A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
This is a small thing, yet curious. Have you ever noticed that when American (of which I'm one) players have at a tune they TEND to look sort of emotional about it. They move around a lot, make faces and the like. But, when you GENERALLY see Irish players they're quite stoic about it?
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Perhaps you have proffered an answer already.- that perhaps American players GENERALLY TEND to emotiojnality about their music, while Irish players GENERALLY TEND to stoicism. Clearly there is no answer really possible, or even confirmation (beyond anecdote) of your observation. I agree with your emphasising the qualifying words, but I doubt it will save you from the storm!
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I was in the States recently at two sessions and I saw
nothing emotional except the odd smile. The most
enthusiastic player I ran into in a session in Boston was a
young Irishman --- so there. Nobody's asking about
Australia but I find at my local session people are fairly "stoic".
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I'm known to pull a few funny faces when playing, much to my shame. I actually over heard a kid last years say to his mate, "please, tell me I don't look like that when I play". Cringe.......
When playing guitar, it's not faces I pull ; >) ..................
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I find that ppl who show little emotion are concentrating on making good music, whilst ppl who make a show of emotion lay too much importance on performance. All the stupid faces are plastic and false, and generally the music the person produces is sh*thouse. It don't think it has much to do with nationality, altho the proportion of sh*thouse players in your average session is probably higher in the States than in Ireland.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I think Dow's key words (and I tend towards agreeing with him) there were 'generally' and 'performance'. I'd say they manage to account for Martin Hayes? I don't know it, but I doubt he wafts around like that in an ordinary session. Does he?
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Back on the DeDannon thread everybody was going on about what an asshole Tony McMahon was but, also, saying what a great player he was. Then on another thread someone posts a clip of him playing and he looks as goofy as a heavy metal guy. Good players do the goofy faces too. I'v seen very good classical violinists do it too. It's silly but means nothing one way or the other. It certainly has nothing to do with nationality. The violinist was Asian by the way.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Performing is for a show/gig - somewhere where you are getting paid to perform and where often the performance is a genuine extension of the music.
Playing trad at a session is different. IMO trad is about what goes into your ears not your eyes. Personally I probably look concentrated and maybe sometimes miserable at a session much of the time but unless there's a session wrecker, (like the chap who brought a feckin Cajon, an instrument of torture only matched by spoons and triangles, to out session on thursday) then I am usually enjoying myself greatly.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Thank you Bogman - I didn't know what those feckin things were called. We used to have a guy turning up with one and I couldn't hear myself think with him bashing seven grades of sh1t out of it.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Smiling's good - I was talking more in terms of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXanHvrjQO0 but in a session, and you DO get ppl who do that. It makes me want to pour my pint over them, and that's saying something cause I don't like wasting beer.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I have never seen people skip and spin around like that in sessions round here. Having said that she would be perfectly welcome in any sessions I am at.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
And whats more, when your standing listening to a session with an instrument in your hand and this happens:
Loud American bystander: Hey Kid you wanna join them?
Me: Your alright mate I just want to listen, i haven't heard some of these tunes.
Loud American Bystander: Awh C'mon dont be shy Im sure you can play!
Me: No, im just trying to listen
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
then there are all those flaxen-haired fiddlers who are incapable of playing withour looking as if they were on board ship in a gale, throwing their hair around.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
It does make me smile, just not on my face (all the time). And instructing someone to smile rarely produces the desired outcome. It's like people telling you to cheer up when you're perfectly bloody happy!
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
So funny, reminds me of classical music. “DON’T MOVE! DON’T TAP YOUR FOOT! STOP MOVING! STAY STILL! STOP SMILING!”
I'll tell you what it is, it's those damn Yanks. Always moving around, having fun while they're playing music. They're the root cause of all evil in Irish music. They caused Tony McMahon to go crazy. They broke one of Tommy Peoples' strings. They gave my Aunt Edna the gout. They threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I move when I play - I sway slightly, not necessarily in rhythm with the music. I sometimes suddenly become conscious of it, which can distract me from the tune a little. But is it not something I have ever tried to do deliberately.
