I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this about themselves. I can play the crap out of irish stuff, but I find myself bored when listening to a band, or even a CD if I’m not doing something else at the time. A few years back, a group I was involved with was going to host a session tent at the Dublin Irish Festival. I planned on practically living there that weekend. That fell through unfortunately, so the festival rolls around and do you know how long I stayed? Two measly hours. I watched a few bands, got pretty bored, and left. What’s up with that?! It’s not just irish stuff; it’s any music. I can play classical all day long, but it bores me to listen to it.
On one hand, I don’t mind, because doing something yourself is always better than watching someone else do it (living by proxy and all that), but on the other hand, how can I possibly get a true understanding of irish music if I never listen to it?
So has anyone else ever noticed this, and have you done anything about it (assuming you think it’s a bad thing)?
Perhaps you don’t really enjoy music? Personally, I cannot listen to ITM and do anything else - too distracting. I definitely have my own tastes, and quickly get tired listening to someone who doesn’t meet my personal criteria, but if the music has the right feel to it, I have no desire to do anything else but listen.
If you really feel the need to be doing something else, why not take up Irish dancing. That would meet your criteria fairly well in that you would be listening but doing something else at the same time. It may even improve your playing once you really learn what dance music is for (dancing).
I’ve considered that, but that would mean that I’ve been playing for five years because of some other reason, whether it be to impress people, fit in with a social group, or maybe just to keep from being bored. I don’t think it’s any of those, so I do think I like music.
Yes, I’ve long though about dancing, but I wonder how my 30 yr. old body would handle it. No, I’m not that old, and I’m in decent shape, but that stuff looks like it requires a lot more youth that I can supply.
There’s lots of different types of dancing. You don’t have to learn tap-dancing, which I agree, would be prohibitively taxing. But plain céilí old dancing shouldn’t be too much of a stretch (if it is, then you really need the exercise), or set dancing.
If you are in decent shape, you definitely should be able to do Irish Set Dancing, or Ceili Dancing. I didn’t start until I was about 40, and decent shape would be the most I could call myself.
I doubt that you don’t like music. I think it likely that you enjoy playing but don’t get much from passive listening. I find that odd because I’m quite the opposite; I’m wanting to hone my ear and just get pleasure from new stuff all the time. But I think quite a few famous musicians don’t listen for pleasure or, at least don’t listen to their style for pleasure.
From time to time I get sick of listening to every style I like and play. But then I just go back to listening to other styles until I feel keen again.
I went through a couple of phases where by I couldn’t stop listening to my records (Planxty, Bothy Band, etc), would play them, move the tone arm back to the beginning and play them again, with headphones on sitting in the chair just absorbing it all. Did the same with Dylan, Crosby Stills …, Niel Young, Alain Stivell, Mike Oldfield, all that…and then, one day, I just couldn’t be bothered any more. I still loved playing the pipes and whistle, but I just had no interest in listening. I think part of it was that there was just nothing to listen to after those I just mentioned (that’s what I thought, anyway) - Irish music was becoming lots of party tricks and faddish stuff or albums of just straight-down-the-line tunes and little else. Small group bands like Planxty and BB seemed to be a thing of the past.
My friends kept raving on about bands like Altan, but I heard soooooo much about them, and our fiddle player was so wrapped up in copying their sets right down to the last grace note, that it turned me off them before I’d even listened to them. (I do know that they are good).
Sometimes an album has good tunes, but the backing rhythms are so dead-pan monotonous and lifeless, it’s hard to stay tuned in for more than 5 minutes.
But I’m coming into a new phase of enthusiam and I’m back on the road to ‘recovery’ and I can now lie down and listen to Willie Clancy, Leo Rowsome and others for an entire album without feeling the urge to get up and do something else.
So all I can say is, hang in there, it’s nothing serious. I think you’re probably one out of many who feel the same way. Maybe do what I did and take up bonsai as well - kind of takes your mind of too much music, which is not always a good thing.
Might the problem be more what particular groups you’re listening to, rather than just the music in general? I mean, usually the Dublin (Ohio, I assume you mean) Festival has maybe two bands that I’d really like to listen to, and a whole bunch of bands that would send me off looking for a session someplace away from the noise…
Typical current Irtrad CD’s ooze with speed and dizzy embellishment.
Same thing happened to Bluegrass - aped and trivialized to a point where it all sounded the same.
