Need to stretch the horizons

Irish Flute
1

I’ve been exclusively playing trad now for the past year. I’ve aquired many six hole flutes and whistles and it is all great fun.

BUT. It’s getting tedius. I’ve been getting my Boehm out a lot lately so I can play more blues, jazz and, my favorites, old big band standards.

I need help. Somethink to “kick” me into expanding my styles with the keyless instruments. I’m sure there are people out there who play more then just trad on them. Either that or I am going to have to find a wooden Boehm flute or get a keyed Irish flute. But right now that’s not financially possible. Plus I think that’s just being lazy.

What can I do??? I’ve reached one of those boundries that needs to be broken.

2

I play a whole lot of Bach and Baroque pieces on my keyless flute as well as some later classical pieces. There are a few I have to toss out because of sharps and flats, but I can play quite well with most of them. I also enjoy taking Irish bar songs and playing them as airs.

However, the vast majority of my time is ITM. Do you have a local session you attend? Since I joined my local slow session, I’ve found it really increases my focus on ITM. Right now, I’m trying to increase my “tunage”. I’ve been going to slow session for 2 months, and I’ve got 12 tunes down, and am working on two more this week, which I consider a pretty good acquisition rate. At this rate, looking only at our slow session tune list, I’ve got about a year’s more worth of tunes to learn here alone. At some point, I’ll probably start attending the local up to speed session, and I’m sure I’ll come across another many more tunes to learn.

Overall, if you’re like me, the session is what helps keep me focused. Plus, it’s just a good, fun time.

3

Learn to half hole on your keyless flutes and whistles, that ought to keep you busy for a while: Brian Finnegan plays fully chromatic pieces on his keyless flutes and whistles, and quite well, to say the least.

Loren

4

Learn to half hole on your keyless flutes and whistles, that ought to keep you busy for a while: Brian Finnegan plays fully chromatic pieces on his keyless flutes and whistles, and quite well, to say the least.

That’s what I suspected. I’ve been working on it. I’ve noticed some instruments are better then others at half holing certain notes. The F isn’t too bad nor the G#. I have trouble with Bb because my index finger wants to move with the middle one.

Sounds like a challenge!

5

I often attend an acoustic jam here in the St. Louis
area, which plays virtually everything–blues, rock, ballads,
reels, country western. Guitars, banjos, mandolins,
fiddles, mouth harp, voices, even a snare drum. good musicians.
We go around in a circle and everybody gets to
start a tune; then, while it’s being played,
we again go around the circle and everybody
has an opportunity to improvise.

We do Dylan and Creedence Clearwater
Rivival and all sorts of more contemporary
stuff I’ve never heard before.

I find this really helpful and liberating–
the Irish flute is wonderful on a lot of
these tunes, I get to play harmony and
to improvise. Sometimes I flounder,
sometimes there are wonderful
moments. The D flute gets me
most of these tunes, a G flute
or whistle gets me C; an A whistle
can come in handy.

On the street we’re doing a lot
of blue grass, and the flute
is very good. Flute can be played
with a old-timey, bluesy sound,
as can whistle, certainly.

Tunes like Salty Dog, Midnight Special,
Cocaine Running Round
My Brain, (Coca Cola or Propane Running
Round my Range, when children are
present). Midnight Special, Woody (and Arlo) Guthrie stuff,
and all sorts of American banjo
tunes–some of these simple,
but actually lovely–flute-banjo
duets rock. We even have a rousing
guitar-flute-voice
version of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, sung
in German. We’re working on
‘When I am 64’, with lots of rolls.
‘Simple Gifts,’ ‘The Ashgrove’
‘Greensleeves’ etc., especially when we have
a fiddler. When our second banjo
player doesnt’ show up, we do
Dueling Banjos with the flute
taking one part.

There’s a wealth of music out there
on which the Irish flute has probably
not been tried much and on which it shines.

I keep working on ITM, because it makes
me a better flutist and improves technique.
Some of it is very
beautiful but some of it leaves me
unmoved.

There is, in any case, a vast world of music
and the Irish flute can do a whole lot of it,
and when people hear it they’re surprised
and delighted. They’re not used to
hearing something so gutsy from a flute. Best