I was more mechanical in my approach to learning a C-Natural roll.
My fingering for C-natural (oxx|ooo), allowed me to try to do a traditional roll like on other notes – that is, with a cut and a tap C-cut-C-tap-C.
That didn’t work because there was no distinct enough sound (note as you look at it) when I tried to cut the C Natural or tap with the next hole down from the G hole. I found that I got a nice sound if a slammed my three right-hand fingers down for a tap. Then I thought, how can I get a sound with the cut, and thought, I’ll try to tap the C hole instead of cut the C hole.
So my C-natural roll became just like a traditional roll on other notes, but I went C-tap-C-tap-C instead of C-cut-C-tap-C.
I was mechanical in approach and you seemed to be more musical for want of a better word.
Make any sense.
P.S. Get that recorder thing fixed. I want to hear your version of Ballyloughlin
Fair enough. I think this whole thread is throwing up some interesting things, besides the offers towards answering the original question. (Gabriel, where are you? Has any of this been any use or have you abandoned the issue in horror?) I’ve certainly come across some new ideas/approaches as well as re-assessed what I do and how I do it (not changed, but re-examined).
Well, I don’t know about that! I suppose I did take it from the angle of preserving the pattern of pitch-shifts in terms of what neighbouring sounds one visited to break the main tone, not that I’d have thought of it in those terms at the time. I didn’t try to preserve a pattern of (physically, not tonally) cut then tap. I just worked out what were viable fingering patterns that I could with practice achieve fluency in to produce the desired effect, based on the normal tonal shape of the roll and the (/my!) standard “straight” fingering of the instrument. As I mentioned, I was playing with a (very competent) fiddler at a relatively early stage of my development as an IT musician, and just sought to reproduce sounds he was making. Specific tunes produced contexts/posed particular challenges. Ballyloughlin was certainly one of those, and someone mentioned Knocknagow (another favourite of mine) which was another.
In terms of what is “intuitive”, I suppose I was already back then, and most certainly long ago by now, sufficently conditioned as a flute player to “think” of the scale as continuing through the break, not stopping and starting from the bottom again but overblown. Those finger (and embouchure) changes over the break, both scalar and jumps, should (and do, with time) become second nature, so multi finger c#-d or B-e or A-d changes or an ABc#de run etc. don’t impinge on one’s consciousness as anything awkward or out-of-the-ordinary.
Alright! I’ve found that I can use my MD recorder and mic as an interface to record direct to my EasyMP3Recorder software on the computer, bypassing the MD’s refusal to datasave - so no proper recordings elswhere, but I can at least do clips at home - though they are subject to both computer fan hum and traffic noise. (The computer is in an upstairs front room overlooking the road, and I usually record in a downstairs back room where such interference is reduced.) Sound quality seems fine otherwise.
In the service of this thread (aren’t I the virtuous one??? - any excuse…) and since Michael-“mahanpots” insisted, I’ve done a Flute version of Humours of Ballyloughlin on my R&R and a shorter one on my Lymm PVC Low D Whistle to illustrate the different fingerings in use on each instrument. (EDIT: Actually, I’ve just discovered I’d done H o B on Low Whistle before when I reviewed Guido Gonzato’s Low Tech Low D Whistle, but this is a better take, I think.)
I’ve also, because it was mentioned, done Knocknagow, and since I normally play it in a set after Kiss Me Darling (a.k.a The Maid At The Spinning Wheel) (no C nat rolls in that, though) you get that too - on flute only - Knocknagow isn’t very whistle friendly, with its accidental F nats and G#s and low Cs to boot. The flute tracks are first-shot takes that came out tolerably well (thankfully, for once!) though better would certainly be possible! The Low Whistle one was a second take. I haven’t been mega fussy deliberately. I kept speeds moderate for illustrative purposes, not that I tend to play jigs mega-fast anyway as I like them to lilt a bit.
- any excuse…) and since Michael-“mahanpots” insisted, I’ve done a Flute version of Humours of Ballyloughlin on my R&R and a shorter one on my Lymm PVC Low D Whistle to illustrate the different fingerings in use on each instrument. (EDIT: Actually, I’ve just discovered I’d done H o B on Low Whistle before when I