You may all know the fact that there are several ways to play a tune. Me and my partner normally tend to play reels quite fast at sessions and our gigs. But we often get the advice that we should play our tunes more slowly. As a quote: "It stil has to be the right speed to dance it..."
Of course, it's everyone's choice to play tunes the way he or she likes it but I think many musicians have got used to have a "session speed" and a slower speed for dance events...
What do you think about that?
I also got the advice of a classical fiddler that hornpipes in general should be played slowly but i do not agree with that: I think it's quite common to play tunes like Harvest Home (Cork Hornpipe) for example in a fast way.
We won't change our style but anyway...what do you think about that?
Personally, I like most jigs, reels and hornpipes played a little slower than most people play them at sessions. Perphaps that's why I like the practice of playing a strath spey then turning it into a blazing reel. It seems to give a good balance that satisfies all.
To me playing a tune is something like telling a good tale. You take your time and build up to the exciting part, you don't just blast through it from the start. That's not to say you speed up in the tune but maybe use more articulation or emphasis in some areas.
Play em as fast as you want at your gigs, but at sessions, be part of the team, and adapt to the speed of others. And like Michael and Mary point out, you can find pleasures at slower speeds that you might otherwise have missed.
I've heard Harvest Home played so fast nobody could keep up with the triplet runs and it sounds bloody awful that way. No swing, no anticipation, just the notes rushing out. Horrible.
But by far, for me, the main factor with speed is the players' ability to keep up with the pace. I don't know why, but so many players think they have to play at a certain speed, even though they don't have the skill to maintain it, and they lose control of the tune and it sounds like a mess. And it's not just beginners who do this---I've seen very experienced players do it too.
As for the dancing speed question, I've been told that playing for dancers often means playing much faster than even session speed.
In most cases, Speed Kills - articulation, soul, swing, and punter interest. Unless you're Frankie or Mairéad or one of the benighted few who can pull it off.
As I understand it, for dancing there are generally two different speeds (or ranges of speed) to go with two different complexities of dance.
For beginner dances and simple dances the tunes tend to be played quite fast but for more advanced dances the tunes are slowed right down with the dancers fitting more steps in to the routine.
I can't stand it in sessions when someone plays a tune at a speed that they can't play at and the rhythm disappears as it becomes a one-man competition to see how many notes you can fit into the shortest space of time. I also hate it when I start a set (doesn't happen often) and someone else joins in on a tune and decides to start cranking the speed up messing the tune and swing up in the process and throwing me off. This happened last night and I was about ready to wrap his banjo round his scrawny little neck!!
I was in Bells on Sunday evening and the first thing anyone said to me shortly after I arrived came from a guy sitting at the bar, a few pints of Guiness into the night. He looked down at the fiddler and said to me:
"If he plays Danny Boy shoot him!"
I then asked him if it was the tune he didn't like or the fiddler's rendition - "Both!"
Later on, sitting in the session this very fiddler made his own gun sign towards the guy at the bar! Nice to see such love and respect in Edinburgh
You can play tunes at whatever speed you like if there's no-one dancing, although I do think fast tunes can reach a point if you're not carefull that they are going so fast they lose all subtlety. If you are playing for dancers you have to fit in with the speed they want to dance which obviously varies with the type of dance. I've played for dancing competitions and particularly remember once playing a hornpipe for a girl who wanted it played ''fierce slow'', which of course I did and she went on to win the competition. My local set dancers on the other hand like everything played at breakneck speed!
It actually doesn't matter how fast or slowly you play. Just keep the steady beat. Playing slowly without any sense of rythm is just as bad as playing fast without any sense of rythm.
I actually find playing slower and working out the tune can be harder than playing at breakneck speed. One tends to get sloppy or skip things to accomplish speed.
I am still early in learning box (I suppose we never stop learning) and try to play tunes fast and slow. On my main instruments (non-ITM piano/organ/PA) I have been accused of playing a bit briskly for over 30 or so years. On the box with ITM I find playing moderately (translate "slower") more satisfying.
But Hey. I think Saint's got a good view of things.
I agree with Slainte on the "keeping the rhythm" being the main criteria - also some variation throughout a session is always welcome (eg some nice steady East Clare stuff as well as the wilder Donegal reels like Boys of Malin, etc.). Much of it is "relative" though as at a great session in Kilrush last night after the Seisiún show finished, a local musician said to me that he's used to playing quite a bit faster. This was after a few sets led by younger musicians that I thought were close to the "speed of sound" so I didn't need to feel embarrassed after all. He qualified his remarks by saying he plays a lot for set dancers so now we know who to blame!!
