What to do with squirrely Cnats?

Irish Flute
1

Hey everyone -

I’m learning the set off Kevin Burke’s Up Close album that starts with The Bloom of Youth. It’s one of the great sets on that album with Kevin and Matt Molloy playing together.

So here’s my question. In the B part of the Bloom of Youth, there is a phrase that hovers around the Cnat and the B. Here’s an abc of the section that I’m talking about -
|cBAc BG~G2|c2cB cdef|gedc BGAF||

Just by itself, I think it sounds a little thin on the flute to just hold the c quarter note. If it weren’t a Cnat, you could just play a roll. On the recording, Matt Molloy just holds the C, so I wasn’t able to steal any ideas off him. As I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve realized that this kind of phrase comes up fairly often and it would be nice to have some different options. At first, I was just mimicking the preceeding run cBAc, but that sounds a little repetitive. I’ve also thought about hopping down to the g, as is cGcB, which is an option.

Anyway, just wanted to see if people had other cool ideas.

thanks,
Brendan

2

great album, great set, great tune!

just thinking quickly, here’s what comes to mind:

roll Cnat - here’s just one way of many to finger it :

oxxoox
oxxxxx
oxxoox
xxxoox
oxxooo

i actually tend to roll it assbackwards like this:

oxxoox
xxxoox
oxxoox
oxxxxx
oxxooo

other alternative:

replace c2cb with cedB or cBAB

3

I have used bending the c natural to ornament a long c natural note.

oxx ooo
oxx xxo

Creates just enough of a difference that it send more like a bend rather than a distinct note. I do this on dochedy’s reel at the very beginning.

4

Here’s another version of the B part (aka The Happy Days of Youth)

e | f#2ag fedc | Bdef g2gg | eB ~B2 gBeB | BAGA Bcde |
f2ag fedc | bdef ~g3 a | bgaf gfed | egfa g2 gf :||

djm

5

2 other options might be pulsing the C-nat or (this is weird, but I’ve had some luck with it) switching between C nat and piper’s C nat (OXX OOX and OXO OOO) if your flute shades the two differently enough … ?

6

Finger vibrato is good for this kind of situation too, as an alternative to a roll.

7

Piper’s C-nat?
Pipes have seven holes.
I’m confused! :boggle:
OXX OOXX?

8

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: X OXX XOOX X on UPs. I think the idea was to be pipe-“like”, so the equivalent on flute it would be: OXX XOX or OXX OOX.

djm

9

Well, sure, don’t ALL flutes have seven holes? :blush:

I should have made that clearer – you’re right, it’s an APPROXIMATION of a piping C in terms of sound it produces: OXO OOO

Blame it on Grey Larsen; I always just called it “that funky C” until his book came out. :wink:

Thanks, and sorry for the conf-u!

10

My keyless flute has, like, 10! :smiley:

11

So…what is it on Recorder??
Exit Kevin,post haste! :wink:

12

You need a bell key

:wink:

13

As invented by Carl Dolmetsch,if I’m not mistaken.

14

Hey Brendan - one thing you could do there would be to cut off the C quarter note and take a breath. Makes for a short phrase, but might punch up the tune a bit. Catherine McEvoy gave us this tune in a class I took with her. I’ll have to dig up my recording and see what she did there (and also re-learn the tune myself…)

That’s the problem with learning tunes off of fiddlers. Those dudes never breathe! Also, they keep playing notes below D…

15

Hey Brendan, I do a little crannlike thing on C that I’d probably use there, starting with fingering the C oxxxox and switching 4th and 5th fingers around to make d cuts:

oxx xox C
oxx xxx D cut
oxx oxx C
oxx xxx D cut
oxx xox C

Another possibility is playing that bar:

BccB cdef

using that same oxxxox fingering for the C and bouncing the 5th finger for a cut.