This slowplay album by Jeffrey Hillgrove is awesome for learning and practicing tunes:
https://thesession.org/recordings/2159
I even come back to it sometimes with tunes I’ve known for years just to practice adding in ornamentation, etc.
Anyone know of a similar album out there?
Sheila Garry, Brid Cranitch. Orange, Blue albums.
https://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/webrevs/osscd132.htm
I use the Amazing Slowdowner and I’m pretty sure there are several other, easy to use, programs out there that you let make any CD a slow, learning, CD, most with features that let you create learning paths. Even youtube offers limited control over speed. I suspect a slow, learning CD would be almost un-marketable.
Audacity has a slow-down feature. You can also loop with it.
Alex.
I like Anytune. Also Youtube has a slowdown feature on the desktop version.
I agree that a slowdowner program is great for learning. But a performance is different from a teaching situation, and most CDs are performance oriented. The tunes are often played with so many ornaments and variations that it could be difficult for a beginner to pick up the body of the tune.
The emphasis on a teaching CD is on playing the bones of the tunes clearly and slowly. On another site I said this about the Garry/Cranitch “Irish Session Tunes: Orange CD.” -- “Clear playing of classic tunes at a moderate, accessible tempo. Beautifully paced and perfectly played. Perfect for the player wanting to expand his/her repertoire.”
Not commercially available, but we got our tutor to record certain tunes that people were finding tricky, first at a slow pace, then at a more usual speed. They were done with only very basic ornamentation, if at all, which gets around the problem of a slowed down super-duper performance CD, as described by David L above.
They proved very useful: she sent me the sound files and I did the CD burning at minimal cost.
Agreed David, point taken. Not all Cd’s are good for learning tunes, maybe even most. At least not until the learner has a good filter or has reached a point where ornamentations and variation are the object of the learning. For me, Slowdowner programs shine in their ability to create “loops” of phrases. The biggest danger is that they let you slow down the tune to the point where the context of the notes and phrases is lost and that leads to learning the notes without learning the tune.
Oh, and to the original post Slow and Easy (John Weed & Stuart Mason) is pretty good for the purpose. I think there are volumes I and II. Hard to find.
Tunes for Practice by Seamus Creagh.
I think it’s still available. It’s posted elsewhere on The Session.
Having slow music to work with is one benefit to a slow recording -- another is a simple arrangement so the tune doesn’t get lost in the additional complexity of a standard commercial recording. One that I’ve found very useful are two recordings by members of Mollys Revenge (Stuart Mason, John Weed) -- Slow & Easy Vol 1 and Vol 2. Fiddle and guitar accompaniment on separate speakers so you can turn down one or the other. Cheat music is also available if you need it. I’ve found the arrangements to be pretty good. You can hear samples on BandCamp.
Thanks all for these great recommendations! I’ll dig into them.
For some reason I thought Slow and Easy Volumes I & II where hard to find. When I went to the University of Google I found them right away, not expensive at all. My bad.
OAIM has play along backing tracks on selected tunes where you can choose speed (50%, 75% or 100%) as well as melody or accompaniment. Very useful for adding in new ornamentation. I also use a small Sony digital recorder with both variable speed and pitch capabilities.
If you have an android phone try ‘AUDIPO’ its pretty good fof free and just about does everything for small fee
Its thd best software for practise that I have ever used for proper music MP3’s
And for abc’s try ‘TRADMUSICIAN’ -another awesome app