Transcript

File: cheverieomar06-oh-learningtunes_twists_M.mp3

Speakers:
OC – Omar Cheverie

RC – Randy Cheverie

KP: Curator Ken Perlman

OC: When I was young I had an exceptionally good ear for picking up tunes. In fact, some tunes, if it was an easy tune if I heard it once I could play it. It was this about it I used to find. If I heard a tune, and I wouldn't be in a position to try it, but maybe a week after that I'd be pickin' with the fiddle and this tune would come to me. And a lot of the times it was right on, sometimes I had to adjust for the next time I'd hear it. But a lot of the times I’d have it right off. And I was like that when I was young for quite a few years. But as you get older, you don't pick them up that easily.

RC: A couple of quick little stories.

KP: It’s [Omar’s son] Randy speaking now.

RC: Just a couple of quick little stories.on Dad and fiddle tunes and number of fiddle tunes, too. I asked him one time I said, “Dad, how many tunes do you know?” I remember I was sitting right here. And he said, “Well, “ he thought for a while and said, “what I know now, and what I can play, and what I forgot, probably about 5000 different tunes.” And I tend to believe it too. Another time we were getting ready for a little concert at the Benevolent Irish Society here in North River Road in Charlottetown. Dad and I were going to play and we had a friend of mine that played guitar come out to try to play with us. We had a little practice on Sunday evening, about an hour, and Greg is the guy’s name, he came out and he played, and we got through about an hour's practice and things were going pretty well, and Greg was getting pretty confident with his ability to play with us on guitar and know the tunes. And I said to him when it was all over, I said, “Greg, just remember, we're playing next Friday. It'll be all different tunes, you wait and see.” Sure enough after the first half on Friday, Greg says, “I never heard one of those tunes before!” (laughter). So you kind of go with what happens.

OC: You play with what comes into your head at the time.

KP: You would hear a tune and you would remember it a week later. Would you remember it in every single detail or would it be mostly the main parts of the tune?

OC: If it was a reasonably easy tune, like a lot of the jigs are fairly easy, I would most of the time have it right on. But if it was a strathspey or a difficult reel or something I might have to hear it the second time to get it all. I'd have probably three quarters of it, and a little piece there of it missin' and I couldn't find it. And I'd have to wait till I heard it again, and that was usually on the radio. And you'd be prayin', “I hope this guy'll play that tune, tonight.” (laughs). And sometimes it would be six months before you'd hear the tune again.

KP: But would remember it in every detail, or would there be certain little parts of it that you might in remembering it have changed a little bit?

OC: Yeah, sometimes that would happen too, a little detail would be a little bit different than the original one. If I liked it better I'd keep it [the difference]; if I didn't I'd go back to the original.