Playing Fiddle

Learning a new tune for St. Paddy’s day, The Moon and Seven Stars.

When John first introduced the backwards building concept I absolutely hated it. But, being me, if I’m paying someone for advice I do try to listen! So I kept trying it out–and lo and behold it works!

It’s now normal, and oddly enjoyable, for me to learn a song by playing it through a few times and then starting to memorize it by learning the final phrase. Then the penultimate phrase and then adding in the final phrase. Then the 3rd from the end phrase, then working in the last big, which I already know.

The result is that I relax as I get to the end since I know it the best.

That’s such a different feeling from when I used to memorize stuff from the front end. I’d get more and more nervous the more I played, since I was getting into less familiar territory. Now I might tense up a bit in the beginning (the newest stuff) but then I’m past that pretty quickly and can relax and just play.