St. Louis Tionol April 4, 5 & 6 - Who's going?

norcalbob · Post by **norcalbob** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:21 am

Tjones wrote:The main thing I’d suggest to you is to set aside the dots for a while and Play along with a tune over and over until you pick it up. (My wife made use headphones) Over time it does get easier.
Have fun in St Louie!!

Tom

Thanks, Tom, for your informative post.

I've had the intention to close the tune books, but it is so tempting to just pick out a new tune and start playing by sight reading. I'd love to learn by ear, so I guess I'll get a good introduction to it with Kevin on Saturday.

I have found that even after I can play a tune pretty well from sheet music and am really just skimming over the written music, when I try to play it by ear, I can't. It is as if my visual memory dominates, and I will actually see the written music in my mind's eye instead of playing the tune from aural memory, because I didn't originally learn it by ear. So reading the dots really does impair my ability to commit a tune to memory.

I learned to play instruments by reading music: I wish I had learned by ear initially.

norcalbob · Post by **norcalbob** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:24 am

Meadhbh wrote:I am a dot reader myself and was surprised that I was able to pick up the tunes.

I'll be in his class too.

That's encouraging. I look forward to meeting you.

norcalbob · Post by **norcalbob** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:32 am

Cathy Wilde wrote:Just remember to record everything (or become a very good friend of someone else who's recording everything) because that's what'll keep you warm through the long, cold post-Tionol nights with only the ABC's to wrap around yourself ....

Looking forward to meeting you, and safe travels!

I've got my recorder ready to go. I'm looking forward to hearing you tear it up at one of the sessions, Cathy.

A little voice in my head keeps saying, get thyself to bed now!

It's a very long travel day tomorrow, Sacto to Atlanta to St. Louie by midnight...uh...I'm already feeling tired...

norcalbob · Post by **norcalbob** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:12 am

Packing up the flute....and I'm off to St. Louie

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:04 pm

norcalbob wrote:I leave at midday tomorrow for the St. Louis Tionol. I hope I will somehow recognize a few of you folks and get a chance to meet a few of you there.

I understand that Kevin has taught his most recent classes entirely by ear. If that's the case, I will probably be woefully lost since I'm addicted to the dots. I will most certainly be at the head of the inexperience level; so I may have to resort to faking it "air flute" style...

This will be my first time attending an Irish Festival; heck, I have never even been to a session either. Regardless, I'm looking forward to it.

So if you see a 61 year old guy from the Left Coast with a short white beard and brown hair (less by the week, it seems ), sheepishly wandering about, please say hello, it'll probably be me. I would very much enjoy meeting you.

dont forget to bring a recorder of some sort! even if you go to radioshock when you get there and get an olympus recorder, it will be worth it.

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:05 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:Just remember to record everything (or become a very good friend of someone else who's recording everything) because that's what'll keep you warm through the long, cold post-Tionol nights with only the ABC's to wrap around yourself ....

Looking forward to meeting you, and safe travels!

haha, great minds think alike!

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:21 pm

So Bob? We looked for you, but it was quite a shuffle; I was having a hard time keeping track of who I was let alone anyone else ... did you make it? Did you have fun? Hope so, and hope you got some sleep!

Bill Reeder · Post by **Bill Reeder** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:33 am

My wife and I ran into Norcalbob in the elevator of the Hampton Inn on Saturday following the workshops.

Norcalbob got hung up in Atlanta, had his luggage lost, and only arrived in St. Louis early Saturday evening, having been up for 36 hours straight. He did manage to get to the McGurk session on Sunday.

He mentioned that he was headed to Indianapolis afterwards so he's probably not home yet and not able to relate the details of his trip.

Meadhbh · Post by **Meadhbh** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:00 am

Bill Reeder wrote: Norcalbob got hung up in Atlanta, had his luggage lost, and only arrived in St. Louis early Saturday evening, having been up for 36 hours straight. He did manage to get to the McGurk session on Sunday.

I am so sorry to hear about that!!

And Bob, if you need the tunes and recordings from the class, let me know. I would be more than happy to share them with you.

