Anyone rely on sound samples?

I am a new player who has some music background (I played french horn in high school). I am experimenting with fingerstyle or solo playing by learning off sheet music. I am specifically going through some of Colin Tribes songs. I find it very difficult to get rhythm and timing down by just reading the sheet music and must listen to a sound sample. I simply cannot figure out a tune without a song sample even if I have the sheet music. Does anyone have the same experience?

i do find it helps quite a bit to listen to song i'm trying to play being played properly.

Yep. A sound sample and even a backing track helps a lot, by just making it so much quicker and easier to learn.

I simply cannot figure out a tune without a song sample even if I have the sheet music. Does anyone have the same experience?

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When I learned to read music, just a few years ago, (at the age of 60-ish) I had this problem. If I didn't know the tune, I found it very difficult to even attempt a rendition of a piece of music from the sheet. Not having access to sound samples for a lot of the material I was using, I took to generating my own by typing the music into ABC format then playing this to get a MIDI file I could use for reference. A little long-winded, maybe, but it certainly speeded up my reading skills as well as being able to hear tunes I could only otherwise guess at.

Now, about four years on, I can read most anything my skill-set will allow me to play ... simple keys, only one or two sharps or flats, no fancy time signatures, but I still use the ABC routine for some phrases with slightly off-beat timings.

If you can already read music, you're probably about 75% there. Spend a couple of hours becoming familiar with ABC notation and the world of sheet music can be your proverbial oyster. The other great facility that ABC has, is that once you've got the music in that format, you can transpose it to any key that suits you with a couple of clicks of the mouse

YMMV but enjoy the journey

Thanks for the ABC format tip. I'm totally gonna try this!! I can read some music except when it gets really complicated. I'm thinking about taking a music theory class at my local community college too just because the uke has piqued my interest in music.

I'm a terrible sight reader, so I always appreciate a sound sample. But I have a hard time getting timing right without *also* seeing the standard notation - tab that just has the numbers but nothing to indicate timing really perplexes me. So I guess you could say I want it all

I don't read music. I keep telling myself I should learn, but between you and I, I'll probably just keep telling myself that...

I'm a singer/strummer, so most of what I play is fairly straightforward. The the vast majority of songs I play are "pop music" of some kind. That means that the rotations are usually fairly simple and there is usually an intro or hook that sets each piece apart from all of the other songs using a similar rotation. I use chord sheets almost exclusively, but chord sheets are rarely complete and even more rarely in the right key. Many times they leave out intros, bridges, hooks, etc., and almost never have a time notation. Sound samples help me figure out the missing bits.

Not that it always works. Sometimes there is still a HUGE difference in what I know a song should sound like and my ability to fill in the blanks. A lot of times I'll simply decide a song is good enough for the girls I go out with and come back later to work out better arrangements as I improve. I always use sound samples when I'm re-arranging a song.

janeray1940 wrote :

I'm a terrible sight reader, so I always appreciate a sound sample. But I have a hard time getting timing right without *also* seeing the standard notation - tab that just has the numbers but nothing to indicate timing really perplexes me. So I guess you could say I want it all

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If you know your way around the fretboard a little it's not difficult to translate tab into ABC (and thence to MIDI and/or conventional notation) ... I've done this as well, so's I could use a tune I had in tab for one instrument on different instrument

Admittedly, if the tab is poorly written, with no timings, it does assume a previous knowledge of the tune

I pretty much stick with songs I am familiar with and can sing along with. I usually am just using tabs so there is really no idea on the timing though.

RC3291 said:

I pretty much stick with songs I am familiar with and can sing along with. I usually am just using tabs so there is really no idea on the timing though.

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That's pretty much what I do. I pick songs with melodies that I already know. Then I can read the words of course, and all I have to do is learn the chords and where they go. But I do have one bad habit that I'm trying to break. I haven't been paying much attention to timing, since I play alone. I do keep the tempo correctly, but I "improvise" a lot.

Count! Tap your foot! ld:

For Colin Tribes tabs - usually if you listen to the original song you'll see how he has interpreted it. If you get the original in your head you should be able to figure out the rhythm in his tabs. Most of his tabs are not easy. There are some very tricky rhythms - in uke tab almost everyone has their own idiosyncratic way of writing some of the rhythms that are non standard. Even if you read music well - which generally I do - it still isn't always possible to read his rhythms like regular notation. Also it's hard because when playing a lot of popular music the music timing is not played in the straight time in which it is written.

For what its worth, many professional musicians listen over and over to the original and to other interpretations even when they can read music fluently.

If you are a beginner and you can play more than a couple of Colins pieces - that's pretty impressive. You really need to move all over the neck and use a lot of chord forms as well as deal with some tricky rhythms. It's not easy stuff.

Thanks for your input, Katysax. I'm actually working through some Colin Tribe songs at the moment. I started off with Blue Moon which was rated a 3 in difficulty. I probably should have started off with an easier song but I just love the melody. Now I'm working on "Leaving on a Jet Plane" which is rated 2 in difficulty but I think its harder than Blue Moon. You're right in that how he plays the song isn't exactly how it is written down on the sheet music. Sometimes he plays quarter notes like eighth notes and some of the fingerings are tricky. It was kind of frustrating at first but then I realized that a lot of ukulele music is improvised as you play along and open to interpretation. My private ukulele instructor doesn't read music very well but is just naturally talented and can play by ear and improvise as he plays along. At first I was really by the book in reading sheet music which made me enjoy the music less. If I'm having a lot of difficulty with a particular chord or rhythm I modify them to suit my skill level rather than getting frustrated. I'm just playing for an audience of one (myself) after all.

I just watched and listened to some Colin Tribes vids. Ask yourself these questions Do you play by ear? If you do: Do your ears perceive both the melody and rhythm at the same time? When you read music, do you "hear the notes" as you read them? I think perhaps you are paying too much attention to the melody line and the left hand. Tribes is very accomplished in his left hand technique but The magic is coming from his right hand technique.All but one of the vids I listened to and watched were driven by right hand technique. I saw several three fingered rolls and several four fingered rolls. In "I feel pretty" he combined at least two "roll" styles with a downpicking style. Ignoring the thumb rolls are up-picking. If you are not watching the right hand you probably are not noticing this. The quarter notes like eighth notes are triplets. the down picking enables him to vary the rhythm throughout the song and execute more complex rhythms. You would not pick these things up from the sheet music or if your ears are concentrating on the melody,
I suggest you watch Colins right hand and see what he's doing.

IamNoMan, thanks for the tips. Glad you checked out his videos. You are correct in that I am focusing too much on left hand technique and melody (I didn't even realize this) which is why my playing is NOWHERE near as musical as is. I"ll start studying scrutinizing his right hand technique in more detail.