An article about learning tunes with MIDI files

[Pyroh]

This is an article for one Czech whistling web (translated to English, of course)...can I ask you if you think it´s comprehendable, clear - and most of all - of some use? Almost any sort of feedback will be welcome. Thanks a lot.

Right, I decided to write this article some time ago, but I wanted to get more experience with the method, to see if it´s so good as it looks at the first glance. In my opinion, it is. It sure won´t make you perfect whistler with fabulous ornamentation – that´s fully up to you, as it should be. But it can help you find the correct speed and rhytm, which is often major issue, especially for beginners. It´s not only for them though – I myself play tin whistle for some time, yet I fancy this method as I can learn a tune 5 times faster than purely by reading music.

For those who don´t know what I´m babbling about – MIDI music files are created with MIDI studios – programs, where you write notes, and select the instrument playing it (there are various instruments set up – you can create piano, fiddle, guitar and many more tracks, although, to be honest, only piano sounds somewhat similar to the real one).

First question is rather obvious – what do I need? You need a computer, ability to read music (I´m unaware of any MIDI studio able to show whistle tab)...if you scream in agony now, I´m sorry; but notes are sort of latin in middle ages – many people all around the world understand it. And of course, some midi studio. You can play MIDI files in all kinds of music players, but that´s not IT, isn´t it? You want to see the notes, which is done by some studio – I use Anvil studio, as it´s for free and offers everything necessary (and many more things).

The process of learning goes in several steps:
a) You find a tune you want to learn
b) You look the MIDI file up by all powerful Google. Many tunes aren´t available as sheet music, yet you can find them as MIDI. If, on the other hand, you have sheet music, but not MIDI, you can easily write it in Anvil studio.
c) You open it in Anvil and play it...right, seems too fast? Here comes the best part – you slow it down by setting a metronome to lower number. Usual music formats (mp3, waw) sound horrible when slowed down, but MIDI files, by principle, are unaffected, only get slower. All problems with rhytm are gone, as you play what you see – and at the same time, you play along music. But not to that full-speed mp3, but to file as fast as you want.
d) When you´ve found a speed you can keep up with, you play along. When you can play it perfectly, you make the song faster (I add 10-20 mostly)...and you do it again, again and again – until you reach wanted speed. I suggest you try playing the tune even faster, as when you play it at wanted speed later, you´ll feel more comfortable and you´ll fit ornaments in more easily.

Always master the speed you´re playing – if you overlook mistakes, they´ll get bigger and more annoying with time.
e) Basically, there´s no e. That should be all.

This method seems simple and it IS simple indeed. Looking at this, it feels I´ve written nothing...but still I think it actually is helpful nothing, at least for beginners.

When you play along the MIDI, you´ll get correct rhytm and correct placement of notes – nothing more. It will be technically well played tune – it probably won´t sound irish, if you don´t make it sound irish later – but if MIDI method was omnipotent, it would be boring, right?

[Ron Jarvis]

Hi - I don't often post replies, but feel compelled to respond. Unless I'm mistaken, midi files were never meant to replace music or notation or our ears for interpretation/learning. Persaonlly, I can't think of a single case in which a midi file does anything but give a general idea of the melody line.

"Practice does not make perfect; it makes automatic. Practice it wrong and you'll play it wrong".

Please don't use midi files to learn the whistle. Ron

[mutepointe]

here is a website i found when i was learning the harmonica. when a midi file is played on this program, it has a visual of harmonica tabulature, a piano keyboard playing the notes and/or a really cool visual representation of the music in really pretty colors. it's possible to select specific tracks for the visual representation. and the program transposes and changes speed. it helps me figure out songs and specific instruments in the song. a person could easily figure out the guitar chords from the visual representation too. i'm no big fan of midi music but it is a good resource and teaching tool.

plus it's free.

http://harpingmidi.com/download.html

[jim stone]

Yes, it's comprehensible. The writer makes plain that
the result won't sound 'irish,' unless you make it so.
You get the tune and the rhythm, bare bones, s/he says.


I don't think this is a good way to learn whistle, e.g.
ornamentation, etc. But if you already know something
about whistle, it's a very good way to learn tunes, IMO.
I learn lots of tunes this way.

I mean, suppose you have the sheet music and you're
literate. So you can play the tune and the rhythm.
That's a help in learning the tune. Listening to the
midi gives you that much, too. What you make of it
is up to you, and neither the midi nor the sheet music
give you that technique.

There are, by the way, some very well done midis,
by people who include a lot of understanding of the
tunes. These are especially helpful and actually
do give you some phrasing, etc.

http://www.eirefirst.com/midiindex.html

[sbfluter]

I think these midis are pretty good.
http://hetzler.homestead.com/Celtic_1.html

I think the poster has a good point that you can slow these down as much as you need to, then speed them up to challenge yourself to keep up. If you just practice all alone you aren't challenged by the music continuing without you, like you would be in a real session.

[Pyroh]

Thanks for the links and comments.

