The first time that I learned a tune by ear was one of the most liberating experience of my life. I had been playing the fiddle for about 5 years at that point, learning all of my tunes from sheet music. There were so many instances of feeling frustrated and helpless when I heard a tune that I wanted to learn but couldn’t find the music. I heard a tune called ‘The Dawn’ from one of Natalie MacMaster’s early records and was desperate to learn it. The only place I could find the music to a tune called ‘The Dawn’ was in an Irish collection and it resembled nothing like the tune on Natalie’s record. I knew then, that If I wanted to learn the tune I would have to do it by ear.
At that time, there was no software readily available to slow tunes down. So I sat in my room, constantly hitting the rewind button on the cassette player. I was never going to be a slave to sheet music again. I learned the tune that day, but it pretty much took the entire day. But, the more I did it, the quicker I was able to pick up tunes. It is a very empowering skill.
You become your own teacher when you learn by ear. You begin to internalize things that you don’t even realize. Of course, it is a daunting exercise if you have little experience. So it is important to start off small. Sing a note, then try and match that pitch on the fiddle. Try and sound out a really common simple melody like Mary Had a Little Lamb. If you can do that, there is no reason you can’t learn by ear. But there is much more involved than matching pitches on the fiddle.
One of the more difficult aspects of learning by ear is retaining the melody of the tune you are trying to learn. That is why it is so important to listen to the tune for a while before even trying to pick it out on your instrument. If you can sing it to yourself, then you’ve internalized the tune. It’s like learning the words to a new hit song on the radio. It’s pretty hard to get all the words after the first time you hear it, but once you’ve heard it over and over on every radio station, you magically start to sing along. When you’ve internalized the tune, you begin to realize that there aren’t as many notes to learn as you maybe originally thought. The first phrase probably sounds like the third phrase. That is because it usually is. All good tunes have themes within the melody that usually repeat throughout the tune. So if you can break the tune into distinctive phrases, it’s not so much of a daunting task. The more you do this, the more you adapt to the structure of tunes, and the easier it will be to internalize them. One of the most valuable things you gain from learning by ear is associating melodic intervals to finger shapes. For example, if you hear a big jump in the melody, how big of a jump is it? Do you have to skip one finger to get to the next note? Two fingers? Do you have to cross a string? After a while, when you hear an interval of a third, you will automatically skip a finger playing the two consecutive notes. You might not even know what a third is, but you will still associate the pitch with the shape. So the next time you take a fiddle workshop, do not be discouraged if you the tune doesn’t stick with you after one class. Take the tune home with you and listen – and listen a lot. Sing it to yourself. Break it down into phrases and start learning one phrase at a time. It gets easier. And it will be empowering.
Listening…It seems so obvious, yet it was my time at Berklee College of Music where this simple concept really struck home how important listening was to successfully absorbing a style of music.
I arrived at Berklee enthusiastic about becoming proficient in playing bluegrass music and maybe even a little gypsy jazz. I had recently developed an interest in American fiddle music after teaching some camps that offered classes in those styles. However, for most of my life, I had exclusively listened to Cape Breton fiddle music… not pop or classical. I listened to Cape Breton music because I loved it. It was the only type of music I wanted to listen to. Because of this, and because I had so many opportunities to hear live Cape Breton music, I developed the style without realizing it. I did take fiddle lessons and was taught tunes, but for the most part, no one taught me bowings or specific fingering embellishments, or where to put these stylistic characteristics. Over time, I just noticed that they found their way into my playing.
I seemed to have forgotten how I learned to play Cape Breton music while attempting to learn American fiddle music. I forgot how much Cape Breton music had been a part of my everyday life, how tunes randomly entered my head, how I would finger tunes on my pencil at school. When studying bluegrass music, I listened to it of course, but for the most part, I only listened when I was practicing with my instrument in hand. Listening to bluegrass was not a part of my everyday life. I didn’t put it on in the car, or when I was cleaning my room. And I struggled so much trying to learn. It felt so unnatural, so mechanical. Even when I learned a tune, I had to think through everything: what notes I was going to play, what bowing I should use, etc.
When I play Cape Breton fiddle music, there is so much that is an unconscious process. Trying to play bluegrass was very much a conscious process. And then I realized I didn’t love it. I wasn’t nearly as passionate about this music as I was about Cape Breton music. I liked to listen now and then, but it wasn’t my first choice. I knew then that this was so much of the reason why I struggled trying to learn Bluegrass. There was so much that I didn’t inherently understand. This was a void my teachers couldn’t fill with any words or demonstration.
There is so much unconsciously absorbed through just listening for enjoyment; not actively transcribing, but just enjoying. This seems so obvious: you have to immerse yourself in a style of music to fully understand it. But it took the experience of trying to learn another style before I understood how important the role of listening was in absorbing Cape Breton music. (What I did accomplish at Berklee is material for another topic!)
When my students tell me that they didn’t have much time to practice, I often say that listening to the music for enjoyment can be just as valuable practice. I often compare learning a style of music to learning a language. You have to immerse yourself in a language to learn the idioms and accent. I truly believe learning a fiddle style is the same process.
What has your experience been like learning music? How much do you have to think about what you are playing? How much is instinct? This is a topic that fascinates me and I would love to hear about your experience!