half hole?

Irish Flute
1

hey,

I was wondering if it’s possible to play an Eb (or any other #/b note) on the keyless flute without it sounding really quiet. Cause when I half hole a d/e# it sounds all squeaky and airy. I’d really like to play this tune, “the glad eye”, but it’s in the key of F, and I have to half hole some of the notes…so, if there’s some crazy way to do this without the airy sound I’m getting, please, do share… I’d really like to play this tune on my flute… :frowning: Thanks.

Beannacht,

~MaRy~

2

Hey Mary
You might want to try playing the tune in another key as it’s not possible to half-hole an Eb on a conical bore flute.

3

You might try playing it on a Bb whistle. The tune, as John Doyle plays it, is actually in G Dorian (same key signature as F major, but it resolves to G).

Here’s a stab at transposing it to A Dorian, a friendlier key/mode for keyless D flute. You still have an F natural to half hole, and a high c nat as well.

X: 1
T: Glad Eye, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
C: John Doyle
K: Ador
E|: =FAc edc|BdA BAG|Ace a2 b|c’bg gaf|
dag fed|c/d/ec cdB|cBA BAG|EeB AGE:||
~A3 ecd|EAB ecd|EGB cBc|Bec BAG|
~A3 ecd|EAB ecd|B/c/dc BAG|EFG AGE:||

(If you don’t read abc notation, you can cut and paste this into the Tune-O-Tron at www.concertina.net and it will convert it to sheet music for you.)

4

As others have said, it’s not possible to play Eb, however, the other chromatics usually can be half holed, or cross fingered. That’s why I have one key(Eb) on my flute. :slight_smile:

5

I can half hole the Eb. It’s a bit soft but serviceable.
The trick seems to be plunking out the finger straight,
either aiming for the outer edge of the hole or
the inner edge with the finger tilted up.

When the author, Saul Bellow, was asked how he managed
to father a child at 84 he responded: ‘Practice, practice, practice.’

6

Interesting. Can you do it on any flute, or just large holed ones or what? I actually can do it on a bamboo flute with big half-inch holes, but no way on either of my Burns’.

7

Shading the E hole a bit and then blowing the flute flat (use your embouchure or roll the flute in) will give a serviceable Eb. Tuning might not be spot on, and the note will sound more muffled than its better vented neighbors, but it gets the idea across.

8

Mary,

You can definitely half-hole the Eb on a keyless flute. It takes some practice, but it’s definitely possible. Check out Dan Isaacson’s playing on the Magic Square - http://www.themagicsquare.com/. He’s playing a keyless flute on the whole album, so have a listen and be inspired.

The other thing to mention is that he’s playing a Byrne, so it’s not an issue of playing a small or large holed flute to get it right. It just takes a while to learn how to do it well.

Best of luck,
B

9

Right. It isn’t an issue of the size of holes.
Let me emphasize, though, that this is the most
challenging note to half hole. What I find is
that I can’t creep up on it. I suspect that
maybe trying to do this is part of the problem.
I have to aim and
plunk my finger out straight, take a chance
on missing it entirely.

Well, you know, there’s little we can’t accomplish
with practice.

10

There IS no F nat in A Dorian
A Dor = A B C D E F# G A+
In semitone values, the Dorian intervals proceed from the tonic as
2 1 2 2 2 1 2

11

Thanks for the good advise. I’ve been practicing it and it doesn’t sound all too bad. So, why is it called a “(whichever key)dorian”? I’ve never heard of somthing being called that before. Is it just an irish music term? or is it actually official, or a proffesional term? just curious…

Beannacht,

~MaRy~

12

It has been about for quite some time…
http://www.banjolin.supanet.com/modesandscales.htm

You know D Major… where the tonic is D hence D E F# G A B C#
Using those notes and starting with a tonic of E would give you the Dorian Mode E F# G A B C# D

13

Talasiga, my transcription is in A dorian. The F natural is an accidental in the first bar. That’s how Doyle penned the tune–originally in G dor, with an E flat accidental in the first bar.

14

Pardon my ignorance, but doesn’t the original (scored in F major/D minor key signature) resolve at D?

15

Not to my ear. The note a tune resolves to is not necessarily the last note of the last phrase, but rather the note that phrase would go to as a final ending. In the case of The Glad Eye, that’s G, and with a key signature of one flat (F major/Dm), that puts the tune in G Dorian. If you play this tune with a backer on guitar or zouk, they’re going to land on a G minor chord at the end.

For a basic reference chart on the most common modes in Irish trad music, go to http://www.slowplayers.or/SCTLS and click on the link for the “keys/modes” explanation.

16

If the tune notionally resolves at G as you say, I take it, then, that the sheet music is a sample slice from music conceived as a continuum. I have seen this happen in ITM when jigs and things are sampled.

My personal preference is to notate a sample ending. I do this with my compositions (notated in indic tonic solfa) which are mostly bases for improvisation.

Thank you for your response. I must say (and you will find such in my earlier posts in these forums) I am not a great lover of guitar (or any )chords in ITM. I feel they tend to smother the modal (melodic) speciificity of the pieces. I make exceptions for arpeggios. I am not sure if this point is relevant to the current dialog.

17

Well, any notation of Irish trad music is just a snapshot of the tune. The endings are generally notated to show how the turn works going back into the same part and also into the next part. The Glad Eye is played AABB. The A “ending” goes well into either the A or B part so you use the same ending. The B part has two “endings,” one that leads back to B and one that gets you back to the start of the A part and so restarts the whole tune. Many Irish trad tunes tease you into anticipating the resolve to a “home” note, but then they detour around it and head into the next part.

Also, in a gig or session situation, it’s common to play a tune 3 or more times, and then move on to another without stopping, so the tune may never actually resolve to it’s “home” note, unless it’s the tune you’re ending the whole set on.

For some tunes, figuring out the “home” note, and thus the key/mode, is somewhat subjective–different people may hear a the tune resolving to a different home note.

My example of a guitarist playing a chord wasn’t meant to condone or condemn the use of accompaniment in this music, merely to offer another context for understanding why this tune lands comfortably in G dorian.

In the end, it helps to bear in mind that written music notation is not the tune itself. Because Irish trad is an aural tradition, the tunes don’t always conform to the conventions of written notation.

18

P.S. Since the “endings” are usually notated more as bridges into the next part, it’s up to the trad musician to decide what notes s/he wants to play for any sort of final ending. This may be the home note, or some other tone of the same key/mode (a 3rd or 5th of the scale perhaps).

Also, many Irish trad tunes switch modes from one part to the next. Drowsy Maggie, a classic example, is in E dorian for the A part and D major for the B part. The key signature is the same. Most people would choose a final ending for the Magster that resolves to E, so if they think in modes at all (certainly not a requirement for playing this music), they might call this an E dorian tune.