OK, I’ll try to splain this as best I can. I listened to the first tune on the first track of Lunasa’s “Redwood” CD. “Cregg’s Pipes”. Great piece! I subsequently happened to find the sheet music for the same tune “Kregg’s Pipes” on the “Co. Champaign” site. Before I realized that it was the same tune from the CD, I tried playing (at novice speed) from the sheet music. Ouch, nasty little ditty! No tune. Nothing. Suddenly I realized that the name was the same as on the Lunasa CD.
Has anyone else noticed that some reels are good at any speed, and some (like Kregg’s / Cregg’s Pipes) improve dramatically with speed? Not just improve, but are totally transformed.
Well, first off I believe that reels come in several different “flavours”: Some are melodic and well-suited for slow, soulful playing, while others are simpler in their melodic structure and best given the fast, rhythmic session treatment.
That being said, I believe almost all reels can be played slow without losing the music in them. Playing them at a leasurely speed, with a nice swingy “hornpipey” rhythm can bring out something good in most reels. In fact, I believe Cregg’s Pipes is a lovely reel played this way…
Cregg’s pipes is a very popular tune with the older generation in West Clare, it wasa tune the Doran’s used to play. It suits the dancers very well and played at speed for them or slower, it has a lovely swing built into it’s structure, it’s a tune I could play forever.
No, there are different figures in the set, some longer than others and you stop the music when the dancers are finished [depends on the size of the set too] which leaves a part unplayed at the end here and there sometimes.
I think there’s a lot to be said for what appears to have been Padraig O’Keefe’s view that the appearance of dancers was a sign that the time had come to hand over playing duties to someone else.
There was some speculation about who this new member was when he/she appeared recently. Several pundits seemed certain that we already knew him/her. It was a funny view since the remarks the Mongoose made were entirely polite and not at all the sort of thing that would make someone want to hide their identity. On the assumption that the pundits were nonetheless right, I had a guess about identity but this latest post would make that guess seem to be way off the mark.
Actually, I’m not sure what is worse. Learning from sheet music or learning tunes from commercial CDs. I guess sheet music is worse, but closely followed by commercial tunes learning.
I agree that Cregg’s pipes is a great tune. But it does “change” when played at different speeds. Lunasa’s version is at breakneck speed, but their skills are such that it has a casual feel.
Azalin, que veut tu dire? No commercial recordings? No sheet music? What then, we should all learn by listening to weatherbeaten old Irish codgers with cloth caps and smoking pipes full of black tar tobacco? I don’t mind their style, but! For music to move forward it has to break free from excessive traditionalism. We CAN have it all, the old and the new.
Actually, I’m not sure what is worse. Learning from sheet music or learning tunes from commercial CDs. I guess sheet music is worse, but closely followed by commercial tunes learning.
Dang, Azalin, that’s pretty restrictive. If it weren’t for commercial recordings, I’d be screwed for sure. That’s about all I have to go by. The local session is a restricted group of tunes rushed through as fast as possible with the worst acoustics and bar noise you could imagine. No inspiration, whatsoever. Then, there are the vast, teeming masses of beginners.
My use for cd’s, besides discovering what I want to learn, is: get the tune, (slow speed transcriber, often enough) work on the tune on my own. Perk up my ears when I hear another version on a different cd. Compare sounds. Occasionally revisit the cd version to see how much I’ve drifted away from it.
I’m a recluse. I don’t get out much. My favorite pasttime is sitting upstairs on my own, whistling away. I get together with a friend who plays bouzouki once every two weeks. That’s it. No cd’s or music books…I’m screwed.
Tony
Actually, the more I play for dancers the easier it is to get when they’re done, never having been a dancer, myself. Sometimes it’s quite obvious when their set is finished; at other times a considerate dancer will make desperate slashing motions at his/her throat to let me know that it’s best I make an end of it.
Frequently enough, a tune gets stopped (gracefully, one hopes) at a midpoint somewhere because that’s where the dancing ended. I’ve gotten used to that, now. It also helps if there’s another musician on board who used to dance a lot (or still does) and knows the ropes.
Kregg’s/Cregg’s/Craig’s/Gregg’s/Grieg’s Pipes is a great tune at any pace! As it happens, that was the first tune I started with for some dancers yesterday when a rack of reels was needed.
All kidding aside, playing for ceili (social) dancers is a useful experience in my opinion. I think it’s important to get people used to live musicians playing for social dance occasions, the CDs can be very, very nice, but live music has a sparkle that no CD can capture.
As for step dancers, I’d rather spend a night in Cook County jail then play for a step dance competition.
I dunno, I play in a session every Monday night down here in Spfd, MO and I’ve found my playing has improved drastically, and I actually record all of the sessions. I’m guessing that since there’s always at least 8 people, perhaps that drowns out the rest of the noise in the place. The recordings actually come out quite good… for mono recordings and an old tablet PC
Of course, once again, I can’t read sheet music well enough to play by sight… I’d have to break it down into notation at least, and even then it would be impossible for me to simply read and play along at speed methinks, so learning new tunes by ear is a lot easier for me in a session since I get to play along and I can usually get a melody going and by the end of the song have enough of it to go by and learn it if I practice it a bit. Usually try to find it on a CD or online too.
I agree. It’s got to be one of my all time favorites. The structure of the melody seems far superior to many others…I esp. like the way the 3rd part goes up at the end, which always gives me a lift too.
I was teaching ‘The West Wind’ on friday, another one yo utend to take for granted but it is a beautifully constructed one too.
We were playing it, my pupil had it down second time round, when the young lady threw in a variation, the third time round, that was pure Willie Clancy [fair enough he was her great grand uncle so she should have that stuff], brilliant.
