Just wondering if anyone knows the specific techniques Matt Molloy (even K Crawford) use to get that popping sound in their overall playing. It sounds like they compress the air in the flute so that notes pop out.
Any thoughts?
Jason
Keep some holes closed below (with the right hand), similar to tight fingering in piping. Matt Molloy has been said to be the introducer of piping techniques in flute playing, like the hard D (used a lot actually).
It´s easy to practice that style with a whistle first (particularly, Susatos are very very very effective for this), but with the flute it takes more practice, a focused embouchure and the flute full of air. It´s a very nice effect and it goes very well with triplets, crans and all the ornamentations commonly related to piping world. If you like those flute players and listen lot of pipers like Hannan, Grasso, Potts, Reck, Ennis… just try to play with your right hand down -without altering the tone and tuning, of course-, and the effect will come up easily after a short time.
I use it a lot (I´m heavily influenced by Robbie Hannan, I think -I wish I could play like him, of course-). Download the Willie Week recordings from the Uilleann Obsession web and listen to Hannan. Try to emulate his playing with a whistle as a really effective exercise.
Yes is all about focused embouchure…
I am wondering as I read this
whether your word “pop”
is the same as what a lot of flute players refer to as “bark” ??
Could you post a youtube link of an example of the sound that you mean?
B
I think he means crisp ornamentation. Molloy really has a way of making his ornamentation pop.
Pop meaning each note is very distinctive, not just ornaments (though it’s most certainly true of those as well). Each note is well defined, seeming to jump out of, or pop out of the flute. It’s this popping that give their playing such crunch and bite, not a buzz-saw barking tone. It is similar to a highly skilled piper. I think most fluters notes run together. I’m seeking to have more definition, i.e. pop.
I think it’s a combination of factors:
- Ideal tone (bright, lively, harmonically rich)
- Ideal breath pressure
- Cleanly executed ornaments (i.e., finger movements and momentary increase in breath pressure)
These aren’t mutually exclusive but rather interdependent. They contribute to a well-delineated attack (sharp rise in amplitude) in the note.
Carnegie Hall
ok
maybe “crisp” and “clean” articulation
would be more conventional terminology for what you are meaning?
Popping could be confusing.
Molloy has very clean fingering. And impeccable timing, of course.
And maybe 50 years of playing under his belt…
I reckon it takes 8 or 10 years to really get a decent sound out of a flute, for the average soul.
Less maybe if thats all you do, (eg if you are young and have lotsa free time and a brain thats uncluttered and ready to learn)
B
Personally I think it boils down to three things:
- Effective use of cuts
- Effective use of breath pulsing
- Effective use of silence
Cuts and breath pulsing in the right places do a lot to make the notes you want to emphasize “pop” out; it requires an understanding of the internal rhythms of the type of tune you’re playing.
One of the things that separates great players from us merely good ones is that the greats devote as much care to ending a note as to beginning it; they know how to use the power of silence. Starting a note with a cut and a pulse of breath after the briefest stop gives it more power and clarity.
Have a listen to this wild performance that Matt Molloy gave at the Willie Clancy Week in 1983:
https://idisk.me.com//bhurley/Public/molloy.mp3
He’s racing through these tunes, right at the limit of his ability, and yet he makes use of all three of these elements listed above to great effect throughout. The main place where I felt his playing got too blurry is in the first part of the Musical Priest (the third tune) where he tried to shoehorn too many notes in at once and couldn’t properly separate them. But there are lots of little silences, almost too short to perceive, in this performance, that help separate the notes, provide clarity, and boost the energy level.
Thats a great MP3 Brad its like listening to the track on the Stony Steps album with the backing instruments turned down 
And the speed turned up a notch or two as well.
It’s too fast and too crammed full of notes for my taste, but I’m still impressed that he could pull this kind of thing off without it disintegrating into an unarticulated blur. Another thing to notice is that there are a lot of doubled notes here, and Molloy never uses cuts to separate them – they’re all separated with stops, which is the way I like it.
Remember, too, that Matt’s commercial recordings have a different sound than he does in person, or even live on stage. I’ve long suspected that a second microphone was placed over the fingerholes of his instrument in the studio; this would explain the banjolike, plunky sound you hear on a track like “The Gold Ring” from the black album. It’s the sound of Matt’s fingers percussively closing the holes, amplified beyond its normal audibility. I suppose you could call that a sort of pop.
Rob
Holy guacamole! 
Heads up for the locals: The Chieftains play Raleigh on March 13, 2011. Whole lotta poppin’ goin’ on!
http://www.pinecone.org/DownHomeCAL.html
More, please… 
Okay, here’s one more from the same performance in 1983 – here he’s playing Johnny Henry’s followed by the reel I call the “Old” Man of the House, I’ve seen other names for it but I can’t remember them at the moment. A better pace here, as far as I’m concerned anyway, and he’s having fun chirping some notes in the second reel.
https://idisk.me.com//bhurley/Public/johnnyhenrys.mp3
Kevin Crawford played this same set followed by a third reel on the Gort session tape recorded in the early 90s.
You realize I now can’t post anything else to this board for three more years? I’ve been trying to keep my post count even with the year. It was at 2010 until this morning. Now I’m up to 2013! See you again then
Brad wrote:
"Personally I think it boils down to three things:
- Effective use of cuts
- Effective use of breath pulsing
- Effective use of silence"
Insightful stuff…will ponder and work on this. Thanks.
Jason
My goodness is all I can say.
I was going to ask how old you are, but then I realized who you really are. Read your Book, man. Loved it.
Thanks though for that terrific second track! Greatly appreciated!
Moritz