Jigsawgreg you may have missed this one (It doesn't seem like it was only 3 months ago!) on http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/13155 which also discusses the question of speed at length. Looks like this is one of those topics, like politics and religion, that we'll never all agree on!
I play with a band for set dancers on occasion and can confirm that set dancing speeds are noticeably quicker than in most sessions. But playing for _step_ dancers would be a different matter. I remember seeing a step dancer in Kilrush dancing to "The Boys of Blue Hill" which was played at about half session speed; this was so that the dancer could fit a mass of intricate foot movements to the music.
Generally, as regards speed per se, once accuracy and coordination start to deteriorate then you're certainly playing too fast. At speed, a lack of accuracy and coordination makes everything sound messy, and rhythm automatically goes down the pan. Accurate and coordinated rhythmic playing will always sound more attractive than mere scrappy speed for its own sake, and in fact will sound quicker than it actually is.
The remedy for messy speed is slow, careful practice, paying particular attention to accuracy (of intonation, articulation etc) and coordination. It may be useful - perhaps essential in some cases - to have guidance from a skilled teacher. This remedy is certain, but it takes time, because of the necessary re-training of the neuro-muscular system, so don't expect dramatic results in days or even weeks - think of the time it takes most fiddlers to acquire a decent roll.
I agree with llig, I agree with Cathy - arrgghh! Where I Dick Miles so that I can agree with him too?
Find the speed that feels right for you, but remember that in general fast very quickly starts to sound dull.
OK, Cathy, what's the metronome setting for "Fierce slow", can't seem to find it anywhere ?
Did she mean "slow and aggressively accented " ?
Do you remember that young master Stevens, with his mandolin and his fiddle, started a band to play tunes at a good speed, and made them undanceable ? Takes me back to the '70's, that memory does.
There are two elements of music at work here, and they are not the same...
RHYTHM is the relationship of one note to another; of all the notes to the whole. It's keeping a steady two or four beats per bar for reels and two or six beats per bar for jigs.
TEMPO is the overall speed of the music.
You can have excellent rhythm at any tempo, fast or slow, and lousy rhythm, too.
Young musicians tend to play faster? No. The fastest and liveliest session I've ever attended was in Co. Fermanagh. Most of the local musicians were in their 50s or 60s. That was cracking.
I'm definitly on the slower side of the fence.
Ive heard so many musicians who think that playing fast equals playing good, but all too often speed is just used to cover up a lack of technical ability.
Playing too fast is a cop out.
Its traditional dance music for crying out loud, not a rave.
Hi Guernsey Pete,
I've no idea what the metronome speed was for ''fierce slow'' as she put it, but what she wanted was very slow indeed, in order to fit in a lot of very elaborate steps, be quite nice to have that marked as a speed on a metronome, instead of all those Italian terms.Maybe you could have an Irish metronome ranging from fierce slow, through jigs, reels, etc., to frenetic set dancing as the fastest speed. I remember Paul Stevens well from Dingle's in the old days, wonder where he is now?
Yeah, I know. I would say it was essential too. But it's just one of those things, I don't know how they do it. It's just that I know a fair few people who can really rattle the tunes out with great gusto, accuracy, rhythm etc. who are just awful slow. It's a conundrum.
Is it harder on the bowing for a fiddler to play slower in terms of getting good tone? If you are used to playing a jig or a reel at a particular speed and then you slow it down I imagine some folk would also get confused about how much longer they need to hold a particular note for - they shouldn't but that doesn't mean they don't, particularly the longer notes or tied notes. Just a thought.
If someone has spent all their fiddling life playing reels, jigs and polkas at a brisk tempo, it's a fair bet they're using no more than the middle third of the bow. If they're then expected to play a slow air with long-held notes requiring the use of the remaining two-thirds of the bow then I can see a problem looming for them. The answer to which is plenty of woodshedding on playing long steady bows with even tone and volume from end to end.
Play what you like. Play what your audience likes. There are no rules. Some audiences like the idea of music as an extreme sport and will whoop and holler if you play a tune at record breaking speed. For lots of folks, that’s entertainment.
But, if you’re really interested in the possibilities of tempo as a tool of musical interpretation, there’s a lot to be learned and enjoyed from exploring the full range of that tool. Some tunes work really well at both extremes. Surely, far more people are familiar with Martin Wynne’s no. 2 as a slow “air” than as a (great) reel. Plenty of tunes, though, have a natural range of tempo, outside of which the “message” stops making sense. Or starts making a different sense, which can be a cool discovery.
