wtb - irish music on the classical flute - DVD

[sponge]

Hi all,

I have been playing a lot more music on my new Muramatsu Boehm flute, have held of playing loads of Irish stuff, but then I found a link to the Kells band website, Brian Mcoy has created what looks like a great tutorial dvd called ( irish music on the classical flute) its seems from
my search that its only available stateside from filmbaby.com.

so I was just checking if any one had a copy they might want to sell UK or USA, the filmbaby site says there is 14 day wait.
so if you have one let me know Happy to pay new price, just to get one quicker.

cheers Mark

[MarkP]

Make any sheet music sound "Irish" instantly

...if only!
http://www.instruction.kellsband.com/le ... Flute.html

[lingpupa]

It's only by implication that you've asked for opinions from the mass of us all, but in fact you have done just that. So here's mine: save your money.
Listen to good people playing Irish style flute (regardless of the style of their instrument). Play. Absorb. Watch. Listen again. Don't be fooled into thinking that there is just a handful of "secret tricks" that will make you into a real ITM player if only you shell out a few more tens of bucks.
Confession: that site really gets up my nose. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

[piperman07]

I don't see anything wrong with this as an aid, yes, definitely listen to people that play Irish Trad, and especially on the Boehm flute.
If there are some tips to playing Trad on a Boehm flute, then all the better, because, there is a different way of playing when playing a Boehm flute than a simple system flute. And coming from one to the other, isn't straight forward. Like I said if there is some advice and tips in making the transition, then it wouldn't be bad to check this out. Just my two cents.

Steve

[an seanduine]

Get out yer Joannie Madden, and rip some tracks to mp3. Get out yer computer/mp3 player and a pair of comfortable earphones. Get The Amazing Slow Downer/Audacity/ or Perfect Practice.
Then play in unison w/ Joannie until yer ears bleed. When you hear your 'clinkers' you'll know she's doin' somethin' different. Slow her down until you can figure out what it is that she's doin'. That way it will get into your bones.

Bob

[Feadoggie]

Get out yer Joannie Madden, and ... play in unison w/ Joannie until yer ears bleed.

Now there's a suggestion.

Feadoggie

[pipersgrip]

I think the hardest thing would be retraining your finger to hit the Fsharp. I think it is xxx oox on the classical flute. Is there a classical flute that will let you hit the Fsharp like you can on a simple system flute?

But, I actually find classical flutes way easier to blow in than I do Irish flutes. That is a plus side, and all the advantages of the keys.

[Denny]

no....but you can get by with OOO OXO

[Cubitt]

Other than some fingering changes, there is absolutely no difference in how you play a simple system or Boehm flute. If you know how to play Boehm flute, you are home free. The tone is a factor of how you blow. Blow like you do into a wooden flute. You won't get the same sound, of course, because the instruments are not the same, but who cares? I play both flutes and I find the keys annoying when playing ITM. I like the feel of my eight-key wooden flute much better. I like the sound of a conical bore. I like that the wooden flute is in D. These are preferences that have nothing to do with "sounding Irish." If you prefer Boehm, play Boehm - there's nothing special you have to learn that you don't have to learn on a wooden flute. You won't "sound Irish" on wooden flute either if you don't know how to play in the Irish style, so just pick your poison and play.

[jemtheflute]

Coincidentally, I just did this! Read the blurb and the comments too - partially relevant to this thread.

Kinda illustrates Cubitt's points, I feel.

One can do it, but why? I respect Joannie Madden, but am not a fan (at least re: fluting)! I left the Böhm and adapted to Simple System for precisely these kinds of reasons. Couldn't make the right sound(s) on a Böhm, even when I had a wooden one. (Whether I ever have made or ever will make "the right sounds" may be a moot point, I know. )

If you have the right gear, then use it, I say. It's a bit different if you haven't - I have no problem with Böhm fluters trying to get into ITM and to play it as idiomatically as they can (unlike the video clip mine was a response to - go see!). On the contrary, I'd encourage them to have a go, but I'd expect that most would soon see the point in getting a Simple System flute if they wanted to get serious about the genre.