I've noticed some people 'following' the tune with their heads or their eyes when they play. I usually take this to mean that they are somehow 'living' inside the tune and being carried by it. It's no different, I think, from the way people start to move involuntarily when they listen to good music.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Never mind the players - have you had a look at the faces of the audience in those Comhaltas videos? Are they listening to great music or sitting through an insurance seminar? Stone faced robots they are. I thought I once saw an old git smile during one of the ceilidh band clips - but it may have just been gas.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
What about the players who sleep all the way through the tunes. Frankie Gavin and Dermot Byrne are a prime example. I have this desire to sneak up close during their performance and shout 'Wake Up'.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I am accused of either being stoney-faced or making faces by pursing lips etc.
My box teacher John keeps coaching me to smile. Herself usually sits off to the side, looks at me and makes this exagerated smile when I am being my stoney faced self.
Members of Herself's church choir who have waatched me when I accompany them from time to time(on church organ as I may have mentioned as my other musical avocation) tease me the I don't even appear to be breathing when I am playing, much less appearing emotional.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I reckon Comhaltas has only one camera. It films the performers and then takes its audience clips during the announcements or mike rearrangements. The audience clips are then reused again and again and again.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I have to say I was just thinking about what I do when I play, apart from pulling funny faces. As I usually sit and have tunes with pals or in sessions it seems to be just the funny faces, which I'm not really aware of until a pal makes one back. To counter this I've taken to biting my lip if the eyes are on me. But in no way could one mistake my expression as performance.
I play the mandolin standing with a strap and I do tend to belt it a little, which I can't do sitting and therefore I'm most likely a little more dynamic than the stoic demure I maintain whilst playing the banjo, for example. So the nature of the instrument and what it takes to produce the sound IMO will have a impact on body movement, hence the expression; as fast as a fiddles elbow.
My girl friend puts a lot into her playing but all your eyes will tell you is just that, the tone she produces and the quality of her playing speaks for it's self, the effort of producing her sound is not the performance, it just what it takes for her to produce her sound.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
So are you saying that someone who looks concentrated is putting in too much effort and therefor automatically a lesser player that someone who is smiling? Or someone who is not always smiling is missing something?
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
everyone has, or has had to, put in an effort at one time or another. Fair enough, the more relaxed the player the better the music (though even that is doubtless a broad generalisation) - but in the end surely it's not a question of 'should be needed' but rather 'is needed'? And just because you find something difficult doesn't mean you don't enjoy trying to do it. When I started to play music it was ALL difficult. Sorry. I'm just not enormously gifted!
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Well there's a truism if ever I heard one! I find lots of things difficult - like "how does the next part of this tune go", or what the f*** am I going to play next ... it's nice when those things come easy, but sometimes they don't. Funnily, it's those "oh my god" times that make me smile on my face the most.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I don't think I'm saying that everyone who looks concentrated is putting in too much effort. But I think I am saying that someone who screws their face up with every nuance is certainly putting in too much effort.
I'm speaking from experience. Sometimes I might look a little concentrated and I have to snap myself out of it. I concentrate on the music and it sounds concentrated. Concentrated and constricted. Strangled almost. Then I'll allow the muscles in my cheeks a little grin and suddenly it's easy again. Lucid and open.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I'm not talking of concentration when I mention my girl friend I'm talking of the physical effort off playing; small girl big sound. She doesn't need to try & I don't believe she finds playing hard it's simply the way she plays, it's quite physical, oh forgot to mention that she smiles.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
re Heike's quote above from someone listening to the session "Well, you sure don't look like you do! All these grim faces!"
