worse as time goes by and I forget more of it, too) but still resort to it when I get stuck on figuring out a tune or when I don't have a recording.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Tune unto others as you would have others tune unto you.

Ozfiddler - Posted - 08/23/2007:  20:21:45

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Anyone wanting to slow down a toon, try Windows Media Player 10 or 11.
Just rip the tune to your library, (converts to MP3 format) then go to 'now playing' and select 'play speed settings' using the two arrows at the bottom left of the screen, works instantly on any toon in your library.
Works for me!

Ozfiddler

Couchie - Posted - 08/24/2007:  11:14:21

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I'm about a 3. I am comfortable with reading but I would't call myself fluent.

0=='=# + CD=#

Don.

drypitstop - Posted - 08/28/2007:  14:21:09

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I am about a 3 and half cant read writting and cant write reading, I can eck out enough music from fly specks on paper to figure out what it is, I do this on my mandolin, when I think I got it I transpose it to my fiddle...............Dennis in arizona

Dennis K Russell

bj - Posted - 05/30/2008:  19:35:51

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I'm a 4.5 who used to be a 3 once upon a time. I just find that the damn scribbles get in the way. I can do it much, much faster by ear. If I do have to pick out a piece from the music it's infinitely quicker for me to pick up the guitar or walk over to the keyboard and play it out, THEN pick up the fiddle after hearing it (and at that point I'm not looking at scribbles.)

Me on the Web --
http://doneinstyle.com

manualanimal - Posted - 06/02/2008:  06:32:17

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I suppose I'm a 3. Just last night I was playing out of the American Fiddle Method book/cd (vol. 2) and decided I wanted to learn "Swallowtail Jig." (I seem to be in an Irish phase again.) I mostly play by ear, to get the rhythm and feel of a piece, but the sheet music helped me figure out some of the notes -- the "logic" of it.
It was quite exciting to get the gist of a tune in a fairly short time, and end the weekend on a high note.

drdosido - Posted - 06/02/2008:  09:17:56

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My answer is 1. I read fluently and, at the present, am plowing through a lot of tune books looking for gems. There are long periods of time when I don't pull out any tunebooks at all. But right now, I'm exploring music for which no known recordings exist, because either the tune books are from the 19th century or from parts of the world that don't match my collection of recordings.

Also, I learned quite well by ear. And find myself moving further down the path to my ultimate goal: where reading a tune is the same as hearing it. I don't know if the goal is completely attainable, but I can see personal progress. Why it's important to me, is that it's much easier to remember a tune if I learned it by ear. It I can hear it as I read it, I'll be able to remember it without memorizing it.

magnuscanis - Posted - 06/02/2008:  09:21:00

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I'd be somewhere between 1 and 2. I read music pretty fluently and use the dots extensively in some types of music that I play but try to avoid playing from written sources as far as possible when I'm playing the fiddle.

Nonetheless, I sometimes find it useful to be able to glance at a page to remind myself how a tune starts.

- Magnus

TimK - Posted - 06/02/2008:  09:28:08

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I'm a 2. I learn new tunes both from manuscipt and by ear. Once learned, I committe them to memory and never use sheet music while playing.

TimK

_______________________________________________________________

Wrangle up yer mouth parts, drag yer banjer out, tune yer ole geetar till it twangs right stout, for the snow is on the mountain and the wind is on the plain, so we''ll cut the chimny''s moanin with a livelier refrain.

rastewart - Posted - 06/02/2008:  10:37:26

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On the fiddle, a 1.5, more or less. I generally learn a new tune from notation but then practice it without the music, and if after a while I go back to the score I learned a tune from, I'm often surprised at how different it's become.

I also tend to use the sheet music with Carol Wheeler's Aerobics for Fiddlers--well, again, especially when learning a new exercise, not necessarily always thereafter--but as that's different from tunes, I will check back and make sure I'm still doing an exercise the way I'm "'spose ta" be doing it.

As some have said already, "with music" and "by ear" are two different and complementary tools and abilities. In fact, after my years of classical and choral training, learning to play by ear and improvise has been a great source of pleasure and satisfaction, and I hope to develop more of an ability to learn new tunes by ear.

