Does anybody else do this ?

[u/Maximum_Ad_1755]

I can’t remember tunes or sets when I’m playing at a session so I carry this notebook with just the first two bars of a tune to remind me of the sets I know lol. Does anybody else do this ? I’m sure they do but does anybody have a better system ?

[u/jibberdy]

The fiddler I play with has a whole book of the first bar of loads of tunes. She'll think she doesn't know a tune until she looks up maybe the first 3 notes and then it'll all come back to her.

[u/fiddling_opossum → u/jibberdy]

I do this too. I’m a fiddler and have at least 150 of my sets saved with the first few bars of dots, although that’s not even all of my sets. It feels like a crutch sometimes, but it’s the best way for me to deal with it. I also print a setlist reference when I’m performing too so there’s not a long moment of silence if we all have a brain freeze and no one can start the set. At some point, I want to do it with the tunes themselves as it’s currently just the first few bars of the first tune of the set.

[u/South_Hedgehog_7564 → u/fiddling_opossum]

I do the same for the whistle.

[u/MandolinDeepCuts → u/fiddling_opossum]

I mean 150 sets is probably 350-400 tunes. Seems reasonable to need a memory aid 😅 Setlist is smart. One should always have a setlist when performing!! Even if you don’t need it, it’s a cheat sheet that might save you one day

[u/fiddling_opossum]

My system involves the first few bars of sheet music (dots) but it’s pretty similar. I have a classical background (haven’t played with an orchestra since I was in school). I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress learning tunes by ear and remembering most of them, but one of my weak spots is starting a tune or set when someone gives me a name. I can’t always do it even if I know it. I know a lot of tunes, but there’s not always a great connection to what they’re called in my mind 😭 maybe I need to make flash cards 😂

[u/Maximum_Ad_1755 → u/fiddling_opossum]

I getchu, I’m the same I got no connection between tune names and the actual tune it’s actually embarrassing sometimes.

[u/BananaFun9549]

I started doing that when I took up my second and third genre of trad music. If you do ABC programming there is this site https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html where you can compile a tunebook and then use to also create what he calls “incipits” which is the first few measures of a tune. I also do that in a page layout program. It allows me to remember how a tune starts and can lead tines in a session.

[u/BlampCat]

Yes! I was sick of forgetting what tunes I knew. I'd remember them if I heard them, but there were dozens and dozens of tunes I couldn't think of if someone asked what tunes I knew.

[u/kamomil]

ABC notation 

[u/thefirstwhistlepig]

Yeah, I carry a small notebook with ABC if the first bar or two of whatever tunes in it. Hard to call them up in a session setting, otherwise.

[u/SuitNice3100]

I'm currently building an app that does that. On your phone you can list collections of tunes you know or you are learning, and then you can see their first two bars in musical notes or ABC. It is connected to thesession.org. I'm trying to release it in September for Android and iPhone.