Tell us something.: If you flush your toilet 7 times whilst lilting "The Bucks of Oranmore", an apparition of one of the great pipers of old will appear in the mirror, you will be blessed with good reeds, but cursed with bad bags and bellows.
an seanduine wrote:I"m not advocating this overmuch, but it has been clinically shown a little alcohol can aid in learning. LITTLE. So perhaps a pint of the Black might help. I"m not advocating the BBC practice of old of providing limitless champpagne to overcome "red light fever". In fact, some have said this practice helped undermine Seamus Ennis. . . .at the very least it didn't help his marriage.
Bob
Did he use this technique in most of his recordings (The Best of Irish Piping, The wandering Minstrel etc...)? Just curious,
interesting trivia.
P.S Maybe I'll try this technique too, and see how it affects my playing before I record though....
Last edited by ennischanter on Sat Aug 24, 2013 4:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
We musicians are enemies by disposition, so treat every musician you happen to meet, accordingly.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of the flame.
Brazenkane wrote:The only way to get over it, is to keep doing it. Also, Kenny's Werner's book "Effortless Mastery" is brilliant for teaching you how to quiet the critical voices in yer head that are making you produce anomalies.Then again, you may just have anomalies in your playing that the recorder is simply mirroring that need attention!?!
Thanks for the reference to the book. Yeah, it's more about quieting the critical voices as I record, even before I listen to the replay. Listening to the replay to hear anomilies is basically why I like to record myself - self appraisal and critical reflection and all that. It's the frustation of knowing I can do something, but as soon as hit 'Record' all of a sudden I just can't reproduce that something anymore. Stop recording and whaddayaknow?? I can do it again. Like Tommy said, "All sorts of, for lack of a proper term, erratics come into my performance."
I've found the same problem, of course, but I do recall the terror of playing in front of people, I got over that by playing outside in a sort of hidden corner of my front porch while people walked by on the sidewalk. Many ignored me, but a few stopped and listened. Eventually I got over my fears, but focused more on the few that stopped to confirm I was worth listening to.
With the Zoom I am going through the same process, but will step it up, I was just doing a first of the month progress of some select tunes that I work hard on, I think I will turn on the Zoom first thing after strapping in.
Brazenkane wrote:The only way to get over it, is to keep doing it. Also, Kenny's Werner's book "Effortless Mastery" is brilliant for teaching you how to quiet the critical voices in yer head that are making you produce anomalies.Then again, you may just have anomalies in your playing that the recorder is simply mirroring that need attention!?!
Thanks for bringing up this book.... Wow, very enlightening. I am only about 1/2 way through it but i think it is totally changing how i am approaching learning the UP and trad music. Thanks!
I think another way to not freak out over the red light is to own what you do. "Own" is a big one, too. That means you need to be able to play the tune, from A-Z, w/good time, all the way through without stopping. One might be very surprised when put to the test, what happens. Many people struggle with time issues, not to mention technique (even "great" players, dare I say).
I"m not talking about just "technique" used in it's loose way e.g. G-F-E triplet, Ennis Cran, etc. but, Yes! You need to know how to do whatever you are going to play, flawlessly IF you're going to play them at all. Then, come what may. You're not a machine, so slight variations are fine. The other side of that, is when players start sounding so mechanical, but to say that is what is putting you off from nailing things down is akin to saying, "I don't want to start going to the gym because I don't want to looked like a ripped, super in shape, incredible athlete!" There's a pretty good chance THAT won't happen straight away, at very least!
How do to it flawlessly? To quote a superb technician (piper and teacher) Tim Britton, "There is no reason why you cannot perform a bit of technique/new figure/etc., perfectly, even after learning it for the first time." He goes on to explain step 1) learn the technique. step 2) play it very SLOWLY & deliberately, w/every note sounding. There it is! You're playing flawlessly! Over some days and weeks, speed it up, gradually!
However, most people then trash that idea after about...oh... 12 1/2minutes, and go and play whatever, too fast, and never getting it "right." Then you have a tune balanced on the proverbial house of cards. At some stage, the idea of, "hey let me record myself" arrives. The red light goes on, and you KNOW, on some level that you own very little of what you're doing, but that "this time" you'll get it right. The tension comes, weird aberrations and glitches get recorded along with the obvious stuff poorly played (usually time, and rhythm). **Time-being your over all clock, and Rhythm being whatever emphasis, or accents, or "time feel" you're imposing on the notes.
It takes much discipline to get to where you "own" a tune, or technique. I struggle with that personally (just as I suppose everyone does, to a greater or lesser degree). Through experience I've found that if you subscribe to this discipline, you can (immediately so) enjoy the fruits and the juice that this, or any music has to offer!!!
Give a man a wooden reed and he'll play in the driest of weather,
Teach a man to make a wooden reed,
and the both of ye will go insane!
