How do I rate my playing?

[kevin m.]

On a good day I'd maybe rate a passable,other days poor but learning.
I don't want to talk about the days when I've posted on 'clips and Snips'!

[burnsbyrne]

The painful truth comes when you go back and listen later. Even recordings I produced just two weeks ago make me wince. Recordings from a few years ago will make me hang my head in shame.

That sounds like an awfully "glass half empty" way of looking at it. Just think how much you've improved since then! I'm still only a "Passable," but the way I keep myself inspired (besides just having fun playing the music) is to think of how much better I am than I used to be. That may not be saying much, but it's something!


Steven

I think it's important to do both. I look back at how far I've come but I also try to measure how far I have left to go. Looking back gives a feeling of accomplishment and confidence that I will be able to keep improving. Looking ahead keeps me focused and moving toward the indefinite goal of playing the best I can.
Mike

[carrie]

As my whistle playing has improved my assessment of it has dropped, honestly. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, haven't grasped. After two and a half years of more or less focused playing and practicing, I'd put myself in the poor but learning category. I agree with Chuck Clark, though, about the categories.

Carol

[Bloomfield]

As my whistle playing has improved my assessment of it has dropped, honestly. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, haven't grasped. After two and a half years of more or less focused playing and practicing, I'd put myself in the poor but learning category. I agree with Chuck Clark, though, about the categories.

Carol

my feeling exactly.

I also have a hunch that no matter what the categories and the polled population, you'll end up with a Gaussian bell distribution of self-assessments.

[Wombat]

I really would have to give two quite different answers to get this right. I've answered for ITM and my judgment was: poor but learning. For other styles, which I've been playing for many years, although not on whistle, I'm much better. There's not much to go by playing other styles though.

What I'm saying is that my technique getting around a whistle is pretty good but my ability to play Irish music convincingly has a long way to go. I've played saxophone for a long time so the mechanics of whistle playing didn't take very long to master in styles that I've been playing for decades. But Irish music is a big challenge and I'm working hard at it on several instruments.

[jim_mc]

I don't know how to rate my playing, except to say that I'm really enjoying it. I'm learning a lot along the way, too.

[feadog39]

I consider myself pretty decent; Mary Bergin need not fear.

Five years ago, my goal was to gain in technique, accuracy, and abililty, and by that standard I have achieved much of what I sought; yet, now, my goal is changed, and the grail I now pursue is called authenticity, the pursuit of which is greatly more challenging, all the more that I am located so far from the ultimate spring and source of this our art.

By that standard, as I am frequently reminded, my playing is found greatly wanting, and will likely always be, yet there is great pleasure and satisfaction in the pursuit of this goal, and I think even great worth, whether or not it proves finally attainable. For like the Greek protagonists of old, my playing carries within itself vital and insurmountable flaws, which, were it not for my stubborn and blind persistance, would surely prove the end of this endeavor.

And so I now retire myself from such introspection, and return to the daily business at hand.

--James

James, i think you put yourself in the wrong catagory. You belong in the "Move Over Mary Bergin" catagory. Why? Well, when you say you are pursuing the "holy grail" or "authenticity" this means that you are at least on some level directing your playing and development beyond the lights of any one player. You're saying "Mary Bergin, step aside, Mr. Peeples is in town and i got somthing to say."

I am at the same place in my playing (i'm the arrogant sob who had the audacity check the 'Move over Mary Bergin' box). Or in other words, I'm at what i consider a 'time to kill the buddha stage.' My technical skills are decent--although they always are in need of vigilance and monitoring and tweaking. I can record myself and not cringe. So the question i am trying to ask is less about "did i excute that roll right" but more about "does that roll really belong there; what happens if i get rid of it or put it someplace else; what happens if i really speed the tune up or slow it down; do i like this tune? why?" It's an exciting yet weird place to be at. It requires perhaps what Taoism calls "non-action" which is not passivity but an intense kind of receptivity to what is "beyond the ten thousand things" i.e. the rhythm, rolls, the whistle i'm playing, whether i'm play good or bad, what i want for dinner, when i'm getting my next hit on the crack pipe etc. (Been reading eastern philosophy for kicks lately)

About recording. It can be brutal, folks. I remember recordng myself a number of years ago and i was so stressed about hearing myself play that i would sprint down to the other end of my apartment and listen from a distance--for if i was too close up i'd hear every horrible debilitating blemish. Recording yerself is a good thing, but only in small doses and...from a distance.

