Has anyone realised they could be learning the wrong instrument and changed and had a much better time with the new one - say from the banjo to something else or any other instrument to another?
whistle -> Boehm flute -> wooden simple system flute -> D/G box ---> wooden Boehm flute! But still make noises out of all of the above...oh, yeah, bodhrán also.
From guitar to melody instrument, i.e mandolin and fiddle. I still like to play guitar(backup and song accompaniment) but I have my limitations and there can be too many of them in a session. Although I can play tunes/melodies on guitar, it requires more of an effort(at least to sound interesting)and is probably more suited to solo performances rather than in a session.
I started the flute and whistle about six years ago, then the fiddle a year later. Still play all, but getting ready to start on the Uilleann pipes. I'd wanted to do pipes back when I also started flute and whistle. I didn't because I convinced myself it was too hard and expensive. Well, six years later, I can play the fiddle well enough to do gigs and regular session work. Many knowledgable people maintain that the fiddle is just as difficult to master as pipes. Plus I've spent roughly the same amount as it would cost to get a halfset from a top maker on my fiddle and gear. Go figure, so much for excuses. Hindsight's 20/20.
Well, they are definitely hard to play. Doing 3 things at once, having to use more bag pressure for the second octave, compensating for tuning anomolies, etc. Then factor in increased difficulty when the drones and regs are involved. The biggest thing though is the level of skill required to be able to be consistantly in tune. Whether with yourself or others. Of course this is also a function of set/reed quality, climate and the individual piper. All of that said, the fiddle can certainly be a bear. Good bowing does not come easily, especially when one is also trying to finger the notes. It's all good though. Even if I only get good enough to paly a few tunes at home on the pipes, I'll be happy. I love to hear them. At my session, I always sit next to my friend who's a piper, just to hear the fiddle/pipes blend, it's even better if he plays his C set and I tune down.
Piano to guitar. Then to tin whistle, but eventually I decided that guitar is the thing for me. Learnt a bit of other instruments, but just don't have enough time on hands to switch to anything new (then again, guitar is a very nice instrument). Thinking of mandolin, but will not forsake the guitar.
Played piano for about 35 years. Then got interested in Irish music. Couldn't bring the piano to sessions.
I tried whistle for a couple of years but couldn't handle the breathing (plus I was producing oceans of saliva).
Thought about fiddle, but didn't want to commit to waiting a long time for it to stop being scratchy and out of tune.
Tried a cheap concertina to see if I could deal with different notes on the push and the pull, which gave me the confidence to spring for a B/C accordion. Taught myself the basics very fast, learned over 200 tunes in two years, and have been paid five times for playing gigs with friends. Taking workshops with John Williams, Jackie Daly, and John Nolan reminds me how much I still can't do, but none of it seems beyond reach. (I don't mean playing like Jackie Daly! I mean learning the things he was teaching.)
For someone with existing keyboard skills and musical background, accordion has a very favorable learning curve.
Well I switched from guitar to mandolin just a year ago, and its the best thing I've done.I already "know" about 50 tunes.I think its because I like playing melody so much that I've taken to it so readily.
I wasn't a "picker" of the guitar although I wanted to be able to pick a tune out, I wasn't able to, (or perhaps too lazy to) because I've only got small hands and found the stretch's needed on the guitar too much of a problem.
I am inspired by your idea Gary, about an accordian, because my first instrument is the piano.But I've always been put off piano accordians because of their physical size,and the naffness people tend to associate with them.Wouldn't mind trying a button box though one time. Are the buttons arranged the same as on the piano? . . C, C#, D, D#, E etc.?
i started on silver flute, and i play whistle as well. for years i only played irish whistle, then i started transferting whistle tunes onto the flute. now i play both. although i usually play whistle now because i take out the whistle when i'm at school or waiting for my bus, or have some free time and i dont feel like cleaning my flute. but i like the flute more.
