old dogs, new tricks still ticking over . . .

Yes, still truckin' along with Memrise and Duolingo.  Learning facts about music, stars, "famous art", and Spanish and a bit of Scottish Gaelic. Good fun. Little and often etc etc. Building up my cultural capital or something.

old dogs, new tricks . . .

Hmm - only 84% correct.  Not quite University Challenge standard yet.  Patience, patience . . .

Old dogs and new tricks

I am having fun with Memrise.com - learning to recognise pieces of classical music, and name the composer.  Yes, they're short snippets, but I am learning some of them, and when I hear the whole thing on the radio I listen more carefully.  The other day, I was driving along and recognised Chopin's Waltz no. 1 in E flat.  But will it stick?

I've often used music and songs to help me learn words, now I find I'm putting words to some of the music to help me to remember the title and composer!

Next thing - learning some of the constellations.

Dance of the Knights

It's the intro to the Apprentice, and I never watch the show at home.  But I was away, and the local Romans were watching, so I heard the tune.  Well,  I recognised it and found out that it is from Romeo and Juliet, and is also known as Montagues and Capulets.  You lives and learns.  One thing Memrise has taught me, then.

This old dog tries to learn new tricks

Following an article in this week's New Scientist, and a link to the website memrise.com , I'm trying to learn to recognise some well-known pieces of classical music.

Yes, I knew a few already, but I have enormous gaps in my knowledge. Time to plug a few.

It's like a massive quiz that I can sign into whenever I feel like it, and it goes over and over stuff - even sends you the odd email to remind you you need to revise. 

I figure that if it can teach me this, it's got something! Will report back on progress from time to time.