In another thread Steve was making a point about the need for listening to this music if you really want to be able to play it well, and his comments reminded me of a topic I’ve been meaning to start for some time so here it is:
Just how much Irish Music do you listen (on an hours per day or per week basis)? For the purpose of this thead, let’s take “Irish Music” to mean everything from the geezers to groups like Lunasa, who are basically playing mostly standard type sessions tunes and airs (yes, yes, we know the settings may be a bit different, but we’re only going to get about 3 replies to this if we just include the geezers -lol). Let’s exclude things like Riverdance, the Titanic theme, The Corrs, and anything generically considered “Celtic”.
The reason this question has been bouncing around in my head is that over the years I’ve been really surprised at how little interest and discussion there has been regarding recordings, at least relative to “Which whistle should I buy”, “Let me tell you about the new whistle I just got!”, and “(Insert off-topic comments here)”.
So I started wondering: Just how much listening are people really doing, how much of this music do they own?
In my case, I’ve purchased probably a hundred or so IrM CD’s over the last 3 years, and I figure I’ve average about 1.5-2 hours of listening a day - Some days it’s much more other days less, but I figure about 2 hours a day is average for me.
I listen to a lot of stuff and have been doing so for a long time.
Obviously it’s a bit easier for me to listen to Clare FM every night while doing the washing up so I keep up with the latest. And I hear quite a few people play all the time.
Aside from that, I buy the odd CD that may interest me although I don’t buy more than maybe a few each year these days.
These days I listen mostly to archive and private recordings.
It is essential to listen to al sorts of stuff all the time, to keep up, learn and pick up new tunes.
Peter’s comments remind me of a good point - live music or radio should also be counted in your daily listening total - I just tend to forget about those things since I have no access to much of either where I live
Lately the Woodenflute Obsession CDs have been getting a real workout, cause I keep them playing at work and listen during the times I’m at my desk or doing bench work.
Also love Altan, the Matt Molloy solo CD’s, the Chieftains, Mary Bergin, L.E. McCullough, Danu, and even though it’s not Irish, I have learned a lot from the fiddle playing of Alasdiar Frazier. Also I have the “Geezer” MP3’s, which include some really fantastic playing, and I have an old cassette of Seamus Ennis which I have played nearly till its falling apart.
Also even though there’s only a little Irish song mixed in here and there, you can’t go wrong listening to Connie Dover. In particular, on the fast pieces, listen for the “ornaments” she uses when singing and where she places them in the phrase.
I download like a madman from abs.mp3.celtic because it introduces me to artists I wouldn’t have otherwise even heard of.
Many of them suck and make me glad I didn’t pay for the music, but many of them are so good that I buy more from them.
I have an MP3 CD player in my vehicle, so I listen to at least an hour a day during the trips to and from work… there’s just nothing worth listening to on any local radio stations.
Between internet radio, various CDs, and mp3s, I figure I listen to about 1-1/2 to 2 hours a day, sometimes more. I find immersing oneself in the music is one of the best ways to understand it, and therefore play it better. Plus, I just enjoy the heck out of it!!
There’s always a IRM cd in my car cd player, and at home I’m listening dayly to at least 2 cd’s/per day. So I guess I also have an average of 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day.
I own about 50 cd’s of IRM myself, not including Irish popgroups, most of it I ordered from internet shops due a lack of specialised stores in my country. There are some though in Holland, the country next to Belgium. The library were I regularly go also have a small collection of IRM cd’s which you can rent for very little money.
I must say to me this board has been a big help so far for finding music, whistles and recordings. I don’t alway agree with everything or anybody, but that makes it interesting here. Anyways thanks to everybody who helped me and will in the future.
Cheers,
Erik
On 2002-10-20 11:11, Loren wrote:
Peter’s comments remind me of a good point - live music or radio should also be counted in your daily listening total
Loren
It is something you shouldn’t underestimate, when I moved to Clare I started listening to the radio, Clare Fm has two hours of trad every evening. Then there is music everywhere, the local supermarket has musicians in the family so there’s usually high quality muzak there.
You hear music in the background and it brings back tunes you haven’t played for ages, keeps them alive.
There’s music and musicians around all the time there is an atmosphere where you absorb it all the time.
You run into musicians all the time, chat about music, play here play there, all sorts of people drop into your session. It makes a huge difference to your musicianship, it’s the whole thing, not just listening to recordings.
About five hours a day on average, I’d guess. At the moment, fairly pure drop stuff, but that’s mostly because I’ve just gotten a couple of really nice pure drop albums, and it’s been a long time since the last new Lunasa album.
Plus maybe an hour a day listening to Newfoundland tunes.
Plus I usually put an Irish flute album on quiet endless repeat on my stereo before going to bed…
Great common sense topic, Loren!
