As I'm only just learning the shakey egg, I was wondering if anyone knew of any tutor books (with notation), or teachers in the UK.
Is it possible to purchase a tunable SE, and if so, what keys do they come in?
Dow, does this constitute a sufficiently non-fiddle thread?
I've been playing for a couple of years now - I've just mastered one in each hand. I think the only way to learn is by listening to the great Eggers of our time. I had a few problems in the early days with dropping my eggs - I would recommend a good carbon fibre egg for your local session and keep your best egg (possibly ivory?) for gigs etc. I don't know about tuneable eggs but they do come in great colours - my favourite is bright green.
What made you think of shakey eggs? Trying to think of something you could use as a ball in your game of "violin tennis"? Sorry too much of a connection to fiddles, you'll have to think of something else
Did you know that modern players have developed a range of exciting new rhythmic techniques? I can't think of many off the top of my head, but I remember that one was where you quickly bash the egg off the edge of the table or bash two together, like bodhran players bash the rim of their bodhrans. Also, egg players often imitate other bodhran techniques like how you can use the stick to make a rasping sound on the metal button things round the edge. An egg player can buy special "ribbed eggs" for this purpose. The rasping sound is created by rubbing two eggs together.
should've bought a bigger microwave. Or as my teacher once advised, remove the 'rain' from your rainstick. Heat them up. Put them back in the stick and they will (over time) produce the same effect. Only do it with boxwood though - never blackwood or rosewood. Also we had a guy turn up at a session with maracas instead of the more traditional egg shakers - he didn't last long though
Here's a useful tip.
Turn your fiddle upside down. Using a powerful staple gun, affix one end of a 2 foot length of elastic to the centre of the back plate. Staple the other end of the elastic to your boxwood Egg.
You can now bat the egg, both providing a useful rhythmic device and keeping you fit at the same time. Those endless boring sets of reels will flash by in a trice!
Did you know that there is some evidence that shakey eggs came before bodhrans, and possibly date back to the 4th century A.D. There is a carving on a celtic cross I think in County Mayo--you can just make out the figure of a man holding an oval shaped thingy looking like he's shaking it!
And here's a tip for all of your broken shakey egg pieces (after you've gotten done batting them with ottery's fiddle/egg batting device: Take all your bits and put them in the microwave--seperate by color or not--your choice--when sufficiently melted--but not bubbling, pour into ice cube trays. When it sets up you now have over-sized, colorful, but without the dots (you can draw them on) dice!
I've seen that carving, Andee. I was told it was Brian Boru holding one of his testicles. T'was a cold winter that year. ( It also explains why so many Irish songs are sad.)
The Ulster Museum has recently carbon-dated a fragment of lyric poetry to 300 AD. Translation courtesy of Professor Hairygub, QUB:
Great was the feasting in fam'd Granemore
When McMahon slew the mountainy hare
Ale was plenty and lavish the fare
From Mullaghbawn and Cullyhanna they came
Toner sounded the dord iseal
And feadog and fidil voiced their praise
I shook my egg to the sweet refrain
And Cearbhaill gave the spoons a lash ...
As part of London's traffic congestion easing plans, there is a project underway to concrete over the River Thames from Woolwich up to Kingston, thus making it a 12-lane superhighway right through the middle of the Capital.
Preliminary dredging uncovered several dinosaur eggs containing seed pods. These were carbon dated back to the Paleolithic era. Paleaentologists have posited that these primitive shakey eggs are probably the first human musical instruments, dating them as probably 2.7 million years old.
Which brings me to my prediction for the next session craze ... the shaky ostrich egg.
"Played" with two hands, the shaky ostrich egg (or egg-cello as it will become known) produces a bassier tone than the standard shaky egg (or egg-olin as it will become known). The shaky swan's egg (or egg-ola as it will become known) will soon come into production, thus completing the family.
I think Danny that the instrument to which you refer above is the now-obsolete egg-profundo which the evolution of man has rendered unplayable, since to straddle it's circumference requires arms which reach from shoulder to calf ...
I think there is ample evidence for the adoption of the shaky egg in Irish sessions from the English pace egging tradition, where it was used only once a year ceremonially.
Here's one two three jolly lads all in one line
Shake
We have come a pace egging and we hope you
By the way, Aidan, yer totally out of line there with all those non-traditional eggs. Got to keep the tradition pure and all that, can't have all these new fangled eggs mucking up the tradition like that. If it was good enough for our forefathers...
Two shakey eggs were walking to the pub one night and the first one asks : "Who was that piccolo I saw you with last night?" and the first says: "That was no piccolo! That was my fife!"
Aiden's replies of course captured my interest, so I called Stefan Sobell and he confirms that a new hybrid shakey egg particularly suited to ITM will soon be joining the family. It will be tuned somewhere between an egg-ola and an egg-cello. He calls his an "egg-ttern" in emulation of a similar 17th century shakey egg he saw in the V & A museum. His imitators will no doubt play with the name and there will be nomenclature confusion lasting decades. Other names used by competing luthiers include: "octave egg-olin" and "egg-zouki".