~Rich the Erstwhile Music Geek

_____________________________________________

... in savage and impenetrable darkness with chaos and pandemonium before me, and the demon madness of that night-baying viol behind me.--H.P. Lovecraft

vajrabum - Posted - 06/02/2008:  11:38:32

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I fit:

2. I read fluently but don't use it much or at all in my playing

probably to the chagrin of the people I play with. I've been working on my ear and put away my Fiddler's Fakebook and other such about a year ago. I generally do try and record the jam doing a particular tune and learn from that rather than on the fly. I can play a second fiddle sort of thing to a tune I don't know if the guitar knows the tune.

Cheers, John

MikeyBoy - Posted - 06/02/2008:  12:49:20

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I'm a 2, maybe a 3. I can read well enough I guess, but as far as fiddle tunes go, reading is good for only figuring out the notes/phrases I can't figure out by ear. If I try an learn a fiddle tune only by sheet music without ever hearing it, then I find a recording of it, there is usually only the vaguest of resemblances. I might play it fluidly, rythmically "correct" and at a good tempo, but I seem to miss the point of the tune. It's hard to notate "feel," especially as it relates to OT fiddle tunes. Or, it is hard for me to interpret "feel" from notated tunes.

dragonflynda - Posted - 06/11/2008:  17:10:57

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#1
Have always read music since started learning. I have no problem reading the music after being away from playing the violin for several years - a friend of mine told me I would have trouble, but no. The thing I would have a problem with now is transposing it, etc., since I used to do that to play my sister's viola. Don't have to bother with it now. I have always hated to play something that I haven't heard before. Regardless of whether I can read the music or not, it just seems odd not to know what it is supposed to sound like.

Lynda
Dragonflynda

DougD - Posted - 06/11/2008:  17:41:59

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Here's a thread back from the dead!
I guess I'm a 2. I started piano lessons when I was about 7, so I learned to read music about the same time I learned to read words. I can play from "1000 Fiddle Tunes" or "O'Neill's" and such to hear what the outline of a tune is, and communicate with other musicians in conventional terms, but my old time playing is by ear. I don't think there's really another way.

PS - I thought about this a bit when we had a recent Highwoods get together, and I think that band was about 3 to 2 readers. It didn't matter much in practice though. It was interesting to see what techniques (Amazing Slow Downer, Media Player, resampling files) we use to learn tunes these days. I think I'm the only one who's resorted to a spectrum analyzer to find one tricky note!

---

Edited by - DougD on 06/11/2008 17:48:23

mikey - Posted - 06/11/2008:  21:19:30

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I'm a 1, but I also write both treble clef and bass where required. I don't use it in my everyday jamming/playing, but I also play a lot of studio and live drama. The scripts are very long, tedious, and impossible to memorize in a few short weeks. Just read and play.

There are people who feel that reading and writing English is not very useful, but of those who do read, none of them will ever wish they had not. Music education is the same as any other education: One is not so quickly recognized for having it, as much as quickly recognized for being without it. Any employer will tell you the same thing. Literacy is here to stay, its not just a fad. A musician who is not literate in music misses out on as much as a normal person in life who is also not literate in his or her own language.

I took lessons and learned to read music in a few short months, I've never looked back, Its taught to small children in grade schools, How hard can it be?

MIKEY


Always Remember: You are Special and Unique...Just like Everyone Else

mojo_monk - Posted - 06/13/2008:  13:04:24

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6...there are notes on a fiddle?!?!

I've been an ear learner (on the guitar and banjo) for many years so the prospects of learning to read have never been too appealing to me. Besides, with all the technology available these days a person can get pretty far with a MIDI generating notation program + a vivid imagination. I'm also a huge proponent of slowing down old recordings to figure out a tune. Its all in the ear IMHO.

