Larsen's Book: What's the straight dope?

Wormdiet · Post by **Wormdiet** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:16 am

Title pretty much sez it all. Is this a good "flute 101" book for somebody familiar with Irish/Scots music but new to the intrument? IE is it as good as the hype on his website?

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:48 am

I haven't read the book but I've studied with the
teacher, who was writing the book at the time.
Probably it's very good; certainly a good
teacher.

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:55 am

It's a good book. Loads and loads of information, at times there is a lot more than you really need to know, but it's all good. By the time you have worked your way trough it you should be a good way down the road. It's the most complete guide to ITM flute and whistle out there.

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:56 am

Can anyone suggest a place to find said book?
Amazon.com doesn't have it (I couldn't believe that, myself).

Thanks!

[EDIT: My bad -- I spelled Larsen with an "o". I found it!]

tin tin · Post by **tin tin** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:46 pm

It's a great book.
Try greylarsen.com or elderly.com to buy a copy.

rh · Post by rh » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:15 pm

i think if you order it from Grey directly he'll get a better cut than if you order it from Amazon, and the service should be just as quick... he sent mine right out to me when i bought it.

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:41 pm

Grey seems like a very nice chap, lets support him and his forthcoming projects as best as we can shall we? Order it at www.greylarsen.com

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:48 pm

Oh Poo.
I wish I'd waited an extra hour before ordering it through Amazon.
I would much rather have ordered it from the source.
Amazon also nicely suggested the WorldTrad wooden flute CD's which I obligingly added to my cart as well, so I guess I didn't make out too badly.

Still I'd have liked to have supported Larsen directly. Oh well. Next time.

norseman · Post by **norseman** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:51 pm

Plus, if you order it directly from Grey, you have the option of having him autograph it. I wonder how much that adds to its re-sale value on eBay?

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:12 pm

I ordered the book directly from Grey, but when the book arrived, it had a sticker inside the front cover from the Glen Rose Music Company in Texas. At the same time I ordered a whistle from Grey's website, and the whistle was shipped directly from the maker. I gather that Grey's online store is a virtual store with the merchandise being warehoused elsewhere.

With regard to Grey's book, "The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle" , I can see that it is a wonderful resource of instruction, music history, sheet music, and two CD's of instructional recordings. It is 480 pages, though, and reads somewhat like a college textbook. When I first saw it, I had the same reaction that I had when I looked at my first calculus book in college, a bit over-whelmed.

The only minor criticism that I have with the book is Grey's system of notating the embellishments that make Irish music so unique. I seem to be more comfortable with the standard notation of writing out the embellishments with individual grace notes along with the standard symbolic notation. This issue has been discussed before on the flute forum.

maire · Post by **maire** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:21 pm

Hello everyone this is a fantastic site for a fluteplayer. This is my first reply so I thought I`d ask a question that is relevant to me only I`m afraid. So here goes.............Who is Grey Larsen??
I`d never heard the name before I started messing around with the internet. At the risk of showing my ignorance, maybe someone could fill me in on what I`m missing, I must say I`m very curious, and also keen to improve my knowlegde of other players.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:23 pm

fyffer wrote:Oh Poo.
I wish I'd waited an extra hour before ordering it through Amazon.
I would much rather have ordered it from the source.
Amazon also nicely suggested the WorldTrad wooden flute CD's which I obligingly added to my cart as well, so I guess I didn't make out too badly.

Still I'd have liked to have supported Larsen directly. Oh well. Next time.

Poo Two!

http://www.worldtrad.org/

Denny

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:36 pm

maire wrote:Hello everyone this is a fantastic site for a fluteplayer. This is my first reply so I thought I`d ask a question that is relevant to me only I`m afraid. So here goes.............Who is Grey Larsen??
I`d never heard the name before I started messing around with the internet. At the risk of showing my ignorance, maybe someone could fill me in on what I`m missing, I must say I`m very curious, and also keen to improve my knowlegde of other players.

Welcome to our little board Maire. This is a nice place for sure, with lots of useful and sometimes less useful information.
To answer your question: Grey Larsen is a fluter and whistler who plays Irish traditional music. He's from the states, but grew up in or near a place were lots of Irish imigrants resided. I don't remember if he's got some Irish blood himself. He's learned from some old masters living there, and he's a great player, although many people don't find his style of playing very attractive. He plays a very small holed, small bore Firth and Pond flute, and he's got a truly unique sound. He's a recording artist, but this (the book) is what he's been mainly associated with lately. Check out his website (link above in my previous post) for more info.

dthepeopleskey · Post by **dthepeopleskey** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:40 pm

Mr. Larsen pays great attentions to details in his missive and, barring anything of similar work on this side of the ocean, I would presume it is a one-of-a-kind text.
But his attentiveness to detail is somewhat lacking on his covers as the original back of the book shows the great Matt Molloy holding his flute left handed! I trust Mr. Larsen has corrected this oversight. I wonder whether the originals are now worth more? I hope so!

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:45 pm

dthepeopleskey wrote:But his attentiveness to detail is somewhat lacking on his covers as the original back of the book shows the great Matt Molloy holding his flute left handed! I trust Mr. Larsen has corrected this oversight. I wonder whether the originals are now worth more? I hope so!

I didn't notice until you said it and I had to go check. But really, why would he change it? I don't think it's something wrong with the editing of the picture, how could anybody reverse the picture without noticing? I think, for one reason or another, Mr. Molloy was just holding his flute lefthanded at the moment, he's not playing it anyway. And besides, what's wrong with playing left handed??

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Larsen's Book: What's the straight dope?

Larsen's Book: What's the straight dope?

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