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Subject: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Cool Beans Date: 27 Jul 05 - 04:05 PM It's hard to remember tunes without words (at least if you're me)so I make up stupid lyrics for otherwise wordless tunes as a mnemonic device. For instance, to remember "Leather Britches" I came up with: I've got leather britches Lots of little stitches Lordy how it itches. Got to get some underwear. For "Hunting the Buffalo" I relied on the word "Tatunka," which is Lakota for "buffalo," according to "Dances With Wolves." Hence: In the west there's many a tatunka On the plains with the aromatic sage. That's enough to get me going and I always remember those tunes now. Tell me I'm not alone. |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 27 Jul 05 - 04:13 PM Not folk music, but I'd like to murder whoever put a mnemonic verse to the first phrase of Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony: This is The sym-pho-nee That Schubert wrote And never fin-ished It's absolutely lovely, and those damn words always intrude, fifty years after I first heard them. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: shepherdlass Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:03 PM I had Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave" ruined for me by a music teacher who insisted on singing the "hook" as "How lovely the sea is"! |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Little Hawk Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:07 PM The word is "Tatanka" (buffalo) Pronounce all the "A"'s like "ahh", and you've got it. Sitting Bull's name in Lakota was "Tatanka Yotanka" (the buffalo bull, sitting) |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: GUEST,ClaireBear Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:08 PM The morris community is rife with this. For example, I recalled these lyrics while trying to place a tune I heard last night midway through a Waterson:Carthy concert: Nebuchadnezzar he gave himself pleasure Abusing himself on the Banks of the Dee Not to mention: Old Molly Oxford slept on a sofabed, The cat come up and fell asleep upon her head, Smothered her until she was dead, Oh poor Old Molly Oxford. and of course: Lumps of Plum Pudding and pieces of pie My mother did give me for telling a lie. It made me so sick I thought I would die From Lumps of Plum Pudding and pieces of pie. Cheers, Claire |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Susanne (skw) Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:31 PM I could give you quite a few lyrics to remember German military marches by, all learnt at my father's knee and (unfortunately) never forgotten ... |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:33 PM This may help explain how some tunes have their name, remembering the differing language changes over the years. |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: open mike Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:49 PM on the other hand,,,i have a memnonic (swp?) for remembering the words to a Sarter Family song i sing. It helps me rem3ember the verses to the song which start with "Wonderful" "Folks" and "Praises". in order to get them I just say the word "Whiffenpoof" and I know that W, F, and P are the first lines..i hope i never forget the word whiffenpoof.. which now i had to look up to see what the heck it was.. apparently it was (is) a song by Bing Crosby--i wonder what i would need in order to remember IT?? |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:51 PM Isaac Asimov came up with this one for the first three lines of (what is sometimes called) The Irish Washerwoman's Jig; Paradichloroaminobenzaldehyde, Paradichloroaminobenzaldehyde, Paradichloroaminobenzaldehyde, |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Bob Bolton Date: 27 Jul 05 - 09:07 PM G'day Cool Beans, The collecting of dance tunes (certainly here in Australia) is littered with mnemonic names, which are used to lock in the rhythm of each tune. Sometimes these are existing lyrics to songs that share the tune - so that when, many years back, the Bush Music Club was putting out some "standard" tune sets we all had a mental blank when faced with Cock of the North - and that tune went out under the name Aunty Mary ... for the various ditties about her that were remembered by the compilers! Some of those collected in the field raise the odd eyebrow - like the many variants of "The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat's Eye" ... or "God Bless You and Bugger me!". Still, I guess it's better than "Mick Pilley's Fifteenth Schottische"! Regards, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Kaleea Date: 27 Jul 05 - 09:27 PM If it weren't for mnemonics, I would not have made it through my univ classes. My Music History Prof taught me how. He also taught me this for the New World Symphony: Cra--zy peo-ple---- don't know what they're do-ing--. And for Schuberts' Symphony #8 in B min he taught us: This is----- the symphony-------- that Schu-bert wrote and ne-ver ~~~ |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: harpgirl Date: 28 Jul 05 - 09:51 AM Mozart's 40th Mozart's in the closet, let him out, let him out, let him out! It's a bird it's a plane it's Mozart! |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Paul Burke Date: 28 Jul 05 - 09:51 AM I sometimes remember tunes by an associated song, as in Der Yid in Yerushalem, which reminds me strongly of The Prude of Petravor, and a reel (I can't remember the name) that starts almost exactly as Tony Rose's Grand Conversation with Napoleon. |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Cool Beans Date: 28 Jul 05 - 10:42 AM Which reminds me. I learned this from an Alabama music teacher: Beethoven's Fifth! Beethoven's Fifth! He got so drunk, he got so drunk, he got so drunk. He got so drunk, he got so drunk, he got so drunk. |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Chris Green Date: 28 Jul 05 - 10:42 AM Shepherd's Hey - What's the f***ing point? What's the f***ing point? What's the f***ing point of this f***ing tune? (x2) It's quite shit Isn't it? What's the f***ing point of this f***ing tune? (x2) |
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Subject: RE: Dumb lyrics to help remember tunes From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 29 Jul 05 - 09:32 AM Uncle Dave, the person you want to murder is Sigmund Spaeth, who wrote a hilarious but quite seriously-intended book FULL of verse-words for helping people to remember well known symphonic themes. Another of his gems (to Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony) is: Papa Haydn wrote this tune And a chord is coming soon It will be a big surprise Open sleepy eyes BANG !!!! I picked up a copy of Spaeth years ago in a secondhand stall, and in a misguided moment of housemoving-induced efficiency, gave it away - and have regretted it ever since. It was a scream. More recently, when he was writing the melody to "Yesterday", Paul McCartney apparently used the words "scrambled eggs" as a sort of rhythmic holding-pattern. Puts a rather different cast on that song... |
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