I think one answer is for the musicians to look around as they play, having plenty of eye contact with the audience and with each other, but not to stare at their instruments unless it's really necessary. I think this would help the players to relax their faces, possibly even to smile occasionally - after all you don't normally look at someone with a grim face unless you're mad at them or something.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Audience - one or more persons who are listening to music, singing or talking. In other words, people in the pub who are listening to the music. At the sessions I go to a bit of applause isn't unknown, and it's gratifying when that happens.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
My mind's eye conjures up intriguing images of llig grinning sparingly into his tunes. Something like a spinning cardboard disc with James Joyce on one side, Samuel Beckett on the other, with now and then a spectral mischief playing over this fluctuating conjoint visage.
Maybe some habitue of Sandy Bell's can tell me how near I am to the mark. Unless, of course, this would incur ostracism.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
We do interact with our very appreciative listeners after/between the sets.
(That was actually supposed to be part of my previous post, but when I clicked on Post for my original message, it was not posted. So I had to re-type everything... Grrr!)
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
"The expression on your face is the direct corrolation of the effort you put into your music."
This must be true. There is also an indirect correlation to how comfortable my seat is & how much Irn-bru I have drunk.
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Wait a minute! The expression on your face reflects a variety of things.
Last Tuesday, I remember, we were playing a set of hornpipes. During the set I was thinking about various things, most of which were not about hornpipes. My face expressed the tunes, yes but also . . . who was coming in the front door, what I was going to do the next day, my mates sandwich, one very rambunctious boy who came into our circle & *bounced* . . . not to say I did not play the tunes. I did.
The direct correlation is perhaps correct. But more is going on once you are playing a set. Don't ya' think?
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
She does!
Speaking of famous idiosyncrasies, I like that look Paddy Cronin does when he lifts his head away from his fiddle and looks up, you ever see that?
I'd like to think he's imagining all the times he's played that tune before, and all the folks he's played it with over the years, but more likely he's probably thinking "Oh crap, did I leave the coffee machine on this morning?"
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Lovely music SWFL.
This morning I have been YouTubing.
This one shows the very different expressions between fiddler & flute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ISkXGjxK0
Mike McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly - The Full Set (RTÉ) Part 3
Sorry to disappoint No Cause For Alarm. Never had so much as a sip of Irn Bru. Just my wacky imagination. The drink has not come this far.
Maybe San Francisco.
A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
This is a small thing, yet curious. Have you ever noticed that when American (of which I'm one) players have at a tune they TEND to look sort of emotional about it. They move around a lot, make faces and the like. But, when you GENERALLY see Irish players they're quite stoic about it?
Why?
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by MarcoTam
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Perhaps you have proffered an answer already.- that perhaps American players GENERALLY TEND to emotiojnality about their music, while Irish players GENERALLY TEND to stoicism. Clearly there is no answer really possible, or even confirmation (beyond anecdote) of your observation. I agree with your emphasising the qualifying words, but I doubt it will save you from the storm!
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Martin_BC
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
How do British players tend to sort of look?
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by John Culhane
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I was in the States recently at two sessions and I saw
nothing emotional except the odd smile. The most
enthusiastic player I ran into in a session in Boston was a
young Irishman --- so there. Nobody's asking about
Australia but I find at my local session people are fairly "stoic".
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Hup
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I suspect a big divide is between players who have to look where their fingers are going and people who don't.
All guitarists look like the Tollund Bog Man, especially when lighting brings out their lantern jaws and various cavernous hollows.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by nicholas
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I'm known to pull a few funny faces when playing, much to my shame. I actually over heard a kid last years say to his mate, "please, tell me I don't look like that when I play". Cringe.......
When playing guitar, it's not faces I pull ; >) ..................
I'll get my coat
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Solidmahog
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I find that ppl who show little emotion are concentrating on making good music, whilst ppl who make a show of emotion lay too much importance on performance. All the stupid faces are plastic and false, and generally the music the person produces is sh*thouse. It don't think it has much to do with nationality, altho the proportion of sh*thouse players in your average session is probably higher in the States than in Ireland.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Dr. Dow
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
What????
