In this video Steph plays an “ornament” multiple times and in other songs I’ve heard it. I really like it and somewhere down the road when I am good enough at my playing I hope to add it to the songs I play. The clearest place that I’ve found to see her fingers is at the 26-27 second mark. I slowed down the video to 25% play speed and it appears to me she plays a G, then a cut using the L3 finger, taps using the R1 finger, then repeats, cut L3 and tap R1.
I’ve known of rolls since last year when I started playing the whistle and just recently heard of “short” rolls. Is this two short rolls back to back or is there a different name for it.
Maybe what I’m hearing is this: Short roll, note, long-roll.
If so, I call these “Michael Coleman rolls”, because he uses them extensively. That isn’t an official term, just what I think of to identify them.
Mary Bergin frequently uses something similar, which I hear as this: tongued-short roll, note, long-roll.
When you say short roll, are you thinking a note-cut-note-tap-note in the space of a quarter note or a cut-note-tap-note. That is, do you hear a triplet or a doublet?
Check out the notation for the Ebb Tide (aka Dash to Portobello or Port Gael Lynn), which is the second tune on the video:
Third setting by Damien Rogeau. He shows a “note, long-roll; cut-note, note-cut-note, note” (If that makes sense). https://thesession.org/tunes/1821
For a different take, listen and see this transcription of Sean Ryan playing (his composition) "Dash to Portobello. You can see that he makes extensive use of short rolls, and changes back and forth between short and long rolls. That gives the tune galloping feel. http://www.cranfordpub.com/tunes/Irish/DashPortobello.htm
I think you can build up many variations by combining rolls, but when I’m playing, I think of the full figure, not a combination of two kinds of rolls.
I’m very new to the Irish flute and the tin whistle for that matter. For the part I’m referring to in my question, I hear a note, cut-tap, cut-tap. Or in other words a note and a doublet and a doublet. My eyes could see that she was tapping twice and I tried in my own inept way to duplicate the sound but quickly found out it was more than a double tap. I slowed the video down as slow as I could get it and at the reference point I mentioned I can see her play a G then a cut, tap, cut, tap.
I was just wondering if there was a name for it or was it just playing a note and then two short rolls back to back?
My understanding of a short roll is that it is a doublet (has two sounds). Please correct me if I’m mistaken.
Also, please correct me if my understanding of a long roll is incorrect. I thought that to roll a G you play a G then use the finger above it (A) to cut and the finger below the G a F# to tap. That’s not what she is doing, my eyes see a G played, then a cut using G finger, tap using F# finger, cut using G finger and a tap using the F# finger.
My brain is not hearing her play a triplet then a doublet but I’m hearing a note - doublet - doublet. Maybe I’m just confused and not hearing it correctly.
Again, thank you for taking the time to help a newbie to flutes.
Steph brought out a book to complement her last CD, “Up She Flew”. The book contains 2 notated versions of each tune on the recording, one basic “dots” version, and a more detailed version including the ornamentation used. I would think both book and CD would be available from her website if you search for it, and would thoroughly recommend both to you.
Careful not to conflate this as one ‘movement’.She ends one phrase dega bg ~g2 and then repeats the thing starting ~g2 bg ..
Had a longer post written this morning with the tune written out but the power was cut before I could post (planned interruption for network maintenance I had forgotten about) so the lot got lost. Am posting this from my phone now .
Don’t overthink this stuff too much, it’s fairly straight forward. Once you get your head around it. It important to grasp the structure of the tune and what the ornaments are doing there. Things fall into place then.
Short rolls can come in different shapes and sizes though, not everything is as standardised as some tutors want you to believe.