Mike Rafferty played a Boehm for years due to a dearth of available quality wood flutes at the time (70's, 80's) Nobody would dare give him a hard time either.
Corin
Moral Support Needed
I think the subtlety and musicality of Eva Cassidy's Danny Boy is a lesson to improvisers everywhwere, however good they think they are .I recommended it to a virtuoso violinist but he was too snooty to listen .If he could do on the violin what she did the experience would have fed through to everything else he did, to great advantage .
The same would apply to the flute,no doubt .
The same would apply to the flute,no doubt .
I think the subtlety and musicality of Eva Cassidy's Danny Boy is a lesson to improvisers everywhwere, however good they think they are .I recommended it to a virtuoso violinist but he was too snooty to listen .If he could do on the violin what she did the experience would have fed through to everything else he did, to great advantage .
The same would apply to the flute,no doubt .
The same would apply to the flute,no doubt .
For me it's not a question of should or shouldn't: it's that I hear in traditional music this lilt, this rise and fall and swing--nothing else quite like it in the world--and I *want* it, have to try to find it in my playing. It wasn't always that way, though. I felt somewhat as you do a few years ago, but then I really tried to listen to the critics and understand. As long as you've done that, I don't see why you can't go forward with resolve in whatever way feels right to you; if you haven't, I don't know how helpful any reassurance you can get here will be, because I sense that some of the nagging you feel comes from within.
I'm sure you have much more experience with all of this than I do, so I want you to know I offer this respectfully and emphasize it is just my own view and experience.
Carol
I'm sure you have much more experience with all of this than I do, so I want you to know I offer this respectfully and emphasize it is just my own view and experience.
Carol
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Henke
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Who knows what is really traditional anyway, and what defines authentic?? There are sertain things that comes to mind to me as not being very traditional or pure, but playing the flute you prefer, the way you prefer and give your own interpretation of the music strikes me as pretty traditional and authentic. Isn't that what people have done for centuries? Hell, if people a couple of hundred years ago reasoned as some people do today about what is pure and authentic, the flute wouldn't even have a place in Irish tradition.
Just keep doing your thing I say.
Hang in there.
Just keep doing your thing I say.
Hang in there.
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Nanohedron
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Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
A friend of ours has an Abell blackwood flute.
Oh, my.
You might, by the way, consider playing
a blackwood Boehm flute, or a blackwood
simple system flute.
Ornamentation is likely
going to be faster and easier
on the latter. This would go some
distance towards appeasing the
barbarians and simple system flutes
are very lovely.
Oh, my.
You might, by the way, consider playing
a blackwood Boehm flute, or a blackwood
simple system flute.
Ornamentation is likely
going to be faster and easier
on the latter. This would go some
distance towards appeasing the
barbarians and simple system flutes
are very lovely.
-
Nanohedron
- Moderatorer
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Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
Yeah, I recall a recording of Noel playing Ríl Bhéara in A, not sounding squeaky, AND it sounded like a wooden flute to me, damn my ears. I was very surprised to learn it was a metal Boehm. The man can control his flute, no question.peeplj wrote:If you think Boehm system flutes are in any way limiting to Irish music, you should give a listen not only to Joannie but also to Noel Rice of Baal Tinne. Good, good stuff. Wicked good playing.
--James
I know that there are people who play ITMpeeplj wrote:If you think Boehm system flutes are in any way limiting to Irish music, you should give a listen not only to Joannie but also to Noel Rice of Baal Tinne. Good, good stuff. Wicked good playing.
--James
wonderfully on Boehms; still I thought that
simple system flutes make ornamentation
easier and wood sounds more traditional,
at least in the hands of many amateurs
like myself. But I don't play Boehm flute
so I don't really know.
Also, if one is being mocked for playing
a Boehm in ITM settings, and really doesn't
like it, one remedy
is to go wooden simple system. I know this
isn't what one is supposed to say...still,
it's an option that might solve the problem.