So I say speed is fine. I can think of several tunes I would play faster, if I could pull it off in style. But, for me personally, super showy speed feels vaguely offensive and speed that’s obviously pushing the player’s limits feels vaguely pathetic.
Trev, it's not just fiddle players though. There may be technical reasons for other instruments. However, it's a fair bet that if these good speed players did learn to play slow also, it would make their speed playing even better.
*Now* I agree with you Michael. And, I must admit, I haven't come across the phenomenon you mention. The people I've heard who can *only* play fast, play like absolute sh*te. I'll have to come up to Edinburgh and hear these fantastic speed freaks who somehow haven't mastered the basics of their instruments.
A truth I've learned to accept, something said by more than one mentor over time, is simple and goes something like this ~
If you can't play it slowly with interest, life and lift, with style and skill ~ then speed is just an excuse to cover up the shight....
If you ain't got it speed only makes it all go by faster, muddier, 'flat out'... For some, drunk audiences included, an adrenalin rush is what it is all about, not 'music'... Too often the results are the inevitable burn-out, sometimes the symptoms are tendonitis, a shoulder ache, a back ache, or an epiphany that they'd passed the music by completely in the rush...
It isn't just musicians, dancers can be cack at it too, similarly deluded, and a hell of a lot of them also think it's all about speed, volume, quantity, an adrenalin buzz...
... but sometimes the pressure (peer) is there. Sageness just might come later with maturity if you manage to survive that flat out rush in tact. Its the way of the world today unfortunately. Tell someone in their teens or 20's that they are facing burn-out or injury, or that the music is passing them by, they would only laugh. Who would blame them when they can, and often do "take it to the limit (and often inspiringly beautifully) one more time". Is it not better to allow them their rush? I personally don't like fast music that loses swing and feel - sounds like machine guns firing. Of course, it can be fast and not like that too. If you can do it and that's where it is for you, I say, go for it, but be it on your own head.
I've heard Harvest Home played so fast nobody could keep up with the triplet runs and it sounds bloody awful that way. No swing, no anticipation, just the notes rushing out. Horrible.
_______________________________________
In my local in Dublin the banjo player always leads this tune at lightning speed. In fairness he still had great rhythm and it sounded like a fast reel and the punters loved it. When I heard it first I knew I knew the tune but it took me a while to figure out that it was the Harvest home. I then imagined myself playing along with it on the whistle and thinking, how in the name of God could I get any of the triplets in there, there was just no way cause I usually tongue them. Anyway listening carefully they didn't seem to be playing the triplets but playing those parts in a different way altogether. Probably just sets of 2 notes instead, I don't know cause it was just too fast for me to catch and in a noisy pub.
When I was speaking to the banjo player afterwards, I said to him that I'd never heard the harvest home played so fast and there was no way I'd be able to keep up with him on the whistle, he replied "ah don't mind that, we only do that for the tourists cause they love it, if you were here we'd play it at the normal pace". I was wondering because he does normally play hornpipes slowly whether he's playing banjo or whistle.
The speed question
The speed question
You may all know the fact that there are several ways to play a tune. Me and my partner normally tend to play reels quite fast at sessions and our gigs. But we often get the advice that we should play our tunes more slowly. As a quote: "It stil has to be the right speed to dance it..."
Of course, it's everyone's choice to play tunes the way he or she likes it but I think many musicians have got used to have a "session speed" and a slower speed for dance events...
What do you think about that?
I also got the advice of a classical fiddler that hornpipes in general should be played slowly but i do not agree with that: I think it's quite common to play tunes like Harvest Home (Cork Hornpipe) for example in a fast way.
We won't change our style but anyway...what do you think about that?
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by JigsawGreg
Re: The speed question
vary it to see how you like it. Try slowing right down. Playing fast is a cop out
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: The speed question
Personally, I like most jigs, reels and hornpipes played a little slower than most people play them at sessions. Perphaps that's why I like the practice of playing a strath spey then turning it into a blazing reel. It seems to give a good balance that satisfies all.
To me playing a tune is something like telling a good tale. You take your time and build up to the exciting part, you don't just blast through it from the start. That's not to say you speed up in the tune but maybe use more articulation or emphasis in some areas.
