No, don’t worry, I didn’t get that impression. I just thought that was the kind of stuff Peter was referring to.
Peter makes good points. I think it is entirely because whistle playing has reached its highest artistic level in ITM that people continually fall back on that for inspiration. When they veer off into other genres, it’s only natural that it takes on a “neo-Celtic” kind of sound.
It would be interesting to know how whistle-playing might have evolved in different parts of the world if ITM never penetrated. Kwela is the only example of this that I’ve been exposed to.
I don’t write music (much) but have a strong foundation in American stringband (“old-time” / Appalachian) music. I find this music works very well on both whistle and flute. But it is not accepted in old-time jams, just as 5-string banjo isn’t accepted in Irish sessions. I’m all for this, as the purpose of those settings is to play time-rooted music in an authentic and traditional way.
If I want to play newer styles of music, I’ll join or start a band. It’s a whole other animal, and equally valid and wonderful. I say go for it!
About five or six years ago I gave away around 2 dozen whistles (donated by my beloved fellow chiffers) to the local kids in a remote village in northern Haiti called Ben Jamin. I haven’t had the opportunity to go back since. I sort of wonder sometimes…
Tom
There’s huge advantages to gaining a large repertoire of traditional tunes that a lot of people who just pick up the whistle to do their own music forget. First, different tunes teach you different things that you don’t learn just playing scales and doing your own thing. You learn how to move your fingers in different ways and accentuate the tunes effectively with ornamentation. That can have a huge impact on your playing.
Also, knowing those tunes means you already know series of notes that work well, and you can incorporate those things in your own compositions. It cuts down a lot on trial and error, and makes the process go easier.
As for why there aren’t a whole lot of tunes being composed, it’s because there’s thousands already composed. Because Irish music (especially on the whistle) doesn’t use many accidentals, and doesn’t often use really high or really low notes, there’s really only so many ways to arrange the notes without pretty much duplicating a tune that already exists. Without half-holing or cross fingering, you only really have 14 or so notes to play with on the whistle. Not to say that new tunes can’t be composed, it’s just really difficult to come up with something that doesn’t sound like one that’s already out there. That said, I’ve heard some really neat original compositions at sessions.
Still, there are plenty of new compositions popping up. It’s just that they usually wind up on thesession.org rather than here, if the composer actually bothers to transcribe the tune. More often than not, I think they just play it without transcribing it, and if other people like what they hear, somebody else will transcribe it later on.
There is also the issue of stretching the tune a little bit, emphasising one note over another and making it into a very different piece of music. “Interpretation” is the word, maybe. Sometimes an impression builds up of there being only one “proper” way to play a ITM tune, but t’ain’t so, or, at least, I’d say not.
People saying that they got a guitar because they wanted to write songs seems a curious statement to me. I got a guitar because I liked the sound. I did end up writing one or two songs, but then I’ve written one or two jigs and reels, too. There comes a point when you think “what if” and write it down, and if it sounds like something that was there already, fair enough, especially if it’s something you never knowingly heard.
And can you define just what is ‘half arsed haunting stuff’ please? Do you mean slow airs? I believe you can use Irish ornamentation in them, especially if the slow air is an Irish one. But hey, I’m just a beginner with the whole whistle thing, so feel free to correct me.
Mick
I could also be wrong, but i think they’re talking not so much as a pure slow air, but more of those songs from cds that are for ‘relaxation’ that are found with ‘celtic music’ its not quite the same thing on those as you’d hear from say at a session
Where did you get the idea there aren’t being many tunes composed? There are certainly hundreds, maybe even thousands, being composed every year. So many so that any time you mention on-line that you write tunes, you are sure to get someone complaining there are too many bozos writing new tunes.
There are usually a couple of threads talking about what people are writing each year, but really, what’s there to talk about?
ourselves.
traditionally, I’m usually composed 
I play mostly my own original material. I only have a passing interest in Irish Traditional music and none in Kwela. I have touched many people with my music and it has gotten me through some dark days in my life.
