Came to mind from the “cello” thread. Cello can be OK. Spoons are always, always horrendous to my ears no matter how well played. If on an album, I immediately, as quickly as possible shut it down. If spoons show up at a session, I pray they stop and cringe till they do so.
Just had to get that off my chest. Funny, I don’t feel much better, still in fear of the next clattering, teeth chattering, loudly obnoxious encounter with my dreaded ITM nemesis.
If you play spoons when you don’t know the tune on flute or whistle, please stop, stop it now, burn them.
Hey Jason, I love the spoons! I think I know why however. I come from a background of playing Fife in Fife and Drum Corps. You have to understand in the F&D world its all about the Beat, the snare drum and the bass drum keeping time. That said I like a really firm beat on the bodhran, spoons as well as someone really slamming their foot to the beat. Good God I can’t control it!!
I never liked spoons. And, my hearing aides close up blocking almost all sound whenever spoons clatter nearby. So now I have an excuse to get folks to stop…at least near me!
“Ah Jackie, a stor a gra, da poarr auld spo-ans de workin man’s instrument, de prima donnas dese dayze with dere ‘tune diz, tune dat, all we all in tune’ me arse. would take de fun out of it. God be wid de rare auld times when percussive virtuosity was more highly regarded and de bloody flutes and fiddles knew dere place!”
We had this fellow over once who had just acquired a Bodhran, but still couldn’t quite keep up with the pace of what was happening (that’s OK, I can’t either).
Finally he tossed his instrument aside, stood up and kicked out all his frustration on one wild, wild stepdancing frenzy.
Hi all, looking for advice. I’ve been playing the spoons for a year now, and I feel I’m ready for something better and more professional. My current pair cost me nothing, because I stole them from the room service tray at the Holiday Inn Dubai. My budget is around $1000. I’ve heard that gold plated unobtanium alloy has a nice, haunting Celtic tone. I want a tunable set to play in sessions. And fully chromatic, so I can play slow Irish ayres and aleatoric jazz. Thanks for your help!
While I’ll freely admit that unobtanium makes a fine pair of spoons, I would recommend that you seek out a maker who works in mithril, as it has a much more mystical tone. For all of it’s advantages, unobtanium, by its very nature can leave the audience very nearly transparent if handled incorrectly or if played out of time. Better to leave that to the experts and those whose job it is to make sure that the flugelhorn players disappear.
I hope this information is useful to you and that you find your one perfect pair of spoons. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how good your spoons, if your technique isn’t up to it, then BAD THINGS can happen.
