CP: It's Amazing

[Doug_Tipple]

In the 90's I stood on the streets of Tucson, Arizona with a bucket full of pvc flutes that I had made, and I had many more laughs than I had sales @ $15/flute. This week I heard from a customer in Paris, France who is using my low flutes for a new CD. I also received orders from Mirrabooka, Western Australia, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and Toronto, Canada. Clearly, with the advent of the personal computer and the internet, the simple-system flute and Irish music is becoming more popular world-wide. Where do we go from here, I really have no idea.

[Julia Delaney]

Quo vadimus? Per aspera ad astra.....

[Akiba]

That is way cool, Doug. I know I wouldn't be playing Itrad if it weren't for the internet. "Ab obice saevior ibit..."

[an seanduine]

Way to go Doug!
Although I really don't think of you as ferocious in your pursuit of advancing flutering. . (Ab obice saevior ibit. . ..

Bob

[Viking of Kiev]

In the 90's I stood on the streets of Tucson, Arizona with a bucket full of pvc flutes that I had made, and I had many more laughs than I had sales @ $15/flute. This week I heard from a customer in Paris, France who is using my low flutes for a new CD. I also received orders from Mirrabooka, Western Australia, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and Toronto, Canada. Clearly, with the advent of the personal computer and the internet, the simple-system flute and Irish music is becoming more popular world-wide. Where do we go from here, I really have no idea.

Was fun to read today:) - The Greening of Red Square

[Terry McGee]

The Internet was sure the key to it all for me too. I'd been making flutes since the mid seventies, but in a large but sparsely populated country like Australia, how would anyone know? So, I had a good stock of flutes in hand when the Internet reached the point I thought it worth embarking on to. I put up about half a page of information, of a more philosophical nature than practical - no images, no sounds, no real details. Next day I had an order from Hawaii! A few weeks later and I had no stock. A few months later and I was flat out upgrading the workshop, and a year or two later had to give up the day job in community radio. Now I've had to close my books to try to clear my backlog. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!

(Well, I'd actually settle for "slow down a bit"!)

I find it amusing that it's us old-fashioned folkies that seem to have made the fullest use of the Internet. I explained to one of my Jazz colleagues what the ABC system was, and how folkies use it to share tunes around the world. He was nonplussed - in his view at least, Jazz players would never go out of their way to share their material.

Terry

[Casey Burns]

Congrats Doug!

Same for me. The Internet is great. Yesterday an order from an American living in Uganda, and another one from a famous American pop musician who plays one of my flutes already. Even in this economy, I'm still never able to catch up to all of my orders.

Terry, as far as Jazz musicians not sharing their material, that certainly isn't true, as far as Gypsy Jazz music is concerned. There are all sorts of great sites where playing style, technique, etc. is shared and discussed, and a few great subscription sites where some of the current guitar masters such as Stochelo Rosenberg are sharing in intricate detail their playing styles and techniques. I've subscribed to his "Rosenberg Academy" and its a fantastic resource. I just wish I had more time to apply to it but flute making has been keeping me pretty busy as of late!

Casey

[BigDavy]

I find it amusing that it's us old-fashioned folkies that seem to have made the fullest use of the Internet. I explained to one of my Jazz colleagues what the ABC system was, and how folkies use it to share tunes around the world. He was nonplussed - in his view at least, Jazz players would never go out of their way to share their material.

Hi Terry

I don't find it funny - when you look at the demographics of "Folkies" (I am using the British / Australian definition here, not the US definition of Folkie) You will most likely find one of the highest educational standards of any musical grouping, with scientific and technical subjects very well represented.

David (BSc - Physics, BA - Enginering and Psychology, BA(hons) - Mathematics, MSc - Energy and Enviromental Management)

[s1m0n]

He was nonplussed - in his view at least, Jazz players would never go out of their way to share their material.

Terry

Isn't this the genre that invented the fakebook? The tech is out by a generation or so, but the spirit is the same.

[Terry McGee]

That's comforting, Casey. This chap is into contemporary jazz, so I don't know if that is more competitive, less cooperative than other forms. I said "in his view at least" as it's also perfectly possible that he really meant that he personally would never dream of sharing!

I agree, BigDavy, folkies are not always what we seem. That's probably one of the bits I find amusing. Perhaps it begs the question why are such well-educated people interested, even passionate, about music of the uneducated classes. But I'd better not hijack Doug's thread!

Terry

[Doug_Tipple]

T
Perhaps it begs the question why are such well-educated people interested, even passionate, about music of the uneducated classes. But I'd better not hijack Doug's thread!

Go ahead, Terry. That's a question worth investigating.

[Julia Delaney]

I am not exactly thrilled by this, even though I don't exactly know what it means.

....music of the uneducated classes...

[Steampacket]

" Perhaps it begs the question why are such well-educated people interested, even passionate, about music of the uneducated classes." Terry McGee.

Woody Guthrie I believe coined the phrase "educated fools". That a person has a degree, or wears a suit and tie is certainly no guaranty that any music that emanates from them
will be any good.

[Kirk B]

I am not exactly thrilled by this, even though I don't exactly know what it means.

....music of the uneducated classes...

I think it means farmers, blue collar workers, rural people, etc. Basically the ones who are not educated in institutions of higher learning but in many cases tend to have far more common sense than their well-educated counterparts.

cheers,

Kirk

[Steampacket]

"I think it means farmers, blue collar workers, rural people, etc. Basically the ones who are not educated in institutions of higher learning but in many cases tend to have far more common sense than their well-educated counterparts." Kirk B.