It doesn’t sound amateurish at all, but it also doesn’t sound traditional, and Brian Finnegan would be the first to say so. He knows how to play traditional-style Irish flute and I’ve heard him do it…the tonguing stuff is his own thing, and he’s definitely playing “what he likes to hear.” I enjoy listening to Brian and he’s a musical genius; if that’s the kind of style you like then by all means triple-tongue away. But if you’re drawn toward the older traditional styles it’s a good idea to learn how to articulate with glottal stops, it really is a different sound.
This seems to come up a lot and despite it being chewed over I’m only a little wiser. I listen to modern players and they seem to tongue- slow it down and it’s plain, older players, Carty and others the same, Micho Russell tongues like mad! Grey Larson tells me to tongue in his tome. Others cry it’s not traditional. I’m left with doing what I think sounds right for a tune using both where I fancy and not fussing to much as to whether I pass the Trad test (whatever that is)
Rob
I think it’s a question of where and when rather than if. I know a few flute players who have been playing for a while, but come from a classical background. What oft happens is that they will use tonguing in lieu of more “traditional” ornaments such as cuts, rolls, and taps. It sounds . . . unlike dance tunes played in an “Irish” manner.
I agree, actually, and this is basically what I tell my flute students. You can find examples of excellent “traditional” players who tongue on the flute, although telling tonguing apart from glottal stops is not always easy.
Still, I think it’s good to be able to do both. For me the reason to use glottal stops is less about trying to be"traditional" than about getting a particular sound and rhythmic pulse that I like.
I try to think of tounging as just another note separator/accent mechanism along with glottals, slurs, taps and cuts rather than the default. Then they just become one other colour to your palette, I find I like to use glottal stops when I want push the tune along with the breath pulse, which I still find one of the hardest things to achieve… or occasionaly achieve in my case!
Since I come from many years of playing baroque music on the recorder I have had a lot of struggles in this area but now I have this strange tendancy to use taps in my Bach… and you know what? They sound fine!
I noticed that in the Mad for Trad tutorial Brian Finnegan does that he really advocates tonguing for a much clearer tune. Are the Mad for Trad tutorials supposed to be teaching you traditional Irish music style or just to play the instrument? It may be quite misleading to beginning whistlers that they are learning the “traditional way” if they follow verbatim the Mad for Trad tutorial. I think there is even a section on triple tonguing. Mind you, I love Finnegan’s style and glean as much as I can.
I would say certain tunes sound better with more or less toungeing like Polkas I like ot tounge quite a bit on Whistle but not on Flute now that I think about it.
Brian’s tutorial is for whistles, there’s no controversey about tonguing on the whistle. Triple-tonguing, well that’s different, but what would a Brian Finnegan tutorial be without triple-tonguing?!
Anyway, looking at the list of tutors for Mad for Trad, I would class most of them as modern-style players anyway.