I was recently practising my set of six polkas on the stairs at work (my best practise time) and I had this urge to play faster and faster and faster until either I collapsed from hyperventilation, had a stroke, or horror of horrors, made a mistake.
Can you recommend a course of treatment to cure me of this irrational urge, or should I give in and take up the Bodhran?
yours imploringly, Martin
MCM Transatlantic Whistle Detective Agency - No Case Too Small (terms & conditions apply)- Branches in London & Salt Lake City
[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-05-14 08:53 ]
I’ll be doing some business travel tomorrow…so if I see a bodhran lying around in the airport, I’ll pick it up and send it to you when I get home. (Normally I’d just leave it lying there… something my mother told me about letting sleeping bodhrain be, or some such)
Use a metronome. As long as it’s wound up or its battery is charged and it seems to you to be slowing down as you play, you are not yet cured. When the metronome seems to play at a steady rate, keep using it, lest you relapse into an acceloratory delirium. If you think a bodhran is a cure, you’re nuts. Endeavor to persevere.
Tony
On 2002-05-14 11:17, Sara wrote:
I say take up the Bodhran and give up polkas. Polka music… eewww.
Sara,
Yyou must not be listening to the right polkas, they’re brilliant! my tutor taught us a set he called “The Altan Polkas”, though I never found them on any of their albums, and then I learnt “Mimi and the New Generation Polkas”, which are grrrreat. There’s several more polka sets I have on CDS which I wish to master.
Once you have the rhythm sorted, they’re very catchy!
I think Sara might be referring to the type of Polkas I grew up hearing a lot of in northern Wisconsin. They have big Polkafests there every fall with older couples dancing in German costumes, lots of beer, and fat grilled bratwurst (I do not partake of any of these…not a fan of any of them). This type of polka music is not my style, either…songs like “Roll out the Barrel” and “Beer Barrel Polka” and “EIEIO Polka.”
That kind of music, though fine for some, would turn me off to all Polkas in general if I thought there wasn’t any other kind.
On 2002-05-14 12:01, Cees wrote:
I think Sara might be referring to the type of Polkas I grew up hearing a lot of in northern Wisconsin. They have big Polkafests there every fall with older couples dancing in German costumes, lots of beer, and fat grilled bratwurst (I do not partake of any of these…not a fan of any of them). This type of polka music is not my style, either…songs like “Roll out the Barrel” and “Beer Barrel Polka” and “EIEIO Polka.”
That kind of music, though fine for some, would turn me off to all Polkas in general if I thought there wasn’t any other kind.
I have a suggestion that may help:-) Get some of your co-workers to dance to your polka playing . Then, when you notice that some of them are getting winded, tired, collapse, or seem to stop ageing because they are approaching the speed of light, slow down a little bit, but not too much. You don’t want to give them the chance to think about how unusual it is to dance at work:-)
In fact there is a little Bodhran player in me too, that’ll teach him to stand that close to the buffet……
[ This Message was edited by: bart on 2002-05-15 12:28 ]
Steve