Question about a low A note in a jig

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Conical bore
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Question about a low A note in a jig

Post by Conical bore »

Somebody help me figure this out. I've been listening to the "Drunken Gaugers" album with Kevin Crawford on flute. A great album by the way, with Dylan Foley on fiddle and Patrick Doocey on guitar. Just straight-ahead Irish sets with nothing fancy, just the pure drop.

There is a cool tune on there called "Braken's" that dips down to the low A below D in the second part of the tune. I can't tell if Kevin is actually playing that note, or if he's just ghosting (not playing) the note behind the fiddler, as well as the low C in the preceding bar. I know he has recorded with a Bb flute, but this doesn't sound like a Bb flute and it wouldn't reach that note anyway. So what do y'all think is happening here? Is he ghosting the note, or something else?

Here's a YouTube clip of the tune, forward to 1:36 for the Braken's jig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYUz1AW ... dex=7&t=0s
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Re: Question about a low A note in a jig

Post by benhall.1 »

It's well done, isn't it? I think he's just doing the standard thing of playing that low A (and C) up the octave. Playing with the fiddle, your ear fools you into hearing a low A on the flute as well, when there isn't one.

Mind you, if I'm right, my ear is fooling me, too! It really is very well done indeed.
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Re: Question about a low A note in a jig

Post by paddler »

My ear isn't good enough to tell exactly what he is doing in this recording, and I'm not sure what flute he is playing. However,
regarding your comment that a low Bb flute would not play low A, a low Bb flute with foot keys should play low A, and even low
Ab/G#. To my knowledge, Kevin plays Grinter flutes and his low Bb flute is fully keyed. I've seen some video of him playing one
without the pewter plugs installed on the bottom two notes, but maybe he fits them when he wants to play tunes that go that low.
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Re: Question about a low A note in a jig

Post by bradhurley »

There are several recordings of Kevin (including In Good Company) where you hear this illusion; he has perfected the art of blending with a fiddle so it tricks your ear into thinking he's playing the note an octave below what he's actually playing. On the In Good Company track (if I remember correctly it's the second tune on the first track) he's playing a D or Eb flute (don't have the album handy to check) so there's no way he could actually go down to A unless they pitch-shifted it or applied spectral edits in post, which I don't think Kevin would have done and given his talents on the flute it wouldn't be necessary -- he plays that note softly enough to blend in perfectly with the fiddle.

He's definitely not playing a Bb flute on that youtube clip. I think he's playing that note softly and maybe also with a looser embouchure so the note ducks under the fiddle and the harmonics blend to give the illusion he's playing low.
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