It relates to something I’ve been thinking about posting for the past few days. I was in a car with the wife of the guitar player in our trio. She mentioned that her husband thought he was the weak link in our group. She said he felt this because we’d been at it so much longer than he. I reminded her that I’ve been “playing” Irtrad only for a year now, but I’ve been listening to it steadily for many years, and have increased my listening habits to daily (I don’t like the generic Celtic stuff anymore and this website has vastly increased my appreciation of the geezers aforementioned!). She remarked that it certainly wasn’t the style of music that comes out of their stereo very often, if at all. Now I’m thinking how strange that our guitarist wants to play this style with us when it isn’t his listening preference…I’m hoping that his listening habits will gravitate in our direction. This guitarist is such a quick study and he is very good at avoiding that boom chick rut that accompanists can fall into.
An average of about an hour to an hour and a half a day. I listen to tapes in the car; often instruction tapes. Local radio people here wouldn’t recognise a celtic tune if they were bitten by one. I probably have about 200 CDs of Irish and Scottish music but I’ve never counted them. I listen to a lot of other styles as well.
I, too, am puzzled by the lack of discussion of recordings. I’ve started threads that are completely OT and they can generate 100 replies. Threads I’ve started about particular CDs are lucky to make it to double figures. Since the CDs were ones that strike me as interesting, I was a bit puzzled at what seemed like a lack of curiosity. It might not be though. Perhaps people read the posts but, not knowing the artists, simply had nothing to say.
I alluded to this yesterday in another thread (tips on increasing speed?)wherein Peter reminded me of the importance of exactly your topic here. Problem is, I’ve only been listening sporadically or cyclically, when I have the time, forgetting that that’s exactly what got me interested in the first place!
So yesterday, I listened to the Kevin Burke & Micheal O Domhnaill CD Portland, which I recently got because it has two tunes that I play frequently that can be difficult at times with respect to maintaining that lilting feeling of the music (The Rolling Waves and Some Say the Devil’s Dead).
I remember Bill Ochs used to make a face when we played the latter of those tunes in class, thinking that he must not particularly like that tune or its origins or meaning or something. Hello, he probably couldn’t stand to hear our beginner’s butchery of the feel of that tune.
Anyway, the whole CD is marvelous and a fine example of the feel of the music that brought me to whistles in the first place.
I left the CD on most of the day yesterday, even while in the shower and hope to continue to make time to listen more to my considerable collection of tunes.
Take care,
Philo
Loren - In specific response to your question then, hardly at all any more. I will report back with listening statistics that hopefully will be revised upwards.
It depends on what mood I’m in. Sometimes I’ll listen to nothing but Irish music for weeks, other times I’d rather be listening to my screwy rock-n-roll stuff…
Er…okay Chris, maybe I should have said “How much time do you spend actively listening.” Although that’s another subject entirely, which I guess was bought up in another thread that i didn’t read. Also didn’t read the thread that Phil referred to.
Regarding Peter’s last comment: Sure, being in the environment would clearly make a huge difference, no underestimating the value of that. In fact, I asked the question because I’ve been wondering how people who don’t live in that environment ever hope to learn the music if they don’t spend a huge amount of time actively listening to it. And, it seems from the lack of discussion about recordings, or the lack of response/interest in threads about recordings, that perhaps many folks here aren’t really listening to much Irish Music, so I figured I’d ask and hopefully find out.
Well, part of it may be the relative lack of whistle recordings. Certainly almost every album I’m regularly listening to is off topic for a whistle board: flute albums, flute/fiddle albums, accordion, etc.
Really the only thing I’m listening to at the moment that would qualify for whistle discussion is Celtic Flair, and that only on a few tracks, and it did have a thread already once in the last few months.
At the ITM forum I was asking for a recording of Dick Gossip’s, didn’t get one reply, is it unknown or indeed as Loren says, don’t people listen to IRM?
Well, the only recording I have handy of that tune (that I can think of) is on Old Blind Dogs “Close to the Bone”. And I didn’t really want to upload a commercial recording. I considered just sitting down and recording myself (it’s one of my favorite tunes) but I got distracted and completely forgot about it.
Due to a very demanding job, I don’t get to listen to near as much as I want. I listen (block-out) regular radio for 10-12 hours per day over the intercom (against my will) Usually I only get in about an hour per day or so of traditional Irish Music. Traditional Irish is about all that I actively/willingly listen to, although I have been recently gaining interest in Appallatian folk music as well.
I was at the Tommy Makem Festival of song this summer. Each night, The Makem Brothers, Tommy’s sons, and the Spain Brothers would do a session that would often last till 6 or 7 in the morning. After much guinness and very late in the night,… or early in the morning… we would suddenly be singing & playing these great old mountain songs. Such an easy transition. Great stuff.
I mostly listen to a rather large CD collection that I have accumulated over the years.
I don’t listen to much yet but am slowly getting addicted…All I listen to at present is free mp3 stuff off whistle sites.I can’t at present afford to buy, but hope to eventually. So I listen less than an hour a day. I suppose listening to my own playing doesn’t count..It’s pretty horrid.Of course I have only had my whistle about a month.
Plus, I just enjoy the heck out of it!! 
Although that’s another subject entirely, which I guess was bought up in another thread that i didn’t read. Also didn’t read the thread that Phil referred to.