Sean
Charleston, IL

rafa - Posted - 06/13/2008:  18:15:36

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Hi All,
I cant understand. Of course it is much better to be able to read notation. There is such a wealth of written tunes available. It is not neccesary to pla y it like it is written but you can run through so much material and get the gist of a tune and then fix it up to your liking

dlight - Posted - 06/15/2008:  05:48:58

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I guess I'd be a 1. Like an immigrant who's never forgotten his first language, I've been reading standard notation for so long, including some 30 years as a church musician, that it's pretty much second nature to me. As a guitarist who's come to fiddle relatively late in life, I frequently use guitar to figure out fiddle lines, especially when they're high up on the neck. I'm sort of in that "transition" period between the two instruments, rather like a second language speaker who's relatively fluent but still has a thick accent! Reading guitar music was my first musical "language", and I'm very thankful for it now that I have a "transferable skill", as teachers call it. Because I played "up the neck" for so long on guitar, seeing those notes on paper don't alarm me now that I'm applying them to my learning fiddle.

Practice makes perfect, but since nobody''s perfect, why bother??

SMDTMTL - Posted - 06/15/2008:  09:52:57

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hmmm.

I'm a 5 with a couple idiosyncrasies... I know How to read music, (having learned that in elementary school,) but this knowledge has absolutely no impact on anything that I do... I play a bunch of instruments, (as so many of us here do) and "by ear" seems to be for me about 50,000 times faster...
An interesting quirk I have though is that I could almost instantaniously tell you at any time what interval I'm playing,,,, ( a third- a seventh- a sharp five--- whatever) I think this is for me a hold-over from how I learned to play the guitar... I always wanted to be able to use anything I ever learned in any key, so from the start, in memorizing guitar licks, they were always intervals to me... Using words instead of notes, I could tell the story of any guitar phrase I know, but of course I could play that phrase 20 times in the time it would take to tell the tale... but it's interesting and helpful knowledge... It's very important to me I think..

This system has carried over to the fiddle... but since I play everything in first position, there is none of that guitar continuity you get by simply moving the same patterns up and down the neck..

I play by ear, and am happy with it... I also think those who play by ear have an advantage in remembering tunes... the extra attention you have to pay to the notes in trying to figure out what they are, I believe, helps to plant them pretty firmly in your brain... just my theory...


Anyway, I wish the rest of life made as much sense as music does.

Steve

bj - Posted - 06/15/2008:  10:15:34

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After re-reading this thread I've come to the conclusion that our choices in reading music, not reading music or somewhere in between, have more to do with the way each of us learns things, our personal learning process, than anything else. Probably the right brain vs left brain favoritism thing. There is no right or wrong way, regardless of what some people believe, though certainly someone who wishes to make a career as a studio musician will need to develop reading skill at some point, so some of that right/wrong thing may also depend on your goals as a musician. Me, I just wanna have fun. So as long as I'm doing that I'm accomplishing my goal. Which means all the sheet music and tab is stuck in a closet somewhere, gathering dust. And if I wasn't such a packrat I probably should put it all up for sale in the classifieds . . .

^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^.^
Me on the Web --
http://doneinstyle.com

My inspiration:
http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh14633812588807237

Skunkhound - Posted - 06/15/2008:  18:58:45

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3

Say it might have been a fiddle, or it could have been the wind.............

dogmageek - Posted - 06/16/2008:  19:38:27

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I'm somewhere between 1 and 2. I read music pretty fluently
but mostly I transcribe what I hear into music files. I currently
have several thousand transcriptions that I have made. I read
those most readily, but can also read tune books; though I
think that they are often wrong. So I modify the tunes in
the books unless I just can't figure out what to do to them to
make them work. I also modify the tunes I learn by ear from
the people that go to my session that learned them from a
book or that learned them from some source that doesn't
work for me. I transcribe those modified tunes into my
computer music software.

I avoid playing from written sources when playing
the fiddle.



Some folks look for answers ... -Bob Weir

Hi Strung - Posted - 06/17/2008:  06:08:46

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I'm a 1. That's how I learned in school. To try and play anything by ear is frustrating for me, but I do have a couple under my belt that I learned by ear. I just find it much easier to learn by having the music in front of me and to hear it so I know how it is suppose to sound.

I got caught fiddlin'' around