I decided yesterday to learn the first tune, The Road to Monalea, on Colm O’Donnell’s Farewell to Evening Dances CD, as it’s a beautifully flowing tune. I thought, on the off chance that I could find the ABC for it, I’d check online. I was/am AMAZED at how many tunes are online! This tune was written by Colm himself, and yet someone generously posted it somewhere online so I didn’t have to figure out the notes myself. It made learning the tune so much easier. Now I just have to internalize it. But I am so grateful for the wealth of information available online. I started using the internet about 6 years ago. I think, for the most part, it’s a hugely positive resource.
I agree, it’s a wonderful resource, although you do have to be careful: there are loads of really poor transcriptions out there. By “poor” I mean poorly heard or poorly transcribed. I’ve been getting abcs off the Web for a few months to help me transcribe tunes that I’m teaching to my flute and whistle classes, and I almost always have to spend time working on the settings. I’m not one of those people who thinks there’s a right way or a wrong way to play a tune, but some settings really are “better” than others.
Totally agree about listening to the tune, especially by the person who wrote it. I mean, after all, how can he play it “wrong”?
Colm is such a wonderful example of Trad muscianship.