(the author is me, you can reply to me )

Good, I was afraid someone could feel like it should make him Paddy Moloney jr.

What I like the most is probably connection of sound and eye, when you listen to a record, or read sheet music, only one is used - this way, it´s faster to memorize the tune too, I´d say.

Ron: You won´t learn the tune only by that - but when you take a midi and you learn to play it fast, you can work on it and make it so, you can call it a tune really.

And it´s not bare melody only, really...when you have loads of time, you can write in ornaments too - but what I do is not to play exact notes I see, but I fit ornaments in during learning process etc.

[Easily_Deluded_Fool]

First question is rather obvious – what do I need? You need a computer, ability to read music (I´m unaware of any MIDI studio able to show whistle tab)...

Tablature Karaoke

Presents midi files in whistle tab ( and also Harmonica, Chromatic Harmonica, Recorder, Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo,
Ukulele, Dulcimer and Ocarina )
You can also choose which track if the tune is a multi-track midi file.
Slows the tune down, and you can print the tab' out in a word processor
to take away and practice.

Search for it on Google - there are several places to download it from,
and its free.
And to save you the effort - http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?4000000036978

It runs on windows 95/98/ME and XP - I don't know about Vista.

[Daleth]

Personally, I would never recommend midis to anybody as any part of the process of learning a tune. It's true they do capture the bare bones of the tune, but there are many subtleties to Irish music that it's impossible for a midi to capture. Rhythm, for example: Irish tunes have subtle (or often not so subtle) rhythms that a midi is incapable of reproducing. The timing indicated by the sheet music is not necessarily a good indication of the rhythm of the tune, in Irish music. Ornamentation, as well, is a very important in Irish music, and something else a midi doesn't reproduce. At least, it doesn't reproduce it well when it attempts it.

If somebody wants to just learn the notes, well, that's what sheet music is for. But to learn the tune, nothing will substitute for hearing somebody else play it. Listening to a midi might work, for say, somebody learning classical music, but for Irish music it just doesn't capture the absolutely most important part of the music that needs to be heard when learning it: the soul.

With so many recordings out there of so many tunes, I just can't see a reason why somebody would use a midi to learn from; you should be able to find a decent recording of just about any tune you want to learn. A simple search for the tune name on Google almost always does the trick, for me. I think anybody learning to play would be doing themselves a big favor by absolutely avoiding midis.

[Pyroh]

Daleth: I stated why someone would use a midi. Because you can slow it down. If you take very fast reel and try to learn it by ear, you will likely fail. Even with sheet music, it won´t be easy.

But when you learn it as "not irish, but fine", you can play along the fast record, you can change it and make it sound as the record - because fingers already know, where to go.

[Daleth]

There's actually programs that can be used to slow down an MP3/CD track without altering the pitch:

http://www.download.com/Amazing-Slow-Do ... ag=lst-0-1
http://www.download.com/SPT-667-Phrase- ... ag=lst-0-1

Learning very fast reels isn't easy no matter what method you use. But personally, I don't have too much trouble if I have the sheet music and an audio file of somebody good playing it.

[desutoroiyaa]

Personally I have little use for MIDI as far as learning a tune goes-- keeping up pace and flying through the notes has never been a problem for me... however, I'm currrently learning the style, and all of you are right in saying that there are many of stylistic subtleties that aren't captured in MIDI. So, I find more use in recordings.

However, if keeping up with the music is a challenge for you, you might try it. As long as you understand that what you're learning is just a basic framework, and to remember to be flexible!

Actually, I have recommended Anvil Studio to some students before... they were having issues with their audition music: difficulties understanding the rhythm, or problems keeping up. There were, however, many things written in the music (and many things not written) that MIDI couldn't reproduce, and I had to stress to them that they shouldn't rely on it too much. They learned the notes and rhythm much faster than I expected, and it wasn't much trouble to go back in and make stylistic corrections later-- definitely easier than to worry about it all at once. At least, that's the case with some people. It may not be right for everyone!

I'm glad to see someone brought this up. It really reminds me of the debate over learning by sheet music versus learning by ear...

I suppose like most things, it can be used as a tool, provided you don't turn it into a crutch.

[Pyroh]

I suppose like most things, it can be used as a tool, provided you don't turn it into a crutch.

I´d call it a motto of the style - great post overall I think.

Yeah, more I play, less problems with playing directly along record I have, but sometimes I find it quite useful - and mostly, my students find it useful, as they often have a hard time keeping up in a tempo. And for that, it helps. The rest is up to them, indeed.

[Guinness]

Despite their limitations, MIDI, abc players or any other computer generated music software does have it's uses:

- when one does not own a copy of the recording and/or a copy of slow down software;
- when one is composing their own tunes;
- when one is modifying a particular version for melody, ornaments, drones, chords, counterpoint, swing, etc. to suit their own circumstances (abcmus 2.0 is good for this);
- when one wants to work on intonation;
- when one wants to improve evenness of notes and tempo;