I've Got CRS

[Bernie Daniel]

Play it twenty times a day for a week. Then play it every day for a month. The next month play it once a week. Then play it once a month for the rest of your life. You will remember the tune for as long as you live.

It takes time to learn a tune well. The older you get, the longer it takes.

Drinking doesn't help.

I was with you 100% on the first four recommendations but on that last one you lost me........

[Ivan Kelsall]

From above - "The older you get, the longer it takes.". I don't find that at all !. I spent so many years (all of 'em !!) learning how to play by ear,that i can still do it with no problem. Other 'ear players' might agree,that over time,you develop a ''quick ear'' = you absorb the bare bones of a tune very easily & don't need much time to flesh 'em out afterwards. That's THE big benefit of ear playing. They still take time to get them under your fingers,that doesn't come automatically,but having learned to play mandolin by finding ''where the sounds are'',even that doesn't take too long either as long as the melody isn't too complex,
Ivan

[Timbofood]

You said a mouthful, Ivan!

[mugbucket]

[foldedpath]

For something relatively simple like a "fiddle tune," I have better luck trying to remember the B part of a tune instead of the A part. If I can call up the B, I can usually start the A.

I've noticed others doing this too... trying to get the B part, so they can lead into the A and then start the tune.

[Charlie Bernstein]

I Can't Remember Songs!!

Dang....I'll play a song for 30 minutes, walk away from it for a day then can't even remember how the darn thing starts. Its all pretty frustrating. Show me the TAB's and I can pick and play pretty well, its just the thinking part thats got me stumped.

What techniques do you use to burn the tune into your head????

Learn a song in thirty minutes? In my dreams! It takes me a year or so of playing a song before the odds of remembering it are in my favor. And I don't read music or tab. So my technique is simple: play it hundreds of times, a.k.a. over and over and over and over.

I'm blessed with a tolerant wife.

[Charlie Bernstein]

With a gig coming up this Saturday night, I too have been struggling with CRS. I don't want to use a music stand at this gig . . . .

As for remembering melodies and chords to songs, I usually don't have a problem because I play the song about 1,000 times before I get brave enough to do it in front of an audience.

Yup, I never use a stand or iPad. On the rare occasion that a tricky new song has been thrown at me two days before a gig, I'll write chords with Sharpie on an index card and put the card on the floor or monitor. But that's rare, and that's the limit.

A thousand times sounds about right to me.

The thing is, I know that singing, playing, memorizing, and stage presence aren't my talents. I'm a pretty good song writer, and that's about it it. So everything I do compensates for my weaknesses to push out my strength.

[Charlie Bernstein]

I used to hand write the words of a new song I was bringing into the band four times and by the time I had finished the fourth one, the words were pretty well established. Whether or not the other guys could read what I'd written was their problem!
As for the tune, I think Teak has the best mnemonic device, get the tune in your head then tell fingers where to go. It's the simplest form I know of and one you have a little more difficulty losing.
But......

Wow. Before I subject anyone else (including my wife and cat) to any of my songs, I've rewritten it AT LEAST thirty times! They take me a few minutes to write and a few months to rewrite.

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . It takes time to learn a tune well. The older you get, the longer it takes.

Drinking doesn't help.

Well . . . it doesn't help learning the song, at least . . . .

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . Also, remember that the aging process does affect our ability to assimilate, retain, and recall data . . . .

Not this boy! I was just as bad when I was sixteen as I am at 65. Always had a swiss cheese brain, always will.

[wildpikr]

I have a problem with fiddle tunes I haven't played in a while. I can't remember the A part, and have to play the B part first, then the A part comes back to me.

That's doesn't seem to be a bad way to start from an arranging perspective...different tempo lead up on the B part and off you go!

[Al Trujillo]

"Not only is my short-term memory horrible, but so is my short-term memory."

Ahhhh.....one of the many gifts given to us for not having died young.

[Perry]

Medical marijuana will not help your situation!

[Tim N]

Well, I'm pretty certain what this thread is all about - it's just that all my googling comes up with comprehensive ranking systems, common reporting standard, Catholic relief fund.... and I'm not too proud to ask: What is CRS actually?
Anyway, I'm just starting the mandolin journey at 54, and although it's not my first instrument, it is my first melody instrument, as I've always been a picker and a strummer. So, my motivation in taking up this wee creature is, not least, to stimulate my brain to such an extent through the learning of new tunes (primarily by ear), that I actually start getting younger! Failing this, I hope to defy CRS (whatever tht is) by doing many of those things that have been recommended, and hopefully get a lot of pleasure in the process. Either way, I seem to be approaching the issue from the other side - hoping that the mental challenge will help me to remember. Of course it may be too late, but I forgot to take up Mandolin when I was young...
Enjoying it so far, anyway!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Medical marijuana will not help your situation!

Depends on what you mean by "help"!

[Tim N]

Just worked it out! It's in the title, of course!

[MikeZito]

As a songwriter, I'm with Dave (post #22). If I don't record a newly written song, the melody WILL get forgotten!