I did hear of a girl who sat on a shaky egg, and it hatched out and grew into a lagerphone. But maybe she was just pulling a morris dancers leg.
On a more serious note, why don't they have different tones in different colours ?
I do like the shaky peppers.
Danny, I have an idea which would solve the world's problems and make it a better place to live. Before the next session, paint some real eggs in bright colours and put them back in their box. Then instead of taking SE's to your next session, take the real eggs, and throw them at the fiddlers! If they complain you can tell them you weren't aware that they were real.
Octogreg, you didn't mention that they'd started making flatback eggs since their tone is much more suited to Irish music. Apparently there's someone over in America who specialises in elaborate, way-out designs for flatback Shaky Eggs, with fancy scrolls and intricate pearl inlays.
Actually, as a joke, our backer showed up to one of our shows with...a shaky potato. No, really. We spent quite a bit of time throwing it out to the punters, who would play with it for a few half-hearted and drunken measures and then toss it back.
Xena, I'm not scared of Beebs. The last time you got her to hit me she brushed my arm pathetically and I thought "was that it?!" So I can say what I like
LOL -- yes, well, remember you're still due to get out here next year, in which case remember that Susan and Emily and I between us all leave scars you'll remember for life.
My boss, Michael Lichter (who is learning to play the whistle and doing very well indeed), is married to an Irish woman from Dublin, Catherine Bowe. At one point or other, they were given some spectacular Easter eggs, painted in motorcycle flames and such (Michael is a world-famous photographer of motorcycles and bikers). They happily put the eggs in an antique Belleek bowl that once belonged to Catherine's grandmother, and put the whole thing in Catherine's china cabinet, it being around Easter time.
Shortly after, the family started noticing this...smell. Well, I SAY smell, but it was rank and horrible enough that it seemed to be it's own creature, appearing and disappearing One day, Catherine noticed that the smell was worse nearest the china cabinet. You guessed it, it was the Easter eggs -- apparently the artist didn't realize you're supposed to blow the eggs out first. When Catherine opened the door to the china cabinet, the entire family was forced, choking and gasping, to run outdoors. It took weeks of soaking to get the smell out of the Belleek bowl....
I saw a shakey egg, 'The Professional', in a music shop once. It came in a carton (1/2 dozen size), the egg nestling in one of the spaces and a set of interchangeable tuning barrels in the others, giving the ability to play in many keys.
They were, from memory, Eb (standard egg, as per Zina's post), F#,Bb,E, and A415, (presumably for playing in a baroque ensemble).
The sixth hole held a very special surprise... a section, which when tipped, sounded like a bleating lamb.
If I remember where I saw this I'll let you know,
It also came with a single sheet 'tutor' with The Minstrel Boy and The Campbells are coming on it.
M
BTW, Ottery, I started in on your advice with the stapling of the SE to the fiddle but only got as far as stapling the elastic to the egg and then my cat had it away down the stairs and is currently rattling it about behind the furnace. Next time I shall follow directions and staple the elastic to the fiddle FIRST...
In fact that guy in the States I mentioned - he makes very peculiarly-shaped electroeggs. Apparently they're selling like hotcakes. I don't know what people see in them...
Haven't seen any shakey potatoes or A415 eggs here in Sydney but we do have shakey bananas, shakey capsicums, shakey tomatoes and shakey corncobs. Ya get 'em at one o' the big music stores in the CBD.
The shakey bananas are great for fiddlers on stage as you can play them with one hand while holding the fiddle in t'other and when you need both hands for the fiddle the banana lies nicely across the top of the mike stand fiddlehook. (Not a trick I've tried meself, mind, but I've seen it done recently!)
Have you guys seen the drummer on the Trinity Dance Company newest video? Hysterical. He plays a full set, as well as the bodhran. He starts off by playing both the drums and a flute (one handed) at the same time. Then he picks up the shakey egg and plays that at the same time he sings. Then he plays what looks to be a cross around his neck but turns out to be a whistle and the drums. Damn amazing even if it's not traditional at all.
I forgot, at one point he drinks about a quarter of a bottle of what looks to be Perrier, pours another bit of it over his head and then proceeds to blow on the mouth musically while playing the drums, as well.
There is an absolutely brilliant solo CD by Al Bumen, virtuoso of the shakey egg. He plays, (amongst many others), The Flight Of The Bumble Bee, The William Tell Ovurture, and a compelling arrangement of Ravel's La Valse, but the one which always has me choking back the tears is his version of Who Pays The Ferryman.
Sublime...Don't be too discouraged if you hear it, practice makes perfect.
M
I'm turning up to my next session with the ultimate in percussion ... the kango hammer!