Mary
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: The speed question
Play em as fast as you want at your gigs, but at sessions, be part of the team, and adapt to the speed of others. And like Michael and Mary point out, you can find pleasures at slower speeds that you might otherwise have missed.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by AlBrown
Re: The speed question
I've heard Harvest Home played so fast nobody could keep up with the triplet runs and it sounds bloody awful that way. No swing, no anticipation, just the notes rushing out. Horrible.
But by far, for me, the main factor with speed is the players' ability to keep up with the pace. I don't know why, but so many players think they have to play at a certain speed, even though they don't have the skill to maintain it, and they lose control of the tune and it sounds like a mess. And it's not just beginners who do this---I've seen very experienced players do it too.
As for the dancing speed question, I've been told that playing for dancers often means playing much faster than even session speed.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by kennedy
Re: The speed question
In most cases, Speed Kills - articulation, soul, swing, and punter interest. Unless you're Frankie or Mairéad or one of the benighted few who can pull it off.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by drone
Re: The speed question
As I understand it, for dancing there are generally two different speeds (or ranges of speed) to go with two different complexities of dance.
For beginner dances and simple dances the tunes tend to be played quite fast but for more advanced dances the tunes are slowed right down with the dancers fitting more steps in to the routine.
I can't stand it in sessions when someone plays a tune at a speed that they can't play at and the rhythm disappears as it becomes a one-man competition to see how many notes you can fit into the shortest space of time. I also hate it when I start a set (doesn't happen often) and someone else joins in on a tune and decides to start cranking the speed up messing the tune and swing up in the process and throwing me off. This happened last night and I was about ready to wrap his banjo round his scrawny little neck!!
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: The speed question
They're not exactly sluggish now at Sandy Bells. To be fair.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by DrSilverSpear
You know you are in Edinburgh when....
I was in Bells on Sunday evening and the first thing anyone said to me shortly after I arrived came from a guy sitting at the bar, a few pints of Guiness into the night. He looked down at the fiddler and said to me:
"If he plays Danny Boy shoot him!"
I then asked him if it was the tune he didn't like or the fiddler's rendition - "Both!"
Later on, sitting in the session this very fiddler made his own gun sign towards the guy at the bar! Nice to see such love and respect in Edinburgh
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: The speed question
I've had some great craic in Bells. Can be a good time when it gets going and can even be friendly, god forbid!
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The speed question
You can play tunes at whatever speed you like if there's no-one dancing, although I do think fast tunes can reach a point if you're not carefull that they are going so fast they lose all subtlety. If you are playing for dancers you have to fit in with the speed they want to dance which obviously varies with the type of dance. I've played for dancing competitions and particularly remember once playing a hornpipe for a girl who wanted it played ''fierce slow'', which of course I did and she went on to win the competition. My local set dancers on the other hand like everything played at breakneck speed!
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by cathycook
Re: The speed question
It actually doesn't matter how fast or slowly you play. Just keep the steady beat. Playing slowly without any sense of rythm is just as bad as playing fast without any sense of rythm.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by slainte
Re: The speed question
Anyway, I often hear people play fast in Sandy Bells.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by slainte
Re: The speed question
Greg, speed is fine if you want people to yahoo and screech while jumping up and down on tables ( like a Wolfe Tones gig).
If youre playing the music because you like the sound of what you are doing yourself, then slower is better.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2039766057
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Backer
Re: The speed question
Play what ever way you want once its from the heart...and ill back ya.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Saint
Re: The speed question
I actually find playing slower and working out the tune can be harder than playing at breakneck speed. One tends to get sloppy or skip things to accomplish speed.
I am still early in learning box (I suppose we never stop learning) and try to play tunes fast and slow. On my main instruments (non-ITM piano/organ/PA) I have been accused of playing a bit briskly for over 30 or so years. On the box with ITM I find playing moderately (translate "slower") more satisfying.
But Hey. I think Saint's got a good view of things.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by zippydw
Re: The speed question
I agree with Slainte on the "keeping the rhythm" being the main criteria - also some variation throughout a session is always welcome (eg some nice steady East Clare stuff as well as the wilder Donegal reels like Boys of Malin, etc.). Much of it is "relative" though as at a great session in Kilrush last night after the Seisiún show finished, a local musician said to me that he's used to playing quite a bit faster. This was after a few sets led by younger musicians that I thought were close to the "speed of sound" so I didn't need to feel embarrassed after all. He qualified his remarks by saying he plays a lot for set dancers so now we know who to blame!!
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Bannerman
Re: The speed question
Jigsawgreg you may have missed this one (It doesn't seem like it was only 3 months ago!) on http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/13155 which also discusses the question of speed at length. Looks like this is one of those topics, like politics and religion, that we'll never all agree on!
