I've noticed that it seems to be a thing in ITM. Guy starts a reel and it's kind of like a locomotive pulling out of the station, and then in a couple measures we're at speed. Am I right that this is kind of standard?

I like it a lot. It makes me feel like an imaginary dancer and the musician are getting the feel of each other and then settling in. It seems more human than BAM start on 100 and end on 100. It adds excitement.

If it's not a thing it should be.

Note I don't mean the "amateur can't keep time" version of speeding up: it seems like it's a stylistic choice

It happens a fair amount, and it is by choice. Apart from anything else, it's smoother than just launching straight in.

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It depends a bit on context.

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My brain hurts

Just to make sure, do you mean something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUSXmGj ... gs=pl%2Cwn

Yuk.

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My brain hurts

For once, I agree with the Gumbster!!!

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Pat Plunkett, Wheeling, WV

Haha! I guess we'd all better brace ourselves for the favoring of "contemporary fiddling"!

Yuk indeed.


... though, to be fair, now I've listened to a fair amount more of it, she's a pretty damn' good player. It's for show, isn't it? She's a really good fiddler, though.

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Yeah, she's no joke certainly on a technical level. From what I understand she was a student of Martin Mulvihill R.I.P. But in any case, I guess starting a tune slow and speeding it up might be something that some musicians do, though I don't think I've ever done so....

I'd say so; sure got the audience excited, which I think was the whole point.

If ever I've seen it done elsewhere - and I'm sure I must have at least once or twice - I would confidently assume that it was done purely as a performance stratagem (if you will), and for no other purpose.

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"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

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I better expand on this a bit.

I don't think there's one way of doing it, in informal situations a lot of players may start a tune tentatively, finding their feet after a few bars. This is not done for effect but has more to do with, as I said, finding your feet, remembering the tune, getting your brain in gear, that sort of thing.

Playing for dancers often there's the eight bar stretch before the dancers come in but you're watching the dancers all the time too and may adjust speed a bit if and when they require more speed. Again, not something done for effect. Things may be different if you're in a ceiliband where the drummer (or the pianoplayer) sets the tempo by 'counting in' (I was listening to a clip yesterday of an old band where a drummer gave four knocks for starters and everybody came in at a completely different tempo than the one set up, which always has a bit of a comical effect). There's ofcourse the old knock knock joke about the ceiliband, where after the knock knock they all come in at the same time, based on that practice.

I can't really think of situations in traditional setting where it's OK to crank up the tempo for effect, it would be considered in very poor taste.

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My brain hurts

I didn't read it that that was what the OP meant. I think he was talking about the, very common in my experience, practice of just starting the first couple of bars noticeably slower, and then moving to the tempo at which people mean to go on. I've heard that done loads. It's almost as common as the three-note descending run at the end of a set of tunes, in my experience. And, to be clear, I mean in sessions in Ireland. I think it kind of is for 'finding one's feet' but it does seem to be fairly commonly done, and reasonably deliberately done, too.

Now, for playing for dancers, that's going to be different.

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Neither did I, that was more in response to the Riverdance clip.

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My brain hurts

Ah right. Fair enough.

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That sounds a little more familiar. I just don't think I've ever heard the two speeds so drastically different as in the riverdance clip I shared! You said you heard it done a lot in Ireland, though, might I ask which regional part?