A while back I was playing a job with another fellow. We each play 3 or 4 instruments so we try to vary our sound a lot. I was so struck with the sound of his concertina and my mandolin. It just seems like a great mix. At sessions there is often a great variety of instrumental tones as different people join in or drop out depending on whether or not they know the tunes. I'm just curious about what pairs or blends of instruments people here particularly enjoy. (I know purists will say the best sound for ITM is a solo fiddle!)
It is hard to beat the flute/fiddle combination - if you've ever listened to Memories of Sligo with Tommy Healy and JOhnny Duffy. Then again some of Mary Macs playing with pJ or Martin Hayes is sublime. Oh heck here I am a flute player backing up the fiddle with anything heresy!
Mention of Sligo and fiddles and flutes reminds me of when I discovered the magic of this music.
A lounge bar at the back of a shop in Tubbercurry, late 60s, Fred Finn and Peter Horan. Never heard anything like it before, and I`ve never heard anything to better it since.
I beg your pardon...as an honorary "Tubber" girl (marrying a native of said locale next week!)...Tubber is a great town... Blink and you miss it unless you are there for the summer school!
They have curry chips there...so does that make it "Tubber-Curry-Curry"?...
The Finn/Horan moment sounds wonderful - I've just checked on the recordings and they recorded an album with some great tracks on it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available - not listed by Claddagh anyway. Anyone with it prepared to make a tape copy and send me it - happy to send something else in return.
I think Fred and Peter are on an RTE I think called Come West Along the ROad along with lots of other greats like WIllie Clancy and Seamus Ennis
Daiv, I play mandolin together with a concertina player from time to time, and they blend very well. It's a great combination for listening to one another, as neither obscures the sound of the other.
I also love playing with another mandolin player, on the rare occasion that I meet one. It's a very 'forgiving' combination - you can get away with all sorts of off-the-wall variations and not-quite-harmonies, without detracting from the tunes.
Can I assume the mandolin was amplified when playing with a box?
favourite combinations:
fiddle and whistle
mandolin and mandola (or two mandolins, one playing chords, the other the melody)
I heard a whistle and a bodhran players playing together with nobody else, it sounded brilliand. Anyway, any combination works if both musicians are good.
Uillean pipes are an instrument combination in themselves - chanter, drones, regulators, squeaking bellows, creaking elbows, tapping feet - and voice as well, if you're Francie McPeake.
david - my brother has a mandolin. he's 12, and isnt too good yet. he's decent, but he doesnt know too many itm tunes. he plays the fiddle tho. my older brother plays guitar, and picked up the mandolin and figured it out in a night, and he's pretty good. but, he usually doesnt want to play with me!
i tried concertina and whistle the other day. it didnt work. especially since the kid doesnt play the whistle and i was teaching him. i couldnt hear if he was doing something right or wrong. *sigh* i had to take the flute of the table and play that again (i was being mean and not letting him see me play the whistle to figure out the fingering). well, it didnt help that i was figuring out some bellow variations on kerry polka, trying to get it to sound more interesting, and failing, and sounding worse than he did on the whistle.
uillean pipes can play with other instruments, i wasnt aware.... jk.
they're the devil to play, tho. of course the set i tried had stupid finger grooves manufactured in. icky. i want to try my uncles set that doesnt (ironically, they're a practice set that played better than his friends expensive set. we didnt have the heart to tell him). most pipers i've talked to say after 20 years sometimes they feel like throwing them out the window. but thats what makes me want to learn them so much.... i would enjoy hating my instrument!
and jim, excuse me, nuh uh. uzi doesnt mix with concertina. at all. i think it would be more satisfying to set a cat on the bellows and tear it apart slowly. the cat and the concertina screaching would sound the same.
i'll just let you try it on someone else's concertina besides mine!
banjo and box - yes
banjo and fiddle - yes
banjo and pipes - yes
banjo and harp - yes
banjo and shakey egg - yesyesyes!
but for some reason:
banjo and flute - ug!
Bodhran and whistle. Fully-keyed Northumbrian pipes and harp - this can be a particularly exquisite pairing. Clarinet, violin and accordion in Klezmer and the country music of North and Central Greece.