[drewr]

I may be/sound obtuse or completely ignorant, but why do people put themselves through the trouble of trying to figure out ways to play ITM on a classical silver Boehm flute? Would it not be considerably easier to just buy even an inexpensive (non-keyed) simple-system flute so you can play this music properly with correct ornamentation? Going down the flute/ITM road is difficult enough without shooting yourself in the foot from the beginning by selecting an inappropriate instrument.

(Yes, yes, I know Madden does this and does this very well, but I've wondered the same thing about her also, to tell the truth.)

[jemtheflute]

@drewr

sponge who initiated this thread has had quite a few keyed Simple System flutes and keyless flutes too and I don't think he is actually without one at present (sponge?).

Also there are of course myriads of metal Böhm fluters out there with standard metal flutes, the vast majority of whom have never really heard of ITM and have no interest in it. However, should some such hear some ITM, like it and be interested enough to investigate and to want to try to play a bit, realistically they are going to do that on the instrument they have to hand and with which they are familiar. As even the cheapest half-decent keyless wooden (or Delrin) flutes are more expensive than the average beginner's Böhm, plus most of them aren't even aware of our world of flutes and fluting and would have to research to find a suitable toot (they are unlikely to be able to walk into their local music dealer and buy anything worth having.... and if they can get anything, it is most likely to be a P******* table-leg which will defeat them or put them off....), how can we cavill if they try out on what they have? Better to encourage, educate about the idiom, and then let them come maybe to the better suited instrument in due time, when experience and growing awareness may have taught them the limitations and contextual unsuitability of what they will otherwise naturally think of as a "superior" instrument.

[lingpupa]

As it happens I was listening to Joannie M just last week.
Am I cloth-eared, or just honest? How many of us honestly believe that in a blind test, and not cued up with hints about what was happening, we would realise that she is playing metal, not wood? I know I wouldn't. She is indeed the living proof that the sound has more to do with the player than with the flute.
Nina is no doubt good in *her* way, but with that style she'd come across as a talented beginner if she turned up at a session!

[pipersgrip]

I actually asked Joannie that question about why she chose the silver flute over the wooden one. Her response was that back when she was younger, there was no email. And, there really weren't that many makers in America back then. It was really hard to find a decent maker. She got one(maybe two) from a maker in Ireland, and the flute kept on splitting in NY. It was really a hastle to keep one. So she picked up the classical flute and learned on that. One day she was talking to a great Irish musician(I don't remember who) about switching to the wooden flute again, and he advised her that the way she played that classical flute(which is awesomely), there was really no need to switch to wooden. So after that advice from that great musician, she decided to stick with the classical. It has been about two years since I heard the story, and if you want the exact details, I would ask her. But that is pretty much the story I remember her telling me when I asked her.

[piperjoe]

Firstly, I recently bought the aforementioned DVD. I wasn't overly impressed.

Brian is a fine player, but to spend a sizeable amount of the DVD's time giving a tour of the Irish pipes is not real useful.

His whole section on producing a ITM tone, which he does admirably by the way, boils down to one quote, "it's a more focused tone".

For someone completely ignorant about ITM the DVD could be valuable. Listening to those who play ITM on the Boehm system flute would be of more use, in my opinion. Listen to Noel Rice, Joanine Madden, Chris Abel, and Illias Kinsman-Blake (Scottish) to get some idea how good a silver flute can sound in ITM.


Secondly, as one who recently had to give up the Irish flute (and, after 45 years, the Highland pipes) due to a diminished sense of feeling in my fingers, part of the diabetes package, I'm grateful that I can still play the closed-hole silver flute. By adding a wooden headjoint I am getting a tone that is very close to my Casey Burns 8 key African Blackwood flute. Without the squeaks from not hitting the holes square on. A side benefit is the silver flute is more balanced and better in tune.

Joe D.