It's unlikely that anybody is going to
get bent out of shape because somebody
at a session playing an Irish flute
is ornamenting only lightly. Best
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rama
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"style of play" is what essentially matters. to go into a session of classical players playing classical music and to play in my itrad way would be a little intrusive to their session and perhaps disrespectful to them especially if they aren't really all that interested in irtrad to begin with. it wouldn't matter what type of flute (boehm vs. wooden) i was playing.
just as a classical player (doesn't matter if its boehm or wooden flute that they're playing) crashing an itrad session and expecting approval and acceptance ... might be unrealistic.
i don't think it matters so much as what type of flute but rather how it is played, the style of play and the context in which it is played.
a classical player will probably sound classical on a hamilton flute even though the hamilton flute is often asscociated with itrad fluteplaying, and the opposite would be true as well. so i wonder if the focus of this thread being placed on boehm flutes is really is missing the mark. maybe it should be on the style of play of the player and not on the type of flute and on the context in which the flute is being played as well.
just as a classical player (doesn't matter if its boehm or wooden flute that they're playing) crashing an itrad session and expecting approval and acceptance ... might be unrealistic.
i don't think it matters so much as what type of flute but rather how it is played, the style of play and the context in which it is played.
a classical player will probably sound classical on a hamilton flute even though the hamilton flute is often asscociated with itrad fluteplaying, and the opposite would be true as well. so i wonder if the focus of this thread being placed on boehm flutes is really is missing the mark. maybe it should be on the style of play of the player and not on the type of flute and on the context in which the flute is being played as well.
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caitlin ruadh
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Thank you, all
Thank you all for your wonderful replies! It really helps.
regarding Noel Rice, I heard a lovely anecdote about why he plays a silver flute: apparently he was at a session sometime in the '70s and someone sat on his wood flute, destroying it. at the time it was much harder to get a wooden flute in this country, so he switched to silver and never looked back.
(Joanie Madden also ran over her entire sheaf (?) of whistles with her car, but the space-age polymer that they're made out of survived!)
Too many things have been said here for me to reply to all of them, but a few things do come to mind....
I was going to get an Abell Flute a couple years ago, but I had to have surgery instead when my name came to the top of the list...and I've never been able to get the money together since. Well, maybe I'll win the lottery. My main problem with wood is that my hands are small and strangely shaped and I just can't cover the holes (I can't really play a low whistle for that reason, either) A friend of mine has a Sam Murray flute which worked better for me...but it's always a question, do I want to spend the money on something I may never be able to play properly because of physical limitatons? Many wood enthusiasts tell me "just to keep working on it," but believe me, working on it isn't going to make me grow an extra digit or two!!
As far as playing out goes...of course I'm not really worried about the lunch ladies even knowing what traditional music sounds like, although I do like to do my best no matter who's listening. It was never the audiences that bothered me, it was the other players in other bands at festivals and stuff. And it's left me with this kind of...greasy feeling.
I do entirely strive for the best sound I can get. the thing that comes hardest is...that flow, the way irish flute music sounds like running water, don't know how else to describe it. Scottish flute playing not so much--scottish music in general is..more driving, choppier. I play flute more like a Cape Breton Fiddler fiddles, but I'd like to achieve that flow some day.
And in closing--the first gig I ever did, we had to play "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" about 15 times because people requested it.
Slainte
Caitlin
regarding Noel Rice, I heard a lovely anecdote about why he plays a silver flute: apparently he was at a session sometime in the '70s and someone sat on his wood flute, destroying it. at the time it was much harder to get a wooden flute in this country, so he switched to silver and never looked back.
(Joanie Madden also ran over her entire sheaf (?) of whistles with her car, but the space-age polymer that they're made out of survived!)Too many things have been said here for me to reply to all of them, but a few things do come to mind....
I was going to get an Abell Flute a couple years ago, but I had to have surgery instead when my name came to the top of the list...and I've never been able to get the money together since. Well, maybe I'll win the lottery. My main problem with wood is that my hands are small and strangely shaped and I just can't cover the holes (I can't really play a low whistle for that reason, either) A friend of mine has a Sam Murray flute which worked better for me...but it's always a question, do I want to spend the money on something I may never be able to play properly because of physical limitatons? Many wood enthusiasts tell me "just to keep working on it," but believe me, working on it isn't going to make me grow an extra digit or two!!
As far as playing out goes...of course I'm not really worried about the lunch ladies even knowing what traditional music sounds like, although I do like to do my best no matter who's listening. It was never the audiences that bothered me, it was the other players in other bands at festivals and stuff. And it's left me with this kind of...greasy feeling.
I do entirely strive for the best sound I can get. the thing that comes hardest is...that flow, the way irish flute music sounds like running water, don't know how else to describe it. Scottish flute playing not so much--scottish music in general is..more driving, choppier. I play flute more like a Cape Breton Fiddler fiddles, but I'd like to achieve that flow some day.
And in closing--the first gig I ever did, we had to play "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" about 15 times because people requested it.
Slainte
Caitlin