Have a look at Martin Hayes mate.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by AndreaFiddle
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I think Dow's key words (and I tend towards agreeing with him) there were 'generally' and 'performance'. I'd say they manage to account for Martin Hayes? I don't know it, but I doubt he wafts around like that in an ordinary session. Does he?
I hate people telling me to smile. Gits.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by pavlf
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Back on the DeDannon thread everybody was going on about what an asshole Tony McMahon was but, also, saying what a great player he was. Then on another thread someone posts a clip of him playing and he looks as goofy as a heavy metal guy. Good players do the goofy faces too. I'v seen very good classical violinists do it too. It's silly but means nothing one way or the other. It certainly has nothing to do with nationality. The violinist was Asian by the way.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by shanty
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Performing is for a show/gig - somewhere where you are getting paid to perform and where often the performance is a genuine extension of the music.
Playing trad at a session is different. IMO trad is about what goes into your ears not your eyes. Personally I probably look concentrated and maybe sometimes miserable at a session much of the time but unless there's a session wrecker, (like the chap who brought a feckin Cajon, an instrument of torture only matched by spoons and triangles, to out session on thursday) then I am usually enjoying myself greatly.
I would echo Pavifs last line there.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by bogman
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Thank you Bogman - I didn't know what those feckin things were called. We used to have a guy turning up with one and I couldn't hear myself think with him bashing seven grades of sh1t out of it.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by RichardB
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I enjoy telling people to smile.
The music makes me smile, I can't help it. It should make you smile. If it doesn't, I think you're missing something.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Smiling's good - I was talking more in terms of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXanHvrjQO0 but in a session, and you DO get ppl who do that. It makes me want to pour my pint over them, and that's saying something cause I don't like wasting beer.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Dr. Dow
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I have never seen people skip and spin around like that in sessions round here. Having said that she would be perfectly welcome in any sessions I am at.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Somehow that smile says "Have you got all our CD's yet? I can toss my hair around a few more times if that's what it takes."
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by nofrets
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Of the point but I hate people who can't play thier instrument and then sway and smile all over the place; mostly americans at willie clancy
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by premier
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
And whats more, when your standing listening to a session with an instrument in your hand and this happens:
Loud American bystander: Hey Kid you wanna join them?
Me: Your alright mate I just want to listen, i haven't heard some of these tunes.
Loud American Bystander: Awh C'mon dont be shy Im sure you can play!
Me: No, im just trying to listen
I know she was trying to be nice but still
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by premier
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
then there are all those flaxen-haired fiddlers who are incapable of playing withour looking as if they were on board ship in a gale, throwing their hair around.
Its a matter of being a relaxed player.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by geoffwright
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
It does make me smile, just not on my face (all the time). And instructing someone to smile rarely produces the desired outcome. It's like people telling you to cheer up when you're perfectly bloody happy!
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by pavlf
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
So funny, reminds me of classical music. “DON’T MOVE! DON’T TAP YOUR FOOT! STOP MOVING! STAY STILL! STOP SMILING!”
I'll tell you what it is, it's those damn Yanks. Always moving around, having fun while they're playing music. They're the root cause of all evil in Irish music. They caused Tony McMahon to go crazy. They broke one of Tommy Peoples' strings. They gave my Aunt Edna the gout. They threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I move when I play - I sway slightly, not necessarily in rhythm with the music. I sometimes suddenly become conscious of it, which can distract me from the tune a little. But is it not something I have ever tried to do deliberately.