Many's the trad musician has spent his time mastering one of these yokes for his day job. I'm surprised that nobody has yet thought to introduce them into the music!
I was only joking about the cost of the tickets they are a bit cheaper than that... Tell you what!.. I will get you one for a tenner or three for a pound....
The pubs called "The Stiff Wicket" next to the Savoy in Piccadilly. If you want tickets meet me at in the doorway of "Rons Fish and Chip" shop in "The Burlington Arcade" the other side of the road. I will be wearing fish net stockings and you will recognize me by my "Kiss me Quick" hat.
All that is presuming you don't live in Alaska or somewhere...If you do I am afraid you will have to dip out.
A French exchange student came to our session recently (we get several students here in the summer months). After about an hour of listening and chatting he brought one of those ribbed electroeggs out of his jacket pocket and joined in. One of the fiddle-players accidentally elbowed him in the stomach and he went down with an "ouef".
No, GM, I've been playing shaky eggs since I was in the womb right, and the convention is to call it Gb, not F#. Cranning on the low D is more difficult with Gb eggs, but it's still possible. First of all hold the egg in your right hand, or left, it doesn't really matter. Now move your hand up and down really fast. That's basically it. With a bit of practice, you'll be able to smooth out all the extra ornamentation you're putting in there, and it'll sound like a sort of continuous "bubbly" sound. When you've got used to the normal cran, you'll be able to add even more ornamentation until you're wowing everyone with your 9-note shaky egg crans. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
Thanks a lot Dow.
i see you are an expert SE player, so what do you suggest to a beginner like me about the way to play the slow airs on the eggs?
Thanks again
Ah GM thanks, but I'm not eggsactly an eggspert [sorryyyy!!]. To be honest, I'd say don't even attempt slow airs as a beginner. I know they're slow, so it seems like they'd be easy to play, but you have to be bloody good to be able to pull off an air. But since you asked, I might as well tell you the secret. To play an air on a shakey egg, you have to be able to defy gravity. That is, you have to actually be able to slow down the speed that the contents of the egg fall to the bottom when you move your hand. I can't emphasize enough how incredibly difficult this is to do. Basically it's all in the wrist. You want to be able to flick the wrist and simultaneously snap the egg back towards your body so that the shell of the egg moves but its contents don't. It's very difficult to explain without actually showing you. Then you've got the complex ornamentation and you've got to think about phrasing as well. I'd stick to reels and jigs for the mo.
Oh Dow, when I sold the flute to buy a couple of SEs, I thought
they were easy to play, or at least easier then the flute.
Now I understend that it was a mistake.
Now I'm considering to swap the eggs for a bodhran...
*sigh*
It is disappointing in all that has gone on in this thread that no-one has mentioned the seminal album
Creathach (a celebration of the Irish egg)
by the master of the shaky egg, Benedict O'Bhoyd
(Uibheacha Records UBH CD 001)
I quote from the sleeve notes, by no less an authority than Nicholas O'Carolan himself.
We often talk of the pulse of the music, to distinguish between this and the rather more visible, more tangible rhythm. A friend of mine once said that anyone can tap the rhythm of the tune, but it takes a doctor of the music to put his finger on the pulse.
In which case, allow me to introduce Dr O'Bhoyd.
From Ballyivoca (literally, town of the eggs) on the Sligo Leitrim border, Benedict O'Bhoyd was born into a musical family. His father Jarlath was a renowned fiddler who is said to have passed on The Boys Of The Lough to Michael Coleman. His mother, Bernadette, was three times All Ireland Champion on the bones. Despite an early flirtation with the pipes, it was his mother's love of one-handed percussion instruments which led Benedict to explore the possibilities of the shaky egg.
O'Bhoyd himself explains.
"Those were in the early days of egg playing. We had to make our own eggs in them days. Many the day I mind carving two egg halves out of a lump of sally or a bit of bog oak. Filling them up with a handful of river grit. Gluing them together.
There was myself and a boy by the name of Ted McShane and we were the only boys in Sligo that were at the egg. He could make the egg talk, the same boy."
McShane, since acknowledged as one of the most accomplished and influential eggists to have come out of Ireland died in a tragic accident on his way home from a spot of ceili-ing. Two pieces of flint grit in an egg in his inside pocket sparked off each other, causing a naggin of Inishowen poitin which also resided in the same pocket and which was imperfectly sealed, to explode. Such was the quality of the poitin that the explosion was heard as far away as Enniskillen and McShane, God be good to him, was atomised in the process.
McShane’s sad demise spurred the young O'Bhoyd to keep the flame lit. At next year’s Fleadh Ceoil, O'Bhoyd claimed the All-Ireland title for miscellaneous percussion instruments, narrowly beating the highly regarded Orlan McMorrow, whose mastery of the triangle has never been equalled.
