I’ve seen books and CDs out there. Are they any good, any recommendations, etc? I don’t want to spend a fortune buying every Irish/Celtic CD on the market at this particular time, but would like to learn some slow Airs.
Robin
“Irelands Best 110 Slow Airs” is a must-have. The accompanying CD is worth getting too…I don’t always love the way the airs are played on the CD, but it will give you an idea of how the tune should go, and you can always develop your own style with it.
The main thing with airs is to play expressively…it’s more like singing than playing dance music.
Redwolf
Go to Mick Woodruff’s page
http://fingertrip.net/index.html
He has some beautiful airs and you can download them as mp3’s as well as download the sheet music depending on which way you learn tunes.
Redwolf, do you know where to find that book and CD online? Thanks
On 2003-02-11 17:54, Paul wrote:
Redwolf, do you know where to find that book and CD online? Thanks
I got mine from The Whistle Shop.
Redwolf
The book is great if you don’t know what tunes to learn. If you have specific favorites in mind, Trillian has free scores for many of the favorites.
On 2003-02-11 17:17, Redwolf wrote:
“Irelands Best 110 Slow Airs” is a must-have. The accompanying CD is worth getting too…I don’t always love the way the airs are played on the CD, but it will give you an idea of how the tune should go, and you can always develop your own style with it.The main thing with airs is to play expressively…it’s more like singing than playing dance music.
Redwolf
Thanks, Redwolf, that’s very helpful. I’ve been wondering about this set. I’m pretty new to this type of music, so I think I need some kind of introduction–I would never know what to search for on the ABC site, if I was specifically looking for slow airs. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to search by style, or am I wrong?
Robin
IF this is the book/CD I’m thinking of, it has the music done with different instruments, so that if you’re looking to hear what it sounds like on a whistle, you might be disappointed. When I was first beginning I couldn’t get a clear idea of how it was supposed to sound unless it was done with a whistle.
On 2003-02-11 21:36, spittin_in_the_wind wrote:
snip
…if I was specifically looking for slow airs. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to search by style, or am I wrong?Robin
http://tunedb.woodenflute.com
allows search by type.
Also search by ‘first’ or ‘any’ word, so if at first ‘it’ isn’t there, you can expand the search. This sometimes throws up the tune you want by another name. The site will show a jpeg of the tune, and a midi is available - if the ‘abc’ is correct, otherwise an ‘abc’ only text version is shown.
If you already knew this, sorry 
On 2003-02-11 17:17, Redwolf wrote:
"The main thing with airs is to play expressively…it’s more like singing than playing dance music.Redwolf
Some would argue [and I would tend to agree] that the only way to play an air properly is to know the song. The notes should support the words and determine the phrasing.
On 2003-02-12 05:16, Peter Laban wrote:
On 2003-02-11 17:17, Redwolf wrote:
"The main thing with airs is to play expressively…it’s more like singing than playing dance music.Redwolf
Some would argue [and I would tend to agree] that the only way to play an air properly is to know the song. The notes should support the words and determine the phrasing.
So that means that all airs come from songs originally?
I would never say all, there’s always a few stray melodies without words or that have lost their words over time but in general slow airs are the tunes to [sean nos-]songs.
And that makes playing airs an art in itself, you have to somehow manage a convincing instrumental redition of an essitally vocal piece and any tradional singer would listen extremely critacally to how you tackle the airs. Personally I would not be tempted to play airs in public, only unless I have my arm twisted severely. I don play a few airs I am more or less secure with and they are the ones that have English words. I recently posted a version of Valentia Harbour/Song of the Books to the clips page and while I made interesting noises I have no illusion about what the reaction of a singer of the song to my version would be.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2003-02-12 08:20 ]
I recently purchased a Mel Bay publication “Singing in Irish Gaelic” by Mary McLaughlin; A phonetic approach to singing in the Irish language. with CD.
It is very well done. There are fourteen songs. She starts with simple pronunciation and you can repeat the lines.
My point is that just listening to Eamonn An Chnoic sung in sean nos style, I have changed the way I play the air.
Right now it is the closest I can get to sean nos singing.
Go here for book info;
http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=98549BCD&pageheader=&category=&author=1663&mode=author
I hope this helps.
MarkB
edited to add link
\
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin.
[ This Message was edited by: MarkB on 2003-02-12 08:29 ]
I think knowing the song the air comes from helps, but I really doubt it’s essential: there are too many fine musicians who play lovely airs but don’t speak or sing a word of Gaelic.
