How to teach a tune

Here are a few hints for teaching tunes:

• Don't pick a difficult tune for the first few times out -- no strange time signatures or sudden time changes, melody lines that twist and go crooked, or strange keys.
• Be sure to start off by telling everyone the name of the tune, where you learned it from, and give any history that you know about the tune. Also include the key and mode if you know it. ("This is Jackie Coleman's Reel, in D major. I learned it from Shannon Heaton at my first lesson, but I've incorporated parts of Kevin Burke's setting too. It's a very common session standard.")
• Be prepared to tell people what note to start on and what note any odd jumps move to. ("This starts on an A and jumps right to the F#." "Then there's this E-F-G triplet here..." "It jumps to a G here.")
• Play slowly. Slower. Even slower than that. You'll know when everyone has the phrase consistently -- play the phrase once more past that.
• After you've taught the phrase, be prepared to go back and talk about and play the pick-ups that a player might use, or variations that you like.
• Don't freak out. Everyone had to learn how to do this, it's not something you're born knowing how to do. :)
• Try here for a chart of modes and key signatures (helpful if you're working with beginning accompanists)

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