I've noticed some people 'following' the tune with their heads or their eyes when they play. I usually take this to mean that they are somehow 'living' inside the tune and being carried by it. It's no different, I think, from the way people start to move involuntarily when they listen to good music.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Never mind the players - have you had a look at the faces of the audience in those Comhaltas videos? Are they listening to great music or sitting through an insurance seminar? Stone faced robots they are. I thought I once saw an old git smile during one of the ceilidh band clips - but it may have just been gas.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
What about the players who sleep all the way through the tunes. Frankie Gavin and Dermot Byrne are a prime example. I have this desire to sneak up close during their performance and shout 'Wake Up'.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by Free Reed
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
It must be nice to still have enough hair to be able to "throw it around" while you are playing music.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
If the audience looks like "stone faced robots", then I guess the music they are listening to "does not compute".
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by fauxcelt
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
If the audience looks like "stone faced robots", then I guess the music they are listening to "does not compute".- there thats what counts
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by premier
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I am accused of either being stoney-faced or making faces by pursing lips etc.
My box teacher John keeps coaching me to smile. Herself usually sits off to the side, looks at me and makes this exagerated smile when I am being my stoney faced self.
Members of Herself's church choir who have waatched me when I accompany them from time to time(on church organ as I may have mentioned as my other musical avocation) tease me the I don't even appear to be breathing when I am playing, much less appearing emotional.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by zippydw
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Perhaps these 'stone faced robots' have just been brought up to to display their emotions.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
A woman came up to our table during a session and asked: "Do you actually enjoy playing that music?"
We looked a bit confused at each other and answered: "Of course, we do! That's why we're here every Tuesday night."
- "Well, you sure don't look like you do! All these grim faces!"
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by heike
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Jusa, I say we sneak a whoopee cushion into one of those funeral-like Comhaltas recitals.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I reckon Comhaltas has only one camera. It films the performers and then takes its audience clips during the announcements or mike rearrangements. The audience clips are then reused again and again and again.
# Posted on August 10th 2009 by deeor
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I have to say I was just thinking about what I do when I play, apart from pulling funny faces. As I usually sit and have tunes with pals or in sessions it seems to be just the funny faces, which I'm not really aware of until a pal makes one back. To counter this I've taken to biting my lip if the eyes are on me. But in no way could one mistake my expression as performance.
I play the mandolin standing with a strap and I do tend to belt it a little, which I can't do sitting and therefore I'm most likely a little more dynamic than the stoic demure I maintain whilst playing the banjo, for example. So the nature of the instrument and what it takes to produce the sound IMO will have a impact on body movement, hence the expression; as fast as a fiddles elbow.
My girl friend puts a lot into her playing but all your eyes will tell you is just that, the tone she produces and the quality of her playing speaks for it's self, the effort of producing her sound is not the performance, it just what it takes for her to produce her sound.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Solidmahog
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
The expression on your face is the direct corrolation of the effort you put into your music. The above post underlines this.
The question is, how much effort should be needed?
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
So are you saying that someone who looks concentrated is putting in too much effort and therefor automatically a lesser player that someone who is smiling? Or someone who is not always smiling is missing something?
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by bogman
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
everyone has, or has had to, put in an effort at one time or another. Fair enough, the more relaxed the player the better the music (though even that is doubtless a broad generalisation) - but in the end surely it's not a question of 'should be needed' but rather 'is needed'? And just because you find something difficult doesn't mean you don't enjoy trying to do it. When I started to play music it was ALL difficult. Sorry. I'm just not enormously gifted!
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by pavlf
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Just because you put effort on concentration into something does not mean you find it difficult. Trying too hard and effort are two different things.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by bogman
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Well there's a truism if ever I heard one! I find lots of things difficult - like "how does the next part of this tune go", or what the f*** am I going to play next ... it's nice when those things come easy, but sometimes they don't. Funnily, it's those "oh my god" times that make me smile on my face the most.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by pavlf
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I don't think I'm saying that everyone who looks concentrated is putting in too much effort. But I think I am saying that someone who screws their face up with every nuance is certainly putting in too much effort.
I'm speaking from experience. Sometimes I might look a little concentrated and I have to snap myself out of it. I concentrate on the music and it sounds concentrated. Concentrated and constricted. Strangled almost. Then I'll allow the muscles in my cheeks a little grin and suddenly it's easy again. Lucid and open.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
"brought up to to display their emotions."