The above are interesting in the sense that they sound good - if, that is, you give bodhrans the benefit of the doubt, and are not too fazed by the more unnerving and cacophonous manifestations of Eastern European music.
Other interesting combinations that do not sound so good include:
Harmonica / melodeon playing, dog howling frantically throughout;
Sounds of strapped-in bellows piper / accordionist, phone ringing (spontaneous and inventive vocals may come into play here);
Whistle played in bath, doorbell ringing (vocals may occur here too..);
A variant on whistle and bodhran is whistle and somebody furiously banging on the wall / ceiling.
The first and last have definitely come within my experience, the others may well have.
interesting instrument combinations
interesting instrument combinations
A while back I was playing a job with another fellow. We each play 3 or 4 instruments so we try to vary our sound a lot. I was so struck with the sound of his concertina and my mandolin. It just seems like a great mix. At sessions there is often a great variety of instrumental tones as different people join in or drop out depending on whether or not they know the tunes. I'm just curious about what pairs or blends of instruments people here particularly enjoy. (I know purists will say the best sound for ITM is a solo fiddle!)
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by Plunkett.mi
Re: interesting instrument combinations
I like "whistle and mandolin" , "fiddle and guitar"--to name but two combinations.
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by John J.
Re: interesting instrument combinations
I love the sound of flute and fiddle, and whistle and fiddle. Come to think of it, a fiddle sounds good with most instruments!
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by irishfiddler32
Re: interesting instrument combinations
I really love the cape breton fiddle guitar and piano combo
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by tynebomb
Re: interesting instrument combinations
It is hard to beat the flute/fiddle combination - if you've ever listened to Memories of Sligo with Tommy Healy and JOhnny Duffy. Then again some of Mary Macs playing with pJ or Martin Hayes is sublime. Oh heck here I am a flute player backing up the fiddle with anything heresy!
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by mad mike
Re: interesting instrument combinations
flute and mandolin. i havent tried concertina and mandolin yet, sounds intereseting.
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by daiv
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Mention of Sligo and fiddles and flutes reminds me of when I discovered the magic of this music.
A lounge bar at the back of a shop in Tubbercurry, late 60s, Fred Finn and Peter Horan. Never heard anything like it before, and I`ve never heard anything to better it since.
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by murfbox
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Tubbercurry - now that's a name to conjur with, sure it should not be on the 'What you are having for dinner thread'
:(@)
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by nick b
Re: interesting instrument combinations
I beg your pardon...as an honorary "Tubber" girl (marrying a native of said locale next week!)...Tubber is a great town... Blink and you miss it unless you are there for the summer school!
They have curry chips there...so does that make it "Tubber-Curry-Curry"?...
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by yekdeli
Re: interesting instrument combinations
All the best for next week, Theresa.
Make sure you have some music at your wedding !
Mike.
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by murfbox
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Button-box and uillean pipes.
The first time I heard this was at a Chulrua concert, in the early days when Michael Cooney was in the band. Brilliant.
Yes, Tubber's a great place. Right down the road from my Mom's hometown. And that grocer/pub is still there!! We had tunes there a few years back.
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by Jode
Re: interesting instrument combinations
The Finn/Horan moment sounds wonderful - I've just checked on the recordings and they recorded an album with some great tracks on it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available - not listed by Claddagh anyway. Anyone with it prepared to make a tape copy and send me it - happy to send something else in return.
I think Fred and Peter are on an RTE I think called Come West Along the ROad along with lots of other greats like WIllie Clancy and Seamus Ennis
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by mad mike
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Concertina and Fiddle with a Guitar back up is nice!
# Posted on September 23rd 2004 by Ani Trec-Noc
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Daiv, I play mandolin together with a concertina player from time to time, and they blend very well. It's a great combination for listening to one another, as neither obscures the sound of the other.
I also love playing with another mandolin player, on the rare occasion that I meet one. It's a very 'forgiving' combination - you can get away with all sorts of off-the-wall variations and not-quite-harmonies, without detracting from the tunes.
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Spoons and whooping cough
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by P.browne
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Plunkett
Wouldn't a "purist" say the best sound for "solo ITM" is the uillean pipes. (Unless that purist is a blazing fiddle player of course)
P
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by Chef Paul
Re: interesting instrument combinations
1 Smith & Wesson
1 Daniel O'Donnell
10 bullets
2 earplugs (just to be sure).
