As a newbie I’m trying to learn a few various tunes right now along with trying to get a good tone and working on mechanics. I usually find the notes on “The Session” to start with and then quickly throw those away and find a recording to slow down with ASD. The conundrum is that I run into several different variations of the same tune. For example, I’m learning “The Piper’s Despair” right now since I need a good tune to go with my avatar. The notes on “The Session” and the three different versions I’ve found on YouTube are all a bit different. So which version do you learn? Is it like horseshoes and hand grenades and close is good enough or is there a definitive source? The one I’m hanging with right now is from Tradlessons.com and played by Michael Eskin on the whistle —only because it’s the easiest for me to absorb.
Holding other considerations aside, like a pending move to Donegal or something else that would drive you in a particular direction, the best thing to do it to attempt to divine what’s the most common version of any given tune, assuming your aim is to play it with others. This is where listening in at a local session would be a great help. Cheers,
Hi Kirk,
I’d second Rob’s suggestion to learn the version played at your local session, if that’s where you plan to play. If you just want a “standard” version, I’d look on the Comhaltas site, www.comhaltas.ie, where you can find recordings of many tunes and written music from their “Foinn Seisiun” books.
Hey Kirk,
I hear ya, it can be frustrating not knowing what direction to head once into a certain tune, hearing different arrangements and all.
When I was first starting out a flute teacher expressed to me the importance of getting the “bare bones” of the tune down. Once this is accomplished it may be easier to pick up the various ornamentation, etc that you want to play, and as others have said how it is played around your local sessions of course. Also, the way you play a specific tune (ornamentation wise) may possibly always be changing as you experiment, as this is part of the enjoyment
Heck, I thought there was some guy in Ballynacheoil or somewhere who took care of this. Setting the annual quota of new tunes, issuing safety recalls of tunes that are too weird or diddly, ordering psych evaluations of people who like polkas, that sort of thing. I’m so disappointed.
I was watching some documentary on Paddy Moloney and he and this old guy were having a conversation in Irish about how the folk music used to be laughed at and called “diddly-dee” music. The funny part was how you say “diddly-dee” in Irish. It’s called… “diddly-dee” lol.
This is so true. I’ve been doing just that and trying to learn the basic notes and not worry about the ornamentation for right now. It seems that different artists change the ornamentation to add their own expression at least in the case of solos. So much yet to learn.
So to address several recent threads, here’s a video of “The Piper’s Despair” played with a piper’s grip, with the left hand pinky UNDER the flute and with the Eb key rolled away.
Definitely go to the local session and record them playing their tunes. That’s the real fun of it anyway is playing in a group. That’s where the magic of the music come to life. It’s great and all to practice by your lonesome at home, but so much better with a pint of Guinness and friends.
Add me to the list of those in agreement. You might as well learn the version played in your area, unless you really are into the solo thing. And it is not just an issue of the setting, but repertoire as well. You can’t know them all, (at least not for the first 20 years or so), so you might as well focus on the tunes you will get to play in your local sessions.
Here in the states I find that different areas will have different tunes in common (no surprise I suppose). At the Catskills Irish Arts week I have noticed that, of course, the really great players, of which there are many, know most of the tunes that come up and adjust between versions to find a common approach. The ability of some of them in this regard is really quite staggering in itself. The great ones might listen to the next tune for a bit, to identify or learn a new version, and then jump in.
But more to the point, I find that the middling sort of player, like myself (of which there are many) tend towards sessions with a strong contingent from their own region, because they will know more of the tunes. You’ll get to the point where you walk into a venue there and within a few minutes conclude that you are looking at a Boston, Chicago, New York, Baltimore session. The exception to this might be the Kerry crowd, who come from all over the place, sneaking off to play slides and polkas (if you see Paul deGrae sitting in, regardless of the tune played at the moment you know the polkas are coming
The notes on “The Session” and the three different versions I’ve found on YouTube are all a bit different. So which version do you learn? Is it like horseshoes and hand grenades and close is good enough or is there a definitive source? The one I’m hanging with right now is from Tradlessons.com and played by Michael Eskin on the whistle —only because it’s the easiest for me to absorb.