I remember Harry Bradley commented on this once on the woodenflute list. His take was that playing with heart is much more important. I’ll see if I can dig up the posting so I can quote it exactly here.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
On 2003-02-11 16:55, spittin_in_the_wind wrote:
I’ve seen books and CDs out there. Are they any good, any recommendations, etc? I don’t want to spend a fortune buying every Irish/Celtic CD on the market at this particular time, but would like to learn some slow Airs.
Robin
HI:
There is only one Cd and book out there for the beginning whistler. Bill Ochs has some amazing teaching CDs get in touch with him at http://www.pennywhistle.com/
Bill makes his living teaching and I have had the privilege of taking a few courses with him and know his material first hand.
If you ask him for his cd “Beginning Tin Whistle” and "Advanced beginners Tin Whistle with the sheet music. These are the CDs he uses in his class and are not usually available to the public unless you know to ask for them. He breaks each tune down into phrases and put each phrase on a separate track so you can put your cd player on repeat and play along with each phrase (already slowed down).
He is a nice guy and should answer your e mail promptly.
Good luck and good whistling.
Phil
[ This Message was edited by: Wizzer on 2003-02-12 09:21 ]
I quoted Terry Moylan before who said;
I often heard airs played by pipers who leave out notes or phrases which are needed to bear the metre and words of the asssociated songs, or more often insert redundant notes or phrases which are not supported by the song metre and for which no corresponding words exist. For the listener who knows the words, this is torture. The listener who does not has no yardstick with which to asses the validity of an instrumental rendering of a song air, and is therefore in no position to do so.
You may or may not agree with this school of thought, I think there is a point to it. Air playing is as I said an instrumental rendering of an essential vocal piece, the expression and validity of the tune comes from the words associated with it. Personally I feel when I play an air to which I have no words [and I quoted the Valentia Harbour I left on th Clips page as an example], I do nothing more than making meaningless sounds. Can be fun and pleasantly self indulgent but it doesn’t make for good air playing.
As an example you can take the particular poignant F natural that comes up in the last verse of A Stor Mo Chroi, it has no meaning really unless you know it’s the cry of the lover of the emigrant calling him back from the land of the bright lights. I think you really need t oknow the song to do a proper job on that.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2003-02-12 10:27 ]
I agree entirely! That drove me crazy when I was learning to play “The Ash Grove,” because the phrasing as written by the compiler (who is primarily an instrumentalist) simply didn’t work with the words, which I’ve known for years.
The nice thing with airs is, you can often get recordings of people singing them, which will really help with your expression. I didn’t really get “Fill, Fill A Run O” until I heard it sung. Now it’s one of my “show pieces.”
Redwolf
The best way is…(drumroll)…slowly.
Very interesting points, all.
I think I would agree with Peter that one should know the words of a song which is being played on an instrument. This makes complete sense. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but it’s something to strive for. If I start singing around the house in the sean nos style, there may be a revolt! But I’ve said that before, and so far I haven’t been kicked out (still haven’t bought a set of pipes, though). Hearing it sung properly with voice certainly would change the way one hears a tune in ones head. Note to self: check out sean nos style. I think I can play pretty expressively, if I know what to strive for. I guess that’s the main point, finding sources for study.
And thanks for the tuneDB link–I didn’t realize you could search by type on that one! I’ve bookmarked so many databases in the last month or so, I’m starting to get lost. So thanks for bringing it to my attention!
As far as Mick’s Virtual Whistle, holy smokes! I checked out Turas go Tír na nÓg–now I know what I’m up against! It sends chills up and down my spine (the good way).
Thanks again!
Robin
Two airs to which I actually have the words (and have attempted to sing them in class, in Gaelic) are Buachill On Eirne and Einach Dhuin (both spellings dodgy).
My discouragement is that Irish Gaelic has regional dialects like any other language, plus I can’t speak the language in any form anyway, so I’d never attempt to actually sing these in public. It did help me when playing these tunes on whistle initially, but since then I’ve heard the same tunes played in several different ways, often by native Irishmen. So I believe there’s no single accepted way to play an air “correctly”.
It would be a shame to miss out on this body of music just because you don’t have access to hearing it sung in Gaelic. The tunes are beautiful, and can withstand multiple “interpretations”.
Finally, many of these tunes are centuries old, and I can well imagine that a tune came first, then words were added, then the words forgotten again etc. So the tune has evolved over its lifetime, and should be allowed to continue to evolve through various interpretations.
Ireland’s 110 Best Slow Airs is a great collection, even if not all the tunes are played on Whistle/Flute.