DISCUSSION OF KIDS TUNES AS PRACTICE AID Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 10:48:41 -0700 From: reed kotler Subject: tips on learning tunes There has been alot of discussion regarding playing by ear and/or playing without fakebooks, etc. Players will always tell students to learn tunes but one thing that never seems to be discussed is just how one goes about learning tunes. As jazz musicians we cannot rely on "finger" memory the way a classical player might. We may be called upon to play tunes that we havent played for a long time. I would like to start off this thread initially just focussing on tips for learning the melodies to songs. The first thing about playing by ear is that you can't play something you can't sing. ALot of times people think they know tunes because they will recognize them if they hear them and even recognize some mistakes if played. But yet if you ask them to sing the tune the will get about two bars and then get really unclear. They probably know the catchy "hook" part of the tune. With my students I start them off playing by ear all the songs we learn as kids because those are usually totally clear to us. Thus "Mary Had A Little Lamb", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Happy Birthday", etc. My main instruments are piano and guitar but I teach improvising to people on other instruments and it's amazing how many jazz musicians know all about "Giant Steps" but can't play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" without a book. Of course they can't play "Giant Steps" either without looking at a book. So, anyway the first thing is to make a list of these tunes. I'll be posting some lists I have. Others may do the same. The next thing to realize is that almost all tunes end on the note of the key. So if the tune is in the key of C it will end on C. SO then I have people pick out the melodies to all these kids songs in the key of C. Not all will start on C but they will al end on C. Of course once they can really play them in C then the next thing is to play them in all the other keys. These tunes are almost entirely diatonic though frankly even standards are for the most part except where they have key changes. Even my five year old piano students know that each week they are working on a different scale and I will ask them at the lesson to play several songs they know in the key for that week. From here, the next thing is to start learning standards that you already can sing, at least to some extent. This process develops over time and is the first step to gaining confidence in playing without seeing the notes. I think that most professional jazz musicians did this when they were kids. Anyway I'll stop here for now. [later...] The first thing you need when playing the melody of a tune is the starting note. Sounds simple but how do you find it? Well there is not just one way. If it's a tune you've played for a while you might just remember what the note is in some particular key. For example you might just remember that "Stella by Starlight" starts on Bb when playing in the key of Bb. Then you are done. If you're playing the tune in Bb the starting note is Bb, if you are playing the tune in C the starting note is C. Some people that are very visual will find it easy to just remember what the sheet of music that you first saw if on looked like. (One note here is... know your major scales. That means in this case to know the notes and what note each degree of the scale is. For example, the fourth note in the key of C is F, in the key of Bb it's Eb.) Sometimes you might remember that a tune starts on a particular degree of the scale. For example you might remember that it starts on the fifth degree of the scale. So you remember that "Happy Birthday" starts on the fifth degree of the scale so in the key of C that would be G. I have another technique I use which is a little hard to explain but works quite well and is part of a larger ear training regime. Play a major scale up and down, not too fast. Think of the scale degrees or even sing the scale as 1-2-3-4... C D E F G A B C B A G F E D C . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Then pick any note of the scale and play it. See if you can hear where that note wants to go. If you play a B in C major you should hear that it wants to go up to C. This is the sound of 7 going to 1. You should hear 7 - 1. Or if it goes to resting point after one note then it started on the 7. If you play an F it should want to either go down or up to C. In other words you should hear either 4-3-2-1 or 4-5-6-7-1. Or , if you hear 5 notes up to 1, then it started on the 4. Once you hear in what direction the note wants to go in (up or down), continue singing from that note until it gets to a resting point. The resting point should be the first degree of the scale, or C in this case. You can tell by how many notes it takes what degree of the scale you started on. Sometimes you will just hear the numbers 6-7-1. (You could also do all of this with do-re-mi... if you want). This is a general excercise that is good for ear training though I've never seen it mentioned in any book. It's just something I developed for myself. Now how does this apply to finding the starting note of tunes?? Think of a tune you are going to play. Suppose it's Satin Doll. Try to start getting an aural idea of that tune. You can sing a few bars out loud or in your head or try and remember a recording of it or whatever you need to do to get the tune happening in your mind in some aural way. Then think of the starting note, in an "aural" way. You may do this by singing it or hearing it in your head. Now see if you can hear where the note wants to go. In the case of Satin Doll you should hear 6-7-1. This excercise works well over a period of time so don't be impatient. Of course you eventually hope that you'll just go to the starting note without thinking about it but these are some ideas that can help you get to that place. [later] I mentioned that I would submit some lists of basic "kid" tunes for beginning practice on playing by ear. Please see my earlier discussions on this topic. Remember that initially the idea is to just be able to play the melody in C and once that is clear, play it in all the other keys. There are lot of reasons for doing this. 1) Almost all jazz artists and professional musicians I've met started doing this when they were kids. If you didnt then you need to. 2) It gets one into the idea of playing songs that you havent played for a long time. I.e. calling up the old inner CD player. 