Enjoy your music, whatever kind it is.
Ah, yes. Now I know what they’re on about. I felt almost insulted for a moment there. I like the haunting sounds of a few of those slow airs, but I’m not too sure of the new age-y relaxation stuff. It has it’s place though.
Mick
That’s a very good point, and like I said, I do intend to learn some of the traditional tunes. I definitely need a better grasp of the music and I understand that there are no shortcuts. For me though, patience and perseverance is a problem. After all, writing music is what I’m interested in, and I find it hard motivating myself to work on other material. Discipline has never been my strong suit. 
Anyway, it’s great to see all these responses.
I definitely need a better grasp of the music and I understand that there are no shortcuts.
I still don’t follow why you would need to understand Irish music (as if you would after learning a few, or even a few dozen, tunes) if you intend to marry Sting and Jethro Tull like elements, neither of which has even remote connections with Irish traditional music.
I don’t need to, but it can’t hurt either. Sting and Jethro Tull were just examples, I couldn’t think of any better way to describe the songs I’m working on. Jethro Tull is quite firmly rooted in various kinds of folk music, and Sting has also made a number of traditionally inspired songs throughout his career. None of it is at all Irish, as you say, but is there some particular reason I shouldn’t or couldn’t incorporate elements of ITM in my songs?
is it me, or did the ice just get thinner?
Isn’t that “decomposed”, Denny dear?
FWIW, I certainly do write tunes, mostly in a traditional manner, or based thereon but letting personal quirks/influences tweak them into “trad+”, but I’m not a copious composer - in fact I wouldn’t usually see my tunes as “composed” in the sense of my having deliberately set out to write something (that has happened, but rarely). More usually a tune kinda “happens” to me (either in my head/mind’s ear, or a phrase jumps out at me when aimlessly tootling/improvising on an instrument), or at least starts that way, and I tootle and noodle with it and then write it down, maybe in stages, maybe coming back and modifying and editing. That is a kind of composing process, sure, but a rather haphazard one.
It does not surprise me at all that there is relatively little buzz on this forum about self-composed material. As others have noted in this thread, whilst no means exclusive of such things, the main drift here is absolutely about learning to play and actually playing traditional music, and predominantly Irish. The tradition is, however, a living and growing one in which new material within the formal constraints of the tradition has always had and continues (very healthily) to have a place. More importantly, however, the range and depth of traditional material is so huge that one can never encompass it all and there is constant pleasure and delight in discovering “new” things, whether well known in the broader tradition but new to oneself, or whether literally rediscovered from written or recorded sources. Then there is the individual creativity in mastering and refreshing and interpreting them in one’s own performance (whether or not that is public), just as with Classical music.
A constant search for newness and freshness by composing is inevitably doomed to failure at least 95 percent of the time, and produces mostly dross: but it is also necessary, else nothing new and fresh would ever turn up. Just look at the way the commercial popular music world works and the ephemeral worth of most of its product, let alone the huge hinterland of stuff that never gets exposure. Of course, the history of Classical music is similar, and mostly only the better stuff has made it into the mainstream perpetual repertory. (Equally, in both pop and Classical, much brilliant stuff remained/remains unfairly discarded!)
What often does surprise me on this forum (because of my own cultural perspectives, I know) is the degree of involvement in things religious and the willingness to mention such things publicly by such a high percentage of our American cousins. I know America is like that from a general knowledge point of view, but it is still a culture shock to experience it, even at a relatively removed level as here. I do find it somewhat worrisome and uncomfortable!
Old musicians never die, they just decompose…
(And old sailors never die, they just smell that way…)
Regards,
Owen Morgan
Yacht Magic
Anchored in the lagoon, St Maarten
My new blog.
Click here for my latest reported position. (Use the satellite view.)
Right about here ought to do. 
That is the question. I would guess Peter and others who are deep in the trad would speak against this (not trying to put words in your mouth, Peter; it just seems that way), and I am curious as to why. I understand preserving the pure tradition, but what is the harm in incorporating one tradition into another?
T