Hi, I recently realised how much trad tunes tend to sound pretty bland after a few reps without variations. Normally, I can do the most basic of variations, which is changing different note lengths for different breathing spaces. But how do we do the more melodic variations?
I can usually find a place in a tune where I can substitutes a note with another, or substitute for a roll (i.e. E roll instead of EDE), but one simple melodic variation per tune isn’t saying much.
Can I learn to do learn to play more variations by transcribing some expert players, or simply listening to more celtic music?
How does Seamus Egan or Laurence Nugget go from starting out as beginners playing basic melody, to experts almost never playing the same thing twice? What is good practice for people to do variations “off the fly”? (impromptu)
Okay thats lotsa questions. Many thanks in advance to the contributors!
[ This Message was edited by: Eldarion on 2001-08-23 08:08 ]
I found it easiest to take a tune I know VERY well, and break it down to the absolute bare bones. Here is a critical note, there is the next critical note. The standard tune goes from here to there in this way. What other paths are there?
For instance, take Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You have to go from D to A, and the typical way is d d a a. What about da da af# af# or df# df# aD aD, or make each one a triplet? Or more tuneful, what about d f# a D aba.
Now take a familiar, simple celtic tune. What are the critical notes? How else can you get from here to there?
This is simply how I did it. I’m sure there are other ways.
Geraldine Cotter’s “Traditional Irish Tin whistle Tutor” has a section on variation, which gives you a pretty good idea how to ornament and deviate from the basic melody. The book and the Demo tape would serve you well. The Tune tape is pretty good too, as she freely changes from the written notation. My only problem with her music is she seems to play way too fast and my ear isn’t good at seperating melody from variation. I do have a program that slows down music, though, and I usually slow down her playing. It’s interesting to understand why she does what she does. It’s helping me to move from simply the written page.
Substituting the odd note with another and varying your ornamentation and breathing sounds like a very good place to start.
I’d say, take it easy, let it come naturally. To begin with, I think you have to start by copying other players’ variations. As you get more experienced, you’ll start doing your own quite naturally.
If you don’t have many role models to listen to “live”, use your recordings. What’s useful is to have the same tune played by several players – this will open your mind to the possibilities.
The idea of transcribing all a particular player’s variations strikes me as a lot of work. And I’d encourage you not follow anyone’s version, variations or style slavishly, in case you get dubbed a Larry Nugent (or whoever) wannabee.
Once at a session during the Willie Clancy week I was sitting next to a good fiddle player from Dublin. When a rather earnest young fiddle player from England started a tune she turned to me and muttered, “Oh God, not another Martin Hayes clone!”
One way I have done it is to find distinctly different versions of a tune as sheet music and learn them all, seasoned to taste. If the versions are sufficiently similar, one can mix and match the various pieces at will. If they’re not, then play them as a medley. It is very commonly the case that JC’s TuneWeb, for instance, will return a number of different versions of a tune. This approach will at least get you started.
Extreme examples are the fife tunes “The World Turned Upside Down.” I’ve found two versions so far, and they’re completely different so I play them as a medley. It can make for an interesting exchange with your audience when someone asks what songs those were you just played, and you respond with only one title.
Obviously, as others have said in this thread, listening to accomplished players will suggest alternate interpretations of a tune; but one should not copy slavishly. Learn the tune well enough that variations begin to suggest themselves to you. Remember that Mary Bergin and Paddy Moloney have been playing Irish music for so long that it’s an intuitive thing for them. When you’ve been playing it for a long enough time it will be intuitive for you as well.
Also, I’ve noticed in the playing of a lot of excellent musicians that, while they do use some, they don’t seem to use a large amount of variation. Paddy Moloney, for instance, has said in an interview that when he was young his elders taught him to play a song a certain particular way – complete with ornaments – and fussed at him if he changed it. Obviously, he’s moved beyond that; but that is how oral traditions are passed on.
Just as one can over-ornament, I suppose it’s possible to over-do the variations. The really important thing is to play the tune the way one feels it – with due respect to any other musicians who may be playing with you – and not some way one thinks is fashionable. I have some variations to the fife tune “Garryowen” that I like to use, but they don’t blend well with the standard version most people know. So, I use them only when I’m playing solo.
Also, we get bored with a tune because we play it all the time for practice. In many cases your audience won’t be nearly as familiar with your version of it as you are.
In regard to ornamentation, I was at a seminar on ornamentation/variation once, and the talented musician who was leading it gave a bit of advice: when you play something through, do it simply first, so that the tune comes through cleanly, then start fancying it up as you progress, but come back to the simple version at the end, or you leave your audience without a clear sense of where the melody is.
Then again, I’m just trying to get the basic notes half the time!
Simple variations will typically be alternative ornamentations. You’ll build up a bunch of these by listening, listening, listening. Or just ask a pro … choose a tune you know well and ask them “show me some variations I can use in Kesh Jig” or whatever. If you ask them when they aren’t busy you’ll almost never be turned down (everyone loves talking shop!).
For more complex variations, that is harmonies, you need to know what chords will go with the tune. If you know what the chords are you can try substituting other notes from the same chord into the phrase. Do this for the strong notes in each phrase (the ones where the beat is). You can try just about any notes - be they in the chord or not - to get between the strong notes.
Reiterating - with the strong notes you are generally locked in to a limited choice of notes, they being the ones in the chord. With the rest of the notes you can fun … use them to join-the-dots between the strong notes.
Mizzy McCaskill and Dona Gilliam’s book “Irish Tin Whistle Book”, (Mel Bay) is a great reference for this! The entire last half of the book is full of tunes that are transcribed first simply and then again with another version with ornaments and variations transcribed. This helped me to get a flavor for how to do this to many other tunes. I really love this book and keep coming back to it again and again. It comes with an accompanying CD which doesn’t include all the tunes by any stretch, but a nice selection nicely played nontheless.
I read this thread, last night just for bedtime and remember in my collection of learning aides that I had something for all of you on this thread, something that I have used in the past but haven’t for a time. But I was to tired to pull it out and post it.
Voila! Clark above being in a later time zone posted to the line ahead of me. Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Tinwhisthle Book, was one of the first tutorials that I purchased years ago. And like Chuck it is one that I come back to all the time, even though the lovely group of people I play with; are learning just to play the tune let alone variations.
We have been together for quite a few years and I suspect once our knowledge base has grown that “variations” will come into it.
We are now slowly arranging tunes, not just to break the repetitiveness of playing the same old tunes over and over, But the fact that our skill level on the various instruments in Irish trad have come a long way. Most of us started on the whistle, but now encompass the full range.
We are see something more in the music and want to produce variations.
Mark
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If you want to make God laugh…Make plans. Anom.
[ This Message was edited by: MarkB on 2001-08-24 07:41 ]
[ This Message was edited by: MarkB on 2001-08-24 07:44 ]
