I like playing jigs, slip jigs, airs, and hornpipes (and I like to think I play them fairly well). I have no desire to learn to play polkas. I’m not worried about learning slides and all of those other types of tunes right now. Reels are my problem though. I like listening to them, and I listen as much as I possibly can. I’ve looked though BroSteve’s pages and worked though stuff. Still, there’s just something about reels that just doesn’t click in my head. All of the tunes I mentioned that I like to play just have this kind of magic to them, but there’s something that I missed with reels, and they just don’t have the magic. Has this happened to anyone else or can you suggest something that I might be missing? Sorry I can’t really be more precise, but maybe its a subtle rhythmic thing, or maybe by tounging in certain spots it makes the reel move along better. (BTW, I am playing on whistle and flute.)
Depends on how long you have been playing and if you began or know how to play a simple reel with a correct emphasis.
But reading your post makes me wonder if you have ever got that far?
Try not playing any decorations, and slowing down; then emphasise only the upbeat. Try to make the endings run into the repeat.
Its a circle, rather than a linear thing, hence the name Reel.
:0)
Slow it down reel slow and just let if flow just get the tune structure right this is how I always learn new Reels.
For a long time I didn’t ‘get’ slip jigs. There was something about them that didn’t click in my head. Then I heard one that painted pictures in my mind, and I finally was able to hear and play them.
Mabe its just a matter of finding the right reel for you.
Toasty is spot on. I first started playing ITM (on the harmonica) only about 12 years ago when I was already in my forties. I could play 17 polkas and a good number of hornpipes and jigs before I could play even one reel. In many ways they are the most challenging tunes to play - you have to have a very good sense of internal rhythm, and be able to play at a fair speed, to bring them off convincingly. And once you can do that you need to be able to ornament the tunes well (very difficult on a harmonica I can tell you!). You’ve got to keep at it though, as reels are a pretty vital component of ITM! But, as Toasty indicates, forget the decorations and the speed to start off with. When you’re practising play as slow as you like, but concentrate on that essential internal rhythm. Record yourself, and if you don’t detect at least some of that “spring” in your playing you’ve got work to do.
Do a lot of listening too. Trouble is, these “masters of ITM” on CD tend to play so fast, yet still sound kind of relaxed, that it can be very discouraging. I still can’t play as fast as Jackie Daly or Four Men and a Dog, but I enjoy playing reels and my mates in the session don’t seem to mind!
Cheers
Steve
Tyghress, it sounds like you understand what I mean. I think I’ve figured it out more. Toasty, I think I was making it too circular. I wasn’t “dancing” with it, if you know what I mean. I wasn’t tounging enough and lifting up the right notes. I think I was thinking too smooth, and it just didn’t have any life. I also need to use quicker cuts and taps. I dunno if that makes sense to you, but it is working for me. 
Reels were the hardest for me, too. Everything else seemed to come perfectly naturally, but reels … 
One of the things that I’ve found helpful here (this sounds wild, I know, but …) is to play a reel like a hornpipe. (Slowly at first, of course) By learning to “bounce” various aspects of various phrases it seems to help get that overall lift into the tune in general. Anyway, you do this some and then go back to playing it in “reel time” and you might be pleasantly surprised by the fact that the tune suddenly goes from Point A to B instead of just being a cascade of notes.
FWIW, now I’m no more worried about reels as a category than anything else, partially because I think this helped me see/hear/feel the arcs of each tune better.
Now if I could just get a better locomotive-chugging sort of rhythm going, I’ll die a happy woman.
I know of some tracks near by … (just kidding 
)
djm
Sounds as if you have fixed some of what was spoiling your work?
I try to slow things down and cut a lot of fancy moves off in order to get a better feel for the melod. Sometimes it works sometimes not.
If you can, listen to Micko Russel and compare that with Mary Bergin.
Seems obvious to me that one is laid back the other standing to attention.
IOW you don’t HAVE to put a cut or anything else in if it cramps your tunes.
Hope that helps.
Toasty’s right. I know a couple of people who throw in so much stuff that they lose their rhythm without fail. Me, if I can’t bring out the tune’s beauty in a simple way first, I have more work to do. Steady rhythm and a recognisable melody come first, I think.
I have slowed things down, and listened, then played them slow, then played them fast, then listed again, and… A lot of the time cuts and taps help me play the tune better. (I always keep checking that they aren’t messing up my rhythm.) It feels so odd for me to not put in cuts and taps, and I start loosing the lilt, the groove, or whatever you wanna call it. Trying what Cathy said does help me play them with more of a drive, yet still have the “spring” in them.
Tonight at Celtic Band I figured out a big reason why I’m having a problem playing them in the right style. There are maybe only two (out of twelve or so) people who play them correctly, and they get drowned out by all of those who don’t. That bad style has gotten into my head, and I’m having a hard time getting it out. I know how reels are supposed to sound, the bad style has gotten too much of a hold on me. (FYI- the Celtic Band is a “learning experience” according to the director, not a professional band or anything. I’m pretty sure I’m going to quit after this semester, because I haven’t learned much of anything, and I’ve probably lost more than I’ve gained through it.)
