Brother Steve hosted a one day whistle workshop for about a dozen of us near Montreal on Saturday. He did a great job and extended us all a bit more by the end of the day. In advance of the workshop, he sent each of us 6 mp3 files with tunes that we were to learn prior to Saturday. The tunes were nameless and foiled those of us (yours truly incl) inclined to ferret out black dots, so we had to learn them by ear. The goal was to learn as many as possible prior to arrival.
If you enjoy Brother Steves web site, you would certainly have appreciated this day. Steve is a patient and skillful teacher. He brought in a group of musicians for evening entertainment to show us where we might aspire. They played fiddles, whistles, and flutes treating us with a fine ending to an already excellent day.
A bonus for yours truly is that I got to meet Azalin and Bloomfield; faces to go along with message board names.
Yeah, too many darn canadians… Eh, WAIT A MINUTE!!!
It’s true that the workshop was great. Also, I’ve got to try an “Abell clone” from an unknown maker, and the whistle was great! Chauncey and Bloomfield are great guys, hopefully we’ll meet each other again in the near future… As for StevieJ, he’s one of the best irish music teacher one could have, and I know what I’m talking about!
You know, I think there’d be a market for people like me to fly up there for a weekend seminar in whistling. I wish he’d put one on, and advertise here so we could make advance plans to attend. I could really use something like that. Just out of curiousity, are we allowed to know which tunes you had to learn by ear before you went? I’m just curious how hard they were.
Some tunes were easy, some were harder. I don’t think I am giving away any secrets in telling you. The first was a barn dance from a Martin Hayes record, called Kitty Hayes’ Barndance. Then came the Home Ruler (a hornpipe), the Killavil Jig, a jig called Brian O’Lynn, and finally two reels: The Monahan Twig and … the last one I forget because I hadn’t quite managed to learn it.
Steve is a great teacher, as everyone knows how reads his comments here on c & f, and meeting other whistlers was terrific. The whistlers were at different levels, but no real beginners (Azalin was clearly the best participant, playing beautifully smooth rolls). At night there was a delicious potluck dinner (it’s funny: You leave the US and just cross the border into Quebec and the food is better). And a session: A phantastic flute player who was there for the session showed me how to do a cran. I didn’t get it, but it was a great time. When I got home the next day and played the tunes for my sweetheart, she said that I had gotten noticeably better, just in that one day (Bloomfield beaming with pride).
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/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-06-11 11:21 ]
On 2002-06-11 08:56, Azalin wrote:
It’s true that the workshop was great. Also, I got to try an “Abell clone” from an unknown maker, and the whistle was great!
Actually I thought the conical-bore brass whistle was even better, a lovely piece of work. Chauncey also had us all rolling on the floor with his disposable Northumbrian pipes made out of plastic drinking straws and a plastic film canister!!! They sounded almost as good as a real set, what a hoot.
The name of the last reel is “The sunny banks”. The phantastic flute player was Brad Hurley, by the way, who has a great web site for flute players at http://www.firescribble.net/flute/index.html.
It was a great day, thanks in no small part to the participants. We had a lot of laughs along with the techno-crap and Bloomfield makes a mean vegetarian lasagne.
Thanks for the compliments guys but you know what they say - “Those that can, do; those that can’t, teach.” (Blackhawk you’d have to be out of your mind to fly up from CA.)
But we will do it again sometime.
Steve
PS Lance, Montreal is actually full of Americans who can’t afford to study at a top-class university at home. The Canadians are in Florida, at least during the winter. (The average intelligence quotient of both places goes up as a result.)
I heard about those guys. An entire episode of Miami Vice (strangely appropriate given comments above) revolved around French-Canadian crooks. It was hilarious. They had little French accents and greased back their hair. Otherwise they were indistinguishable from regular TV badguys.
And then there’s ALEX TREBEK!! Presumably FRENCH-Candadian…
On 2002-06-11 08:56, Azalin wrote:
It’s true that the workshop was great. Also, I got to try an “Abell clone” from an unknown maker, and the whistle was great!
The Canadians are in Florida, at least during the winter. (The average intelligence quotient of both places goes up as a result.)
Sorry Steve,
After a dozen years here in Florida, I can assure you - the intelligence quotient cannot be budged. Something about the place drains the brain like nowhere on the planet - You’d be amazed at the stupid S*#$ otherwise sensible people do once they arrive here. I think for Canadians it starts on the drive down, if my expeinces on the eastern Seaboard interestates is any indication…
Not their fault though, Florida is like Kryptonite to the brain, and at least the effects are (mostly) temporary. Although it remains to be seen if I’ll ever recover once I leave…
On 2002-06-11 11:19, Bloomfield wrote:
Some tunes were easy, some were harder. I don’t think I am giving away any secrets in telling you. The first was a barn dance from a Martin Hayes record, called Kitty Hayes’ Barndance.
Something somehow tells me that would be Lucy Farr’s, Bloomfield.
That’s definitely Lucy Farr’s. I think it is called that on the Hayes cd [though I don’t know those too well] but certainly on Gearoid Ui hAllumhran’s Tracin.
I don’t recall Kitty Hayes playing it allthough Conor Keane brought it up in session once and she may have tipped along with it. Usually the Kitty Hayes I play with is not into the barndances.
The whistles mentioned by Steve and Azalin above were 2 of several that I posted photos of a year or so ago here on the board. Steve had a go at them last summer at the North Hero Pipers gathering where I first met him and certainly did make them sing. Azalin did the same on Saturday and it sure was fun listening to him. I made them in my shop for my own amusement and most folks who test drive them want to know when I will start making them to sell. I am tempted from time to time but fear spoiling a fun hobby.
I was very impressed with the whistle, and I gave it a try expecting it to squeek or start acting strange. Well, all I can say is that I had a very good feeling playing with it, it’s the type of whistle you know what to expect from, and very responsive. Now, for me having a wooden whistle is like having a dog. I know I wouldnt be able to take care well enough of it and it would eventually die…
Those Canadians in Florida are called"snowbirds" in central Fla.
And I can attest to the presence of French-Canadians - younger daughter brought a real live one home from college once. Nice guy, great accent. It sure sounded strange back here in the mountains.
