Here we look at how the method of learning affects what you learn and thus what you play. Then we look at ways of combining learning by ear and from written music.
Hopefully if you are someone who has always learned from written music, this set of tutorials and demonstrations has either given you or reinforced an understanding of why learning by ear might be a good thing, and hopefully you've even tried to learn a couple easy tunes by ear.
If you haven't already, I encourage you to buy some software for slowing down music. If you do it the honest way that will cost some money; but I am confident that if you want to learn by ear you will find it quite worthwhile both in terms of learning more quickly and more accurately and in terms of reduced frustration when learning difficult phrases.
In this section we look at how the method of learning tunes can have a rather profound effect on what you learn, and therefore on how you play. It will affect not just what you learn about the melody, but it will affect your playing style.
Before going on to the next page, you might go back to that comparison between what's in the written music and what's in the music played by any good fiddler.
Contact Form: If you have questions, corrections, or any other feedback or thoughts about this or any other part of the web site, please feel free to send me a note!
Next Page → The Importance of Evidence
Learning Tunes ◆ By Ear/Reading Music Sources ◆ Learning by Ear Sources for Ear Learning
Combining Listening, Reading Method & What's Learned
Tune Home ◆ The Tunes ◆ Tune List
abc: Help File ◆ Reference Card
Learning Tunes (By Ear & Reading)
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