A succession of future Fleadh Ceoil honours followed. But for O'Bhoyd the music was not about titles and contests. O'Bhoyd got his buzz from playing with other musicians.
At last the quality of his musicianship is available for all the world to hear. His feel for ornamentation is breath taking. One only has to listen to his version of O'Farrell’s Welcome To Limerick to smell the turf. Or to lend an ear to his exquisite rendering of All The Way To Galway or Farwell To Erin to catch a taste of the salt sea tang. And where is the heart that would not break after listening to his hauntingly delivered slow airs, An Buachaill Caol Dubh and Sliabh na Man?
Joined by a galaxy of special guests, including Arty McGlynn, Paddy Glackin, Paddy Keenan, Joe Burke, Alec Finn, Ringo McDonagh and Gerry O'Connor, O'Bhoyd transports us into another time and another place when the egg was making its presence felt in Irish music and the purity of egg playing was at an all time high.
As if to underline that very fact, the album’s finale a bones/egg duet, where O'Bhoyd is joined by Cathy Jordan, a fellow Sligo musician, provides an affecting last curtain. O'Bhoyd himself explains. "Playing with Cathy took me back to my youth when my mammy and me would spend hours playing together. There's no sound nicer in the whole world, no sound more loaded with memories, than the conversation between bones and egg, between egg and bones." You’ll see for yourself as Jordan and O'Bhoyd play The Sligo Maid and The Tarbolton.
Shakey Egg technique
Shakey Egg technique
As I'm only just learning the shakey egg, I was wondering if anyone knew of any tutor books (with notation), or teachers in the UK.
Is it possible to purchase a tunable SE, and if so, what keys do they come in?
Dow, does this constitute a sufficiently non-fiddle thread?
Danny.
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I've been playing for a couple of years now - I've just mastered one in each hand. I think the only way to learn is by listening to the great Eggers of our time. I had a few problems in the early days with dropping my eggs - I would recommend a good carbon fibre egg for your local session and keep your best egg (possibly ivory?) for gigs etc. I don't know about tuneable eggs but they do come in great colours - my favourite is bright green.
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Yohan
Re: Shakey Egg technique
What made you think of shakey eggs? Trying to think of something you could use as a ball in your game of "violin tennis"? Sorry too much of a connection to fiddles, you'll have to think of something else
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Did you know that modern players have developed a range of exciting new rhythmic techniques? I can't think of many off the top of my head, but I remember that one was where you quickly bash the egg off the edge of the table or bash two together, like bodhran players bash the rim of their bodhrans. Also, egg players often imitate other bodhran techniques like how you can use the stick to make a rasping sound on the metal button things round the edge. An egg player can buy special "ribbed eggs" for this purpose. The rasping sound is created by rubbing two eggs together.
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
They're greatly improved if you stick them in the micro-wave for - say two hours ? ( If you like them hard-boiled. )
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Kenny
Re: Shakey Egg technique
But Kenny, isnt that just for Boxwood shakey eggs? Cause if you don't they turn into boxwood-shakey-giant-amoebae.
I tried getting my boxwood rainstick into the microwave, but it wouldn't fit. So I had to saw it in 2 and now it's gone out of tune.
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
should've bought a bigger microwave. Or as my teacher once advised, remove the 'rain' from your rainstick. Heat them up. Put them back in the stick and they will (over time) produce the same effect. Only do it with boxwood though - never blackwood or rosewood. Also we had a guy turn up at a session with maracas instead of the more traditional egg shakers - he didn't last long though
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Yohan
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Here's a useful tip.
Turn your fiddle upside down. Using a powerful staple gun, affix one end of a 2 foot length of elastic to the centre of the back plate. Staple the other end of the elastic to your boxwood Egg.
You can now bat the egg, both providing a useful rhythmic device and keeping you fit at the same time. Those endless boring sets of reels will flash by in a trice!
# Posted on July 16th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Sam Murray could probably fix it for you, Danny !
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Kenny
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Did you know that there is some evidence that shakey eggs came before bodhrans, and possibly date back to the 4th century A.D. There is a carving on a celtic cross I think in County Mayo--you can just make out the figure of a man holding an oval shaped thingy looking like he's shaking it!
And here's a tip for all of your broken shakey egg pieces (after you've gotten done batting them with ottery's fiddle/egg batting device: Take all your bits and put them in the microwave--seperate by color or not--your choice--when sufficiently melted--but not bubbling, pour into ice cube trays. When it sets up you now have over-sized, colorful, but without the dots (you can draw them on) dice!
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Andee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I've seen that carving, Andee. I was told it was Brian Boru holding one of his testicles. T'was a cold winter that year. ( It also explains why so many Irish songs are sad.)
