Tunes...

I've been starting to think about what tunes I like. This is part of my plan to get my repertoire together and ordered. I have a little notebook in which I am collecting the name, key and notes about any tune I play (or at least want to retain). It'll get edited I'm sure, but for now it's just a catch all. I find if I don't know the tune name, I don't have a concsious tag by which to recall the tune.

I find I don't just like specific tunes, I enjoy tunes at a particular pace invoking a particular mood. This changes over time. Now I'm really drawn to slow-mid tempo slinky tunes, so a lot of Breton, some early English and early Scots. Hopefully I'll get on to wanting lots of elaborate intricate Irish tunes in a while too.

I also find that I'm drawn to different types of tunes to listen to, to diddle, and to play. Playing is definitely the slower variety at the moment, tunes to diddle often work best mid-tempo but listening and dancing tunes can be ferocious.

I'm keeping tabs on my learning resource material as well - I have scores, online score (like thesession.org), CDs, other recordings and online audio and video (like youtube). I'm finding my little book a useful prompt for what I need to revisit to memorise again. Normally I'd explore music by playing it but recently that's not been possible. I'm still finding that I can exceed the maximum comfortable work load of my hands very easily, so for now my little book is helping me explore music with my ears and voice instead.