This may be at odds with my Learn It Fast To Play It Fast post from last month but I think the time has come for a back to basics approach to Irish tunes. I've been fudging a lot at the Irish sessions I go to. I might have about 80 to 90% of the tune but there are sections where I fudge through what is unclear to me.
Now that I'm reading Molly Gebrian's Learn Faster, Perform Better I realize that the best way to handle mistakes is not to plow through them but to locate precisely where the mistake is taking place, where you are going wrong, then slow down to make sure that you play the passage correctly, gradually bringing it back to tempo, and make sure to play it many more times correctly than incorrectly to reinforce the correct pathway.
One thing about regularly going to sessions is that I can make note of tunes that I supposedly "know" but don't actually know. Case in point: The Maid Behind the Bar. Despite having played that tune for years, I felt very lost in the B-part of that tune when it was played last Sunday. It became apparent that this was one that I needed to investigate so the other day I took a focused look at where I get off track and identified that measures 4 and 5 of the B-part was where this was primarily taking place.
In measure 4 I wasn't sure where or when to go to the high B note and I hadn't been remembering that the sequence of notes is G E B E G E E G. In measure 5 of the B-part there was one note different from how I learned it all those years ago, and that one note difference was throwing me off. So I'm trying to remember how these specific measures go.
One important factor that I think gets forgotten about is to know exactly how the tune is supposed to sound. Be able to hear it (visualize it) in your head and also try signing the melody. The sections that I fudge tend to be sections that I can't "hear" clearly.
So one of my goals for this next year is go back over the dozens of tunes that I've become more familiar with over the last year that I currently fudge and fine tune my understanding of those so that I can play them three times through from memory exactly as written with no mistakes. At a reasonable speed. No ornamentation, variations or improvisation. Exactly as written. If there is a Trailjams version available I will use that as may source, and if not perhaps Aiden Crossey has a mandolin version or Hatao will have flute version with the music.
I feel like if I get the basic tune down with the correct notes and correct picking technique, then A) I can gradually speed it up and B) any variations or ornamentation will be more under my control rather than being used as band-aids to cover up not knowing what the actual notes should be.
Another tune I found myself unclear on was The Foxhunter's slip jig, so I am going to stop typing now and do an investigative refresher on that one.
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