To memorize or to sight-read .. that is the question.

[thereallyniceman]

 

I saw a post on another banjo site (BHO) by a poster whose playing was described as: “His humanity oozes from his instrument.”

Hmmmm….  I wonder who that could be?? 

 

Anyway Rob, your post asked about keeping pieces in memory. I have a question too for all us Classic Fingerstyle Banjo players.

 

I have always, slowly and bar by bar, learned pieces from the dots and then practiced and practiced them until I have them “Under my fingers”, only referring back to the score if I lose my way.

 

This is fine but it does not help with my sight-reading of pieces. I notice that many of our American friends seem to play while gazing at something off camera, which I assume, is the score.  Rob too, at times.

 

I wonder what is best, should I force myself to read the score or continue to commit to memory? I notice that I can keep about 8-10 pieces in my head, but if I add a new piece, one falls off at the other end :-(

 

I have to practice and practice the pieces on a daily basis to keep them in my head, the more pieces I add the longer the practice becomes and I am running out of hours in the day!

 

What do others do?  Memorize a limited number of complete tunes or only play with a sheet music prompt?  Also how many Classic Style pieces can you keep in memory, as some are mighty tricky to retain?

 

I am amazed that someone with a brain as small as mine can store even one piece!!

 

Forgetful Ian

 

[Jody Stecher]

I think there is no one answer, Ian. Each musician or music student is not the same as the next. I grew up playing musics that had been passed down by oral/aural tradition and as an adolescent was skeptical of note readers because within my limited sphere of contemporaries and elders those who read music played like automatons but  the ear players made expressive music. Then I met some sight readers who were actually good musicians and my bias was blown to bits. They played expressively as they read and I began to realize that I lived in a wider world with more possibilities than I had realized. Later however some of these readers explained to me that when they knew a piece by heart they could then begin to make it their own. This "owning" was both a matter of feeling and a matter of melodic and/or harmonic freedom.  (Notice how the great recorded banjo players all deviate from the score in places). So I was on to something after all but had been rather simplistic about it. Typical 15 year old I guess.  So I think it's not an either/or choice. 

 

To this day I cannot play as well when my attention is divided into sight and sound. My eyes look inward when I make music , even though they may be open they don't really register what would normally be in the field of vision.  I have better access to my musical abilities when not distracted by looking at *anything* and that includes written music. So for me the score is mostly a storage medium. But not everyone is like me.

Also I think some of those who have posted videos where they seem to be reading, are keeping the score in front of them as a reminder. I think much of each tune *is* "under the fingers" as you say, but the score is there as a safety net. 

I have some ideas about increasing the capacity of the mental storage tank to hold more Banjo Solos, but they are half-baked as yet and I think there are too many variables for my ideas to be proved right or wrong, so I'm afraid I have nothing reliable to offer in that department.

[Carl Anderton]

I don't think I can offer any great insights to this topic, but I will add a few thoughts-

 

First of all, "sight-reading" is I believe the act of playing the piece for the first time off of the score, as opposed to reading a piece that you have practiced, but still use the score because of the complicated nature of the music.

 

Obviously, "classical" musicians often use the score as they play, whereas "folk" style players do not.  And I think that "classic" style banjo players tend to play from written scores because the music must be played as they have learned it, or the piece will fall apart--as opposed to clawhammer of bluegrass players who can play a G lick here and a C lick there and string it together to make it go.

 

This isn't meant to be a slur on clawhammer and bluegrass dudes--just a difference in style.

 

I've been reading music as I play since my school days on the viola, so playing banjo music from notes is no big deal.  I think having a tune memorized does tend to improve ones grasp of the piece, however.

[Jody Stecher]

It's evident from listening to their recordings that Vess Ossman, Olly Oakley, and Van Eps, each of whom recorded a given piece many times over  the course of their recording careers did not play "as they learned it". In the case of one piece which each recorded each version is different. In the case of one piece recorded several times by one of these players, each recording is of a somewhat different version. In the case of one single recording of a given piece, successive iterations of the same section reveal differences in the melody, and I don't mean mistakes, which did sometimes get recorded. So the classic player is *not* bound by a score. A student is.  As for throwing in a generic "lick" here and there, that's not confined to bluegrass and old-time,  that's exactly what the aforementioned players on these old recordings did to bind together the essential melodic phrases. A triplet here, an oom-pah there. Don't forget that a good part of the repertoire was not composed for banjo but were banjo arrangements of music originally composed for piano, vocal, brass band and other Non-Banjos. I'd be interested to know if the 3 players I mentioned, for instance, wrote out their own arrangements and followed them or if they played from a mental blueprint. Either way, they did deviate, and the music did not fall apart because of it. Occasionally Olly Oakley's renditions did go off kilter, but it seemed to be a matter of technique, nerves, and excessive speed, not a matter of creative license ruining the music. Vess Ossman gets awfully sloppy from time to time on record too but he was able to hide it well because his sense of rhythm was so good.  Ossman also was very adept at "telegraphing" musical ideas so he sometimes plays fewer notes than written versions of his repertoire indicate should be played. It goes by so fast one only notices when studying the playing that one has actually just heard an impression rather than a literal replication of the written score. (and of course some of the existing scores are transcriptions from the recordings). So far in my listening Van Eps is the cleanest of these 3 but he too occasionally plays a muddy chord or  seems to have put his finger on top of a fret and gets a momentary blurred effect from that. 

