I’m having problems playing tunes with big note jumps like in the beginning of drowsy maggie, the mountain road, the musical priest…Ect. When I play them they just don’t sound right, and I try not to rush them but I always do.
So how do you guys play em? Do you tongue the lower notes, do you tongue the upper notes, do you tongue all the notes, or do you play right through them without tongueing? Sorry if this is confusing.
I’ll try and clear it up. Like in the begining of drowsy maggie it goes EBEdE.
Would you guys tongue like this T=tongue T EB T Ed T E… or would you E T BE T dE… Or am I just being stupid.
Or scratch whatever I said and tell me how you do it. Are there any tips or tricks to do this out there? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jack Murphy
edit for clarity so you actually know what the hell I’m talking about!
[ This Message was edited by: MurphyStout on 2002-10-21 02:59 ]
Practice, practice, practice…
Try working on each jump separately, over and over at all sorts of combinations of breath pressure, tongueing vs non tongueing, etc. Then work on the next combo. It may take time, but it really is the ONLY way to do it.
Your choice of whistle may be a factor too. Some of them are VERY tough when it comes to jumping from note to note with a wide interval.
I have the same problem and it drives me bonkers. The only solutions I can find are: 1; give it up, or
2; practice endlessly, then practice a lot more. Sometimes it seems like it takes ten thousand repetitions to hit it consistently, perhaps more.
The problem is probably not tonguing, but breath control. To practice that, play the tricky passages without any tounge at all. And take it slooooooowly.
If you want to play ITM, try slurring (not tonguing) the accented note and tonguing the off-beat note in the passges with big leaps. Have you read brother Steve on tonguing? That doesn’t cover everything yet, but the subject has come up on the board before. I particularly remember a thread about Mason’s Apron (killer jumps there) started by Jon-M.
But it’s all not going to make sense unless you listen to it being done. You may want to start with some of the recordings and transcriptions from the C&F ITM forum, especially Banish Misfortune by W Clancy and First Month of Summer by Tommy McCarthy, but the other stuff, too.
On 2002-10-21 09:14, Chuck_Clark wrote:
I have the same problem and it drives me bonkers. The only solutions I can find are: 1; give it up, or
2; practice endlessly, then practice a lot more. Sometimes it seems like it takes ten thousand repetitions to hit it consistently, perhaps more.
You may want to be careful, though, to get it into your ear right by listening A LOT first. As Bill Ochs told me, practice makes permanent, not necessarily perfect. (I know, I’ve been there.)
I’ll agree with the breath control theory, which is really tough quite often for this sufferer of chronic bronchitis. At times tongueing alleviates the problem, but not all the time.
On 2002-10-21 10:23, madguy wrote:
[…shnip…]
Oh to be 13 again with unfouled lungs!!!
~Larry
I’ve heard some pretty decent Irish flute and whistle players that are multi-pack-a-day smokers. Not that it helps them any… but listen to how these guys phrase their tunes. I wish I could come up with names, but I don’t have access to my record collection at the moment - it’s buried deep inside a storage facility.
Everybody knows the story of Django Reinhardt, the brilliant guitarist that had only 3 fingers on his fretting hand. You may not be able to overcome your handicap in such a spectacular manner, but you can find ways to work around it.
I have chronic asthma, which flares up badly every year around this time of year - for 2 weeks now I am fighting a persistent bad cough, and I have a concert tomorrow night. What, me worry?
Get creative with your breathing pattern - find every spot you can drop out notes for your breath, and try dropping more than one at a time. I heard Tim Britton (pipemaker, piper, whistler) at a house concert many years ago, and he opened my eyes and ears regarding unusual phrasing and what you can get away with.
It all boils down to the same thing everybody else has been saying: listen listen listen practice practice practice.
Regarding the wide jumps thing - when I was first learning, the issue was not so much tonguing, but exactly how much pressure I needed on a particular whistle to hit the target note. I think I’ve got it now, but since I switch off between whistles all the time, it’s a constant challenge. Get a book of Scottish fiddle tunes to practice on, they’re full of impossible leaps.
Jack - Actually I’ve just started on that tune myself and find it important to get it to sound at first pretty much the way Cathall McConnell is playing it on the tape with his teaching book. I guess I sort of just play until I get the feel overall.
Since you wrote this, I just sat down to see how I was approaching it and so far I seem to be tongueing the second and fifth notes in the first measure. Try it and see if that helps you to the swing of it.
Hm. I’ve never really had a problem with jumping notes; I just played and it came out nicely. (except on one of my Feadogs which always made this funny, high-pitched growl if I didn’t hit the G right… :roll: )
Personally, I’d just say practice that particular measure over and over again until you feel satisfied with the way it’s coming out. Do a little experimentation in how you play it until you find a method that works right for you.