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:38 am

Oh, that's awful!

Bob, I'm so sorry. I've been hearing horror stories about the airlines lately, but that's ... well, that's nuts. Did the ATA shutdown come into play?

Anyway, hope you're having fun in Indy so the trip wasn't a total loss. If you do see this in time and don't mind a hop down to Bloomington, send me a PM and I can try to hook you up with some folks there for a few tunes at least!

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:09 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:Oh, that's awful! Bob, I'm so sorry. I've been hearing horror stories about the airlines lately, but that's ... well, that's nuts. Did the ATA shutdown come into play?

Anyway, hope you're having fun in Indy so the trip wasn't a total loss. If you do see this in time and don't mind a hop down to Bloomington, send me a PM and I can try to hook you up with some folks there for a few tunes at least!

you're in bloomington? i dont get to go over that way very often, but i try to. i'll send you a pm next time i do!

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:30 pm

Actually, I'm down south in Kentucky, but we have a fair amount of musical cross-pollenation between our two locales. So PM if you're in either neighborhood!

Best,

cat.

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:37 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:Actually, I'm down south in Kentucky, but we have a fair amount of musical cross-pollenation between our two locales. So PM if you're in either neighborhood!

Best,

cat.

ohhh, i misread.

well, in the summer, i will definitely end up near cincinatti in late july early august for noel hill's camp. so i'll let you know when i'm coming on by!

norcalbob · Post by **norcalbob** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:57 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:Oh, that's awful! Bob, I'm so sorry. I've been hearing horror stories about the airlines lately, but that's ... well, that's nuts. Did the ATA shutdown come into play?

Thanks everyone for your kind sentiments regarding my travel nightmare. I tried my best to make it to St. Louis in time for Kevin's workshop, but as Bill stated above, my trip certainly didn't go as planned.

My Delta flight out of Sacramento was delayed an hour because of severe weather in the Atlanta area. We were placed in a holding pattern when we got close to Atlanta and spent another hour and a half circling above Georgia. When we finally landed, things were a mess because of all the delayed and canceled flights. There were a lot of weary looking people standing in long lines already.

My connecting flight to St. Louis changed gates four times and was repeatedly delayed until a final departure time of 1 a.m. Just when we were about to board the flight, they canceled it saying the pilot had been timed out and there weren't any more pilots available.

This marked the start of standing in the longest line I have ever been in in my life. There must have been a couple thousand passengers stranded with no rental cars or hotel rooms left available. I got in a line at 1:15 a.m. to see what my options were, and finally made it to the ticket counter at 5:30 a.m. The agent was able to get me a flight to Cincinnati and then to St. Louis by late Saturday afternoon.

I finally arrived in St. Louis but my luggage didn't, so I got in the lost luggage line for another hour. At this point I had been up for 30 some hours and was entering the zombie zone of diminished mental capacity. After waiting another 3 hours to see if my luggage would arrive, I gave up and stood in another line to get a rental car and headed for the hotel. Thank goodness the hotel wasn't too far and I arrived without causing a major pileup on the interstate.

All was not lost though, Jim Stone contacted me and he and his wife, Judy, graciously took me under their wing, and I had a great time visiting with Jim and trying different flutes from his collection. I also went with them to McGurk's for the Sunday sessions and had a wonderful time.

I'm so sorry to have missed meeting many of you; I was looking forward to it so much. I did speak briefly with Kevin at McGurk's and he seemed like such a nice, personable guy. I hope to have an opportunity to take a class with him in the near future.

The session really inspired me, and I have been playing my flute like crazy everyday since then. Maybe there is some hope for my ITM ambitions after all...

Irish Marine · Post by **Irish Marine** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:01 pm

I got in a line at 1:15 a.m. to see what my options were, and finally made it to the ticket counter at 5:30 a.m.

Wow! I've had some tough flights, but you have me beat Bob. That's tough-your post says a lot about you though. You're definitely a "cup half full" type of guy. After that mess you're still inspired to play. Sessions and Kevin can do that. Definitely take a class with him when you have the chance. He's great.