Transcript

File: doucettevictor06-oh-twists_M.mp3

Speakers:

VD – Victor Doucette

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: How did you go about learning tunes?

VD: Just listen to Dad playing and others playing. Try to go back and figure out what they are doing. The thing about that is, the hardest part about learning by ear is that you think you have it right. Then you go back and listen to the person again and you're so far off. And then you got to start over again. It comes easier as you get older. You put your own little thing in there, everybody puts their own little part in there. You think you try to do it the same as the other one, but I know there's stuff that I do that I'd think was close to dad, but he used to put something else in there that was entirely different and I could never catch, so I’d either cut >er short, or put my little thing in there that I thought sounded OK. He thought that some stuff I put in, I remember him - he was listenin' to it and he said, “What are you doin' there?” And I said “am I doing it right Dad, or not?” And he said “Don't say that, what are you doing, I like what you're doing.” And I’d wonder what I was doing. So I’d play it and he'd say, “Well, I'd like to put that in there.” But I always thought what he was doin' was a lot better than what I was. So it’s just the way you hear yourself. After a while you play the same thing over and over again it’s monotonous, but if you hear somebody else playing it, it sounds nice.