How many people aspire to play the flute in a defined regional style (Sligo-Roscommon, East Galway, etc…)? As styles become more blended in this day of international media distribution, is there perhaps more of a shift toward personal styles of playing at the expense of regional styles? Many of us listen to and are influenced by a variety of players in various styles, and if one doesn’t live in Ireland, is playing in a regional style even possible?
I think many informed people really enjoy listening to the regional styles but playing in the regional style is a different issue. It’s quite hard to pick up the flute and play like paddy carty if you’re playing in a session with modern sounding players and guitar accompaniment. The musicians have to be sensative and good to notice that you’re playing different and come to you or you have to throw your approach out the window and strive to blend with them. I will say it’s easier to play in a particular style with one or two instruments but in a fullout session it isn’t possible.
I think it’s easier to pick up regional styles if you aren’t in Ireland and don’t play in sessions on a weekly basis. YOu can control your influences and focus in on a particular style by listening to recordings. The regional styles are not what they used to in Ireland, unless you really know where to look I think.
Personally I aspire to play in a regional style but I’ve experimented a bit and haven’t decided on which one(s) to play in.
It’s quite hard to pick up the flute and play like paddy carty if you’re playing in a session with modern sounding players and guitar accompaniment.
So rubber-band chords on the tenor banjo make better accompaniment? 
Seriously, though, you make an interesting point about session playing. I enjoy playing in sessions, but they can be a bit of a steam-roller to styles. (I did listen to and play a bit in a session in a tiny village in County Sligo last year, and the flutes had a pretty clear Sligo sound to my ear, but you’re probably right it’s not the norm, especially in the cities.)
You’re right that it’s ideal to find one or two other simpatico players to play with…not always easy, though.
I’m far from playing in a regional style, myself, partly because I’ve only been playing traditional music seriously for about 3 years, and partly because I like diverse players…I’d have a tough time choosing between, say, Paddy Carty and Catherine McEvoy.
I remember Harry Bradley had some insightful things to say about regional styles somewhere, either here on the flute board or over in the piping board.
The gist of what he said, if I remember correctly–and this may be filtered by my own view–is that regional styles largely emerged from personal styles in the first place: brilliant players would influence the styles of other players in the area. I’ve seen local styles develop in exactly this way in some long-term sessions I’ve played in, where the style of a few strong players tends to influence everyone else in the session and gradually the session develops its own repertoire of tunes and style of playing them. It can be argued that regional styles are little more than the sum of the region’s personal styles: most players tend to be influenced and inspired by particular musicians rather than aspiring to play in a regional style for its own sake.
I also think that, while there are clear differences between many regional styles (East Galway and Sligo for example), the idea that in the old days nobody traveled outside their area and thus the styles were kept “pure” might be a somewhat romanticized view. If that were true, why was it that many of the same tunes were played in different regions of Ireland? How could those tunes have spread around the country if nobody traveled outside their region? Of course there are some tunes that we think of as “sligo tunes” or “clare tunes,” but there are also tunes that are played throughout most of Ireland and probably were done so before the phonograph. You hear stories of people learning tunes from people like Garret Barry, and later the Dorans and Willie Clancy, who traveled quite a bit; I suspect tinkers and traveling musicians were responsible for spreading tunes more widely and bringing influences from other regions. So I doubt most of those regional styles were ever as “pure” as we’ve been led to believe. But that’s just my hunch; I haven’t researched the history.
Well if you listen to that banjo playing on that cd, it differs considerably from strummy-naunce ruining guitar. The emphasis is quite different.
And besides, the majority of the stuff I have of Paddy Carty isn’t with banjo accompaniment.
i was surprised to read your statement here, Murphystout:
i can see your point about sessions, but in the case of listening to recordings, Ireland’s as good as anyplace else… seems to me it would be potentially better as the chances of finding a geezer to learn from would be much higher.
plus you’d get a sense of the place from which the music sprang, an intangible which i would think adds nuance to whatever one plays but most especially in playing the local repertoire.
i could be quite wrong of course, never having been to Ireland, not knowing the music as well as many folks here…
Strange, I have been working at kind of the same problem except with time period. Trying to play the fife (1820’s-1870’s period) I have been looking at the use of the music (dance, march, signal, etc.) and the musical environment. Baroque and other traditional ornimentation was arround, and looking at the biography’s of the fife players, many of them seemed to be baroque musicions. Should I play the fife like a baraque flute? Not likely. But I am trying to put the pieces togather.
