My way of learning a new tune is a lot like yours. I'll usually hear a tune that catches my ear and then explore it some on YouTube to see what's there. Occasionally what first drew me to a tune will turn out to be something unique to that version, which can be a quandary because my next step is to transcribe it to learn from sheet music. Since I have a website that carries my transcriptions for others I have to decide which version to present. Whatever I decide I try to make it clear on the transcription where it comes from.

Eventually I break away from reading it. That's the idea, although since I don't play as often as I'd like, and there are a great many tunes on my site, I haven't memorized all of them. But just flipping through them and playing from sheet music can be a pleasure too.

I'm not learning many new tunes these days; writing more. But when I do it has to be something that catches my ear, like both of you. A hook, line; a melodic rhythm, an interesting run up or down scale, just something. I'll listen to it until I can basically hear it in my head, then breaking sections down mentally first and then playing it. First get the structure, then laying what I hear over that. Then I'll play with the melody a bit, double stops and get a feel for the bowing rhythm for all this; where can I break the time and go back, when I can swing a bit or get Celt-y. and still retain what i liked about the tune. Sometimes I'll just play it like I heard it. Depends.

I am at the stage in life where if I don't particularly like a tune, I don't bother learning it. Never was a big collector. In 'session' setting I can usually pick up a tune fairly well if they are doing 3 -4 times round, too hard with only 2 repetitions. But I don't necessarily retain 'em. Kudos to anyone who has 3-400 tunes they can play well and call up instantly!

If I get hooked on a tune, I find my favorite version and I just listen to the tune on repeat...again and again...depending on its complexity, I'll be able to play along on the third, fourth, fifth time round. Every once in a while I get stuck on little quick bits, and I either slow it way down, or I look up notes on thesession.org.

For some reason the typical building of a tune "phrase by phrase" method doesn't work for me! While I'm learning phrase 3, I forget phrase 1...

But somehow if I listen to the whole tune over and over, then I can get it fairly quickly. Really weird, but oh well. But it's part of the reason why I avoid tune teaching workshops, because most of them teach in the "phrase by phrase" way and I'm the class dunce!

I’m a bit of all the above. But there are some tunes for some reason I just can’t get. I’ve been trying on and off to learn Colnell Frasers reel for about 18 months now and I’m still not even close. Same for the jig King of the Pipers.

Most recent additions were from a setlist where they wanted to transpose a tune into a minor key. And one or two songs that weren't much of a challenge. NFN the anxiety would only be from the unknown. Once I hear it, and sus out the key and chords, I may chart it out if it's odd. It does seem more effort to playing songs or tunes I'm not fond of. I may go thru a setlist the night before.

If I stumble upon a tune I really like and that I absolutely want, I download it, listen and listen over again, slow it down with audacity and then I copy paste the tune several times after eachother so I can practice with it. I did that with a few Dwight Diller videos.
Most of the times however I just slow down a bit on YouTube and try to repeat what I hear, try to find the notes and see which parts I can play myself. Most of the times I then just play a bit with these parts, see what I can do with it, it's something experimental , I cannot study a tune directly as it should be approached with clear structure and clear goals to reach. I don't like to go from a to z, I just pick the measures I understand, the parts I can do, the rest (the chronological order) is for later on.
Too much strictness in learning absolutely kills my motivation.
It's very similar when I practice languages: I first want to know some of the basics (vocabulary and grammar and conjugations) , then I make the weirdest sentences with what I already know, invent crazy and funny but grammatically correct sentences so that the essential stuff is being internalized, before diving into it on a more serious level, where I also study the gender of words and the correct conjugation of verbs and enlarge my vocabulary.
Can't cage a free bird I guess, it will always long to fly.

I've been a lazy tunes learner, for years I maintained a list of tunes just enough to get through a Bush Dance. I would mostly learn new tunes as required by the band or when joining a new band. Since joining the local jam group I have exhausted my tune list and decided I need to learn more tunes. For me, learning new tunes became much easier with the acquisition of a Samsung Tablet. When I hear a tune I like I immediately search for the notation and load it into my tablet. Depending on the difficulty of the tune I usually have it down after about three run throughs, but that doesn't mean I've got it 'down pat'. There maybe stumbles and memory gaps, this is when I review the tune on the tablet with a quick touch here and there. I could have numerous tunes to learn in this manner. Many times I have added or altered notes to tunes which I think sound better than the transcription. When I think a tune is ready I present it to the Jam Group, but I always make sure it's prepared a week before the meeting, I don't want no train wrecks. Since learning tunes like this (forcing myself to memorize quickly) I have noticed my memory improving.