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Kenny
Earliest-known reference
The Ulster Museum has recently carbon-dated a fragment of lyric poetry to 300 AD. Translation courtesy of Professor Hairygub, QUB:
Great was the feasting in fam'd Granemore
When McMahon slew the mountainy hare
Ale was plenty and lavish the fare
From Mullaghbawn and Cullyhanna they came
Toner sounded the dord iseal
And feadog and fidil voiced their praise
I shook my egg to the sweet refrain
And Cearbhaill gave the spoons a lash ...
The remainder of the fragment was illegible.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
As part of London's traffic congestion easing plans, there is a project underway to concrete over the River Thames from Woolwich up to Kingston, thus making it a 12-lane superhighway right through the middle of the Capital.
Preliminary dredging uncovered several dinosaur eggs containing seed pods. These were carbon dated back to the Paleolithic era. Paleaentologists have posited that these primitive shakey eggs are probably the first human musical instruments, dating them as probably 2.7 million years old.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Rudall the time
The next innovation ...
Which brings me to my prediction for the next session craze ... the shaky ostrich egg.
"Played" with two hands, the shaky ostrich egg (or egg-cello as it will become known) produces a bassier tone than the standard shaky egg (or egg-olin as it will become known). The shaky swan's egg (or egg-ola as it will become known) will soon come into production, thus completing the family.
I think Danny that the instrument to which you refer above is the now-obsolete egg-profundo which the evolution of man has rendered unplayable, since to straddle it's circumference requires arms which reach from shoulder to calf ...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
LOL -- my god, you guys, your inventiveness is beyond words. Danny, my dear, of course SE only come in...Eb... *grin*
zls
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
An dreoilin
But the sweetest-sounding shaky egg of all ... known as the egg-piccolo ... is the shaky wren's egg.
Although tiny, like the bird's song, the noise produced by the instrument is loud out of all proportion to its size ...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I think there is ample evidence for the adoption of the shaky egg in Irish sessions from the English pace egging tradition, where it was used only once a year ceremonially.
Here's one two three jolly lads all in one line
Shake
We have come a pace egging and we hope you
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Shakey Egg technique
By the way, Aidan, yer totally out of line there with all those non-traditional eggs. Got to keep the tradition pure and all that, can't have all these new fangled eggs mucking up the tradition like that. If it was good enough for our forefathers...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I don't know who hatched up this instrument; none have appeared at our sessions yet - maybe it's all just a big yolk!!
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Bannerman
Re: Shakey Egg technique
it was some crackpot...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Two shakey eggs were walking to the pub one night and the first one asks : "Who was that piccolo I saw you with last night?" and the first says: "That was no piccolo! That was my fife!"
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by octogreg
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Aiden's replies of course captured my interest, so I called Stefan Sobell and he confirms that a new hybrid shakey egg particularly suited to ITM will soon be joining the family. It will be tuned somewhere between an egg-ola and an egg-cello. He calls his an "egg-ttern" in emulation of a similar 17th century shakey egg he saw in the V & A museum. His imitators will no doubt play with the name and there will be nomenclature confusion lasting decades. Other names used by competing luthiers include: "octave egg-olin" and "egg-zouki".
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by octogreg
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Pied, the rest of the guys are joking, I'm sure your egg player is as highly regarded as your recorder player.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by B Rad
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I did hear of a girl who sat on a shaky egg, and it hatched out and grew into a lagerphone. But maybe she was just pulling a morris dancers leg.
On a more serious note, why don't they have different tones in different colours ?
I do like the shaky peppers.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Danny, I have an idea which would solve the world's problems and make it a better place to live. Before the next session, paint some real eggs in bright colours and put them back in their box. Then instead of taking SE's to your next session, take the real eggs, and throw them at the fiddlers! If they complain you can tell them you weren't aware that they were real.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
....wot? the eggs or the fiddlers? I imagine in oz there aren't many real Irish fiddlers!
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Octogreg, you didn't mention that they'd started making flatback eggs since their tone is much more suited to Irish music. Apparently there's someone over in America who specialises in elaborate, way-out designs for flatback Shaky Eggs, with fancy scrolls and intricate pearl inlays.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Danny, unfortunately the fiddlers here are very much real. Would that they were cardboard cutouts. I'd be able to hear myself play.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
OooooooOOoooooOOOoo! Wait 'til Bridie sees THAT one, and you're due more bruises, Mark! *snort*
zls
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Actually, as a joke, our backer showed up to one of our shows with...a shaky potato. No, really. We spent quite a bit of time throwing it out to the punters, who would play with it for a few half-hearted and drunken measures and then toss it back.
zls
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
',:-}
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Xena, I'm not scared of Beebs. The last time you got her to hit me she brushed my arm pathetically and I thought "was that it?!" So I can say what I like
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
LOL -- yes, well, remember you're still due to get out here next year, in which case remember that Susan and Emily and I between us all leave scars you'll remember for life.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Last one in's a rotten egg...
