I had a great idea for a discussion yesterday. Fantastic, it was. Positive, totally musical in nature. Not technique, not specific to one instrument, not the name of a tune ... but something really interesting about the tunes and the playing of them.
It was about how, if you hold one note throughout a session, you are going to be playing exactly the right note at least part of the time, and over a long session the moments will add up to a respectable number of minutes, all the more if tunes are played that include your note a number of times per play, and what your personal calculated record is in this respect, and how one time the rest started playing in one flat to throw you off, but you carried on playing F# till they packed in early.
I had one that was on reversing and celtic crossing as these pertain to the role of harmony in ITM?
My only knowledge is of the first, "He (Ciaran O Maonaigh) is joined by Derry fiddler Dermot McLaughlin, who plays the part of the tune an octave lower, a technique known as 'reversing' in Donegal." (from 'The Rough Guide to Irish Music, 2nd Ed.)
I was curious if this includes a 'reversing' of the beat or cadence, something that I've heard done with hand percussion/drums?
I've only heard of the second, though I noticed that on Mary Bergin's 'Feadoga Stain' the first track accompaniment seems to shift in tonal center from Bb to Ab to Eb as it moves through the set. In contrast, the melody seems to move in quite the opposite direction, centering from Eb to Ab to Bb!
"It was about how, if you hold one note throughout a session, you are going to be playing exactly the right note at least part of the time..."
I believe this theory has been attempted by students on multiple choice exams. If you answer every question with the letter A (or B, C, D, or E) then you will be correct on a percentage of the questions.
Someone asked me what PFP meant in my first post on this thread.
Answer: PFP = “Person from Porlock”.
When Samuel Taylor Coleridge was composing his poem “Kubla Khan” he had an unexpected visitor (from Porlock, a village nearby) whose sudden arrival completely derailed Coleridge's train of thought at a critical point in the poem.
“Person from Porlock” is accordingly sometimes used to mean an external something-or-other interrupting a train of thought sufficiently strongly so that you can't get it started again, or ... er
"When Samuel Taylor Coleridge was composing his poem “Kubla Khan” he had an unexpected visitor (from Porlock, a village nearby) whose sudden arrival completely derailed Coleridge's train of thought at a critical point in the poem.
“Person from Porlock” is accordingly sometimes used to mean an external something-or-other interrupting a train of thought sufficiently strongly so that you can't get it started again, or ... er"
That's interesting. I knew that Coleridge wrote that poem down exactly as he remembered it when he dreamt it and that he was interrupted and couldn't remember the rest. That's why it's so piecemeal.
Great idea
Great idea
I had a great idea for a discussion yesterday. Fantastic, it was. Positive, totally musical in nature. Not technique, not specific to one instrument, not the name of a tune ... but something really interesting about the tunes and the playing of them.
... but it's gone.
Can anyone tell me what it was?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
rhymes with? ;)
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Great idea
I think it must have been a thread about how Noodling during sessions while Reading the Dots can help your Performance of the Scales and Arpeggios...
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Great idea
Evidently a transient PFP episode. A lot of great brains have them, but some great ideas do manage to get through.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
It was about how, if you hold one note throughout a session, you are going to be playing exactly the right note at least part of the time, and over a long session the moments will add up to a respectable number of minutes, all the more if tunes are played that include your note a number of times per play, and what your personal calculated record is in this respect, and how one time the rest started playing in one flat to throw you off, but you carried on playing F# till they packed in early.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Great idea
That's right. Like when a stopped clock shows the correct time twice a day.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
And I don't mean bagpipe drones - that's cheating.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Great idea
Alkan composed a piano piece that had an F# continuously sounding through it, no matter what else was happening in the music.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
Was it any good?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Great idea
Yes, it is. Alkan was a great one for experimenting in music and extending the boundaries.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
I had one that was on reversing and celtic crossing as these pertain to the role of harmony in ITM?
My only knowledge is of the first, "He (Ciaran O Maonaigh) is joined by Derry fiddler Dermot McLaughlin, who plays the part of the tune an octave lower, a technique known as 'reversing' in Donegal." (from 'The Rough Guide to Irish Music, 2nd Ed.)
I was curious if this includes a 'reversing' of the beat or cadence, something that I've heard done with hand percussion/drums?