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Bannerman
Re: The speed question
I play with a band for set dancers on occasion and can confirm that set dancing speeds are noticeably quicker than in most sessions. But playing for _step_ dancers would be a different matter. I remember seeing a step dancer in Kilrush dancing to "The Boys of Blue Hill" which was played at about half session speed; this was so that the dancer could fit a mass of intricate foot movements to the music.
Generally, as regards speed per se, once accuracy and coordination start to deteriorate then you're certainly playing too fast. At speed, a lack of accuracy and coordination makes everything sound messy, and rhythm automatically goes down the pan. Accurate and coordinated rhythmic playing will always sound more attractive than mere scrappy speed for its own sake, and in fact will sound quicker than it actually is.
The remedy for messy speed is slow, careful practice, paying particular attention to accuracy (of intonation, articulation etc) and coordination. It may be useful - perhaps essential in some cases - to have guidance from a skilled teacher. This remedy is certain, but it takes time, because of the necessary re-training of the neuro-muscular system, so don't expect dramatic results in days or even weeks - think of the time it takes most fiddlers to acquire a decent roll.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Trevor Jennings
Re: The speed question
Many people have said to me, anyone can play a tune fast, and the challenge is playing the tune slow. Slow sounds great!
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by dancer1337
Re: The speed question
I agree with llig, I agree with Cathy - arrgghh! Where I Dick Miles so that I can agree with him too?
Find the speed that feels right for you, but remember that in general fast very quickly starts to sound dull.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Linsey Doyle
Re: The speed question
OK, Cathy, what's the metronome setting for "Fierce slow", can't seem to find it anywhere ?
Did she mean "slow and aggressively accented " ?
Do you remember that young master Stevens, with his mandolin and his fiddle, started a band to play tunes at a good speed, and made them undanceable ? Takes me back to the '70's, that memory does.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: The speed question
There are two elements of music at work here, and they are not the same...
RHYTHM is the relationship of one note to another; of all the notes to the whole. It's keeping a steady two or four beats per bar for reels and two or six beats per bar for jigs.
TEMPO is the overall speed of the music.
You can have excellent rhythm at any tempo, fast or slow, and lousy rhythm, too.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: The speed question
play at whatever speed that trips your trigger
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by rob_handel
Re: The speed question
The slower, the better? No, it's not that simple.
Young musicians tend to play faster? No. The fastest and liveliest session I've ever attended was in Co. Fermanagh. Most of the local musicians were in their 50s or 60s. That was cracking.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by slainte
Re: The speed question
I'm definitly on the slower side of the fence.
Ive heard so many musicians who think that playing fast equals playing good, but all too often speed is just used to cover up a lack of technical ability.
Playing too fast is a cop out.
Its traditional dance music for crying out loud, not a rave.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by session savage
Re: The speed question
Hi Guernsey Pete,
I've no idea what the metronome speed was for ''fierce slow'' as she put it, but what she wanted was very slow indeed, in order to fit in a lot of very elaborate steps, be quite nice to have that marked as a speed on a metronome, instead of all those Italian terms.Maybe you could have an Irish metronome ranging from fierce slow, through jigs, reels, etc., to frenetic set dancing as the fastest speed. I remember Paul Stevens well from Dingle's in the old days, wonder where he is now?
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by cathycook
thats not to say that tunes should be played too slow either.
I think the advise "It stil has to be the right speed to dance it..." is the best advise your going to get.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by session savage
Re: The speed question
I've never heard anyone who was really good at playing slow who wasn't also really good at playing fast. Not true the other way round though.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: The speed question
Disagree there, Michael. I would have said it was *essential*, if you want to be able to play well at speed to first be able to play well slowly.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by ethical blend
Re: The speed question
Yeah, I know. I would say it was essential too. But it's just one of those things, I don't know how they do it. It's just that I know a fair few people who can really rattle the tunes out with great gusto, accuracy, rhythm etc. who are just awful slow. It's a conundrum.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: The speed question
Is it harder on the bowing for a fiddler to play slower in terms of getting good tone? If you are used to playing a jig or a reel at a particular speed and then you slow it down I imagine some folk would also get confused about how much longer they need to hold a particular note for - they shouldn't but that doesn't mean they don't, particularly the longer notes or tied notes. Just a thought.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: The speed question
If someone has spent all their fiddling life playing reels, jigs and polkas at a brisk tempo, it's a fair bet they're using no more than the middle third of the bow. If they're then expected to play a slow air with long-held notes requiring the use of the remaining two-thirds of the bow then I can see a problem looming for them. The answer to which is plenty of woodshedding on playing long steady bows with even tone and volume from end to end.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Trevor Jennings
Re: The speed question
Play what you like. Play what your audience likes. There are no rules. Some audiences like the idea of music as an extreme sport and will whoop and holler if you play a tune at record breaking speed. For lots of folks, that’s entertainment.
