Hey all. Came up with what i think are the most significant “sins” involved in playing the tin whistle (in irish music). I am or have been culpable on all of these counts. Thought it would an interesting discussion. Any additions or subtractions or emmendations? Of course, some of these “sins” could apply to any ITM musician, but they nevertheless seem especially pertinent to those who play the tin whistle. They are sorta listed in order of most worse or most prevalent to least worse. IMHO, of course…
Playing too fast
Unsteady and uneven playing; timing off
Do not learn to play/practice slowly
Not properly executing embellishments
Try to do too much embellishment (tunes become muddled); or, do too little embellishment (tune becomes flat)
Playing out of tune (e.g. really over blowing on the high register, or simply being outta tune in general)
Learn one version of a tune to the exclusion of others
8 ) Don’t listen enough to: live music and CDs of other players/instruments/styles, self.
Tune acquisition disorder: try to learn lots of tunes, but end up mastering few of them
Don’t learn authentic traditional playing (of course, I’m talking about irish tin whistle playing: hey, it’s okay to be creative and inventive; but it is important to first have a grounding in the tradition)
Don’t study and learn to play slow airs (in the traditional style)
Become a clone of a particular player (e.g. Larry Nugent, Mary Bergin, Vinnie Kilduff etc…)
Subordinate musicality and phrasing to technicality (which often results in the overuse of one element of playing the whistle, e.g. tonguing or not tonguing)
Impatience and perfectionism (hey, it takes years to become half-way decent; so relax and enjoy the journey; there’s no rush)
Attend sessions too much (sessions are great. But. They can reinforce bad habits and sloppy playing; sometimes you have to stay away from or reduce your diet of sessions in order to learn and improve)
Become obsessed with tin whistle hardware (I know this is a humorous point here; and if one had to choose among the obsessions to have, then this is a relatively benign one; but an obsession is an obsession, which is to say an imbalanced emotional/mental problem that hinders rather than promotes progress. Collecting whistles is great as a hobby, but if it’s an obsession then it can and will distract from your musical development and from what ITM is all about)
I’d say don’t even worry about #11 for a long long time, and don’t worry about #12 too much either, you’ll develop your own style naturally and it won’t hurt to try and emulate one of the great players (or multiple great players).
Yes indeedie, #12 strikes me as a subtle and insideous sin. One might wonder why it would be a problem to sound just like amazing player X. Well, on one level there is no problem: imitating someone else is a natural part of learning how to play. Why not look to the great players for guidance? All well and good. But cloning amounts to an uncritical adaptation of someone’s style and technique. It could almost be likened to musical version of plagerism. You’re not representing your own musical ideas, but somebody else’s. At some point, you have to become responsible for bringing your own approach to the music. Perhaps another formulation: Cloning amounts to making somebody else’s style an end rather than a means to furthering you’re own development.
This is all done in good humor but I might add that to force-fit and intimidate newbies to the point where they have so many rules that they are afraid to play the damn thing is not going to help either. [As a disclaimer: Yes, I do have scar-tissue from classical music training, autocratic teachers and ball-busting masterclasses and competitions. IT IS POSSIBLE TO OVER-DIRECT AND TEACH]
Most of these “rules” will be acquired by one basic rule: respect the tradition and listen to the players and keep humble while you are learning. I think all else will follow.
Become a clone of a particular player (e.g. Larry Nugent, Mary Bergin, Vinnie Kilduff etc…)
Just an observation about your playing, (which I do enjoy by the way) Your recent tunes on Clips&Snips do sound very much like Laurence Nugent.
Weekenders wrote:
Most of these “rules” will be acquired by one basic rule: respect the tradition and listen to the players and keep humble while you are learning. I think all else will follow.
All these words and it can be said in two sentences.
THanks, dave, for the compliment. i’ve been taking lessons on and off for many years with larry. mostly off now. larry’s playing as we all know is a treasure. but there is a fine line between emulation and copying, i’ll admit. (i know, nice problem to have) but the way i like to think of it is that larry plays like me, not the other way around
seriously though. weekenders rule sums it up. and these “sins” stem from not following that rule. the difficulties arise when there is not a stable or functional or healthy ITM community within which to participate and grow (or, to draw on the religious metaphor, when what we might call the pastoral function of ITM is disabled or simply non-existent). the post-modern dilemma, eh? you need a village to grow an tin whistle player. come to think of it, isn’t hilary clinton is a tin whistle player?
