If I could play THIS tune, I'll be satisfied....

RudallRose · Post by **RudallRose** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 9:47 pm

Curious about which tune any of you have marked as the one that would mean, if you could play it, you're as good as you'd like.
In other words, your toughest tune that you've not mastered, but aspire to play.
Share the ABC here!
Mine was/still is Gravel Walk (ala Chris Norman/Matt Molloy), one of the hardest tunes for the flute, especially with ornaments, etc.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 10:08 pm

"The Contradiction Reel" a 3-part reel where Molloy sends the 3rd part up into the 3rd octave...(how's that for a trifecta?)

madfifer9 · Post by **madfifer9** » Sun Apr 13, 2003 10:24 pm

I don't know if this is the tune that would define me as a good enough player to my own satisfaction, but I sure would like to be able to play the "Salamanca" reel someday. It's a toughie!

madfifer9

binary_sunset · Post by **binary_sunset** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:40 am

Still working on:

Paganini: solo cappriccios for violin, some of which are quite playable on the flute with some careful arranging.

Oh yeah, and also this trad piece called Tam Lin which sounds kind of like 80s Techno if you play it really fast. Okay, if I have my computer play it really fast. I can't seem to get the feel of it.

Will be quite happy if I can pull of any of the above with proficiency suitable to a street corner.

|binary_sunset|

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 7:16 am

Bach's Aire in G. Played well, it's the sound of angels, played by me, it's a bunch of notes...

Eldarion · Post by **Eldarion** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 8:25 am

Hmm... you know I would be really happy if I could play any one of these:

"Bebop" - the way Dizzy Gillespie plays it
Marin Marais - "Le Tableau de l'Operation de la Taille"
Black Sabbath - "Psycho Man"
Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack - "Tonight I Celebrate My Love"
Charles Mingus - "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" all 4 parts
Clash - "Guns of Brixton"
John Dunstaple - "Veni Sancte Spiritus"
Pizzicato Five - "magic twin candle tale"
Oh... and that set of irish songs they were playing under the deck of the Titanic

BMFW · Post by **BMFW** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 8:29 am

Colonel Frazer - from Conal O Grada's "Top Of Coom". It's got it all, power, drive, the MOST amazing tone, sometimes it inspires, other times it just makes you put your flute away!!

Also, The Gold Ring off Matt Molloy's eponymous album. While it's not the most technically difficult, it's a devil to master. Those crans on low D just kill me.

Cheers

G

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:08 am

Ríl Bhéara, Dr. Gilbert's, Bunker Hill...

Best,
N

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:13 am

For me it's not so much a tune as a style. If I could play ornaments like Chris Norman, or play with the swing of Deirdre Havlin, I'd be happy just to play the simplest tunes.

If I had to choose a tune by each of them that I'd like to play, it'd be the Fairy Queen by Chris and King George by Deirdre.

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:37 am

Nanohedron wrote:Ríl Bhéara, Dr. Gilbert's, Bunker Hill...

Bunker Hill's one of the hardest ones I've ever tried (learning it on whistle). You have a good recording to recommend?

Carol

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:41 am

Way back when I learned to play Baroque and Blue by Claude Bolling. That was an achievement since I had to learn it by ear. It took a long time because I had only been playing flute for a year or two. I even learned the basic piano lines.
I havent' played it in awhile.

I don't currently have a nemesis of music. Perhaps I'll find one.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:12 pm

cskinner wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Ríl Bhéara, Dr. Gilbert's, Bunker Hill...
Bunker Hill's one of the hardest ones I've ever tried (learning it on whistle). You have a good recording to recommend?

Carol

Carol, the only recording I've heard yet was, I believe, on an Altan CD somewhere, and played on button accordion. I recall the liner notes as mentioning the setting to be 'unusual', but compared to the sheet music I'm using for the bones of it, I don't find it all that far and away, as memory serves. But my memory is getting dicey these days.

Quite the wild tune, eh? I love it. I'll rummage around and see if I can find it. A caveat, though: the setting is complex, and might prove difficult for ear-learning.

Best,
N

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:37 pm

cskinner wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Ríl Bhéara, Dr. Gilbert's, Bunker Hill...
Bunker Hill's one of the hardest ones I've ever tried (learning it on whistle). You have a good recording to recommend?

Carol

I'd recommend learning it from the first recording that made it popular: "All-Ireland Champions: Violin," by Paddy Canny, P.J. Hayes, Peter O'Loughlin, and Bridie Lafferty. It was recorded in 1959 or so; re-released a couple of years ago on CD by Shanachie with the new title of "An Historic Recording of Irish Traditional Music From County Clare and East Galway." Bunker Hill is on there, and they play it nice and straight. This was, and remains, a very influential album, and is the source of many tunes and sets that remain popular today.

Actually I just checked Shanachie's site and you can listen to Bunker Hill in RealAudio (it's the second track on their CD version of the album; the original album's tracks were ordered differently).

Go here:

http://www.shanachie.com/album.cfm?id=76001

and you'll see Bunker Hill/ The Bush Reel in the track listing with a Realaudio link next to them.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:42 pm

Thanks, Brad! I'll be looking for that one.

johnkerr · Post by **johnkerr** » Mon Apr 14, 2003 1:24 pm

Bunker Hill is indeed a tricky tune on flute, mainly due to all of those C naturals in the second part that scream out for ornamentation. I was in class with Catherine McEvoy at Gaelic Roots several years back when she asked if there were any tunes that we wanted her to play for us to record. Someone asked for Bunker Hill. She said something to the effect of "Oh, I don't really play that tune. It's a very difficult one on the flute." And then she proceeded to lay down a flawless setting of it for us. She triple-glottal-stopped all the C naturals.

I wouldn't call this one of my showpiece tunes, but it shows up fairly often at sessions I frequent. If I'm not too many pints into the session I can usually do a halfway decent job of it. For the C naturals in the second part I do a quick C-D-C flick. Seems to work...

Chiff and Fipple Forums

If I could play THIS tune, I'll be satisfied....

If I could play THIS tune, I'll be satisfied....

okay, so it isn't trad...