Jim
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by Worldfiddler
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Flute, fiddle and harp are lovely, as are flute and harp.
-Athena
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by act
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Bodhran and pen knife,
Bongos and scythe,
etc.
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by John J.
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Can I assume the mandolin was amplified when playing with a box?
favourite combinations:
fiddle and whistle
mandolin and mandola (or two mandolins, one playing chords, the other the melody)
I heard a whistle and a bodhran players playing together with nobody else, it sounded brilliand. Anyway, any combination works if both musicians are good.
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by Cath
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Congratulations Yekdeli and good luck with your forthcoming wedding!
I drove through Tubbercurry once and wanted to stop and photograph the sign - it sure brought a smile to my lips....
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by nick b
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Jew's Harp and Piano Accordion
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by Ottery
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Flute and cittern is a favourite
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by bestcraic
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Paper-and-comb and hose-and-funnel
Jew's harp and blues harp
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Uillean pipes are an instrument combination in themselves - chanter, drones, regulators, squeaking bellows, creaking elbows, tapping feet - and voice as well, if you're Francie McPeake.
# Posted on September 24th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: interesting instrument combinations
david - my brother has a mandolin. he's 12, and isnt too good yet. he's decent, but he doesnt know too many itm tunes. he plays the fiddle tho. my older brother plays guitar, and picked up the mandolin and figured it out in a night, and he's pretty good. but, he usually doesnt want to play with me!
i tried concertina and whistle the other day. it didnt work. especially since the kid doesnt play the whistle and i was teaching him. i couldnt hear if he was doing something right or wrong. *sigh* i had to take the flute of the table and play that again (i was being mean and not letting him see me play the whistle to figure out the fingering). well, it didnt help that i was figuring out some bellow variations on kerry polka, trying to get it to sound more interesting, and failing, and sounding worse than he did on the whistle.
# Posted on September 25th 2004 by daiv
Re: interesting instrument combinations
uillean pipes can play with other instruments, i wasnt aware.... jk.
they're the devil to play, tho. of course the set i tried had stupid finger grooves manufactured in. icky. i want to try my uncles set that doesnt (ironically, they're a practice set that played better than his friends expensive set. we didnt have the heart to tell him). most pipers i've talked to say after 20 years sometimes they feel like throwing them out the window. but thats what makes me want to learn them so much.... i would enjoy hating my instrument!
and jim, excuse me, nuh uh. uzi doesnt mix with concertina. at all. i think it would be more satisfying to set a cat on the bellows and tear it apart slowly. the cat and the concertina screaching would sound the same.
i'll just let you try it on someone else's concertina besides mine!
# Posted on September 25th 2004 by daiv
Re: interesting instrument combinations
cello and viola.
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by gummidge
Re: interesting instrument combinations
banjo and box - yes
banjo and fiddle - yes
banjo and pipes - yes
banjo and harp - yes
banjo and shakey egg - yesyesyes!
but for some reason:
banjo and flute - ug!
# Posted on September 27th 2004 by patrick cavanagh
Re: interesting instrument combinations
1 guitar
1 smith & wesson
1 rain-stick
extra bullets
# Posted on October 27th 2004 by lisaniska
Re: interesting instrument combinations
Bodhran and whistle. Fully-keyed Northumbrian pipes and harp - this can be a particularly exquisite pairing. Clarinet, violin and accordion in Klezmer and the country music of North and Central Greece.
The above are interesting in the sense that they sound good - if, that is, you give bodhrans the benefit of the doubt, and are not too fazed by the more unnerving and cacophonous manifestations of Eastern European music.
Other interesting combinations that do not sound so good include:
Harmonica / melodeon playing, dog howling frantically throughout;
Sounds of strapped-in bellows piper / accordionist, phone ringing (spontaneous and inventive vocals may come into play here);
Whistle played in bath, doorbell ringing (vocals may occur here too..);
A variant on whistle and bodhran is whistle and somebody furiously banging on the wall / ceiling.
The first and last have definitely come within my experience, the others may well have.
# Posted on October 4th 2006 by nicholas