Hey this is just a general question: Has anyone ever published acurate transcriptions of recordings say of the Bothy Band, or Planxty, or any of these bands, down to the accompaniment and all that sort of thing? Or have any of you done any of that sort of thing just for fun?
I am interested in fooling around with this sort of thing and was wondering if anyone had anything to say about that sort of full band transcription.
Philip[/quote]
Ihave never heard of any books like you describe but there is a Christy Moore songbook out there with a lot of good songs and chords.
Most songbooks will give you the basic melody line and iffy chords along with the lyrics. A better way to go about it is to do a search for specific tunes and then with the sheet music/ABC, combined with serious listening to the albums, you will be on the right road.
There aren’t any real shortcuts to mastering ITM.
Listen and Practice and play along with other people or even with the albums.
In the end it’s all down to practice and realising that each tune has its own character and personality. Get to know each tune by listening to as many versions as you can then practice till you drop.
Basics first,ornamentation will follow.
Slan,
D.
I may be wrong, but I am guessing Philip is looking for the ITM equivalent to the note-for-note full score type of music books that are published for popular rock albums, yes? If so, I think you’d have to stop and consider that a rock album goes platinum at 100,000 copies sold, whereas an ITM album goes gold at 10 copies. In other words, I doubt there is anywhere near a large enough audience to make it worth the while of most music publishers to consider what you are suggesting.
However, in several different ITM tune collections I will see someone say they have transcribed their version after Liam O’Flynn or somebody similar. Maybe it is close, but seldom correct, and only for one time through, not the full tune. As you know, great ITM players never play the tune the same way twice in one sitting, let alone day to day, so these transcriptions are of limited use. I don’t know of anyone dong anything like a full score of even one full tune from an ITM band (but I am surely not aware of every source, either).
djm
Yeah, djm, that’s the sort of thing I was thinking of. I’m pretty interested in really analyzing the various developments etc. in guitar and bouzouki playing over the past fourty years or so, so I am just wondering if anyone has already done any work specifically in this field. It would probably make a good dissertation or something of that sort should I go that path further down the road. But if you guys ever come across something of this sort, let me know.
By the way, dubhlinn, I can understand, having reread my post, how you got the impression that I was looking for sheetmusic to learn tunes etc from… 
I don’t know what the fascination with the Bothy Band would be. Their renditions were so fast that there was little in the way of ornamentation on a lot of tunes, and their arrangements weren’t particularly complicated. However, Planxty was and is a magic show of consumate musicianship. If you want to study where that comes from I’d suggest you follow the recordings of Donal Lunny. A lot of stuff he has done is more modern than trad, but he is definitely the mastermind behind the arrangements. O’Flynn referred to his bouzouki and Andy Irvine’s mandolin duets as a sort of musical filigree. If you can work some of that spaghetti out you’d probably be the better for it (or burned out 
).
djm
I don’t know what the fascination with the Bothy Band would be.
(clutching chest, feigning heart attack) I’m comin’ to join ya, Elizabeth!
…djm, now LOOK what you’ve done!
Sorry, just personal taste all of this. I’m not a big BB fan, nor of PK, either. But that’s not said to upset anyone - again, just personal taste, and is no reflection or comment on the skills of any player, but rather, what they choose to do with those skills.
djm
A lot of the Bothy Band’s music doesn’t strike me as being particularly fast, at least after Kevin Burke replaced Tommy Peoples. I seem to recall the latter and his colleagues coming under fire on this forum a few months ago for excessive speed (Molloy-Brady-Peoples), though I kind of liked it myself. As for simple arrangements, that strikes me as being a plus point in Irish music. Let the tunes take the strain. Though I do take the point about the magic of Planxty. There’s a sort of unadorned and spirited directness and sheer power about the BB that endeared them to many. They were emphatically not trying to be Planxty. A good collection to listen to is the Bothy Band Live album, recorded in London on two occasions, both with Kevin Burke. Quite a bit of ornamentation showing through at times there. Even sensitive stuff - listen to Donal Lunny’s song accompaniment on the bouzouki.
Cheers!
Steve
They weren’t as good as Michael Flatley but then again, who is? 
Did you guys hear his new album is called “Michael Flatley - So Hot Right Now”?
pmsmithltd wrote:'Did you guys hear his new album is called “Michael Flatley - So Hot Right Now”? ’
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… 
…seriously? Ugh.
There’s a thread on the flute forum about this. It got a good panning there for the ultimate cheese factor of the new age arrangements and accompaniment.
djm
Lunasa sells a book of transcriptions of the tunes from their first three or so CD’s. It’s the melody line only, first time through. It’s around $20 or so and available when you see them live or probably at their website. I saw one but didn’t buy it. I’m kinda wishing i had.
Now that’s cool. I wonder when they’ll be around my neck of the woods…
It’s on the website too.
…groovy. I may just have to avail myself of this book. Thanks for the link!
I’m racking my brains but can’t figure out what PK stands for. Phillipino Kickboxing? I’m sure I’ll feel stupid once I somebody tells me… Oops, never mind. I figured it out: Paddy Keenan.
Cheers,
Aaron
Sorry, Aaron, didn’t mean to tax your brain like that. The threads are best read in sequence. The previous entries had referred to the Bothy Band and Paddy Keenan, so BB and PK seemed pretty straight forward - to me, at least.
Cheers,
djm
Speaking of transcriptions, it is instructive to transcribe an entire playing of a tune. (Not as tedious as it seems as there will be a lot of identical repeats.) It’s interesting to see where the changes are made, and how. They’re sometimes very subtle and slight, sometimes drastically different. Learning to play them sparks ideas on more possibilities.
The Dublin Reel on Planxty’s Cold Blow and the Rainy Night, played by Liam O’Flynn on pipes, has amazing variations. Some of the changes are in just the phrasing (which note is accented or paused slightly) or just one or two notes totally changing the feel on the repeat. Makes it more fun to play that way.
Tony