On learning Irish tunes by ear, recognising patterns, and why I started creating Tune Maps. I've been playing traditional music for most of my life. I started attending German traditional music sessions in 1979, and learning by ear was simply part of how we made music. We listened, played, repeated melodies, and gradually built up a repertoire. Written notation played little or no role. So when I eventually began concentrating more seriously on...

On Celtic guitar, creative constraints, and the pleasure of finding elegant solutions. I've always enjoyed listening to sophisticated Celtic fingerstyle guitar arrangements. Beautiful harmonies, intricate bass lines, unexpected chord changes, and melodies woven into rich textures can make a familiar traditional tune sound entirely new. But when I pick up my own guitar, my approach is usually much simpler. I tend to play chord melody by ear. I...

Why traditional ear training never quite gave me what I was looking for. For much of my musical life, I assumed that ear training was about learning to recognize intervals. You listen to two notes, determine the distance between them, and identify a minor third, a perfect fifth, or a major seventh. With enough practice, you become faster and more accurate. Later, when I became interested in jazz and improvisation, chord recognition was added to...