...by which I meant, "brought up not to display their emotions," of course.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I really love the expression on Johnny Connolly's face when he is playing the box. He makes me feel happy.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Free Reed
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
I'm not talking of concentration when I mention my girl friend I'm talking of the physical effort off playing; small girl big sound. She doesn't need to try & I don't believe she finds playing hard it's simply the way she plays, it's quite physical, oh forgot to mention that she smiles.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Solidmahog
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
This thread needs photos of session faces!
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Not of mine you don't Lol...
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Solidmahog
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
re Heike's quote above from someone listening to the session "Well, you sure don't look like you do! All these grim faces!"
I think one answer is for the musicians to look around as they play, having plenty of eye contact with the audience and with each other, but not to stare at their instruments unless it's really necessary. I think this would help the players to relax their faces, possibly even to smile occasionally - after all you don't normally look at someone with a grim face unless you're mad at them or something.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
What audience, lazyhound? I thought a session is not a performance... :P
Since we're performing for our shoes anyways, what do they care (the shoes, that is)?
(Don't remember who said that originally, somebody famous)
And btw, the bigger my smile, the more I'm probably butchering the tune at the moment. So I do smile often enough!
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by heike
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Audience - one or more persons who are listening to music, singing or talking. In other words, people in the pub who are listening to the music. At the sessions I go to a bit of applause isn't unknown, and it's gratifying when that happens.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
My mind's eye conjures up intriguing images of llig grinning sparingly into his tunes. Something like a spinning cardboard disc with James Joyce on one side, Samuel Beckett on the other, with now and then a spectral mischief playing over this fluctuating conjoint visage.
Maybe some habitue of Sandy Bell's can tell me how near I am to the mark. Unless, of course, this would incur ostracism.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by nicholas
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
We do interact with our very appreciative listeners after/between the sets.
(That was actually supposed to be part of my previous post, but when I clicked on Post for my original message, it was not posted. So I had to re-type everything... Grrr!)
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by heike
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
"The expression on your face is the direct corrolation of the effort you put into your music."
This must be true. There is also an indirect correlation to how comfortable my seat is & how much Irn-bru I have drunk.
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Wait a minute! The expression on your face reflects a variety of things.
Last Tuesday, I remember, we were playing a set of hornpipes. During the set I was thinking about various things, most of which were not about hornpipes. My face expressed the tunes, yes but also . . . who was coming in the front door, what I was going to do the next day, my mates sandwich, one very rambunctious boy who came into our circle & *bounced* . . . not to say I did not play the tunes. I did.
The direct correlation is perhaps correct. But more is going on once you are playing a set. Don't ya' think?
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by Ben Steen
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
You have Irn Bru in Chico? Wow!
# Posted on August 11th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Sharon Shannon smiles a lot when she plays.
# Posted on August 12th 2009 by pbassnote
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
She does!
Speaking of famous idiosyncrasies, I like that look Paddy Cronin does when he lifts his head away from his fiddle and looks up, you ever see that?
I'd like to think he's imagining all the times he's played that tune before, and all the folks he's played it with over the years, but more likely he's probably thinking "Oh crap, did I leave the coffee machine on this morning?"
The 1:10 mark on this clip, as an example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2-Yj2FCnU
Lovely music there too, of course.
# Posted on August 12th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A cultural observation of Irish and British players.
Lovely music SWFL.
This morning I have been YouTubing.
This one shows the very different expressions between fiddler & flute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ISkXGjxK0
Mike McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly - The Full Set (RTÉ) Part 3
Sorry to disappoint No Cause For Alarm. Never had so much as a sip of Irn Bru. Just my wacky imagination. The drink has not come this far.
Maybe San Francisco.
# Posted on August 12th 2009 by Ben Steen