I've only heard of the second, though I noticed that on Mary Bergin's 'Feadoga Stain' the first track accompaniment seems to shift in tonal center from Bb to Ab to Eb as it moves through the set. In contrast, the melody seems to move in quite the opposite direction, centering from Eb to Ab to Bb!
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by mrkelahan
Re: Great idea
Hmmm. Ben, was it this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_y3DkBBpY
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: Great idea
So the F# theory the inverse of one bad apple?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by mrkelahan
Re: Great idea
"It was about how, if you hold one note throughout a session, you are going to be playing exactly the right note at least part of the time..."
I believe this theory has been attempted by students on multiple choice exams. If you answer every question with the letter A (or B, C, D, or E) then you will be correct on a percentage of the questions.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Great idea
"It was about how, if you hold one note throughout a session, you are going to be playing exactly the right note at least part of the time..."
That only holds true if somebody plays this tune: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/8417
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Great idea
My word, Will! It definitely wasn't *that* one. Out of interest ... what language was he speaking?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
Trevor, wasn't Alkan that bloke who invented the aluminium food container?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
Anyway, no ... it was really really good. Honest.
I mean, you can see from what I *do* remember of it that it would have been a totally knockout thread.
Up there in the stratosphere.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
I think maybe the Reverend's come closest so far ...
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
Yeah, but that's been done already: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/11933/
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: Great idea
Hmmm ... I enjoyed that thread ... but I could have sworn I intended something more positive than bringing bodhráns into it ...
uh-oh ...
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
Someone asked me what PFP meant in my first post on this thread.
Answer: PFP = “Person from Porlock”.
When Samuel Taylor Coleridge was composing his poem “Kubla Khan” he had an unexpected visitor (from Porlock, a village nearby) whose sudden arrival completely derailed Coleridge's train of thought at a critical point in the poem.
“Person from Porlock” is accordingly sometimes used to mean an external something-or-other interrupting a train of thought sufficiently strongly so that you can't get it started again, or ... er
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
ah, yes ... or getting writer's block.
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Great idea
Okay, I guess I'm the PFP, so I'll start my own thread. BTW, haven't I seen this thread before...?
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by mrkelahan
Re: Great idea
What? My thread idea didn't involve bodhrans, and it wasn't negative! <storms off indignantly>
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Great idea
Hah, you forget. To some people, the mere mention of noodling is negative....
# Posted on September 8th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: Great idea
Noodles, noodles, noodles were my dinner!
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by mrkelahan
Re: Great idea
or the not so great idea?
http://www.oilcrash.com/images/usa_nazi.gif
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: Great idea
"When Samuel Taylor Coleridge was composing his poem “Kubla Khan” he had an unexpected visitor (from Porlock, a village nearby) whose sudden arrival completely derailed Coleridge's train of thought at a critical point in the poem.
“Person from Porlock” is accordingly sometimes used to mean an external something-or-other interrupting a train of thought sufficiently strongly so that you can't get it started again, or ... er"
That's interesting. I knew that Coleridge wrote that poem down exactly as he remembered it when he dreamt it and that he was interrupted and couldn't remember the rest. That's why it's so piecemeal.
C. Nicolas
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by C. Nicolas
Re: Great idea
Oh dear. I've inadvertently accused the Reverend of something. Sorry, your divineness.
I never knew about that PFP thing ... and I think that is, indeed, what happened, Trevor. Oh well, praps it'll come back to me in a year or so ...
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
"That's why it's so piecemeal."
Well, that and the opium....
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: Great idea
Goodness, do you never go to sleep, Will? Nice to see you still here.
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
LOL, I was thinking the same about you, Ben. Good morning to my night cap.
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: Great idea
And what a fantastic tune *that* is. Not played anywhere near enough, in my book. I think the kids think it's a bit too simple for them.
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by ethical blend
Re: Great idea
Nah... It's not that it's too simple...
Did you ever see the South Park episode called "The Simpsons Already Did It"? The ITM equivalent would be "Lunasa Already Did It".
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Great idea
The mention of noodles went right pasta me.
Maybe we could turn the bodhran upside down and fill it with water to cook the noodles.
# Posted on September 9th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Great idea
Try gingko biloba.
It helps you remember the errr, you know........things.
# Posted on September 10th 2008 by banjoburger
Re: Great idea
Does it? I've got two of those in my garden.
# Posted on September 10th 2008 by ethical blend