I recently had the extreme good fortune to get to hang out with friends with the sole intention of playing tunes – lots and lots of tunes. It was great!
It was horrible.
Like every social music interaction we know, we shared by taking turns starting a tune and then we all join in and have a blast! And then it happens. I know my turn is coming. It’s exciting. I’ll get to suggest a tune that I know and love and can’t wait to play with my friends.
And just like that, in our wonderful, marvelous, delectable tune sharing, I’m wracking my brain fussing over what tune I should suggest when it’s my turn. And it’s a tussle…because I can’t remember any tunes that I know!!!
ARGH!
When you have a vast, amorphous collection of tunes in your head (or even if it isn’t that vast), it’s easy to forget what you do know. It’s the same when you’re practicing and you get to that part of your practice time when you’ve finished the work and now get to play for fun. It strikes again, that remember-y thing and you can’t think of anything you know. You know you have a library – just not what’s in it.
How are you ever going to remember what tunes you know? How will you know the contents of your library? And frankly, how do you know if you have the Library of Congress in your head or if it’s more like a neighborhood Little Library?
You need a card catalog!
Each time you learn a new tune, start an index card and write all the useful and relevant information – the title of the tune (you could also include what you call it if you don’t think of it by it’s actual title – like if the title is in Gaelic or Irish), the key you play it in, the type of tune it is, maybe what you like to pair it with. You might even get fancy and include the first couple of measures (trust me, it can help!). Make a card for every tune you have learned. Watch your catalog fill up! And don’t forget that you can “pre-make” cards for the tunes you want to learn but haven’t gotten to yet.
Like any card catalog, you’ll be better able to use if it it’s organized. The organization approach is up to you – organize it how you think about tunes. You can do it alphabetical by title. Or by tune type or by country of origin. Or by where you learned it? Whatever, as long as you can find it when you need to.
You might be a Thoroughly Modern Millie and have already turned up your nose at my index cards. No matter. Make a spreadsheet. Keep a paper list. Generate your own code from Legos. I don’t care how, so long as you can use it! The point is to keep what you know close to hand so you can use it – all of it.
When you know what you know, you can be more clear on what you haven’t learned yet. And you can be more deliberate about what you practice. All of which might make it easier to remember anything you can play the next time you get to play for fun with friends!
How do you keep track of what you already can play? Do you have a system to keep track? Let me know in the comments!
I used to organize tunes 2 ways: by title, and then again by key. I also keep a legal pad on my kitchen counter; every time I hear a song I can probably play by ear I add it to the list. I play therapeutically in 2 infusion centers; the average patient is about my age or a little older, so their taste is generally similar to my own, and so far this week I’ve arranged & played Bridge Over Troubled Water, After the Gold Rush, Right Here Waiting for You and Sounds of Silence.
Multiple vector organization is a great idea – that way you can find it no matter how you are thinking about it at any one time! The legal pad is a smart way to keep track of what’s next.
My utterly amazing sister whose voice stunned everybody within earshot, used to keep a hand-written index card, in font size four (maybe three) with the names and keys of all her best performance songs and it was TAPED TO HER (expensive) GUITAR where she could drop her eyes and see it.
I loved that idea until we got to the tape..but it’s still a great idea of another way to capture the catalog of tunes you know!
I was actually thinking of this exact thing last week. Because there are three other harpers who have lived in our home, we have a lot of music paraphernalia in our home. This is in the form of sheet music, cards, books, and all kinds of bits and pieces. Most of this we actually own, some was left by others, and some just appear out of no where. One of the folders that appeared a few years ago is quite lovely and has thirty or so pages of harp sheet music, each page tucked in a three holed plastic sheet protector, neatly arranged in the three pronged red folder. The name written on the front, “Jessica Headrick” is not familiar to us, but if you know Jessica, tell her I like how she organized her music. Now if I can just do the same.
It’s fun to have a peek into other people’s lists! Your description of her system makes me think of journal that helps you merge and keep all your musical thoughts together! A very active type of card file! Anyone know Jessica?
I use a spreadsheet to track tunes, so that I can sort tunes by any of the criteria I’ve added: Title, key, etc.
It helps me select tunes to review. After all, if you haven’t played a tune in 4-6 months, is it really something you’re ready to play?
Spreadsheets work great (and are very flexible!) and you’re exactly right that if you let them sit idle for too long those tunes will fall apart on you. I also love that you could embed a random number generator so that you are really picked tunes at random (why, yes, I AM a nerd!).
I love this idea and am going to make cards both for what I know and what I want to know, for motivation, which has been in a downward slide ….
These last couple of years haven’t exactly been conducive for power-motivation. Collecting the tunes you want to get to is a great idea!
Great advice!
I had a stamp made (Staples) like an address stamp, except that it was just five lines, no words. So I can stamp a couple inches of music lines, and write in the starting notes of the tune.
Or, you could cut apart lines of music paper, write as much as you need, and glue that onto a card or sheet. Yes, it’s a collage, what can I say?
Oh, what a great idea! I might have to copy!