Irish Washerwoman & Merrily Kiss The Quaker critique

[Whistling Archer]

I could use a bit of critique on these tunes. I know my thumb moving is wrong, Im working on it. But what suggestions ,critique , or complaints do you have that could help me?
Thanks Steve Jeter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiCGpcTR ... annel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC0ID_d1 ... annel_page

[izzarina]

Hi Steve!

I don't really have suggestions (sorry!) because I don't know much about mandolin technique, but I did really enjoy listening! I liked Irish Washerwoman on the mandolin...I can't seem to get it right on my fiddle. Ah well...

Very nice, at least to me

[Whistling Archer]

I just learned that Irish Washerwoman is a offensive tune to some. My apologies, I didnt know. Bad history it seems.
Thanks
Steve

[MTGuru]

Sounds nice to me, Steve. You have a nice, easy flow on the instrument. Just a couple of questions / comments:

o Are you avoiding trebles (triplets) for stylistic reasons, or because you're not yet comfortable with them?

o Your melodic setting of Merrily Kiss is nice, but a bit unusual. And I usually hear it played AABBCC. What is the source of your unusual setting?

o There's not much dynamic pulse and lift; it's basically all played with the same volume and string attack. I'd normally expect to hear more variety to emphasize the phrases and melody contour.

I'm no mando expert, just some thoughts.

[Whistling Archer]

MT, thanks, that what I was looking for.
Triplets , I guess I dont know where to put them in.
Merrily , I copied it off a guitar cd , I thought I had it correct, but in the future I will do the aa,bb,cc way. Glad to know whats correct.
too much the same attack & stuff:, I guess its just me not being any better than I am at this time.
I really got to get some music to listen to, I just dont know much bout ITM, but want to.
Thanks for input.
Steve

[MTGuru]

I copied it off a guitar cd , I thought I had it correct

Nothing wrong with that, there's no right or wrong setting. Your setting is nice, and it's yours now. Just wondering who was the guitarist?

[Whistling Archer]

I copied it by listening to Orrin Starr on a Flatpickin mag. cd, but if its me or Orrin , its got to be me wrong, that guy is incredible. I cant read reg. music , and sometimes tabs Ive seen seem so sparse. But Im working it out.
At least I play my mando better than I whistle

although, I do so want to whistle good. Working on that too.
Steve

"At least I play my mando better than I whistle " ,, reading that , I sounded a little smarta@@, didnt mean it that way

[buddhu]

I just learned that Irish Washerwoman is a offensive tune to some. My apologies, I didnt know. Bad history it seems.
Thanks
Steve

Don't worry about it. It's a perfectly good jig. It's music. I play it occasionally on mando and whistle and I've been in Irish pubs where people have played it.

There are many conflicting accounts of the history and origin - IMO, none of them are undisputed and the further back one goes, the foggier the story becomes. There are claims that it was created for the score of a stage production that was insulting to Irish people, but the tune actually seems to pre-date that play by quite a while.

Then there's the played-ad-nauseum argument. Stuff that, if it's fun to play then play it. Audiences love it. They don't care that up-themselves musicians might consider it beneath them to play it as it has become a little cliched. They are just delighted to hear a tune they recognise. It makes them feel included in the performance/session or whatever.

Pardon the lack of specific performance critique. I'm not a good enough musician to be qualified to offer it.

Keep picking, mate. You're doing a good job so far.

[StevieJ]

I'm not a mandolin player either, although I do toy around on one. I thought you played the tunes very nicely and cleanly but like MTG I kept wanting more attack on key notes. Sing the tune to yourself - you'll feel where the strong beats want to be.

You have an unusual picking technique - your thumb joint seems to flex each time you pick and while I know a very good banjo player who uses a very similar action, I wonder whether you aren't going to limit yourself eventually. A more conventional pick hold would certainly give you more power, I think. [Edit... just noticed you mentioned that, sorry.]

Did you know that many banjo and mandolin players in Irish music use a down-down-up picking pattern for jigs? A number of good players have insisted to me that this is _the_ way to get a good jig rhythm.

I've always resisted the idea because, as a fiddle player, it sounds daft and I would think a good player could emphasise the rhythm exactly as he or she wanted without resorting to that. But at some point, when the nth person tells you something, you need to wonder whether you ought to take notice.

HTH
Steve

[liestman]

Steve, in terms of triplets and where to put them in: It is best just to try them here and there and find which place add to the tune and avoid the ones that just clutter it up. One way to think of SOME places to put them: replace long notes or repeated notes (same note, two or three times in a row) with triplets. I have had a piping instructor who said you can often rethink a tune and make the long notes into many short ones, so the "formerly easy" notes of a tune become the hardest. Another place to put triplets is when you have two notes in a row that have pitch in between them that is not in the tune, and simply turn it into a triplet with the "missing" note added.

Where do you play? I live in Kingwood and play a lot of Irish mando stuff, although mostly with an English/Irish/Scottish/American session that meets on the west side of Houston. We should get together!

[Ceili_whistle_man]

Steve,
Have you tried palying the 'Irish washer woman' as a hornpipe?
It gives a lot more opportunity for dropping in a few triplets and such.