Larsen's Book: What's the straight dope?

[Wormdiet]

Mr. Larsen pays great attentions to details in his missive and, barring anything of similar work on this side of the ocean, I would presume it is a one-of-a-kind text.
But his attentiveness to detail is somewhat lacking on his covers as the original back of the book shows the great Matt Molloy holding his flute left handed! I trust Mr. Larsen has corrected this oversight. I wonder whether the originals are now worth more? I hope so!

What's so wrong with lefthanded???


I'm glad to see Molloy finally got around to the real way to play!



Actually when I went to see Gaelic Storm it took me a while to notice that the piper was a lefty (actually, really, a righty if you think about it.) Anyways, every time he had a solo I shouted "Lefty Pipers rule!" at the top of my lungs.

[jim stone]

Grey lives in Bloomington Indiana, where a lot of folkmusicians
have collected--there's a folklore Ph. D. at Indiana University;
also a terrific music school. Grey leads one of the several
sessions that meets in Bloomington each week, his
meets at the Runcible Spoon, a restaurant/coffee house.

Grey has a sort of theoretical mind, I think,
and has really thought deeply about flute and whistle
playing, especially ornamentation. This may explain
the relative complexity of his book, which was
a long time coming. He seems to have poured
the accumulated cogitations of decades into it.

He also plays a Casey Burns Bb/A blackwood flute.
Also he is very good on concertina, which he
also teaches.

Definitely Grey L is an institution worth
supporting--a lovely fellow and an excellent
teacher who has devoted
his life to this music.

[Doug_Tipple]

I might add that Matt Molloy is playing right-handed on the back cover of the edition that I own.

[maire]

Definately will check him out. I`m sort of bored with what I`m doing at the minute and something new might be just what the doc ordered, been playing with alot of pipers lately you see and I feel like I`m losing my flute style. After 15 years on the flute I think I`ll lose the will to live if that happens, anyway thanks for the enlightenment fellow flute trekkie.

maire.

[maire]

Definately will check him out Henke, I`m kind of bored with what I`m doing at the minute. Been playing with too many pipers of late you see, and I feel as though I`m losing my flute style. After 15 years of very hard slog I think I`d lose the will to live if that happened, a wee bit of something new might be just what the doc ordered.

[maire]

ooooooooops that was a bit like repeating a set in the session, told youse I was new to the whole thing. Sorry about that.

[AaronMalcomb]

Hi, Maire. You should try the Flute Players of Roscommon CD. Another suggestion would be the Wooden Flute Obsession Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
If you want a tune book try Vincent Broderick's "Turoe Stone". Click on the blue text for the links.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Paul Thomas]

Grey has a sort of theoretical mind, I think,
and has really thought deeply about flute and whistle
playing, especially ornamentation.

Hear him, hear him.

It's worth highlighting this, esp. for beginners. The notation for the ornamentation helps reinforce the percussive aspect of the ornamentation, and frees it from the baggage of baroque tradition, which is, in my mind, particularly ill-suited for these kinds of gestures which have more to do with rhythm and much less to do with pitch. It may not be as intuitively simple as the usual way of writing ornamentation, but it presents it more accurately--a service in the long run for those who take the time.

Had I a resource like Grey's book (which from a fluter's perspective is a "desert island" -class of book) when I started Irtrad I would have saved a lot of time spent in re-learning ornamentation.

Grey has indeed thought deeply about the problems inherent in representing an oral tradition in print...and surmounted many of them, thus making the knowledge available to those who aren't able to spend time with a teacher.

[BoneQuint]

It's worth highlighting this, esp. for beginners. The notation for the ornamentation helps reinforce the percussive aspect of the ornamentation, and frees it from the baggage of baroque tradition, which is, in my mind, particularly ill-suited for these kinds of gestures which have more to do with rhythm and much less to do with pitch.

I asked Grey about this last year at Lark Camp. He felt strongly that the notation should emphasize the rhythmic nature of ornaments. I see his point, especially for those who come from a classical point of view, using grace notes gives entirely the wrong idea. But he did agree for those who were experienced players, especially when precisely notating which finger is used for cuts (or even two-finger strikes), grace note notation is reasonable. One issue is that Grey almost exclusively uses the same finger to cut with: the finger two above the note being played (or one above in the case of B, of course). So there's no need for him to differentiate between different fingers used in cuts or rolls.

[jim stone]

Also he believes that crans should go like this:

on low D

xxxxxx
xxxxox
xxxoxx
xxxxox
xxxxxx
And so on for higher notes.
The 'o's signify cuts.
I've learned this and find it quite helpful.
note that it transfers nicely to the second
octave.

[Michel]

check this fingering too:
xxx xxx
xxx xox
xxx oxx
x(g sharp key)
xxx xxx

I mean the first two cuts like Grey Larsen does,the last one w the g sharp
key.sounds great on my flute on both octaves, especially in jigs.

[Henke]

The vented second octave D crann is lovely sometimes.

oxx xxx
oxx xox
oxx oxx
oxx xox
oxx xxx
for example.

[chas]

Larsen's notation is actually a bit more detailed than the standard Baroque notation. If you find a good, faithful score for a Baroque flute piece, all you'll see is a bunch of + signs indicating ornaments. The plus sign just means "ornament this note," most of the composers just left it up to the players what ornaments to put in. Some of the less faithful reproductions will put in suggested ornaments, those even less faithful than that will simply put in the trills, grace notes, etc.

[AaronMalcomb]

Check out Bill Ochs' article on notation and Grey's method in the June 2004 C&F Newsletter. Though I appreciate what Grey is attempting with his method, I was persuaded by Bill Ochs' article.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Cathy Wilde]

... and while you're at it, if you haven't checked out Bill Och's Irish Tinwhistle Tutor (I'm pretty sure that's the title), you might want to .... I found it quite helpful some years ago (not to mention pretty funny).