This is a tangent from the “hardest tunes” thread. Are there tunes that have been played to death so much that you have an almost physical reaction to playing them? Like when you scratch an itch so much that it starts to bleed?
For me, it’s the following “session” tunes (labeled that because they have been played at pretty much every session I’ve been to locally over the past 25 years): Cooley’s, Ships are Sailing, Maid behind the Bar. Maybe it’s that people rip through these (because everyone knows them) and that I just haven’t sat down and piped them, if you know what I mean. There’s nothing wrong with these tunes themselves, obviously. Iconic tunes.
Perhaps this thread speaks more to an aversion to repeated stimuli than piping music.Or reticence in a local session scene. It can be very hard to move the needle sometimes.
Yeah, I’ve seen people stop playing when a certain tune comes up as they don’t want to play THAT tune again.
Rubbish I say!
When such a tune comes up in a session I see it as an opportunity - an opportunity for me to play it differently than I have before. And with the pipes there’s tons of variation available just with ornamentation alone - never mind what you can do differently on the regulators!
I figure if you’re not adding to the music, then you should sit out. Doing something differently may add, and it may detract, sometimes seriously.
There are very few tunes I won’t play, but there are a couple! I think it’s fine to sit things out, but if the sessions regularly play tunes and sets you’re sick of, maybe better to not sit and glower, but rather just not go… It depends really on how much it happens. (I’ve never seen Tom glower. Ever.)
I have to put Cooley’s at the top of my “AGGGGGGHHHH!” list, and MBTB and Sally Gardens aren’t far behind. In part, I think because they do get pretty rough treatment in sessions. Everyone goes “woot” and piles on, and unmusical mayhem ensues. I usually adopt the Liz Carroll approach of trying to play it, like magroibin says, differently, or beautifully, or something to change it up like phrasing, articulation, triplets in other places, etc. (IIRC, Liz said she likes to see how far out she can go with it before she hits the third rail, but I’d have to be a lot better to do that.)
Anyway. Not that I succeed, but at least trying to play it differently can be a distraction 'til the tune’s over and we can play something I like better. As the old punchline goes, “Beige … I think I’ll paint it … beige.”
I saw Tom glower once. But he was kidding (I hope so, anyway, since he was glowering at me!)
If I could draw a graph on here, I would.
It would be a line graph showing the negative correlation between speed of play and musicality of the tune.
If you’re playing a march, then play it at a marching speed! I’m military, I know how to march; and nobody marches at 200 bpm!
Dance tunes: whether it’s a strathspey, jig, slip-jig, hornpipe, reel, or polka, never play faster than a pretty girl can dance.
With just that rule in employ, no, there isn’t a tune I wouldn’t play.
I have a list with the titles of all my tunes on it in random order, so as to avoid playing warhorses all night long. I think of playing the Kesh jig as an inevitability, like a musical root canal.
Or instead of the boring old Kesh I might play the Comedy Maid instead.
I’ve always been a bit anti-Cooleys reel.
but since getting a C#d box and listening to Tony McMahon play it.
i cant stop playing it. just sits well under the fingers…
I have been in many a session where someone has played Cooley’s/Kesh/Sligo Maid/Sally Gardens/Spootaskerry/insert your flogged-to-death old warhorse here. The first thought that crosses my mind is, “Oh, for f **'s sake, this bloody tune again.” The second thought, on the tails of that one, is “Do I want to be that much of a douchebag? The jerk who sits there with their instrument in their lap, reveling in their musical erudition and rolling their eyes at the poor little novicey players who were naive enough to play Cooley’s. No, that’s a douchey thing to do.” Then I play the tune.
There are sessions where all they play are those knackered warhorses, and belt them out without care nor feeling. I don’t go to those sessions because I don’t enjoy that, but it’s better to not show up than to show up and roll my eyes. Sometimes, when traveling and fancying a tune in a foreign city, I might end up at such a session. In that case, I grin and play along. They’re locals playing what they like at their session. I’m a visitor. Suck it up and play the Kesh.
P.S. Dunnp; I’m so happy to hear that box is getting played.
Yeah.. Most of the “big” piping tunes that have been done to death!
I find it hard to stomach another rendition of Colonal Frazer yet again! I love hearing refreshing new tunes done on pipes..
I’ve been playing quite a few unusual piping tunes from Goodman Manuscripts and also some lovely Vincent Broderick tunes.
Please no more Bucks of Oranmore… Ever!
When I played clarinet those years ago, I was in a Master Class with Richard Stoltzman once (I was just an observer). Someone asked him “how can you stand to play Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto anymore after all these years”? He said “It to me is like an old friend. There is so much in the piece that is familiar, but I find I want to dig deeper and explore new qualities about it each time I play it”.
I think if you’ve been playing in sessions for a while that don’t have an influx of new tunes coming in occasionally, you’re bound to have tunes that you cannot stand to play - but hearing a fresh perspective on it - hearing a setting of it you hadn’t heard before can make that old friend more interesting, and can maybe help you explore it from a new angle.
That being said, I have no idea how to do that with the Kesh Jig!
I hear you. Aaaand … I still remember an entire theaterfull of Irish musicians being knocked over when Paddy Keenan opened his solo set with the Kesh (ala Bothy Band) at Swannanoa some years back. There was an audible gasp as we all “got” how great that tune can be. I still can’t tell you how or why, but Paddy pulled something out of it that was entirely different.
Must remember that … I certainly won’t ever forget the moment!
Yes Cathy! This supports my earlier point. If you don’t try to do something different/fun/varied/etc… then you will just be repeating the same old tune. But by putting a bit of creativity into it each time you can fend off the boredom and find new joy in an old tune.
(But if the inspiration doesn’t strike it’s always a good excuse to get that pint topped up!)
Mind you, Paddy, playing that tune, is like the opening chord of Hard Day’s Night. We all remember where we were when we first heard The Bothy Band start out that album with The Kesh
Reg Hall had a lovely turn of phrase (which all you recovering Catholics will understand) about listening to the player “visit the stations of the tune.”
So it’s the Bucks, what will she do with the triplets in the third part?
It’s the Gold Ring, how does he do with the cranns in the fifth part
etc.
I try to keep all the tunes in my repertoire going because I find that if I let any go by the wayside I find it almost impossible to remember how to play them through again without any mistakes after a few weeks. Almost as if I’m learning them from scratch. Is that just me? Maybe it’s an age thing!
(I hope so, anyway, since he was glowering at me!)
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