Returning from Ireland

Sam Amidon's top ten favorite Irish fiddle records:

1. tommy peoples and paul brady - the high part of the road

2. tommy peoples and daithi sproule - the iron man

3. frankie gavin and alec finn - frankie gavin and alec finn

4. paddy glackin - in full spate

5. kathleen collins - traditional music of ireland

6. tommy potts - the liffey banks

7. kathleen collins - traditional irish music of ireland

8. james byrne - the road to glenlough

9. mary bergin - feadog stain (she's a pennywhistler, not a fiddler, but this is such a killin' record! i have learned a huge amount from it)

10. martin hayes - martin hayes

about 60 percent of my education as an irish-style fiddle player consisted of obsessively listening to, and trying to imitate, the opening two tracks of "high part of the road." i don't think i ever listened past the fourth track - there was enough information jammed into those first few tune sets to keep me going for years. it was overwhelming! the way tommy compresses and expands time by rushing, holding back, or leaving pauses in unpredictable places; the way his ornamentation is pretty heavy but always in the service of phrasing and emotional effect; the spontaneity of the (subtle) melodic variations.

later, i would put on "the iron man" or "frankie gavin and alec finn," and just play along with each from beginning to end once i'd learned the tunes.

paddy glackin and kathleen collins were more things i absorbed by osmosis; the martin hayes and tommy potts records are more inspiring for having a distinctive aesthetic vision and less something i actually tried to imitate or learn directly from. i just heard the james byrne record for the first time recently. he's a donegal fiddler who passed away last year. beautiful record.

Sam

Some thoughts on listening

I am a traditional Irish fiddle player and learned my music from Seamus Connolly, a great and highly respected fiddler from County Clare. It was a real honor for me to get to know Seamus and to have his guidance as I worked to unravel the riddles of traditional Irish music. Possibly the most valuable lessons I learned from Seamus were about the art of listening, for in addition to sharing with me his insights about fiddle technique and elements of style, he spoke frequently about how his listening to musicians of an earlier generation had informed his playing.

Like many Irish musicians of his era, Seamus had been profoundly influenced by the recordings of the great fiddlers of County Sligo: Paddy Killoran, James Morrison and above all, Michael Coleman. He had spent a great deal of time as a young man studying those recordings and learning to execute the intricate bowing and ornamentation that were characteristic of Sligo fiddling. Because these Sligo elements were what Seamus had worked most consciously to learn as his own personal fiddle style evolved, they were what he taught about in fiddle lessons. I was grateful for the time he spent with me listening to Coleman recordings and interpreting what we heard together. I also applied the listening techniques Seamus taught me to my hearing of my own playing, and after awhile I realized that although Seamus used all the bowings and ornaments of Sligo music, his music had a very different sound. There was a flow to his music - a little something about the way he moved from one bow stroke to the next - that was distinct from what the Sligo players were doing. After musing about this awhile, I turned my attention to some of the fiddlers that Seamus had listened to and admired as a young boy (Sean Ryan, Bobby Casey and Paddy Canny to name a few). Listening, enjoying and studying the music of these older generation musicians gave me a deeper insight into Seamus's playing. I could hear that further back in his musical history, before he was introduced to the music of Sligo, he adopted a musical voice that came from his exposure to the musicians of his region, and that voice has remained with him ever since.

I share this chapter of my musical journey to illustrate the advice that I would offer to any traditional musician: Listen. Not only to the musicians that you admire, but to the musicians that they admired as well. Don't settle for the inspiration you derive from your musical hero; look to your hero's heroes too. What you hear will very likely delight and intrigue you. Remember that the traditional musician you love came to where he/she is largely because of how, and to whom, he/she listened. By listening a bit farther back in time you will deepen your understanding of what it really is about your musical hero's music that speaks to you. The choices you make as you develop your own musical style will draw from ever richer sources, and you will become as real contributor to your tradition as you draw from its past to create music that is new and uniquely your own.

Laurel Martin

Hi Fiddlers!  I am Bonnie Bewick, and since I am on this website, I will first say that I am a fiddler, then mention that I am also a classical violinist who plays in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  I have some thoughts on classically trained musicians playing folk music.  I teach violin, and I head a group of  classical plus folk musicians called Classical Tangent, and I am finding that my biggest challenge with these very talented and earnest people is their rhythm.  You'd think that BSO musicians' rhythm would be just rock solid, but it seems that when we get out of our comfort zone we get all tight and pushy.  I know I am included in this, however, I spend alot of time making folk music my comfort zone, so I see the problem resolving.  It's never any problem for classically trained musicians (let's call them "ctm's" to save characters) to learn the notes.  Then they start to get the swing of it, then the bowing technique, as in, that chugging kind of sound.  BUT it is almost impossible to get them to lock into a groove.  When we work on it, I label it "goal-oriented", but that's just a nice way of saying "You are rushing like crazy!"  

Probably the key is just listening to great fiddling.  A few times through Kevin Burke's "If the Cap  Fits" should get 'em going in the right direction.  

I want to play just like that!!!  Sadly, I never will, because I've been ubertrained!  

Other suggestions I have involve holding the fiddle lower, so one isn't gripping it so much with the chin.  Playing along with a recording so you can hear some backup.  Drinking a beer.  Oh, and of course TAPPING YOUR FOOT.  This is a BIG no no in classical music.  It's VERY difficult to get ctm's to tap, stomp, bop, thump, or move in a groovy way.  I'm no Paula Abdul myself-I really had to work on getting that foot going!  The next thing I need to work on is making a cool sounding noise when we are about to switch tunes!  Any suggestions?

Cheers to you all!!

Bonnie

Childsplay Fiddlers Blog

Welcome to the new Childsplay Blog!

We are going to try something new on the Childsplay web site … an actual fiddler’s blog from the community of fiddlers who make up Childsplay. One aspect of the group that is often commented on is how much fun we are having when we are performing on stage (we are!); much of the pleasure comes from playing music with each other, the community part of the experience. So now we would like to try and extend that community feeling and rotate members of the group who take the wheel of the blog and write about whatever aspect of their music they choose to. Our thought is to rotate once a week and let a different fiddler talk about topics that range from how they practice their music, their music influences, their most recent tune they learned, bowing techniques and so on. It is our hope that you find this of interest and of course feel free to comment on.


Bob Childs