The Family Band had a gig the other night playing for a wedding reception (brought in about $500 for empty bellies in Haiti so it was a good crowd ) Anyway, I’d been slugging along all night on Guitar, harp, mando and whistle and not getting any flute action so toward the end of the night I rebelled, tossed a bodrhan to one of the kids and started belting out some flute tunes. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
After I was done a lady came up and said how much she’d liked my unusual clarinet. Oh well, they gotta start somewhwere.
Today I was talking to the old lady that lives across the street from me. I took her a bag of fruit and wished her a happy new year. During our conversation I mentioned that I made pvc Irish flutes. She ask me if it was some kind of a music thing, and without further clarification I said, “yes”. That’s right; it is some kind of a music thing. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I decided not to try to convert her.
It’s black, it’s shiny, it’s got long silver keys, it looks nothing
like any flute they’ve ever seen; it looks more
like a clarinet than a flute, also it doesn’t sound
like any flute they’ve ever heard. Too reedy.
So…it’s a reed instrument, like
a clarinet. Not their fault.
Waaay back in the mists of time I used to go to Jimmy McIntosh’s summer bootcamps for GHB players at Davidson College. One year there was some variety of “youth leadership happiness blah blah” conference occuring at the same time. About four times over the course of the camp, I was interviewed by fresh-scrubbed, white-oxford-shirt clad junior youth leaders about my playing. I told them that my instrument was an “African Oboe” and some of them wrote it down without question and asked, furthermore, if I had to go to Africa to get it.
The disconnect some get between surface characteristics and mode of playing is interesting to me. I’ve sometimes said to people, “If it’s played sidways like that, it’s always a flute no matter what it’s made of.” Simplistic, perhaps, but people have found that helpful.
But when you tell someone and demonstrate that it’s a flute, and they still reject it, that’s just willful ignorance.
Depends on the subject…been harping about some things for years.
Seriously, I’ve been plucking the harp for a year or so. I’m definitely a hack as most of my practice time goes into other stuff. Still, I can wow the rednecks of Idaho as long as I get my wife and kids playing along to cover the boo boos.
My harp was made by Timothy Harper, also have a lap harp by Stony End which is a very nice harp for the price.
'It’s an Irish flute. If you went to a symphony orchestra
around 1840, flutes looked something like this.
It’s made of African blackwood, like an oboe
or a clarinet. When these were replaced by the
modern silver flute, they went into pawn shops
and Irish musicians bought em.
This flute was made recently, but it’s a model
of one of the old flutes.’
I’ve said the same thing almost word-for-word. I kid you not. Of course, it’s only for those who seeme truly interested. It takes a lot of time to recite, and my pint’s looking at me.
I also say, “…a reproduction tuneable concert pitch eight-key post-classical pre-Boehm simple-sytem conical bore African blackwood Ruddall/Rose-inspired design transverse FLUTE.” That usually sets 'em reeling.
I once told a very curious little girl - a Boehm player, herself - that I killed an oboe to make it. Her eyes widened for a bit, and then she got the joke.
This all seems too familiar, like when I’m at the checkout counter of a grocery store. A young lass works the cash. She asks, what’s this? A squash. What’s this? Bok choy. And this? Star fruit. Oh.
) Anyway, I’d been slugging along all night on Guitar, harp, mando and whistle and not getting any flute action so toward the end of the night I rebelled, tossed a bodrhan to one of the kids and started belting out some flute tunes. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.