In regard to bowing; with a new tune I always hack bow it while slurring in the obvious places. I practice specific bowing patterns separately over scales, then they may present them selves in appropriate places in the tune.

I hunt tunes,on You tube ,quite often and when I find one that I must learn, I search for a version that I like best.

I play by ear and never play an exact copy. Sometimes they come quickly and some I am still trying to work out.I have a written list and

I keep a list{MP3} on my I-Pad,for times that I can not remember how they start. Thank you Brian Wood for all of your hard work.

Brian's tunes are part of my reminder list.

I learn new tunes mostly by ear. Either I try to catch the tune from a recording I like or at jams (next jam the tune comes back quicker).

Sometimes I learn them from sheet music if a recording is not available. My best example of that is "Cheat River" which I learned from Samuel Bayard's "Dance to the Fiddle, March to Fife". I just played it over and over until it felt like a tune. About five years later, I heard a recording of Charles Berkey whose transcript I had read and found I did a pretty good job. Here are my former band's version (Hobo Pie)
https://www.hangoutstorage.com/banjohangout.org/storage/audio/24/cheat-rive-24368-1915118122022.mp3
and Charles Berkey's recording.
https://www.hangoutstorage.com/banjohangout.org/storage/audio/24/cheat-rive-24368-4911118122022.mp3

Listen, look at the notation if it is available, hum or sing the melody, listen and view if possible more than one player, then start, slowly, working the melody under my fingers and pay close attention to my bow strokes. After, often a long while, I can play it for myself... then after more time I play it for someone else. Iti is never quite the same as the piece I started with as I have my limitations .... but I have something to enjoy the company of.

Hear a tune, love it, find a bunch of versions on YouTube. Narrow down the versions i like.
Listen for a few days. Try to learn it, decide it’s impossible. Keep trying.
Typically, in a week it’s roughed out in 10 days it’s figured out, sounds good and I wonder what all the drama was about.

All the same with the next tune.

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

If I get hooked on a tune, I find my favorite version and I just listen to the tune on repeat...again and again...depending on its complexity, I'll be able to play along on the third, fourth, fifth time round. Every once in a while I get stuck on little quick bits, and I either slow it way down, or I look up notes on thesession.org.

For some reason the typical building of a tune "phrase by phrase" method doesn't work for me! While I'm learning phrase 3, I forget phrase 1...

But somehow if I listen to the whole tune over and over, then I can get it fairly quickly. Really weird, but oh well. But it's part of the reason why I avoid tune teaching workshops, because most of them teach in the "phrase by phrase" way and I'm the class dunce!

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This is something that we touched upon at the Willy Clancy week. One of the fellow students (a good player) was struggling with the learn by phrase method so she asked if we could just learn the tune in the overall context. The tutor in a roundabout way said no and we continued learning by phrases. After giving it some thought I privately suggested to the tutor that at the end of each daily session he could play the 3 tunes planned for the next day and we could record them. This would address her issue but the tutor said that he doesn't want to plan the tunes in advance. So it was a not a runner. 

THat must have been hard for the student!
yea, it’s kinda weird that like her, I also can’t learn well in the front-to-end way.

IF I learn a tune from ya, I’ll just ask you to play it over and over at a relaxed pace…by the third time, I’ll usually be joining on the “main theme” and by fifth-sixth time I’ll have most of it. But there will be small details that I need to work on later…the little connecting bits or little ‘loops’ in the tune…(and there’s always more to work on, of course! BOwing, ornaments, etc…)

I'm not trying to learn many new tunes these days, just trying to remember the ones I already know, but I've also preferred the "all at once" approach. Back when I was more active, before YouTubes and digital media, that was about the only way. Listen over and over, live or from a recording, and try and pick up more each time (or if you're lucky, get the whole tune in your head and work out how to play it later). I think that's a better method because you get the "feel" of the whole tune, which is sometimes lost in the "phrase by phrase" method.
Lately I've been reading tunes out of some old 18th and 19th century Scottish and Irish collections to explore possible antecedents of more modern versions. I'm not really trying to learn them though, just hear them.

A common side effect of learning tunes for me is at some point a tune will start playing in my head, especially at night. Sometimes I'm pretty sure the tune is playing in my head all night all through different dreams and everything. It kind of drives me crazy.

MY flute friend said she’ll get a tune nagging at her, playing in her head while driving…
then she’ll have to pull over and take out her whistle and play it! :-)

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

MY flute friend said she’ll get a tune nagging at her, playing in her head while driving…
then she’ll have to pull over and take out her whistle and play it! :-)

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That's the beautiful thing about the mouth organ, you can play while you're driving!