then i started the concertina. started picking out tunes on it in a couple hours. borrowed a friends for a week, had to give it back. got a c/g a couple months later for christmas, and i'm doing pretty well. not perfect, of course! learned some stuff from clodagh ryan at irish fest, gonna start lessons from john williams soon. i actually can play more in time on the concertina than i can on the flute, and i've been playing the flute for almost 8 years. so i'm more natural at the concertina i guess. but i am much better as far as technically on the flute, and have been working on my tone for years and am still working. plus i dont know my way around the concertina by ear yet. i know i'll never give up flute, and it will always be my main instrument, but i hope i can get much better at the concertina. still working on my concertina rolls!
i've dabbled a bit with fiddle. i am pretty bad. but i dont really mind, i am in no rush to learn. i got the rest of my life, and every time i pick it up i'm better (tho i dont pick it up often).
pipes... i am gonna wait on those! haha. in response nicprendergast's comment, they are definately hard to play. of course not impossible. i find they violin is easier, tho difficult of course. the problem with the pipes (not even accounting for the drones and regs) is that you have to trick it into the upper octave, and that it is very temperamental in everything it does. plus the fingering is all cross fingering, or i like to think of it as weighted down fingering. i was at a session the other day and the piper's pipes kept falling apart for a good half hour at the beginning, and sometimes they just refused to play, and it really wasnt his fault. sometimes the pipes just get mean.
my uncle plays the pipes, and he says that when he watches even the best pipers, at least once a show they drop the upper octave. which means that while they are in it, it falls down, and they have to trick it back up. of course, no one but other pipers really notice it, because it happens so fast, but it happens even to the best.
I started on flute, then whistle, then guitar, then banjo, now i play the pipes( and piano throughtout the whole thing). I still play em all and I think the more experince you can get on each instrument the better. This helps you understand what other people are playing and helps a band play better together.(you have to be in a band to play a bunch of instruments of course).
Tenor and mandolin for 20 years and then I picked up the B/C box just so I could play "The Sustained Note"!! I can't say it's easy going but I sure love playing airs and ballads now.
I played mandolin for years and years before I discovered ITM and became completely obsessed. As I had previous singing experience I started learning songs too, and began flirting with the idea of DADGAD guitar for self-accompaniment. Then a luthier friend of mine built the most incredibly beautiful, unique mandola...I knew it had to be mine the very first time I played it. So now I have the best of both worlds, I can play both tunes and songs, backup and lead, on the same instrument. With the added benefit of feeling like my fingers are greased lightning when I return to the smaller scale neck of the mandolin!
Each row is laid out like a harmonica. It's in a specific key. When you push on the bellows, you get a major triad repeating over and over as you go down the fingerboard. For example, on a 10-button row in C, the notes are E, G, C E G c e g c' e'. Pulling on the bellows, you get the other four notes of the scale repeating. Again, on a C row, they would be A, B, D F A B d f a b, (which makes a D Minor 6th arpeggio.)
A B/C box has a row in the key of B placed below the C row, staggered so that if you move from a key on the C row to the key just below and slightly toward your chin, the two notes on that button are a half step lower.
When you play in D or G, you get the F# and C# from the B row, where it turns out that they use the bellows in the opposite direction from the notes they replace in the C scale. As a result, the bellows pattern in the D scale is Pull-Push-Push-Push-Pull-Pull-Pull-Pull. So push for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and pull for the rest of the notes. The E-F#-G and B-C#-D segments of the scale form little triangles using adjacent buttons on the C row and the button that lies between them on the B row, so they fall nicely under the fingers.
An additional complication/flexibility is that two notes (E and B on the B/C and F# and C# on the C#/D) are available on both rows, and in opposite directions, so they can be substituted when it makes the bellows work or fingering easier or improves the phrasing.
It's not as complicated as it sounds, but it does take a bit of getting used to.
I was at a house session recently in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The other flute player there had brought along his latest "toy", a set of Northumbrian pipes. My god, are they a tough set of gizmos to get your brain round.
Until he showed me, I hadn't realised that to get any note, you have to have ALL your other fingers down, ie only the hole for the required note is opened. D'zat make sense? Totally different from the simple flute. So you have to be very nimble-fingered. This, of course is a long term project for this guy!
Thanks garymartin for your time and effort in response to my question. Didn't realise though Gary that you get a different sound on the push and pull.I once tried an Anglo concertina, which is the same, but couldn't get used to the push pull different notes buisness, perhaps if I'd have tried harder who knows?
