I’ve finally made myself learn Beare Island properly. Can’t say I like the tune, but a lot of people play it, and it was already pretty much in my head, so I thought I might as well play the thing.
Now, is this a good idea, d’ya think? This learning tunes you’re not especially fond of? I mean, the only reason I’ve learnt it really is so I can play it when someone wants to and not all that many others know it, or when everyone knows it etc. In other words, I’ve only learnt it for sessions, just to join in. Seems like a naff reason to me, but I’d be interested in other opinions.
If you need a reason other than liking it, social motivation can be reason enough, but the main potential drawback that occurs to me would be that if you make yourself learn it despite not liking it, you may only play it to “get through” it, and that half-heartedness may be reflected in your playing. Not really a good thing, is it. So when I’m playing a tune I don’t like, I try to rise above my feelings and bring freshness to it because, well, there you are, so you might as well give it the old college try. Tackling an otherwise unloved tune with the goal of making it interesting, even ultimately enjoyable, can be a good exercise for your musicianship, I think. On the other hand, we needn’t wear hair shirts just on principle.
Now, I learned Ríl Bhéara precisely because A) I really like it as a flute tune, and B) it makes me use those keys I paid for, but unlike your situation nobody around my sessions plays it, so in time it withered away from my repertory. You’ve made me pine for it again, curse you.
If, as you suggest, by learning the tune yourself so that you can support and/or encourage other musicians who do like the tune (but presumably don’t have the skill or confidence to lead it) that’s a laudable and perfectly reasonable aim in its own right.
If that’s not motivation enough though, and if there’s no particular social and/or economic benefit to you playing that tune, then I’d suggest you take the appearance of Beare Island as an opportunity to nip to the bar, stretch your legs, or whatever.
There are so many brilliant tunes out there, why waste playing time on tunes you don’t like - unless, as I say, there’s some other benefit to playing them?
It’s worth knowing of, at least. And it’s a test of the whistler’s half-holing chops, for sure.
I’ll tell you what tune I probably like least: the Dingle Regatta jig (3-part iteration). Why did I learn it, then? Not much choice. It’s one of the canonical beginner’s tunes. I’ll play it at a session if others start it, but I haven’t yet come to terms with it.
Oh, come on. You can’t shout and flute at the same time. And don’t call me Dad, son.
The one time I really enjoyed playing it was when a fellow started the tune with an evil glint in his eye, and with each successive turn played it faster and faster and faster and faster until we had the most spectacular trainwreck at the end. It was epic.
I used to dislike the Sally Gardens until I heard a world-class fluter treat it as a slow reel full of all sorts of ornamental encrustations; the end result was honestly tasty and changed my attitude about the tune entirely. It was a demonstration of how a tune, any tune, has the potential to be made attractive, and it was a revelation to me.
Back to the general topic … there are only two tunes I literally can’t stand, and I won’t learn them. I’m talking about good tunes. Just ones that I’m not so fond of. And, applied more generally, I wonder if most - all? - of us learn a fair few tunes we’re not so keen on just for that “social context” (or whatever the phrase was). I mean, there are very few sessions where I think, at the end “Gosh! Every single tune tonight was a true classic!” OTOH, there aren’t many tunes that I don’t like. I like most of them. But, if there’s a tune that keeps coming up and I’m not so keen - as, for instance, Beare Island has of late - should I learn it anyway? I mean, part of me thinks it’s just going with the flow. Kind of “If you can’t beat them, join them” kind of thing.
[Cross-post with Nano. And I love Sally Gardens as well. How could you not?]
So Beare Island would have made it three - and what are the other two? Maybe revealing this will help us get to the bottom of your malaise.
I’d suggest dropping the “should” thing, for starters. I think it’s fine to have a rationale for doing it - again, social motivation, or the challenge of mastering a difficult tune just because it furthers your abilities, or it galls you that the sessioner you respect (or despise, as the case may be) can play it but you can’t. Whatever, so long as you’re clear on what you’re about. As for not doing it, the fact that you don’t feel like it ought to do.
Well, I’m certainly looking more and more like a contrarian around the likes of you, aren’t I.
I’ve said ‘em before around here, but anyway, they’re The Jug of Slugs and that wretched, worst tune ever, bleedin’ Tam bloody Lin, aka the friggin’ Glasgow.
Next you’re going to tell me you don’t like The Irish Washerwoman!