Unfortunately, (for me) there arn’t that many recordings from back then. 
Well rh, that’s very true if you can find yourself a good old geezery regional player to learn from. But if you can’t, you’re just going to get a mushpot of whatever playing styles are prevelant at the local session.
He asked if it could be done outside of Ireland and I say yes it can be done. And I added that it might be easier because the influences can be controlled better if you’re just getting tunes off of a cd player.
You make a nice point about going to the places where these guys were brought up. Seamus Tansey told me the very same thing.
Almost all of the trad players I know either:
- don’t play in any particular style
or - play in their own style that is similar to a regional style.
I listen to East Galway style a lot and really like it. My own style has many of its features, but isn’t really East Galway. It’s the style I’m naturally drawn to, and play most like, but “old geezers” in the style would say that I was doing many wrong things with it.
I think that unless your goal in flute playing is to correctly play in a traditional regional style, you should play whatever comes to your heart. For me, it’s my own style that happens to share East Galway characteristics.
I.D.10-t said
Should I play the fife like a baraque flute? Not likely. But I am trying to put the pieces togather.
Give up trying. The parts simply don’t fit together…tennon sizes don’t match and all. 
In all seriousness, I think Brad’s post is pretty much right on target. This is akin to jazz styles, etc. I can’t recall if it was Claude Fiddler Williams or Jay McShannon (both spoke to my high school jazz band) who said there never was a true KC style of jazz - just a bunch of guys who influenced each other but were each doing their own thing - but it was never static, always changing.
Recordings can be great to learn from, but they give the false impression that “tradional” styles weren’t constantly evolving beasts based upon the players of the time.
Eric
I think it’s unfair to assume that sessions, whether in America or not, are unable to fit into a clear regional style. Two sessions that I am very familiar with, Kevin Henry’s on the south side of chicago (wherever it is on a particular night is where It Is) and Patrick Ourceau’s at Mona’s (particularly when Patrick is there, but Dana Lyn does a very nice job on her own of keeping to the Clare sound). Those sessions each have a very distinctive sound, and when more than one musician play together there is always going to be some give and take, but people seem to go to those two sessions knowing what to expect and generally don’t make trouble.
(I’ve only been to the Mona’s one five or six times, so I might not have the full picture on this one - Patrick mentions in the liner notes to Live at Mona’s that every so often someone comes along with whom the styles clash so much that they simply can’t make music together.)
Mona’s is fairly amazing to see so many top class musicians playing (relatively) slowly. Patrick has very distinct ideas of what he wants his music to sound like (hapless guitar players can get quite a well deserved verbal smackdown upon occasion) and keeps the session very well grounded in what he considers to be the Clare style.
Kevin’s session, on the other hand, seems to be more rooted in the old Sligo style flute diaphramy playing (at least Kevin’s playing himself fits into this mold, and many of the flute players who join in tend to try to play in this style when playing with Kevin, Autumn Rhodes for instance, and Larry Nugent when he’s around [I can play ‘traditional’, Kimmy, I can!]) However, to my ear I would really label the playing to be in the “South Side Chicago” style, as it is such a distinctive sound. (On the other hand, I’ve never been to a session in Sligo - now or fifty years ago - so I can’t say for sure how close or far the sound is to what was/is played in Sligo) Along with the punchy flute there are always several accordions, usually just a fiddle or two and a piper. The blend is very distinctive - and I love it. Some of my favorite nights of music have been in that company, and I hope to spend much more time with them in the future.
Interesting ideas, all. Thanks for the responses. I find Brad’s post particularly interesting…kind of reverses my original thinking/post. So it’s perhaps more important to cultivate a personal style, rooted in the playing one listens to, rather than try to adhere to a static notion of a regional style.
Probably, though, I’m just trying to find a way to rationalize the fact that while I’ve always been drawn mostly to flute players from East Galway, the major influences on my flute playing over the past seven years or so have been Catherine McEvoy and to a lesser extent Harry Bradley, both of whose styles are nothing like East Galway!
psmithltd - I envy you if you get to regularly sit in on a session with Kevin Henry. I’ve been extremely lucky to find myself in that very situation twice in the last few years at the Willie Clancy week in Miltown Malbay, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I just wondered if you knew whether or not he’d be making the trip this year. I hope the answer’s “yes” ! All the best.
Kenny,
I’ve no idea about Willie Week. Sorry. I do know he’s going out to the Catskills for the first time this year, which should be pretty neat.
Philip
Ah, well - I’ll find out soon enough. Thanks , Philip.