highland-piper wrote:Contrary to your perception, we don't need the sheet music to get the tight unison. That comes from practicing together. That aspect of musicianship is no different for a pipe band than it would have been for (i.e.) the Bothy Band (who had exceptional unison).
Perhaps I wasn't clear. You can't have unison without consensus. Sheet music takes care of that issue the quickest. Then, as you so rightly say, the rest is practice.
good luck with that one bucko
Guess I know which lot you play with.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
Nanohedron wrote:
And I did mention the solo piping tradition, as I recall. I would be interested to know the proportion of band players to solo players in the EUSPBA.
That would be tricky to come up with. There are 193 bands registered, so guessing there might be 1500 pipers in those bands could be reasonable. And a fair portion of the two groups overlaps. Then you'd have the issue of which do those pipers put more emphasis on, the band or the solo.
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You're talking about competition flash, though, right?
Just in general. It's part of the culture. Bands have more latitude for creativity than individuals. Even more in a concert setting than in a competition.
Mr.Gumby wrote:I think you should just get Brid Cranitch's colour coded books and learn the tunes in them. Or something like them, something easily accessible. Levey's or O'Neill's are not going to do much for you at this stage, even though they are classic collections.
Alternatively, you can ofcourse sit down with your favourite CD and learn all the tunes on it. At least you'll be able to hear what you're aiming for.
Which style is Brid Cranitch's set? Or maybe his colour coded books encompasses them all?
I like Brodericks' East Galway style. That is the only style I really want to get into.
Most of the music I like, was live music played in pubs in Galway; Clare and Mayo. I never had the nerve to stop the band and ask what they were playing. The flute (played live) has a gorgeous resonance which CD/iTunes/record just does not capture. The majority of live flute music is far preferable to recorded music for me.
The other problem is, my Irish flute budget has seen the cost of the flute I'm hankering for, rocket beyond my limit, so I'm going to have to save. I figure I'll just settle for Brodericks' Volume II and see where that takes me. I checked out the library, and they have none of these recommendations
I'll second on the Breathnach books. The integrity is complete in them, the author did his very best to be accurate. The updated ONeill's is a bit of a time capsule, in the sense that many of the tunes in there have evolved a bit, so both their titles and execution are kinda different than today's norm. . In both cases, they will not include many new trad tunes that you encounter on modern recordings, because of copyright, etc.
I think a person who really wants to use notation is better off spending time using your computer and the ABC system than buying a lot of books that are often sloppily compiled, weirdly notated for ornamentation, or not at all. With ABC tunes, like Henrik Norbeck's, the compiler has worked pretty hard to notate a specific version, told you what it is. Same goes for The Session web site, where you can get ABCs or a pdf. Seriously, don't waste your money or time on the Mel Bay's, unless you enjoy marking them up after countless hours of listening to recordings and realizing their deficits. I have a big pile of books, but my pile of ABC printouts are what I actually use when I'm trying to get a handle on a tune and reconcile it to what I hear on the recordings..The Breathnach and ONeills are the only books I bother looking at anymore.
If you hear a tune on a recording, want to learn it, and want notes to it, you'll find it faster in ABC than in any book, unless it's a specific folio of a specific artist, like the Liz Carroll book mentioned above. I haven't seen it, but I assume its a careful transcription book of her versions.
The best function of the books is if you are a good reader and just feel like looking at tunes you have never encountered in any real session or recording. then you have to count on your native impulses and experience about the tunes to apply phrasing and such.. I have found tunes in ONeills that I just love but have rarely or never heard them live or on any record. It's actually frustrating, because you want to share them, but because people haven't heard them, they aren't as interested.
I was shocked that it was published by Mel Bay! But when I opened it - I'm amazed at how many tunes are recorded in it. I've yet to plough through it, but I suppose, it will be a better start than just trying to figure out what i'm hearing.
The Slow Airs book I ordered also arrived. I'm finding this one more exciting already - it's much thinner than the O'Neills. Perhaps after these two, I'll take up your recommendation for the Breathnach. I can see why the O'Neill's is so famed on these forum pages. It makes sense, given that its cost is really good compared to other much slimmer and slight collections from the same Mel Bay catalogue.
It's the O'Neill's 1001 you've got? The 1907 facsimile edition was published by Waltons in Dublin, then re-published by Mel Bay. My copy actually has Mel Bay stickers simply pasted over the Waltons imprints.
Mine also has a curious little imprint, at the bottom right of the back cover, which states "Guaranteed Irish". Good to know!
I endorse pretty much everything Weekenders says in the above post. The Norbeck ABCs in particular are as good or better than any printed resource.
As others have said, as long as you focus on the question "What book(s) to get", you truly have the cart before the ITM horse. Think of the dots as snapshots of someone else's holidays. They can give you a static idea or impression of what a place is like, as seen through someone else's lens. But they're no substitute for experiencing the place for yourself. Especially not when the living tradition is out there, and accessible at least via recorded sound and video as a much closer approximation of the real thing.
For experienced players, tune collections are a handy reference once you've internalized a very clear understanding of what they represent. But they won't lead you to that internalization in the first place.
The Weekenders wrote:
If you hear a tune on a recording, want to learn it, and want notes to it, you'll find it faster in ABC than in any book, unless it's a specific folio of a specific artist, like the Liz Carroll book mentioned above. I haven't seen it, but I assume its a careful transcription book of her versions.
The title of her book is "Collected." The website says it has 185 tunes that she's collected over the years (including her own compositions, which I'd guess number somewhere around 50). She used to have her tunes in manuscript on her website -- they're just the bare notes like you'd get in O'Neils. Haven't seen the book though.
James_Alto wrote: ... I figure I'll just settle for Brodericks' Volume II and see where that takes me...
That will take you to East County Galway! ..
Fascinating discussion this. I think to add my 2 cents I would say that I've found the 2 Rafferty tune books invaluable. I've even learned all 600 tunes in there from cover to cover of both volumes.
And one night at band camp, at Stacks in East Durham NY actually, it seemed that the Galway/Clare session included every single tune in both those books.
Tell us something.: Whistle player, aspiring C#/D accordion and flute player, and aspiring tunesmith. Particularly interested in the music of South Sligo and Newfoundland. Inspired by the music of Peter Horan, Fred Finn, Rufus Guinchard, Emile Benoit, and Liz Carroll.
The Weekenders wrote:
If you hear a tune on a recording, want to learn it, and want notes to it, you'll find it faster in ABC than in any book, unless it's a specific folio of a specific artist, like the Liz Carroll book mentioned above. I haven't seen it, but I assume its a careful transcription book of her versions.
The title of her book is "Collected." The website says it has 185 tunes that she's collected over the years (including her own compositions, which I'd guess number somewhere around 50). She used to have her tunes in manuscript on her website -- they're just the bare notes like you'd get in O'Neils. Haven't seen the book though.
All 185 (if that's the right number) tunes in Collected are all Liz's compositions, sometimes with collaborators. There are 50 tunes in the book which have never been recorded, including a suite of tunes for "Patrick and the Wolf", apparently an Irish-themed version of Peter and the Wolf.
good luck with that one bucko
