In great players you'll find many shades of emphasis on the backbeat and it can be subtle ... more like a de-emphasis of the downbeat. It can be down to simply ornamentation or bowing choices. Can think of a few great players who are all drive all the time, but it's hard for me to get into their music for the most part ... flashy brilliance but where's the heart in it? Still, there will be at least a touch of that backbeat in there, otherwise it wouldn't be rhythmically compelling. A lot of this is down to personal preference.
The best thing you can do is sit down and play with as many great players (of all instruments) as you can, you'll pick up on subtleties you could never glean from a book or even a recording. Since that's not so easy right now, the next best is playing along with recordings and trying to emulate the rhythmic style of the player. Concertina, box, and pipes are best, IMO, because there's such a clear fundamental that blends well with the flute and because there's a fixed pitch to play to (concertina and box at least) that will improve your intonation.
Hope this helps and best of luck.
Saxomophone wrote:I’m pretty new to this whole Irish Flute thing. Mostly I’ve been learning by playing along with recordings but I’ve started working out of a book. In the book it covers accenting the backbeat or upbeat or last note in a group of triplets. It says that the backbeat should be emphasized above notes that would normally get a melodic accent.
So I’m wondering if this is a hard and fast rule or just for the sake of education. I hear prominent backbeat in some players but not others and when I listen to recordings there are lots of times when the whole band is accenting downbeats and not bringing out the backbeat at all.
Anyone care to shed some light on this?