Yesterday I had my once a month lesson with Jori Chisholm in Seattle.  This was my second lesson with Jori and we spent more time going over the tune I'm working on right now.  Jori uses a nifty technique where he will highlight repeating phrases within the tune.  By using different color highlighters you can quickly see the tune structure.

For instance, the Welcome home Prince Charles to Lochaber tune has 4 beginning phrases that are repeated and 1 ending phrase that is repeated across all 4 parts, and a mini phrase that is repeated at the end of the 1st and 3rd lines of the tune.

This way you can individually work on these phrases and then eventually link them up to form the complete tune.  This would be especially helpful for very complex tunes.

I really like this technique and I'm going to highlight all of the common phrases in the tunes I have learned (and continue to work on) , it is so simple to do and actually kind of fun!

Next lesson Jori is going to give me some new music to learn... I wonder what he'll come up with?