Hi everyone,
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on here–busy with school, internship, etc. All that hard work has (almost) payed off, though–I’ve got a band/choir/guitar/English teaching job lined up for this fall. Maybe I’ll try to entice a few kids into an extra-curricular ITM ensemble…
Anyway, this summer before my life actually starts, I thought I’d finally bite the bullet and make my way over to Ireland for about a month and a half. I’m planning on learning some Irish for a couple weeks at Oideas Gael and then making my way down to Clare for the Willie Clancy Summer School.
Does anyone know of any other music events in a similar style (week-long-ish, lessons, sessions, etc)? Is the Wille Clancy School good for flute players? I need to be back in Canada by the middle/end of July to find a place to live, move out, plan lessons, etc, and I’m planning on arriving in Ireland sometime near the beginning/middle of June.
Additionally, I’ll have about two or three weeks of touring to do. I’m kind of leaning towards spending most of my time on the west coast, but does anyone have any suggestions for places to check out?
The Willie Clancy week is excellent for flute players, - certainly in my experience, but unfortunately I’m not going to be there this year. I think a similar event, but on a smaller scale, takes place in Drumshambo immediately following the Miltown extravaganza. Good luck, if you haven’t been before, you’ll love it. Oh, and you’d better start looking for accommodation now.
Get Rick Steves’ travel book on Ireland at any bookstore. He leans towards bed-and-breakfast and his book is very useful and conversational, so you feel like you’re getting advice from a friend. He updates his books evey year and I highly recommend them to any traveler to the UK and Europe.
Check out the Blas Summer School, hosted by the University of Limerick. It is prior to Willy Clancy, June 20th till July 1st. http://www.ul.ie/~iwmc/Blas/
I was there two years ago, in 2009, and I would absolutely recommend it. The classes are small, and the tutors are high class. Conal O’Grada was one of the tutors when I was there. Kevin Crawford was there last year. Irish classes (language) is also part of the program, as well as sessions and excursions (we went to the Cliffs of Moher, and afterwards played in one of the local sessions nearby). The prices are a bit high though (or maybe not?), I paid around 1600 euros for two weeks of teachings, accommodation included
I went to the Joe Mooney summer school in Drumshanbo for the last 3 years. It’s two weeks after Willy Clancy and in the intervening week there is the South Sligo event in Tubbercurry. I found the classes at Drumshanbo to be over-subscribed. 30 people in a “Masterclass” is just a joke! but I have found the sessions very nice- both in the evenings and in the daytime. Also, the location (near Lough Allen in co. Leitrim) is lovely. I only went to Tubbercurry once, but I found the classes and evening sessions quite good. The daytime in Tubbercurry was dead the year I attended.
I gave up on Willy Clancy after about 10 year’s attendance. The sessions just get totally mad after the first three days or so. But I enjoyed the classes. These days I don’t go for classes as I find they teach tunes and not technique. Technique is what I need. Not that more tunes would go amiss, but they tend to teach weird tunes that won’t be any use in a session when I get home.
Tubber is lovely, have been there the past two years and had lots of fun. Had the honour to play a session with the late Peter Horan. What a gentleman he was. And there’s Harry McGowan, also a great flute player and person, and Colm O’Donnell shows up from time to time. All nice people. I probably won’t make it this years due to several exams, but I warmly recommend the South Sligo Summer School for anyone looking to have a nice time without the masses of people found in Drumshanbo, Milltown Malbay and the like. It is correct that there are few sessions during the daytime (save T. Brennan’s, they’re having music most of the time). We usually played until the wee hours and used the day for sleeping.
Willie Clancy summer school week has lots of fluting, flute players and there’s the flute & whistle recital on the Tuesday evening. you’ll get to hear some fine flute players. I’d strongly recommend a visit if you’re in Ireland. It can get mad, very noisey and crowded, towards the end of the week, but even that is something to experience at least once. Tubbercurry (South sligo summer school) starts when Willie Week ends. Tubbercurry is full of flutes and good sessions as Gabriel says. during the day it does get quiet, but there’s usually a session in Brennan’s or the in the corner pub or the hotel/tourist bureau. Haven’t attended Tubbercurry for a while, but there was a Twin Peaks kind of vibe about the place during the day. I’ve met some odd but friendly characters there, and had some great music experiences. There’s lots of good music down in Dingle and around, Dun Quinn, Ballyferriter etc., some good flute players, nice weather. You’ll have a great time I’m sure
These days I don’t go for classes as I find they teach tunes and not technique. Technique is what I need. Not that more tunes would go amiss, but they tend to teach weird tunes that won’t be any use in a session when I get home.
Sure, I don’t think you’d go to summer school classes to learn session tunes (you can do that in sessions and with a recorder). Then again, you do get to spend a couple of hours in the close company of a good traditional player and, as well as picking out relevant bits of technique, you’re learning ‘how’ to learn tunes, training your ear and engaged in talking about the music with someone knowledgeable, so it’s not all bad. Sessions great too but you could easily spend your day bashing out familiar tunes (badly) in the company of a crowd of intermediate American, German and English visitors and not pick up some of the former. Just a thought…
Yes, it’s not all bad. The best class I was ever in, regarding technique, was that of Marcas O’ Murchu, at Miltown Malbay. But of course he is a teacher by profession and it shows.
The advanced class I was in at Drumshanbo had about 30 students in it, so there wasn’t get any “close company” with the teacher. The one time I was in a class at Tubbercurry, the teacher became progressively more tired and uncommunicative as the week progressed. One time I asked him how he articulated his notes, as I liked the sound he got. The answer was “I don’t really know - you just sort of do it”. One time at Miltown, our tutor played many of the week’s tunes on a whistle, since he wasn’t familiar with them on the flute. Some of the students walked out and went to a different class.
