Another set of tunes with my boys. Starting off with two jigs, “Jerry’s Beaver Hat” and “Tripping Up The Stairs”. Then changing tempo and finishing off with the reel “Soldier’s Joy” (which you’ll recognize from the earlier clip - we’re working with pretty limited repertoire here) 
Monday night I had the fortune of attending a private flute workshop with none other than my personal flute/whistle hero, Lunasa’s Kevin Crawford. Despite his profile, and despite a myriad of more exciting things he could have done on a free evening in a packed gigging schedule, he took the time to sit down with nine intermediate players. He’s a most unassuming, down-to-earth guy, giving individual attention to folks, letting anyone who cared (or dared) to have a honk on his flute, sharing stories of struggles with injury, etc. The evening wasn’t at all about his chops which are out of reach for most of us anyway, but about the love for the music and the practice of appropriating and interpreting traditional tunes.
Initially, he had sent us a list of four tunes that he would cover, but on the spot he decided to test our ability to learn two more obscure (but nice!) tunes by ear. The emphasis was on understanding the structure of the tunes, in order to feel and bring out their “pulse”. They also provided ample opportunity to go over aspects of articulation and (restraint from) ornamentation.
Here are two tips I picked up that I intend to incorporate into my practice:
Once I get the tunes down a little better, I will post a clip.
The following is a response I wrote to someone who saw my playing on YouTube and wanted to know about the flute I’m playing. I thought I’d share it:
Hey Mark,
thanks for your kind words. I’ve only upgraded from plastic last November. My current flute is a blackwood Rudall made in 2001 by Michael Grinter. I only mention the year because Michael has updated his design since. Grinter is certainly one of the premier makers of fine Irish flutes, and some of the best (such as Kevin Crawford and Michael McGoldrick) play his tooters. However, I’m finding out that it is certainly not an “easy” flute to play and I have a long way to go growing into it. There’s a lot more “tone” locked up in there that I haven’t gotten to.
Some peeps make a big deal out of the Pratten vs. Rudall question. My plastic flute supposedly was a Pratten, and I couldn’t for the life of me find an appreciable difference (hole size/spacing, volume, amount of air). That may well have to do with my relative inexperience, but it means that until I get a lot better, it doesn’t really matter yet. The nice thing is that good flutes preserve their value well, or even appreciate over time. That means that if you can afford a good quality instrument (in the range of $800-1400), if you take good care of it and if you can wait for an honest buyer, you can always move to a different one at a minimal loss.
Good flutes usually don’t show up on eBay. I would suggest you hang around the flute section on http://chiffboard.mati.ca. Lots of good players and a few makers (Terry McGee, Tony Dixon, Doug Tipple, Casey Burns) hang around on these discussion boards. People also advertise instruments for sale. That’s how I got mine. Patrick “Doc” Jones is also a regular. He runs http://irishflutestore.com and is a super-duper nice and honest guy to deal with. He sent me a $1400 flute to try out, sight unseen, and insisted in covering his end of the shipping costs even though I didn’t buy the flute. His commitment and service to the flute playing community is amazing. He will talk straight to you and not try to take advantage of you. He might even be interested in your Dixon as a trade-in.
Remember that if you think that your playing sucks, it’s tempting to think that the flute is at fault. However, that’s almost never the case (I’m not talking about those Pakistani and Indian flutes on eBay which are truly atrocious). Every flute has its quirks, and it’s your job to learn to live with them. There are many weak players with amazing flutes while a good player can make even a mediocre instrument sing. So much for the philosophy. I wish you good luck, satisfaction and perseverance with your passion.
– whistlinginthedark
This is a plug for Alan Ng’s excellent tune database, IrishTune.info. Don’t go there for sheet music or MP3s. Rather, the aim is to identify variations of a tune and give a detailed bibliography - which albums and tunebooks it’s in.
This modern tune was written by the fiddler/pianist Charlie Lennon. I learned it from Cara’s CD In Between Times, where the tune is the grande finale.
For anyone who is serious about Irish trad there is no way around the website of the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Association of Irish Musicians). There are loads of excellent material. Watch solo performances by all-Ireland champs, see the Céilí bands duke it out, or check out tune tutorials and sheet music. They really want to make their art as accessible as possible, and they’re doing a good job at it. Most of the videos are cross-posted on YouTube, but the CCE website lets you download just the audio tracks as well. Way to go!
Rocking away with my sons Amos (6) on “drums” and Elias (8.5) on fiddle. The tune is Soldier’s Joy.
Here is a recording of yours truly playing a set of jigs with the backing of the world-famous, ever-awesome Scottish Uber-Fiddler, Hanneke Cassel. The other credits go to Chris Lewis (guit) and Trevor Lord (perc). This happened more or less ad-hoc and was my first (and so far only) public performance. The tunes are The Mug of Brown Ale / The Kesh / Jimmy Ward’s / Out on the Ocean.
This is me playing The Ashplant. Those black-orange fishies had a baby today and my son is convinced that the mating must have happened while I was playing this tune. So watch carefully … :))
