I’ve noticed this about good players, and have heard others mentioning noticing it as well: You hear a good player playing a reel, sounding so relaxed, or comfortable, or something! - that it sounds like he/she’s just poking along. Then you try to play along and realize they’re actually playing REALLY, REALLY FAST.
And I’ve heard the opposite: a player, not a bad one, mind you, playing a fast tune at a pretty good clip, hitting all the notes fairly cleanly, maybe throwing in a few ornaments, adding some style, but you just feel like they are at their peak speed; any faster and they’re gonna crash and burn.
How do you get that “laid back at the speed of sound” feel?
I’ve noticed that on reels, on the few sections of the few reels that I can whip through, that it gets that laid back feel at speed if I swing it a little. Anybody else do that? Is that cheating?
The best players sound laid back, because they ARE laid back when they play. Think about it…where is the most traditional setting for a session? In a pub! Do you go to the pub to be wound up? Or to sit down with close friends, have a few pints, and relax? See my point?
So if we practice and work, and refine or playing just by noodling around here and there, you get better, AND you’ll develop your own style as well. Just enjoy what you do and what you play, and it will show up directly in your music.
If you think someone can’t hear it when you’re mad, or upset when you play you might be supprised. It comes out alost the same as our tone of voice.
So just go easy, don’t sweat pushing tunes to the edge of your capabilities. Before you know it, you’ll be playing them faster and faster!
I’d be interested in hearing people’s opinions on “swinging” reels. A few people I play with at a local slow session tend to put a bit of swing into reels (mainly a fiddle and a banjo player).
Both my whistle teachers said this was not a good thing to get in the habbit of doing, but when pressed said it’s really a matter of personal style.
I think something else that contributes to that laid back feeling is when it is a tune the player has played a bijillion times and is totally and thoroughly comfortable with it and goes on “automatic pilot” so to speak. I’ve noticed this with some people who have one or two tunes that they sound like a master on and then when they play something else they are just mediocre at best. So in other words, practice makes perfect!
One mans reel is often another mans hornpipe and its often egos and show offs at sessions as the real reason for fast reel dominance.I’ll take a good swinging hornpipe anyday at a tempo that benefits the music,not the ego.Peace, Mike:)
Not sure, but I read somewhere that swinging reels is a regional style difference. Personally, I think it makes them a bit easier to play at a quick pace.
“One mans reel is often another mans hornpipe” – that’s true. Before getting into IrTrad, I played some trad American stuff (Bluegrass). There’s a number of tunes there designated as hornpipes, but which are invariably played like reels.
Myself, I think tons of reels sound best played fairly slowly. And I think that playing fast in a session just to show off is sorta childish. But, I like to learn to play them fairly fast, so I can keep up with others who chose to play them fast. If I got to start them off, I’d start them slower.
On 2001-10-18 03:07, mike.r wrote:
One mans reel is often another mans hornpipe and its often egos and show offs at sessions as the real reason for fast reel dominance.I’ll take a good swinging hornpipe anyday at a tempo that benefits the music,not the ego.Peace, Mike:)
Personally I wouldn’t sacrifice speed for style. It can be really irritating when just for the sake of the uninitiated listeners, players at sessions play really fast. A lot of the time players, simply because the Fintan Valelly’s and Joanies etc of this world play fast, believe that listeners associate speed with proficiency. Wow, he/she plays really fast, he/she must be good…WRONG !! I would always discourage my students from playing at speed, until they’re at the stage where they can triplet, roll at will.
Hope this doesn’t sound elitist, I’ve been accused of that before.
Just my two Euro’s worth.
I agree that just because someone plays fast, it doesn’t mean they’re good. I have noticed on the other hand that good players usually can play pretty damn fast.
Finbar Furey, when asked why he played so fast, replied: Because I can.