Carl Anderton said:

 

 I think that "classic" style banjo players tend to play from written scores because the music must be played as they have learned it, or the piece will fall apart--as opposed to clawhammer of bluegrass players who can play a G lick here and a C lick there and string it together to make it go.

[marc dalmasso]

worse than Ian :

I can keep about 8-10 measures ( 4 bars measures ) in my head, but if I add a new measure, one falls off at the other end :-(

fortunatly , marches are 2/4 ; so i go up to 16_20 measures

[thereallyniceman]

Marc,

Your memory loss is probably because you are much older than I am,   and we have to remember all the brain cell destroying wine that you froggies drink too.

 

:-)

 

Nobody has told us how many  Classic Banjo pieces they keep in  their head!  

Perhaps my 8 - 10 is not too bad.  So it is off for another couple of hours practice for me.

 

Now, what was the name of that last piece I was playing ??

marc dalmasso said:

worse than Ian :

I can keep about 8-10 measures ( 4 bars measures ) in my head, but if I add a new measure, one falls off at the other end :-(

fortunatly , marches are 2/4 ; so i go up to 16_20 measures

[Jody Stecher]

For some people it is easier to remember a piece of music that has been *heard* than one that has been seen. Sometimes there is no available recording of a Banjo Solo one is hoping to learn to play. In that case one can record oneself playing the tune at a steady tempo, not necessarily up to speed, and then listen to the recording several times as a way to reinforce memory. Whether or not this allows a banjo player to hold more tunes in memory is doubtful but it does seem to help remember one tune. 

[thereallyniceman]

You are right on the mark there Jody.  I much prefer to listen to recordings of pieces and, as you know, "The Amazing Slowdowner" software is superb for hearing individual notes and passing notes/ chords in pieces to help work out how they are being played.  Published scores seem, quite often, to be only an approximation of what is "really" going on in the original  banjo recordings.

 

Certainly getting the tune "going round and round" in your head helps with rhythm and timing.  The more I play a piece though, the more I tend to vary speed and the light and shade within it.  I guess this is the "owning or making the tune your own" you mentioned.    I don't know if it helps you store how to play it in your memory, but it must help.

 

It looks like I have to commit more time to keep on top of pieces. I have just had 4 hours of excellent practice....everything just seem to fall under my fingers...great fun!

  Today was a good day :-)

 

...but tomorrow????

Jody Stecher said:

For some people it is easier to remember a piece of music that has been *heard* than one that has been seen. Sometimes there is no available recording of a Banjo Solo one is hoping to learn to play. In that case one can record oneself playing the tune at a steady tempo, not necessarily up to speed, and then listen to the recording several times as a way to reinforce memory. Whether or not this allows a banjo player to hold more tunes in memory is doubtful but it does seem to help remember one tune. 

[Trapdoor2]

Let's see...how many pieces can I keep in my head? I'll say "six"...that I can trot thru w/o having the sheet music in front of me. The exact number depends on what I've got "practiced up" at any given moment...and not all of them are "on tap" without some stumbling and repetition prior to 'getting them right'. It certainly depends on how complex the tune is...as well as how "tuneful" it is.

 

As has been said, everyone is different. I am often amazed at how some sections of tunes simply squirt out of my fingers when other sections are remain a misery for days and days. My biggest memory problem, however, is usually the transitions between sections. The transition between A and B part of "Whistling Rufus" is a good example...I've played the tune for a couple of years but only recently have been able to go from A to B w/o a stumble or having to glance at the sheet. It is dirt simple...but I somehow had a block there.

 

I have also always had trouble starting tunes...and remembering their names. I'm forever asking, "how does that start?" This is especially true of OT tunes and many Minstrel tunes. At home, I often use the sheet to simply get me started.

 

Another "memory trap" for me is a specific instrument. Somebody asked me to demo a minstrel tune the other day and all I had was a classic openback. I couldn't recall a single tune. It is taking me a long time to get used to playing anything on the CE Special...except the few tunes I have just learnt on it.

 

So, for me it is keeping a fixed set of tunes "current". I can add to the set but like you, Ian, that simply adds to my already lengthy practice requirements...sometimes I just have to let tunes go.