Danner, I think basic cuts, taps, rolls and slides are part of good simple playing. No need necessarily to eliminate them. By “so much stuff” I meant attempts at flashy variation, meandering stuff outside the tune’s bones. Most people can’t do that off the cuff. If I want to do that sort of thing, I pick a variation that adds something worth adding (subjective, I know) and practise it until it’s automatic for when I want it. But then, I’m no virtuoso. I have to practise these things.
Okay, I get what you were saying. I don’t (at least I don’t think) play things to flashy. I try to keep to the pure simple tune without covering it up with all sorts of do-dads. (Not saying I don’t do ornamentation, just saying that it should ornament the tune, not be the tune.) Ocassionally I’ll do a little variation, but if it were really important, it would be part of the tune to begin with.
If you listen to non-Irish players doing Irish reels you might hear
this “duh-da-duh-da-duh-da-duh-da,duh-da-duh-da-duh-da-duh-da” thing
with no phrasing, at which point the music either speeds up, or becomes
somewhat syncopated in an effort to put some feel into it, or just stays
like a choo-choo train.
It seems to me that the phrasing of a reel is what you want to listen to.
Some breaths or long notes make a lot of difference. Listen for where the
players you like, breathe in reels. (When you play it slow add a few more
breathing spaces of course!) And listen to how the cuts go with the
breaths.
Hope that helps, Lesl
GOOD ONE!
wherever I lay me head … 
Hi
Having overcome the Reel-problem myself a few years back I can share my experience. first improvement was, that I went to irish dancing classes, so eventually I got the rythm in my feet, and once the feet were able to keep the rythm, then i was able to concentrate on the melody.
Once the melody was going around and around and around, it started carrying, and then ornamentations started coming by themselves.
Still the basics are timing and melody. and with the timing most of the mistakes are made, because players start playing reels at such a speed, that they cannot pack the notes into the bar without stress anymore, and the whole thing starts sounding like an asthmatic attack. the other thing is overornamentation – it is sometimes even hard for me to recognize what tune is played there, and in a session situation, people just get tired trying to follow and start talking in the meanwhile.
So timing-- just simply 4 strokes to the bar – 1-2-3-4- all equal length, and let the reel flow. the reel structure does not come neccessarily from timing emphasizing maybe the off beats (sounds to me like a car with two flat tires), it comes from its melody.
enough said – get the hang of it and enjoy.
Take your favorite unaccompanied reel player, and record it onto the computer. Slow the recording down, listen, and learn to play along. The point is to keep an ear open as to how they phrase the reel, especially what notes they throw forward to the next beat, meaning: an unaccented note doesn’t necessarily belong to the accented note it follows, but leads to the accented note after it.
One exercise could be to separate the fourth note from 1234 group by tonguing, and use it to lead to the ‘1’ of the next group. Don’t tongue between the 4 and the 1 that follows, but between the 3 and 4:
123 4123
Obviously keep the accents on the 1 and 3.
You’ll notice that the 4 and 1-- and the 2 and 3-- are many times next to each other, which lends itself to sliding up to the accented note. That construction is everywhere in the music (including jigs: the 3 leads to the 1). It’s a matter of learning how to hear (listen to authentic traditional players) when it’s appropriate to use each technique.
Learning reels by ear from good players can go a long, long way towards playing them the right way. Of course it’s useful to dissect how much swing to use, where to tongue and breathe and ornament, etc., but if you get the sound in your ears, you’ve already got 3/4 of the battle won.
Errm, but not on every bar. It depends on the reel. If *'s are accents and / are breaks between phrases, many reels look like,
1234 123/4 1234 123/4
Or some variation like that, but, more than one … group of notes… per phrase (I was going to say ‘more than one bar’, but in the dots, there’s usually 2 4-note groups per bar, since the count that drives a reel is 4 eight notes, and the count for 4/4 time is 4 quarter notes…)
Some reels are in many small phrases, and some are almost a continuous smooth run for a whole part. And there’s almost always some accent on the 1.
If you need to drop a note to breath, though, almost any ‘3’ is good, but some are ‘it won’t be noticed much’ and some are ‘it will help push the rhythm’.
Often, you can tell from the sheet music where the phrases break, -but- if you make a mistake it will take forever to correct your phrasing later, so it’s best to know the sound of the individual reel very well before learning it.
Errm, but not on every bar.
Agreed. I meant it as an exercise to allow someone to bludgeon themselves with the technique. As I, perhaps unclearly mentioned: “It’s a matter of learning how to hear … when it’s appropriate to use each technique.”
1234 123/4 1234 123/4
People shouldn’t forget to have some sort of accent on the 3s also-- it’s important to the swing. I have always thought of both 1s as equal, rather than only the first 1 getting an accent. I do not know if I ~in fact~ treat them differently or not. I suppose I could pay more attention.
Some reels are in many small phrases
I agree with you, though we may or may not agree on details. I don’t think there’s any reel that is made up of nearly part-long phrases. I think that is a matter of style whether you tongue or not to delineate phrases.
Often, you can tell from the sheet music where the phrases break
I’m very hesitant to accept that… on most tunes, there are no visual markers as to where the phrases begin and end. In order to interpret ones where there are clues, you already have to have a firm grasp of phrasing/structure.