[RonKiley]

I play poorly but I am trying to learn. I am much better than I was last year. My goal is to learn something new everyday. I don't mean a new tune or anything like that just one little thing I diidn't know before. Recording is stressfull but it can be alleviated by heavy processing. I can make myself sound great as long as it doesn't sound like me playing anymore. The most important thing to me is that the whistle is the cheapest and most effective tranquilizer I know of.

Ron

[fancypiper]

I think I'm pretty good, but the people in the audience (that can ignore the bones, bodhran and pipes {commented on in that order} that I also play) that ask about that "tiny lovely flute" seem to love it.

I always keep a few sets of plastic bones and tinwhistles to sell or give to interested folks.

Of course, Mary Bergin, Sean Potts, Vinnie Killduff, Sean Ryan (on Susatos yet!) and some other misc. players I have played with through the years have nothing to fear from me (yet).

[The Weekenders]

Stuart Smalley won't let me contribute to this thread because I might "should" all over myself. I'm good enough, smart enough and goshdarnit, people like our band.

Seriously, more reliable rolls and to stop speeding up in the spotlight would make me better (check out Sins thread). As hard as I might try, I don't see getting as good as Mary Bergin in this lifetime, but that's okay. As Mayor Clint (Eastwood) says in his tight-throated voice: "A man's got to know his limitations."

My main goal is to let the music flow and not impede it with clumsiness or uncertainty. That IS attainable.

[BoneQuint]

I can make myself sound great as long as it doesn't sound like me playing anymore.

You said a mouthful there. It's an insidious temptation, isn't it?

[jking]

so i bashfully ticked "people love me." Ive been playing for about 7-8 yrs now and find i am more refining my style now. Im definately no brian finnegan or a flowing mike mcgoldrick but i can hold my own in a session. I have had other whistlers ask for lessons etc but dont trust my teaching skills lol. Sometimes the playing seems more subconscious and having to think about it and explain it would be hard. Im at the point where i spend a good part of the session adding little improvisations which makes it alot more fun for me. That being said i make no claims to be a great, pro or totally traditional player

Jason

[DCrom]

Interesting poll, but the questions are poorly designed - no objective values to measure against.

I put myself down as "passable" - but there are days I sound pretty good, and other days that make me cringe.

Objectively? I know about 60 tunes at this point I can play from memory (though a few I might need to hear the first few notes to remember "Oh, *that* tune!).

Still working to improve my ornamentation - I've got basic cuts and taps down reasonably well, and I can throw in the occasional roll or cran, but I really need to go over a piece many times to get the ornaments in - except for the occasional cut or tap I can't throw them in spontaneously, and I've still got a long ways to go on timing the rolls and crans.

The swing? Sometimes I've got it, sometimes (more often, I'm afraid) I don't - but I'm working on it.

And people, sometimes, will stop to listen while I play outdoors, but I've never had the nerve to put out my hat yet. (I *do* sound better than a couple of buskers I heard in Cork, FWIW).

So am I poor-but-improving or passable? Compared to where I *was* I'm passable or better. Compared to where I hope to be someday, I'm a rank beginner. But I'm enjoying the journey.

[blackhawk]

I was playing a tune today and the police showed up wanting to know who was torturing that cat.

[McHaffie]

See now here's the thing... people really seem to love to listen to me play, however... how do you judge the quality of the audience based on the fact that there's noone else in the area that hey get to listen to a live whistle performer for the most part?

I'm getting better, but it's still really hard to place oneself the way they're stated. I went with the middle of the bell curve.


(Wince Wave... I LOVE IT!!!!)

Take care,
John