So, you have to be careful. Some of these people and organisations are taking the Mickey. Exploitation of musical tourists, maybe.
Some of these people and organisations are taking the Mickey. Exploitation of musical tourists, maybe.
I think the problem is much more about the misunderstandings and false expectations of musical tourists (I include myself), particularly those with some formal musical upbringing, so managing expectation is important. It feels like a big investment to travel and stay somewhere for a week and take classes but you can’t expect to get more than a brief glimpse into the tradition and how it is passed on. You’re just dipping your toe into a long term learning method, for a week at a time. If you come away with more motivation and a better understanding about how to pursue your long term method that would be a good outcome.
I sense that teaching on summer schools is more about the strong expectation that experienced players should ‘pass on’ to others, and I certainly know players who get pretty nervous about doing it but feel obliged. As a learner, you have to switch modes so that you come expecting to listen and watch carefully what people are playing rather than expecting technical explanation - you’re right, you do get the answer, ‘I don’t know, you just sort of do it’, or ‘that’s just the way I do it’, etc. Sometimes you get a great little explanation of a tiny ornament that really helps you to see how that person does it without listening and watching…but it usually amounts to the same thing in the end, ‘it’s just the way I do it’ or ‘this is how so-and-so would play it’.
If there was exploitation then ‘these organisations’ (which terminology I think is stretching it ) would be charging something like vaguely economic rates and paying their teachers accordingly. Even our local Comhaltas classes don’t pay their teachers anything except travel expenses. The cost of Willie Week (including six half days of classes and free admission to all concerts and lectures ) could hardly be construed as exploitation at €140 Euro!
And yet if you travel thousands of miles to attend one or more of these events and you find that your assigned, so-called flute tutor turns up ill-prepared and does most of the tunes on the whistle, or else is practically comatose, you might wish that you had paid more and got a better service. It’s not so important if you have lots of other opportunities for tuition during the year.
My experience has been that there are tutors to be sought out and “tutors” to be avoided. At Miltown, I have personally gained a lot of benefit from the classes of Katherine McEvoy, Leon Agnew and Marcas O’ Murchu. I have heard good reports of the classes of Eamonn Cotter and Kevin Crawford. Leon said my vioce sounds like Melvyn Bragg, but nothing could be further from the truth
At Drumshanbo, I enjoyed the class of John Wynne (check out his CD with John McEvoy: “Pride of the West”) a few years ago, except that it was greatly over-subscribed and should really have been split into two if another tutor had been available. I never again went to the classes there because of that one problem. I provided them with feedback on that.
you might wish that you had paid more and got a better service
and you might have excluded all the kids for whom the school is primarily put on? I still think ITM summer schools are more at risk from exploitation by musical tourists than vice versa
Sorry, that’s me who’s sounding grumpy now, not my intention, just playing devil’s advocate. I’d agree that if someone wants a teacher they should pay one at the proper rate on a regular basis (I know the problem is finding a teacher, I’ve never managed to ). Summer schools and adult workshops, they’re great for a bit of inspiration, meeting new people in a strange town, learning a new tune or two, measuring your fumbling learning abilities against those of 12 year olds, maybe picking up a really useful gem of advice, meeting teachers who’s playing you’ve admired on recordings.
How often would you get to go on a cheap painting class taken by David Hockney or a cheap football clinic by David Beckham, and then go to the pub with them after? ITM’s great for that.
I think you must for one thing realise the pressure the flute and whistle classes at the Willie week are under. There’s no pre-registration like the one that has been in place for nearly a decade now for the piping section. It is not predictable how many classes there will be and sometimes teachers have to be called in without notice.
I have myself taken over classes from teachers who had to go or had other business for the morning on a number of occasions. Among them a whistle class and a number of pipes classes over the years. I taught the full week twenty odd years ago and even with notice it’s hard enough work as you don’t know in advance what level of student you’ll be teaching.
There may be schools that got on the bandwagon with the local economy as their prime consideration, the Willie week isn’t one of them.
Crikey, is there now no walk of life that is immune from pressure, stress and targets? Next thing the health and safety people will get in on the act:tantrum:
I recall one year I was in the class of a certain Mick X. Half-way though the week he was called away on family business, so the class was taken over by a certain Mick Y. He told us to un-learn a lot of what (his arch-rival?) Mick X had taught us and to learn how to do it right, instead. We students all took it in good part and had a good chuckle about it. It just shows that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. They were both pretty good at explaining stuff, which is what you want.
Crikey, is there now no walk of life that is immune from pressure, stress and targets?
Right but realise some of the people called in without notice are quite young and without teaching experience.
It just shows that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
You should have gone to watch the grading for the concertina classes, all (mostly very young) students playing a bit for the head man who at times shouts things like ‘whoever taught you THAT!’ at them. Used to take most of the monday morning as well.
Its not a festival as such but if any of ye are in near Glenavy over the summer drop me a line, I would only be too glad to spend time with anybody who wants to learn flute, if I have spare time. No charge just a good interest is all required.
) would be charging something like vaguely economic rates and paying their teachers accordingly. Even our local Comhaltas classes don’t pay their teachers anything except travel expenses. The cost of Willie Week (including six half days of classes and free admission to all concerts and lectures ) could hardly be construed as exploitation at €140 Euro!
). Summer schools and adult workshops, they’re great for a bit of inspiration, meeting new people in a strange town, learning a new tune or two, measuring your fumbling learning abilities against those of 12 year olds, maybe picking up a really useful gem of advice, meeting teachers who’s playing you’ve admired on recordings.