My boss, Michael Lichter (who is learning to play the whistle and doing very well indeed), is married to an Irish woman from Dublin, Catherine Bowe. At one point or other, they were given some spectacular Easter eggs, painted in motorcycle flames and such (Michael is a world-famous photographer of motorcycles and bikers). They happily put the eggs in an antique Belleek bowl that once belonged to Catherine's grandmother, and put the whole thing in Catherine's china cabinet, it being around Easter time.
Shortly after, the family started noticing this...smell. Well, I SAY smell, but it was rank and horrible enough that it seemed to be it's own creature, appearing and disappearing One day, Catherine noticed that the smell was worse nearest the china cabinet. You guessed it, it was the Easter eggs -- apparently the artist didn't realize you're supposed to blow the eggs out first. When Catherine opened the door to the china cabinet, the entire family was forced, choking and gasping, to run outdoors. It took weeks of soaking to get the smell out of the Belleek bowl....
zls
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I saw a shakey egg, 'The Professional', in a music shop once. It came in a carton (1/2 dozen size), the egg nestling in one of the spaces and a set of interchangeable tuning barrels in the others, giving the ability to play in many keys.
They were, from memory, Eb (standard egg, as per Zina's post), F#,Bb,E, and A415, (presumably for playing in a baroque ensemble).
The sixth hole held a very special surprise... a section, which when tipped, sounded like a bleating lamb.
If I remember where I saw this I'll let you know,
It also came with a single sheet 'tutor' with The Minstrel Boy and The Campbells are coming on it.
M
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by bacchus
Re: Shakey Egg technique
but the electric shakey egg is where it's at.
the future's bright,the future's ovoid...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by biggus dave
Re: Shakey Egg technique
BTW, Ottery, I started in on your advice with the stapling of the SE to the fiddle but only got as far as stapling the elastic to the egg and then my cat had it away down the stairs and is currently rattling it about behind the furnace. Next time I shall follow directions and staple the elastic to the fiddle FIRST...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
BigDave, I thought those qualified as...oh wait, I don't want to go getting A Sharp Note from Jeremy...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
In my single days, I once asked a young lady (as a sort of chat-up line):
- How d'you like your eggs in the morning?
to which she replied:
-Unfertilised, so f()ck off!
Whatever did she mean?
PLEASE don't choose to believe that (old) story!
Danny.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
LOL
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Apparently you can get ribbed electroeggs as well... for that rasping sound that so many modern players want to achieve.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
In fact that guy in the States I mentioned - he makes very peculiarly-shaped electroeggs. Apparently they're selling like hotcakes. I don't know what people see in them...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Wow you guys are hilarious--I get in at the very beginning of the funny stuff, then miss all the rest when I have to go to work!
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Andee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Haven't seen any shakey potatoes or A415 eggs here in Sydney but we do have shakey bananas, shakey capsicums, shakey tomatoes and shakey corncobs. Ya get 'em at one o' the big music stores in the CBD.
The shakey bananas are great for fiddlers on stage as you can play them with one hand while holding the fiddle in t'other and when you need both hands for the fiddle the banana lies nicely across the top of the mike stand fiddlehook. (Not a trick I've tried meself, mind, but I've seen it done recently!)
Oops!!!! Sorry, this is a non-fiddle thread 8>#
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Tish
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Have you guys seen the drummer on the Trinity Dance Company newest video? Hysterical. He plays a full set, as well as the bodhran. He starts off by playing both the drums and a flute (one handed) at the same time. Then he picks up the shakey egg and plays that at the same time he sings. Then he plays what looks to be a cross around his neck but turns out to be a whistle and the drums. Damn amazing even if it's not traditional at all.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Unfertilized??? ROFLMAO
Oh god, I want to live where you all live, wherever that is....
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by emily_bmore
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I think it's in some far away land where no one else ever goes...
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
That trinity dance company guy again
I forgot, at one point he drinks about a quarter of a bottle of what looks to be Perrier, pours another bit of it over his head and then proceeds to blow on the mouth musically while playing the drums, as well.
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
There is an absolutely brilliant solo CD by Al Bumen, virtuoso of the shakey egg. He plays, (amongst many others), The Flight Of The Bumble Bee, The William Tell Ovurture, and a compelling arrangement of Ravel's La Valse, but the one which always has me choking back the tears is his version of Who Pays The Ferryman.
Sublime...Don't be too discouraged if you hear it, practice makes perfect.
M
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by bacchus
Re: Shakey Egg technique
does anyone remember that Rolf Harris song from years ago?
'Im Jake the Peg
with my Shakey Egg'
etc
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Yohan
Electric Egg ... ha!
Dave ...
Electric eggs be damned!
I'm turning up to my next session with the ultimate in percussion ... the kango hammer!
Many's the trad musician has spent his time mastering one of these yokes for his day job. I'm surprised that nobody has yet thought to introduce them into the music!
