… been listening to Micho Russell, Joanie Madden, and a few others this morning. i noticed something… they don’t play at “lightning fast” speed. especially Micho. seems a good many whistle players seem to think each tune is a race. who can get through the fastest? some are so fast that they miss a good half of the notes, fer cryin’ out loud!
not being from ireland, nor never having visited, i find myself wondering… is this highspeed thing a horrible americanism, or a function of youth, or a function of modern times… is the high speed as prevalent in ireland, as well? or is there a bit of moderation of the speed so the notes can be heard?
I’ve just come back from a trip to Ireland lasting just under a week. I went to sessions every day, on some days to more than one. As I’ve always found in Ireland (I go over at least twice a year and normally more) speed varied greatly, both between sessions and also within sessions. Sometimes tunes were played “lightning fast” and sometimes surprisingly slow, and the same people would sometimes starts sets quickly and sometimes slowly. But always, the tunes were clear and had good rhythm.
Micho Russell was a one-off, IMO. Most people play at different speeds as the mood takes them for that particular set of tunes, on that particular occasion.
Agreeing with Ben … I think speed is something of a bugbear in ITM.
First, there are both regional and personal styles and tendencies, and comparing players may be apples and oranges. Clare style is known for being more relaxed (better scholars than I can formulate that more precisely). So Micho vs. Joanie vs. X is, well, Micho vs. Joanie vs. X.
Second, if your impression is that the notes can’t be heard, then maybe the problem is not the playing as much as the hearing. A common beginner’s or layman’s impression is that there are “so many notes” in dance tunes, when what’s really being heard is the complexity of ornamentation and articulation that turns a raw melody into a tune with genuine style. Be assured that accomplished players are also accomplished listeners, and can hear exactly what’s being played at speeds that a beginner may find quite “fast”.
Third, at some level you can’t divorce dance tunes from the dancing. And it’s the needs of the dancers that underlie the performance of the tunes in context, including their speed. And while the music is often presented out of context as “listening” music (necessarily so on recordings), playing for dancers is the baseline experience that informs and conditions the way musicians approach the tunes.
I agree that excessive speed all the time can kill. I too notice that young players may tend to play faster, because they tend to do everything faster. And because it’s an aesthetic preference that may mellow with maturity. I don’t think it’s particularly American.
In fact, I find the opposite problem just as common in the States, where you have the concept of the “slow session” for beginners (does such a thing exist in Ireland?). Players who are the products of these sessions may have a knack for turning even the liveliest dance tunes into dirges, because they’ve been conditioned to think in terms of “speed” instead of the lift and pulse that makes the tunes sparkle at any speed.
As for Joanie Madden, I don’t find her playing particularly slow.
i can go along with your first and third points easy enough. with regard to the second, i can definitely hear the difference between notes and articulation at speed. even when brian finnigan is running full bore open, it is not difficult to hear the notes, nor to distinguish ornaments (both finger and, for brian, double and triple tonguing.) and i don’t have any problem at all hearing Joannie’s work.
i guess when i talk about not being able to hear the notes, it’s probably by the lesser accomplished players whose notes tend to become a slurry of noise because the articulation does not match the fingering dexterity or lack thereof. after 35+ years of music, i usually have no problem picking out the obvious or the not so obvious in that to which i listen. (most of which has been significantly faster than dirges )
i can understand that much of ITM is for dancing (i’m thinking words like “jig,” “reel,” and the like kinda give it away.) but even you have to admit that a good many players often play a hell of a lot faster then even micheal flatley’s feet can follow. (speaking of course about when micheal was a tad younger and quicker.)
i’ve never been to a session, but… in my mind… a “slow session” would seem to me to be detrimental to new players. solid playing by accomplished players is the example that should be followed. if a new player can’t play along at first, then with plenty of practice of solid fundamentals, of the tunes played at a regularly attended session, he/she will be able to play along eventually. i would have to imagine that part of the “social” working of a session is that you slowly gain acceptance by the attendees, and that by being patient, respectful and the like.
i’m sure, as always, i’ve little or no clue about that of which i mutter… but i’m old enough to be really comfortable with that.
I don’t know about that, jiminos. Your comments about slow sessions are spot on, IMO. Beginners would do much better to go along to ‘ordinary’ sessions and listen a lot.
Mind you, you could spell ‘Michael Flatley’ a bit better.
I recall a quote by the great pianist Artur Rubenstein to the effect that most people play slow pieces too slowly, and fast pieces too fast. He was talking about Classical music, but it often seems to apply to IRTRAD too.
ya know… given that my middle name is michAEl, you’d think i’d get that one right… sometimes i type like a fish… which explains a lot about my whistle playing, too, i suppose…
i wasn’t born this dumb… i had to practice… a lot!
Never mind about being dumb, jiminos. You’re comments about slow sessions were, IMO, and as I said above, spot on. Not bad coming from someone who has never been to a session …
Last year, I got a CD of tunes from a session in Dallas. It had a dozen or so tunes played both slow and normal speed so beginners could learn the tunes. One tune (I forget which one) was also on a Chieftains album and on a Bothy Band album. I timed all three vesions - you guessed it, the “learners” CD normal speed was about 10% faster than either of the other two versions. Admittedly, the Chieftains and the Bothy Band may have slowed their studio recordings a bit to make them accessible to a wider audience, but still…
Certainly I have heard accomplished older players lament that virtuosos play tunes so fast
that their beauty is crushed out of them. I think it’s good to give tunes room to breathe and live.
Of course I can’t play much faster than that anyway.
I find slow sessions helpful in that they give people who aren’t up to speed some practice
at playing in ensembles, they help them learn tunes. They are enjoyable for their own sake and I think
they shorten the time it takes to play in a regular session.
A bit off the point: I try to spend a fair amount of time playing
tunes I already know or I’m learning with a metronome set to 50. This to
learn tunes and increase speed.
And because it’s an aesthetic preference that may mellow with maturity. I don’t think it’s particularly American.