I always chose carefully when buying CDs, yup I have some lemons, but also have some gems. No I dont get bored with listening because I never play a crap CD again.
Suggest listening to the real teachers of the tradition instead of generic Celtic.
Bergin, Coleman, Ennis, Cooley for a start and then the regional styles, Russel, Casey - Cronin & any of the O Keef students -etc.
The lemons really hurt. They’re imports, so they’re all at least double the price of local CDs. I wonder if we’ll ever see the MP3 phenom take hold in the ITM market?
I’ve shared a very quiet evening with three professional Irish musicians and two (other) people who are avid but as a pastime. The difference in how we listened to CDs was startling. The hobbyists preferred it as background music, the professionals actively listened. They pored over the liner notes, picked out instrumentation, commented on tempos and embellishments.
I dont’ know if the way they actively listened is because they’re superb musicians, or if they’re superb because they actively listen. Or maybe its just a matter of priority. Irish music is not what puts bread on my table or a roof over my head.
I can identify with your sentiments regarding this. I find myself listening to less and less lately…but not because I am tired of it, or that it does not interest me. Rather, I find myself listening only to the passages and phrases that intrigue me…you know, the ones I (we all) haven’t figured out yet.
I’ll put on a CD of a piper/fiddler (or pipers/fiddlers) I respect and enjoy the most, but find myself only ‘half-listening’ to the majority of the music…but then, suddenly I sit bolt upright and listen/focus on a particular phrasing that stumps and mystifies me. It is usually at this point, where I stop and replay the passage over and over and over again ‘ad nausium’ (sp?). Once I have the phrasing down in my mind (and running over possible fingerings on a pencil or pen), I make a mental note, then it is back to half-listening.
I think that what you are going through is not only typical, but extremely common for a newer (and if they are wise, older) player. Nothing to worry about…it may actually be of great value to you in years to come.
When I do listen (usually in the car), I listen as hard as I can.
But I gotta admit, I’m selfish. Unless I’m hearing truly great playing – i.e., folks doing a truly great job with a tune – what’s to listen to? So for me, if it’s a choice between passively sitting thru yet another session-hijacking set of flat, academically-rendered Em reels or hacking and slashing thru stuff by my lonesome at home, I can’t help but prefer Option #2; it’s much more interesting (at least for me! ), and I think I actually learn better thru the hands-on approach.
I’d rather play music than listen to it, I’d rather play football than watch it, I’d rather dance than watch dancing, I’d rather have s*x than watch someone else. I don’t draw the conclusion that I don’t really enjoy these activities.
When I listen to albums, it’s often for the purposes of learning the tunes. I have several CDs I enjoy greatly having listened hundereds of times, such as the Liz Doherty albums, but even when I listen to those I’m generally doing something else at the same time.
It may not be the music. It may be your mind. One of our best human tricks is that we can do several things at once. Perhaps you’ve reached a level of musical insight in which half-listening processes as much information as listening hard did in the past. (I know I’m not there yet for Irish music). Your mind is being efficient. It’s looking for another activity to keep itself fully occupied.
You mean like remembering lyrics to songs for years and years, even though you never “actively” learned them? Stuff that was always on in the background that you didn’t know you paid attention to?
That’s an interesting observation Tygh, however I’d put myself squarely in the middle. I’m not professional (nor do I have the genetic disposition to be a ‘professional’ player :roll: ), but I listen in that very active way you describe. Now, the gent I take occasional lessons from and slow-session with (and who supports himself by playing), listens exactly the same way and has stressed repeatedly the importance of listening…alot, as have several other muscians much more talented than I.
I can say without a doubt that my voracious listening to this music is the only reason my playing sounds remotely ‘Irishy’. Like many have said on countless other threads, this is a primarily aural tradition and one that can’t be genuinely learned without repeated, active listening. However there is also the less concsious type of listening where you may not be picking the music apart for it’s sublties, but it ‘soaks’ in on an unconcious level. Both are valuable in their own ways.
I really can’t relate to Jeff, because listening to the music is what inspired me to learn play and still inspires me daily. Maybe with a certain level of experience as a player you rely less on listening and more on playing to define your own voice. However, I think the day I stop listening is the day I cease to improve as a player.
Or the older I get the more I remember things that never happened. It’s particularly annoying when it’s my wife who points out the impossibility of my supposed memory. Of course that makes me more empathetic when the roles are reversed.
), and I think I actually learn better thru the hands-on approach.