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I am at this very moment organising the first "Shakey-eggy-thingy-athon" in our local pub. The format will be something like this
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Twiz
Re: Shakey Egg technique
do we need tickets or is it pay at the door?
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Yohan
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Yohan,
I was only joking about the cost of the tickets they are a bit cheaper than that... Tell you what!.. I will get you one for a tenner or three for a pound....
The pubs called "The Stiff Wicket" next to the Savoy in Piccadilly. If you want tickets meet me at in the doorway of "Rons Fish and Chip" shop in "The Burlington Arcade" the other side of the road. I will be wearing fish net stockings and you will recognize me by my "Kiss me Quick" hat.
All that is presuming you don't live in Alaska or somewhere...If you do I am afraid you will have to dip out.
Dave.
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Twiz
Tourists Beware!
I'm sure I've seen shakey eggs for sale in Doolin with the label genuine Irish "Maraca Beag" ...
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
And Beevenwarer
And I'm sure I recall at a session someone asking a shaky egg player for a loan of his "celtic castanet".
# Posted on July 18th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
A French exchange student came to our session recently (we get several students here in the summer months). After about an hour of listening and chatting he brought one of those ribbed electroeggs out of his jacket pocket and joined in. One of the fiddle-players accidentally elbowed him in the stomach and he went down with an "ouef".
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by greenman
Re: Shakey Egg technique
un oeuf said.
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Shakey Egg technique
owwwwwwwww...lol....where's the boeuf?
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I'm a beginner with the SE., and I need a help. What is the best way to play a low D cran with the SE?
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by gian marco
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Gian Marco ...
It all depends on how your SE's tuned.
# Posted on July 22nd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
F#.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by gian marco
Re: Shakey Egg technique
No, GM, I've been playing shaky eggs since I was in the womb right, and the convention is to call it Gb, not F#. Cranning on the low D is more difficult with Gb eggs, but it's still possible. First of all hold the egg in your right hand, or left, it doesn't really matter. Now move your hand up and down really fast. That's basically it. With a bit of practice, you'll be able to smooth out all the extra ornamentation you're putting in there, and it'll sound like a sort of continuous "bubbly" sound. When you've got used to the normal cran, you'll be able to add even more ornamentation until you're wowing everyone with your 9-note shaky egg crans. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Thanks a lot Dow.
i see you are an expert SE player, so what do you suggest to a beginner like me about the way to play the slow airs on the eggs?
Thanks again
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by gian marco
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Ah GM thanks, but I'm not eggsactly an eggspert [sorryyyy!!]. To be honest, I'd say don't even attempt slow airs as a beginner. I know they're slow, so it seems like they'd be easy to play, but you have to be bloody good to be able to pull off an air. But since you asked, I might as well tell you the secret. To play an air on a shakey egg, you have to be able to defy gravity. That is, you have to actually be able to slow down the speed that the contents of the egg fall to the bottom when you move your hand. I can't emphasize enough how incredibly difficult this is to do. Basically it's all in the wrist. You want to be able to flick the wrist and simultaneously snap the egg back towards your body so that the shell of the egg moves but its contents don't. It's very difficult to explain without actually showing you. Then you've got the complex ornamentation and you've got to think about phrasing as well. I'd stick to reels and jigs for the mo.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Oh Dow, when I sold the flute to buy a couple of SEs, I thought
they were easy to play, or at least easier then the flute.
Now I understend that it was a mistake.
Now I'm considering to swap the eggs for a bodhran...
*sigh*
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by gian marco
Re: Shakey Egg technique
You should have stuck with the flute - it's way easier than both.
Have you tried the fiddle? (if you want something easy)
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I have tried to shake a couple of fiddles, but with no satisfying results. ( they was china fiddles )
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by gian marco
The newest development
Always interested in exploring means of amplifying the shaky egg, I have hit on a new idea which, I predict, will take the trad world by storm.
Get an empty Guinness/Smithwicks/Harp/Murphy's barrel.
Fill with a few heavy objects ... boulders work well ... no doubt dow might fling a few fiddles in there as well.
Seal.
Shake.
I call it the Shaky Keg.
Production begins in earnest over the autumn. Expect to launch to an expectant public at next year's Wille Week!
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
There's more ...!
I have two friends fom back home.
Both are called Margaret.
To distinguish between the two, one's known as Meg; the other as Peg.
Both are fond of the juice.
First thing in the morning, they're often afflicted by last night's intake and are, shall we say, a little "tremulous" as a result.
As a result they've earned the nicknames Shaky Meg and Shaky Peg.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
And more ...
Both being smokers, their first cigarette of the day when they are in the state of tremulousness referred to above is known as the Shaky Feg!
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Piling on the agony ...
The above are examples of what might be known in Belfast as a Shaky Geg.
# Posted on July 23rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
With apologies to Woody Guthrie ...
