Posting clips

[Trip-]

You've crossed the line to the videos! Way to go

[paddler]

I've been lurking listening to all your clips for months. Wonderful stuff! Thank you! I finally have the capability to record myself so I've decided to get into the spirit of the thing and post a few clips of my own. Be warned though, I'm just a beginner - I've been playing for under two years - so I need all the feedback I can get on how to improve. The clips are short because I can't play continuously for long before things start to fall apart terribly (especially when I'm recording!). And they are slow because I'm incapable of playing at a normal session speed yet. In both pieces I'm playing my delrin Copley keyless D flute. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Old Man Dillon
Killavel

[gorjuswrex]

Welcome Paddler.
Well done. I'd say your Old man Dillon is the better played of the two. It show great promise. Great tone. Good timing.
The timing in the Killavel is not as good. The first tune demonstrates that it is all there just waiting for a bit more practice I think. If you can get a teacher or manage to play along with or some good players who don’t fly off at speed it would be a great help to you. Also I think the web site ‘whistle this’ would be useful for you. I think it would be great if this site could have that kind of set up. I fully understand the many reasons why it is difficult. Whistle this was great when it was more of a ‘live’ site. The mentor examples are great for learning from. Try playing along with the tunes. Some of them are played on non D whistles so you will need to play along on a whistle of that pitch or maybe use software to change the pitch. Learn how to lilt the tunes so you get a good feel for the phrasing . Listen plenty. Keep it up. Also the more you record pieces like this the easier it will get.

Other people on here are able to make much better comments than me so it would be good if they leave some for you.

[paddler]

Kevin, Thanks for the feedback and encouragement! Yes, timing is a challenge for me. I can hear some of the deficiencies myself, but knowing how to fix them is another matter. I have a lot of ITM to listen to on CDs, and I do listen a lot, and I can clearly hear the rhythm and timing that makes a performance sound great, but reproducing it myself is really challenging at this stage. Part of the problem is that nearly everything out there on CDs is played at such a high speed that directly mimicking the performance is pretty much impossible (for me). Once I am playing the tune at a much slower pace its then hard for me to identify the key elements that give the original full speed performance its feeling and lift. This may be exacerbated by the fact that I have never done any of the dances (jigs, reels, etc) so I don't yet have a very intuitive feeling for where the compression/energy needs to be. I'm hoping that with more time listening and practicing this will become easier. And of course sites such as the "whistle this" link you sent could really help. Thanks! Jon

[paddler]

Since the thread seems a bit slow this week I thought I'd post another tune. This one was inspired by a lovely performance posted much earlier in this same thread by pixxy. In this one I'm playing my blackwood keyless D flute by Dave Copley.

Princess Royal

[Akiba]

Since the thread seems a bit slow this week I thought I'd post another tune. This one was inspired by a lovely performance posted much earlier in this same thread by pixxy. In this one I'm playing my blackwood keyless D flute by Dave Copley.

Princess Royal

Just listened to this clip. Your tone and intonation are excellent. Your phrasing very good. Loved the feel of the tune. I listened as well to your Killavil and am wondering if I also heard in this PR clip when you play a cut (or some ornament), you seem to add an extra note/beat. It seems you may be extending the ornament too long which then messes up the rhythm of the tune (particularly in Killavil). Remember that a cut or tap or roll is an articulation and should happen on the beat and be lightning fast; the sound preceding should be felt more than heard. Listen to your favorite players and you'll hear that a cut is an accent, not a grace note. Hope that helps and makes sense. Keep it up. Sounds great so far.