3) They are great melodies. 4) You should be able to play what you know. I havent located my beginning list but I'll try and do some of it from memory. Others are free to add tunes.I'll build a database and post the results from suggestion tunes from others. The point is to choose tunes that one is totally clear about. As such depending on our childhood, this list will be different. There are many people on this list that didnt grow up in the USA as I did so they may have a totally different list of tunes they have known since childhood. So I don't mean learning tunes on this list that you don't already know. It's just a starting point for playing by ear the tunes you do know. For college teachers, don't let students graduate without knowing happy birthday!! Mary Had A Little Lamb Twinkle Twinkle Little Star London Bridges Falling Down Row, Row, Row, Your Boat ABC song Happy Birthday Eeensy Weensy Spider For He's A Golly Good Fellow Take Me Out to the Ballgame Home on the Range Shoo Fly On Top of Old Smokey Silent Night Auld Lang Syne Jingle Bills We Wish You a Merry Christmas Greensleeves When Irish Eyes are Smiling Bicyle Built for Two Daisy Old Folks At Home (Swanee River) Camptown Races Oh, Suzanna America (My COuntry 'Tis of Thee) (God Save the Queen) Star Spangled Banner Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean America, the Beautiful Kumbaya Joshua Fit the Battle of Gericho Yankee Doodle Dixie Shortin Bread Leave it to Beaver Theme Song I Love Lucy Theme Song Battle Hym of the Republic When Jonny Comes Marching Home Deep in the Heart of Texas Good Night Ladies Loch Lomond The Blue Bell of Scottland My Old Kentucky Home Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Carry Me Back to Old Virginny Brahams Lullaby Deck the Hall The First Noel Joy to the World O Come, All Ye Faithful Baa! Baa! Black Sheep Farmer In the Dell Go Down Moses I Ain't Gonna Study War No More Good Night Ladies Three Blind Mice My Bonnie Frere Jacques (Are You Sleeping? Brother John) Merrily We Roll Along Old Macdonalds Farm Alouette Jimmie Crack Corn Down in The Valley Pop! Goes the Weasel! Sweet Bestsy From Pike. Skip to My Lou Rock My Soul (in the bosom of Abraham) While Strolling Through the Park One Day I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair Battle Hymn of the Republic The Stars and Stripes Forever Rain Barrel The Man on the Flying Trapeze Down in the Valley Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Dradle Song (Hanukah) Ode to Joy (Theme for Beethovens Ninth) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! Hava Nagila Polly Wolly Doodle Oh, Where, Oh Where has My Little Dog Gone? Aedle Wiese (Spelling?) Do, a Deer (Sound of Music) Clementine Frog Went-A-Courtin Streets of Laredo Sweet Betsy from Pike Red River Valley Circus Song (Played on Calliope) Hush Little Baby Where has my Little Dog Gone? I've Been Working on the Railroad Funiculi, Funicula ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 17:48:09 -0400 From: RogMcD@aol.com Subject: Simple tune list As a freshman theory teacher, I had freshmen sing from among these tunes with numbers and then play them "by ear" at piano or their main instrument. Grade descends from A+, mistake by mistake. As a secondary brass teacher, I had all students play these tunes (as range developed) so as to show that they "knew" their instrument. These tunes may augment Reed's list. Roger McDuffie ==================== Alouetta Amazing Grace America America the Beautiful AngelsWeHaveHeard Are You Sleeping Auld Lang Syne Aura Lee Away In a Manger Battle Hymn Bicycle Built for Two Billy Boy Blue Bells of Scotland Brahms Lullaby Bring a Torch Bycycle Built for Two Caissons Camptown Races Can Can ChristmasSng(Chstnts) Clementine ComeYeThnkflPple Crusaders Hymn Danny Boy Dark Eyes Deck the Hall Dixie DontSitUndrAppleTree DownByMillStream Doxology Edleweiss Eyes/Texas R Upon U Fairest Lord Jesus Faith of OurFathers Farmer in the Dell First Noel For He's Jolly Gd Fellow Go Down Moses Go Tell It-Mountain GodRestYeMerry G GoodKingWenceslas Goodnight Ladies GoTellAuntRhodie Happy Birthday Hark the Sound Hark-Herald Angels Holly & Ivy HomeOnTheRange Ode to Joy, Beeth. I Saw 3 Ships I'mPopeye S M IveBeenWorking-RR InSouthrnPrtOfFrance It Came Upon a Mid-n Jesus Loves Me Jingle Bells JollyOldStNicholas Joshua Joy to the World Joyful, Joyful Kumbaya LetMeCallYou SwtHrt Lightly Row Little Pierrot Lo How a Rose London Bridge Long Long Ago Marine's Hymn Mary Had Little Lamb Menuet Muffin Man My Bonnie O Holy Night O Little Town O My Darlin Clementine O What Beautfl Morn ODearWhatCan MattrB Oh Christmas Tree Oh Come Emanuel Oh Danny Boy Oh Susanna OhCome-Faithful Old MacDonald Old Rugged Cross OnTop-Smokie OnwardChristSoldiers Pop Goes Weasel Rakes of Mallow Rock-a-bye Baby Rondeau-Mouret Row Your Boat Rudolph Red Nose Sail Navy Scarborough Fair Scotlands Burning Sentimental Journey ShallWe GathrAtRiver She'll Be Comin Round Star Spangled Banner Swanee River Swing Low TakeMe-BallGame This Old Man Three Blind Mice Twinkle Little Star Voluntary Wayfaring Stranger We Three Kings WeWishYouMerryXms What a Friend-Jesus What Child Is This When Johnny Comes When The Saints Go White Christmas Yankee Doodle You Are My Sunshine Zip-a-di-doo-dah [end]