This egg that I shake is tuned to major D x 2
I'll change my egg, when the players change the key
CHORUS
It takes a shaky hen, to lay a shaky egg x 2
I'm shaky now, my rhythm's pretty vague
This egg that I shake, belonged to my oul' da x 2
He shook his egg at every sesh and fleadh
Chorus
I can shake a jig and I can shake a reel X 2
The Sporting Boys, The Kesh and Ballykeale
Chorus
I can shake a polka, a waltz or a strathspey X 2
Paud O'Keeffe's, Dan Mac's and Galway Bay
Chorus
I've got a special egg, it's made of bakelite X 2
I play that egg morning, noon and night
Chorus
You can keep your tambourine, your bongoes and bodhr
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
The CD!
It is disappointing in all that has gone on in this thread that no-one has mentioned the seminal album
Creathach (a celebration of the Irish egg)
by the master of the shaky egg, Benedict O'Bhoyd
(Uibheacha Records UBH CD 001)
I quote from the sleeve notes, by no less an authority than Nicholas O'Carolan himself.
We often talk of the pulse of the music, to distinguish between this and the rather more visible, more tangible rhythm. A friend of mine once said that anyone can tap the rhythm of the tune, but it takes a doctor of the music to put his finger on the pulse.
In which case, allow me to introduce Dr O'Bhoyd.
From Ballyivoca (literally, town of the eggs) on the Sligo Leitrim border, Benedict O'Bhoyd was born into a musical family. His father Jarlath was a renowned fiddler who is said to have passed on The Boys Of The Lough to Michael Coleman. His mother, Bernadette, was three times All Ireland Champion on the bones. Despite an early flirtation with the pipes, it was his mother's love of one-handed percussion instruments which led Benedict to explore the possibilities of the shaky egg.
O'Bhoyd himself explains.
"Those were in the early days of egg playing. We had to make our own eggs in them days. Many the day I mind carving two egg halves out of a lump of sally or a bit of bog oak. Filling them up with a handful of river grit. Gluing them together.
There was myself and a boy by the name of Ted McShane and we were the only boys in Sligo that were at the egg. He could make the egg talk, the same boy."
McShane, since acknowledged as one of the most accomplished and influential eggists to have come out of Ireland died in a tragic accident on his way home from a spot of ceili-ing. Two pieces of flint grit in an egg in his inside pocket sparked off each other, causing a naggin of Inishowen poitin which also resided in the same pocket and which was imperfectly sealed, to explode. Such was the quality of the poitin that the explosion was heard as far away as Enniskillen and McShane, God be good to him, was atomised in the process.
McShane’s sad demise spurred the young O'Bhoyd to keep the flame lit. At next year’s Fleadh Ceoil, O'Bhoyd claimed the All-Ireland title for miscellaneous percussion instruments, narrowly beating the highly regarded Orlan McMorrow, whose mastery of the triangle has never been equalled.
A succession of future Fleadh Ceoil honours followed. But for O'Bhoyd the music was not about titles and contests. O'Bhoyd got his buzz from playing with other musicians.
At last the quality of his musicianship is available for all the world to hear. His feel for ornamentation is breath taking. One only has to listen to his version of O'Farrell’s Welcome To Limerick to smell the turf. Or to lend an ear to his exquisite rendering of All The Way To Galway or Farwell To Erin to catch a taste of the salt sea tang. And where is the heart that would not break after listening to his hauntingly delivered slow airs, An Buachaill Caol Dubh and Sliabh na Man?
Joined by a galaxy of special guests, including Arty McGlynn, Paddy Glackin, Paddy Keenan, Joe Burke, Alec Finn, Ringo McDonagh and Gerry O'Connor, O'Bhoyd transports us into another time and another place when the egg was making its presence felt in Irish music and the purity of egg playing was at an all time high.
As if to underline that very fact, the album’s finale a bones/egg duet, where O'Bhoyd is joined by Cathy Jordan, a fellow Sligo musician, provides an affecting last curtain. O'Bhoyd himself explains. "Playing with Cathy took me back to my youth when my mammy and me would spend hours playing together. There's no sound nicer in the whole world, no sound more loaded with memories, than the conversation between bones and egg, between egg and bones." You’ll see for yourself as Jordan and O'Bhoyd play The Sligo Maid and The Tarbolton.
# Posted on July 25th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
Aidan, are you just confined to the house due to some illness, lad? LOL
# Posted on July 25th 2003 by Zina Lee
Confinement
Zina ...
Confined, yes.
But if only it was the house that I was confined to!
It all started a few weeks ago when I ...
Aaaaaaargh! Here they come again with the electrodes ...!
# Posted on July 25th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Shakey Egg technique
I love this idea of time travel - if I could talk to the same people 17 months ago! Ok, you fossils dig this:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/5280
:~}
# Posted on December 18th 2004 by Rudall the time