I have been listening to records from the cds of the “Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” tune book. And I’ve noticed that in slower tunes it seems to be okay to not maintain a strict rythm and sometimes play a note a little longer or play a phrase little slower, even if it’s the middle of the tune. Is it really so?
Yes. Slow airs come from sean nos singing, which does not have strict meter. The written notes are an approximation. To play an air ‘correctly’ you must be familiar with how it is sung. That being said, I haven’t heard many sung, and probably play them ‘wrong’.
Well, the recordings I’ve heard sort of play the notes as they’re written, they just permit… fluctuations =)
If you look at, for example, the exact written note values for Roisin Dubh, and then listen to say Joannie Madden playing it beautifully, you’ll soon see that the written music is often just a guide and not a strictly adhered to text.
Philo
While airs are not played in a strict rhythm as written, good airplaying, and Sean Nos singing, does have an underlying pulse that keeps things together.
Group playing requires that you have to get to the beats pretty much ON TIME…otherwise; CHAOS. Solo playing, particularly airs, means you’re ON YOUR OWN. Listening to good singers and musicians play will inform your playing…but in the end you’ll find your own way. Personally, I know of no musical expression that gives more joy than a beautifully played air. Some kinda wondrous opening of the soul. I’m thankful there’s an Ireland!
Slow airs were originally solo pieces. Modern arrangements have changed that a bit, but some group arrangements still have a loose time. You can hear something similar in jazz, and, believe it or not, music by Willie Nelson.
That’s one thing I can’t stand about a few of the local sessions here; when someone tries to play an air, there are almost always several folks who try to play along with and it NEVER sounds good. It doesn’t happen often and I guess there are worse things to be foundd in sessions (see current session thread) but this subject makes me sad. I always feel bad for the player who tried to share something beautiful with the group, only to have his/her efforts minimalized by some casual tooters.
There is one slowair all my friends seem to like.
I’d never be able to perform them in public. I’d hate people to think I was putting on airs.
SLow airs are truly beautiful. They are the sound that tore my heart out when I first listened to pennywhistle recordings 20 years ago, before I even knew what a pennywhistle was!
I love to play slow airs. I used to play then according to the notes, and later learned that you don’t keep strict meter. This really bothered me (I hate change!) but when I got used to it I loved it.
Some say you have to hear them sung to play them right, but, who’s really gonna know? (and few would care)
That being said, It is much better to play them without keeping strict time. I find, in listening to recordings of airs, that there seems to be this anticipation thing going on. You play a few notes, let a note hang, anticipating the next note, then satisfy that anticipation when you hit it. I might be totally messed up here, but it sure sounds nice to me!
Kind of like a jazz combo, where the soloist, and other members of the band, may wander off the beat a little, but the bass player (and/or the drummer) always keeps the rythm together.
Anyone who knows the song will be able to tell instantly if you’ve ever heard it. There are several airs (Irish and otherwise) that I often can’t bear to hear played instrumentally for that very reason…few instrumentalists are willing to find a recording of the song, let alone learn to sing it, and consequently, they murder it out of all recognition. They get the phrasing wrong (no way it would work with the words!), and often change the very meaning of the song with their interpretation (I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve heard a heartbreakingly sad song played as if it were some kind of lighthearted dance!)
You might be surprised at how many people that attend session and such have more than a few Irish songs under their belts.
Redwolf
I have no problem with that, as long as it still sounds decent. You hear people turn a reel into a slow air and that works too.
I have weighed into this argument several times in the recent past
- a bit like wading into a pond full of piranha without your wellies on!!!
IMHO slow airs are the very essence of Irish music - leaving aside
the music which was strictly intended for dancing.
Most slow airs have words, they are songs in other words, and have
a lot of deep meaning attached to them.
(The Irish psyche is pensive and full of deep meaning emotional auld s**te !!!)
The interpretation of a slow air is helped greatly by knowing the story
or words that lie behind the music. What is also of great importance
are the decorations, sliding notes, and the rubato of various passages.
Playing a slow air is like reading a poem. Stephen Hawkings synthesizer
could adequately reproduce a love poem, but not many listeners would value such a performance.
There is also something akin to an accent in playing. Many educated
listeners can tell, 9 times out of 10, if the player is Irish or not by what
can only be described as the accent. That is not to say that the skilled and
dedicated “blow-in” cannot learn the accent and feeling in time!!!
If that doesn’t put you off, I don’t know what will!!
Yeah, I play all my reels at air speed! 
Actually some of them do sound quite beautiful when played slowly.
Philo
Yeah, I play all my reels at air speed! Actually some of them do sound quite beautiful when played slowly.
cool! i’m gonna try that next time I practise
I think that the slow airs refect who you are and how your feeling at time. I dont think you can compare how one person plays it to another, or even how one person plays it at one time to another.
I completely agree there. You can talk and talk and talk. But it’s not a question of playing things right or wrong. Music’s not in the head, it’s in the heart. Therefore it’s music. It has to be played
I agree in large extent with all this, but in the case of airs, I have to side with the “know the words, and if you can’t, then know how it’s sung” camp. The words set up the pulse of the tune. I’ve heard people play airs “their way” without the benefit of having listened, and the result was confusing.
I suppose I need to clarify what I mean: I don’t think there should be a fixed, wooden way to play an air - there’s no point to that, after all - but the words, if you have them, inform the ways that you can vary how you play an air. Having the words gives you a framework, yet you can be free to do lots of things with and within that framework, and the tune still remains recognisable for what it is.
A few years ago a clip of an air was posted here that quite a lot of people raved on about. To my ear the player broke up phrases, dwelt endlessly on passing notes, omitted important ones, inserted ornamentation in totally inappropriate places and kept on sliding in and out of notes that could not handle that treatment and in the process made a complete shambles of the tune.
You can completely ruin a good tune by not knowing what you’re up to while thinking you’re so wonderfully expressive you could make people cry.