That was my hurdle, too, of course. The way I got past it was to buy a cheap Chinese anglo concertina for $85 (including shipping!) on e-bay. I played it for two months mostly to get my head around the push/pull stuff. At about $10/week, that's a great way to allow yourself a fair shot at familiarizing yourself with the system before taking the plunge on a real instrument.
I played recorder and piano for years. Joined a folk band (mostly Eastern European music) with a lot of fiddlers in it, and started thinking about picking up the fiddle. After living in Ireland for a year, I decided to get one so I could play Irish music. I love it! It's harder starting an instrument later in life, but on the other hand you already have the 'feel' for music that you probably didn't have at 5/6 years old (when I started the recorder).
Next instrument (if any!) will be the upright bass, don't know if I'll bring it to sessions
Mandolin to whistle to flute. About 15 years ago I started on the B/C box, and I've gradually become addicted to playing that. Practicing the box for several hours a week has done my flute playing a world of good, but I notice that the weeks don't have as many hours in them as they used to.
At some level it's all grist for the mill though - the more you know about learning music on one instrument, the less you have to sort out on the next one.
I hope that frustration is not the cause of your thinking of switching. If so, I would hold on in there. No instrument is "easy", some might be easier than others and I would certainly have thought that the pipes and fiddles, where there is no fret board to help you hit the notes, are always going to be more difficult!
Clearly, if you have got bored of the banjo sound or find it limiting as an instrument, then by all means switch. Otherwise I would just encourage you to stick at it, keep practising away at the 'ol triplets and picking technique and your playing will come on in leaps and bounds. But it does take time (unfortunately), as I have found too! I am always wanting to be better than I am and find it frustrating that I am not, but I am a lot better than I was!
So keep plugging away and you will get the benefit - it will be the same with any other instrument after all.
If you really can't stand the banjo anymore, how about the bodhran or piano accordion - at least your skin will be thick enough to take the abuse after playing the banjo for a while!
After reading about the mind-boggling complexities of the button accordion fingering (who thought that one up, btw?) I can't help comparing it with the apparent simplicity of the Chinese fiddle. Just one string to cope with and the note is where you put your finger down.
A couple of years ago we had a fine Chinese classical violinist join our chamber orchestra for a year. Initially, he didn't have any English whatsoever, and his wife came to rehearsals as his interpreter. One evening he brought along his Chinese fiddle and gave us a mini recital during the coffee break. It gave out an attractive mellow sound, and he showed what could be done on it by playing a movement from one of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas.
i was going through a bit of a black patch. but as you say just gotta keep on practicing! i heard a wicked tune sung by paul brady called coleraine regatta which makes the tenor banjo sound amazing! my faith has been restored
It all started with the whistle which I played for about ten years. Too many whistle players at local sessions led me to my first flute. A Grinter simple "D", no keys, plays so sweetly. Five years later took up mando which works out nicely in our Irish pub band. Guitar and tenor banjo came along too over the years, and now I find myself going back to whistle and flute when at home and not practicing pub material for the band.
Anyone out there from the West Coast of Florida?
shifting from one instrument to another
shifting from one instrument to another
Has anyone realised they could be learning the wrong instrument and changed and had a much better time with the new one - say from the banjo to something else or any other instrument to another?
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by NickP
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Um, bodhrán to accordion. Haven't looked back (much).
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by Conán McDonnell
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
That was a predictable response
Trevor
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
whistle -> Boehm flute -> wooden simple system flute -> D/G box ---> wooden Boehm flute! But still make noises out of all of the above...oh, yeah, bodhrán also.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
From guitar to melody instrument, i.e mandolin and fiddle. I still like to play guitar(backup and song accompaniment) but I have my limitations and there can be too many of them in a session. Although I can play tunes/melodies on guitar, it requires more of an effort(at least to sound interesting)and is probably more suited to solo performances rather than in a session.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by John J.
