Searching for tunes

I have the hardest time searching for tunes. Is there a trick to it? I don’t know the name of the tune. I think I can remember a few notes.

The tune I’m looking for I think goes something like gfe fbb fbb in the beginning of the first part, and d2e fff eca at the beginning of the second part, so it’s in Bminor in the first part and Dmajor in the second part. How the heck do you find a tune like that? You can’t select the key it’s in because it is both. People might have typed in whatever you type in to indicate roles or maybe some other thing other than fff. I know it can’t be that obscure of a tune.

So what is the secret to finding things?

FYI this has to be the most frustrating way to learn music. People play three tunes three times through and at the end you ask what was the one in the middle and nobody remembers and then maybe someday you hear it on a CD playing in the car but the track name just says “jigs” or something vague. Sheesh.

https://thesession.org/tunes/search?type=slip+jig&mode=Bminor&q=

OR

http://abctunesearch.com/

Paste the notes (use capital B, as in gfe fBB fBB).

Result:

https://thesession.org/tunes/46

… and The Reverend’s ABC Tune Search, which he’s currently upgrading - http://abctunesearch.com/.

Most the people I’ve ever played with only ever seem to know the names of half the tunes they play. They know the tune but have no idea of the name. And when familiar tunes turn up in the many ad hoc sets, one doesn’t have time to stop to ask and put a name to it!

I feel your pain, a couple years ago I was recording tunes at the session and hunting for them here.

Even though I knew that I had a phrase correct, typing it in a dozen different ways would all yield zero matches.

That’s the trouble, there are endless ways of typing in identical-sounding phrases.

The example you give

d2e fff

could have the fff entered as fef, fdf, fgf, f3, ~f3, f2f and who knows how many other ways.

So even though you know how it sounds you have to keep typing away and even after a dozen tries might not get a match.

Unless they’re using a new search engine now, maybe they are.

Your tune is the Humours of Whisky

The trick is to record the session tunes on your phone and learn them later, then use Tunepal to help name them.

I find tunepal the least sensitive to variations, abctunesearch.com looks good as well, you can play the music into tunepal, so long as your setup is OK and seeing as you play the flute it should work pretty well, you can also do a note search with tunepal, you just need to capitalise everything and have 15 notes and B3 would be BBB

eg. https://tunepal.org/index.html#!/notesSearch/GFEFBBFBBGFEFBB

What is the cut-off for when capital letters and lower case letters are used? What letters do you use for the B on a violin G string, the B on a violin A string and a B on a violin E string?

Thanks for whoever identified the tune. What I remembered as far as the first three notes and what they ended up being are like the difference between how this guy and that guy plays it, but as far as a machine goes, it’s the difference between finding something and it not existing.

C is the cutoff. Notes below C on the G string have a comma after them, notes above B on the E string have an apostrophe.

From low G to High D: G,A,B,C DEFG ABcd efgabc’d’

Tunepal uses a similarity index rather than a direct string search so it doesn’t matter if your version is slightly different, you’ll get the ones that sound similar.

The Reverend’s site is coming along very well. Tune Type: Slip Jig “gfe fBB fBB” brings up 100% settings for
The Session & Henrik Norbeck’s site ~ http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/display.asp?rhythm=slip+jig&ref=40

With Tunepal, I find it easier to play what I can remember. And I also find it best to play as few notes as possible (without becoming ridiculously ambiguous). Every additional note played increases the risk of introducing variation, thereby leading the software astray.

“Most the people I’ve ever played with only ever seem to know the names of half the tunes they play”

I wonder if there’s a bit of a complex culture/social behaviour re. saying this though…

In the sessions I’ve been in, the same people always say this and I’ve often wondered if, based on knowing those people:
- For some it’s partly a social/humble/don’t stand out thing eg (“I’ve just played a great set and feel a little embarrassed so I’ll say I don’t know the tune name to be a bit more humble”)
- For some it’s the opposite (“I’ll say I don’t know the tune as good players play instinctively/by ear, and hence never know the names, so I’ll say I don’t either to be on that level”)
- For some is just a standard part of session small talk/friendly way to keep conversation going, like talking about the weather (“I won’t think if I know it as saying “I don’t know”, will keep the conversation going and feels like the correct social thing to do in this situation”)

Sorry for the thoughts splurge, but I do find the human behaviour/interactions at sessions quite interesting!

“I wonder if there’s a bit of a complex culture/social behaviour re. saying this though”

No, most people who’ve learned a few hundred session tunes by ear only have names for some of them.

It sounds like you need TUNEPAL where you play a few notes into the mic and about 7 times out of 10 you get the right answer

As I’ve gotten older (59 as of 2020) I’ve decided that I’d rather remember the tune than it’s name.

I’m sure there are hundreds of tunes I can play that I could not tell you the name of without looking them up in a tune book or using TunePal.

Other’s brains seem to be wired to remember the names much better than me, so I just defer to them.