[paddler]

Akiba, thanks for the kind words and advice! I think you have hit the nail on the head with the relationship between my sloppy ornamentation and timing problems. I hadn't thought of it before, but in retrospect it seems obvious. After all, ornamentation is supposed to enhance the rhythmic aspects of the music. If the ornaments aren't crisp, how can I expect the timing to sound good? I've been struggling to get crisp ornamentation - even simple ornaments like cuts - for a while now. My finger coordination is way behind my lips and breathing. At times this has been quite frustrating and demoralizing. My situation seems to be a bit abnormal judging by comments I read from other players who seem more often to struggle with tone and breathing than fingering. In my first year of playing I spent quite a lot of time repeating cuts, taps and rolls in an attempt to sharpen them up, but I quickly developed a bad case of tendonitis and it stopped me from playing for almost six months. It (the tendonitis) also made the ornaments worse. Now I have to walk a fine line between wanting to put more timing in on those repetitive exercises in order to improve, but not wanting to cause the inflamation to come back. I'm also pretty sure I need to relax my hands and arms more while playing in order to make substantial progress in this regard, but that seems to be a lot easier said than done. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve hand relaxation and/or sharpen up ornamentation I'd love to hear them (either on or off line). Thanks again for the help!

[mahanpots]

Paddler:
Sorry to hear about the tendonitis challenges. Just a thought: maybe you're trying too hard to make your ornaments "crisp." While listening to your Killavel clip, I noticed a struggle to get a clean sound with your cut in BEE between the E notes, at the beginning of the tune. I'd cut that with my G finger. Sounds to me like you're focusing on your breath too much there, if that makes sense, like you're pushing a bit more air into the flute while cutting the E. Could be you're trying to make up for a lack of a smooth cut with the finger. My suggestion is to play those two Es with the same amount of air pressure. Two E notes separated by a quick blip.

[Akiba]

Paddler,

I've also had some struggles with pain in my fingers and wrists. I switched to a Casey Burns flute for that reason and have had zero problems since. What flute are you using?

Another possible solution regarding articulation is learn to tongue in a subtle way. Many great players tongue notes (or glottal stop which I do not understand at all). I tongue the repeated notes in Killavil myself much of the time, as well as in jigs like Connaghtman's Rambles. You'll need to experiment in order to make it sound "irish" and not be obvious. Also, maybe you're trying too hard to make them crisp; maybe you just need to relax more, not get tense. If I notice too much tension in my hands and fingers, I stop, put my hands down, and consciously relax more when beginning to play again

[ImNotIrish]

A hornpipe for your consideration. I think it is called Jerry Daly's. Played on the Hudson Pratten (with the slide pushed all the way in....maybe it's closer to Eb now?).
Arbo

http://www.box.net/shared/nvkh1om6fk

[gorjuswrex]

Here you go, Trip. As promised... kind of a first take.
Arbo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2zhG6YK6dc
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQo5iwikIqM

Hi Arbo
These links take me to youtube but not your page?

[ImNotIrish]

Here you go, Trip. As promised... kind of a first take.
Arbo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2zhG6YK6dc
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQo5iwikIqM

Hi Arbo
These links take me to youtube but not your page?

They are dead links. I deleted those two files. Just wasn't happy with the takes. I put a hornpipe up here recently? give it a listen.
Arbo

[gorjuswrex]

Nicely played on the hornpipe Arbo I was interested to see the cut of ya on the video, have to wait?

[ImNotIrish]

Nicely played on the hornpipe Arbo I was interested to see the cut of ya on the video, have to wait?

thanks,
I'll see if I can get a decent take on something this weekend.
Arbo

[paddler]

Mahanpots, thanks for the tips on how to clean up the cuts at the start of my Killavel jig! I've been working on it and I can hear some definite improvement already. I've also been experimenting with some subtle tonguing as suggested by Akiba. With that approach I can hit the rhythm of the tune much better, but it takes quite a bit of focus to stop the tonguing from sounding too obvious. When I've sharpened up the ornaments and found some more rhythm I'll post more dance tunes. In the mean time, here is an air I learned by ear yesterday. I know its not quite right in places, but hopefully its still enjoyable enough.

An Chúilfhionn

Oh and by the way, Arbo, I enjoyed your hornpipe! In fact I have enjoyed a lot of the tunes on your podbean site. Thank you for sharing so much! I look forward to the day when I am qualified to give more constructive criticism.