But, if you’re really interested in the possibilities of tempo as a tool of musical interpretation, there’s a lot to be learned and enjoyed from exploring the full range of that tool. Some tunes work really well at both extremes. Surely, far more people are familiar with Martin Wynne’s no. 2 as a slow “air” than as a (great) reel. Plenty of tunes, though, have a natural range of tempo, outside of which the “message” stops making sense. Or starts making a different sense, which can be a cool discovery.
So I say speed is fine. I can think of several tunes I would play faster, if I could pull it off in style. But, for me personally, super showy speed feels vaguely offensive and speed that’s obviously pushing the player’s limits feels vaguely pathetic.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Bob himself
Re: The speed question
Trev, it's not just fiddle players though. There may be technical reasons for other instruments. However, it's a fair bet that if these good speed players did learn to play slow also, it would make their speed playing even better.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: The speed question
Dick Miles, ishere ,but like the Skibbereen eagle he is busy watching.
# Posted on July 7th 2007 by Dick Miles
Re: The speed question
*Now* I agree with you Michael. And, I must admit, I haven't come across the phenomenon you mention. The people I've heard who can *only* play fast, play like absolute sh*te. I'll have to come up to Edinburgh and hear these fantastic speed freaks who somehow haven't mastered the basics of their instruments.
# Posted on July 7th 2007 by ethical blend
Re: The speed question
A truth I've learned to accept, something said by more than one mentor over time, is simple and goes something like this ~
If you can't play it slowly with interest, life and lift, with style and skill ~ then speed is just an excuse to cover up the shight....
If you ain't got it speed only makes it all go by faster, muddier, 'flat out'... For some, drunk audiences included, an adrenalin rush is what it is all about, not 'music'... Too often the results are the inevitable burn-out, sometimes the symptoms are tendonitis, a shoulder ache, a back ache, or an epiphany that they'd passed the music by completely in the rush...
It isn't just musicians, dancers can be cack at it too, similarly deluded, and a hell of a lot of them also think it's all about speed, volume, quantity, an adrenalin buzz...
# Posted on July 8th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: The speed question
... but sometimes the pressure (peer) is there. Sageness just might come later with maturity if you manage to survive that flat out rush in tact. Its the way of the world today unfortunately. Tell someone in their teens or 20's that they are facing burn-out or injury, or that the music is passing them by, they would only laugh. Who would blame them when they can, and often do "take it to the limit (and often inspiringly beautifully) one more time". Is it not better to allow them their rush? I personally don't like fast music that loses swing and feel - sounds like machine guns firing. Of course, it can be fast and not like that too. If you can do it and that's where it is for you, I say, go for it, but be it on your own head.
# Posted on July 8th 2007 by Clear Drops
Re: The speed question
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by kennedy
I've heard Harvest Home played so fast nobody could keep up with the triplet runs and it sounds bloody awful that way. No swing, no anticipation, just the notes rushing out. Horrible.
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In my local in Dublin the banjo player always leads this tune at lightning speed. In fairness he still had great rhythm and it sounded like a fast reel and the punters loved it. When I heard it first I knew I knew the tune but it took me a while to figure out that it was the Harvest home. I then imagined myself playing along with it on the whistle and thinking, how in the name of God could I get any of the triplets in there, there was just no way cause I usually tongue them. Anyway listening carefully they didn't seem to be playing the triplets but playing those parts in a different way altogether. Probably just sets of 2 notes instead, I don't know cause it was just too fast for me to catch and in a noisy pub.
When I was speaking to the banjo player afterwards, I said to him that I'd never heard the harvest home played so fast and there was no way I'd be able to keep up with him on the whistle, he replied "ah don't mind that, we only do that for the tourists cause they love it, if you were here we'd play it at the normal pace". I was wondering because he does normally play hornpipes slowly whether he's playing banjo or whistle.
# Posted on July 9th 2007 by blaydo
Re: The speed question
I heard a guy who played so fast that I reasoned that he must hate the tunes, because he couldn't wait to get to the end of them.
# Posted on July 11th 2007 by Gael Force