I think I've discovered why I have problems learning tunes. The simple answer is that I don't have any problem at all. Yesterday evening I sat down with virtual Kirsten and learned I'll tell me Ma. I had a quick refresher with her when I got home this evening and can now play the tune, correctly, reasonably quickly, and by heart. I've not even looked at the dots. So it's clearly possible - what stops me?
What stops me, I discover, is my mind wandering. When I knit - and this is one of the joys of knitting for me - my fingers get busy and my mind wanders off into a little world of its own. It thinks about the music or episode of Paul Temple I'm listening to, it wonders about the next knitting project, planting plans, things to eat, stuff at work, the state of the planet and so on. I've been knitting for over 30 years, on and off, and generally speaking my fingers carry on without supervision, providing the pattern is simple or has repeated enough times. After a while though, especially if there is any variation in the pattern, my fingers we will send an SOS to my mind. "Pants," they say. "We've screwed up. That last bit we did there felt all wrong". So my mind comes back, looks at what my fingers have done, checks the pattern, says a few rude words, and fixes it.
Playing my pipes recently I realised that my fingers were busy...but my mind had gone. It wasn't listening to the music, it was busy considering life, the universe, and everything. My fingers are up to the usual SOS alerts, but, as with the knitting, aren't organised enough on their own to fix it. Clearly the tune has sunk in to some extent, otherwise I'd stop the moment my mind wandered, but I've only got a broad brush view of the tune, no details, unless I refer to dots.
When I learn a tune from Virtual Kirsten my mind gets no chance to nip out for a crafty tea break - it has to stay on the ball. When I play from dots my mind checks stuff out, briefs my fingers, and then wanders off, leaving my fingers to get on with it themselves. So all I need to do is find some way of tying of my mind down, keeping its eye on the ball.
Today's practice - one perfect run through of That Tune. Total failure to play any of half a dozen other tunes. Total failure to play That Tune a second time. Problems with too much pressure, arm aching, connector tube. This is my third ever run through of The Rowan Tree - with dots. It's awful. Bad day. I give up: knitting calls.
Recording - The Rowan Tree. Lost.
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