What is "Tune Building" and Why Do I Care?
Patience is bitter, but its fruits are sweet.
Speaking of eating, have you ever bitten off more than you can chew? Maybe you over-booked your calendar, resulting in not doing a single thing well all day long! Maybe you "multi-tasked" doing the dishes and cleaning the living room (and watching Ellen) at the same time, resulting in your evening chores taking three times longer than they should have. Or, maybe you like driving and texting all of your buddies at the same time.... Time out! Let's stop the analogies there (slaps forehead).
Well, learning bagpipe tunes for beginners and intermediates tends to be the pure definition of "biting off more than you can chew."
You approach the tune way too fast.
You try to play the part all the way through (instead of taking small, methodical, chunks and perfecting them, then putting the chunks together).
I mean, let's face it. You wanna get this tune learned fast. Why? Well.... because. That's why.
But, what have you achieved in the process of utilizing this genius approach? Well, I betcha 50 bucks (unofficially, I mean, no, I'm not gonna cough up the cash if you prove me wrong) there's a whole bunch of rotten playing in there that has to get fixed. But in your rush to learn the tune that rotten playing has already been engrained as habit so fixing it is going to take a long time. If it can ever be fixed.
Is there a better way? Of course there is. Do one thing at a time; do it slowly at first; get it done right the first time.
Above is a lesson by yours truly on the "Tune Building Approach" we utilize at the Dojo to learn tunes right. If you can learn even the slightest bit of patience, you can learn tunes twice as fast, and twice as well.
Tune building is awesome! I'm one of the impatient ones who likes to bite off too much. That said...I have a QUESTION about Weekly Missions. Where do I find the music? I've looked, but have not been able to locate any place to download the tune from. Thank you!
Hi @charlene-benjamin, It's going to be right there in the tune post within its Library. There links to the tune in the weekly missions. If you haven't already have a look at our new Orientation course to learn the ins and outs of the new site: https://dojouniversity.com/courses/new-to-dojo-u/ Cheers, Carl
Okay, found it, thank you. I think I had a bad connection when I was looking before, because none of the links were visible to me. I have taken your Orientation course, and it was helpful. I think I'll repeat it, though, because there is just a lot to see. 😉 Happy piping! Charlene
This video was very helpful compared to what I viewed in the tune-building course. The video would be much more effective if you included videos of yourself actually using the tune-building process so that students could watch you. Some adult learners, like myself, are visual learners and need to see something demonstrated in order for it to become concrete in our minds. I offer this as constructive criticism.
Hi William, Thanks for the feedback. We have lots of video examples of Andrew using the tune building process. For example, https://dojouniversity.com/topic/atholl-and-breadalbine-gathering/ There are many many tunes like this at the Dojo, broken down into tune building posts. Thanks again for the helpful feedback and happy piping.
Many times I learn the rythum of the tune hum it and learn the lazy way, this way i learn ALL the embelishments and slow myself down, which isnt easy
i like his technique i only wish the screen was magnigied like Andrew did a couple of times
My biggest struggle is memorizing tunes. I love this class! Thank You
I’m working on Bonny Dundee using the snowball method. So far, I have part one down on my chanter. I’m into part two, and moving forward.