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
I started the flute and whistle about six years ago, then the fiddle a year later. Still play all, but getting ready to start on the Uilleann pipes. I'd wanted to do pipes back when I also started flute and whistle. I didn't because I convinced myself it was too hard and expensive. Well, six years later, I can play the fiddle well enough to do gigs and regular session work. Many knowledgable people maintain that the fiddle is just as difficult to master as pipes. Plus I've spent roughly the same amount as it would cost to get a halfset from a top maker on my fiddle and gear. Go figure, so much for excuses. Hindsight's 20/20.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by meemtp
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
i love the pipes. why does everyone reckon they're so hard to play? wouldn't mind learning myself
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by NickP
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Well, they are definitely hard to play. Doing 3 things at once, having to use more bag pressure for the second octave, compensating for tuning anomolies, etc. Then factor in increased difficulty when the drones and regs are involved. The biggest thing though is the level of skill required to be able to be consistantly in tune. Whether with yourself or others. Of course this is also a function of set/reed quality, climate and the individual piper. All of that said, the fiddle can certainly be a bear. Good bowing does not come easily, especially when one is also trying to finger the notes. It's all good though. Even if I only get good enough to paly a few tunes at home on the pipes, I'll be happy. I love to hear them. At my session, I always sit next to my friend who's a piper, just to hear the fiddle/pipes blend, it's even better if he plays his C set and I tune down.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by meemtp
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Piano to guitar. Then to tin whistle, but eventually I decided that guitar is the thing for me. Learnt a bit of other instruments, but just don't have enough time on hands to switch to anything new (then again, guitar is a very nice instrument). Thinking of mandolin, but will not forsake the guitar.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by Janek
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Played piano for about 35 years. Then got interested in Irish music. Couldn't bring the piano to sessions.
I tried whistle for a couple of years but couldn't handle the breathing (plus I was producing oceans of saliva).
Thought about fiddle, but didn't want to commit to waiting a long time for it to stop being scratchy and out of tune.
Tried a cheap concertina to see if I could deal with different notes on the push and the pull, which gave me the confidence to spring for a B/C accordion. Taught myself the basics very fast, learned over 200 tunes in two years, and have been paid five times for playing gigs with friends. Taking workshops with John Williams, Jackie Daly, and John Nolan reminds me how much I still can't do, but none of it seems beyond reach. (I don't mean playing like Jackie Daly! I mean learning the things he was teaching.)
For someone with existing keyboard skills and musical background, accordion has a very favorable learning curve.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by GaryAMartin
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Yes, but I've stuck to two sets of instruments with very similar fingering.
First whistle and wooden flute;
and then bouzouki, tenor banjo and mandolin.
The latter are all tuned the same, so skills and tunes are transferrable, and the former are fingered identically.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by s1m0n
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Well I switched from guitar to mandolin just a year ago, and its the best thing I've done.I already "know" about 50 tunes.I think its because I like playing melody so much that I've taken to it so readily.
I wasn't a "picker" of the guitar although I wanted to be able to pick a tune out, I wasn't able to, (or perhaps too lazy to) because I've only got small hands and found the stretch's needed on the guitar too much of a problem.
I am inspired by your idea Gary, about an accordian, because my first instrument is the piano.But I've always been put off piano accordians because of their physical size,and the naffness people tend to associate with them.Wouldn't mind trying a button box though one time. Are the buttons arranged the same as on the piano? . . C, C#, D, D#, E etc.?
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by Justintime
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
i started on silver flute, and i play whistle as well. for years i only played irish whistle, then i started transferting whistle tunes onto the flute. now i play both. although i usually play whistle now because i take out the whistle when i'm at school or waiting for my bus, or have some free time and i dont feel like cleaning my flute. but i like the flute more.
then i started the concertina. started picking out tunes on it in a couple hours. borrowed a friends for a week, had to give it back. got a c/g a couple months later for christmas, and i'm doing pretty well. not perfect, of course! learned some stuff from clodagh ryan at irish fest, gonna start lessons from john williams soon. i actually can play more in time on the concertina than i can on the flute, and i've been playing the flute for almost 8 years. so i'm more natural at the concertina i guess. but i am much better as far as technically on the flute, and have been working on my tone for years and am still working. plus i dont know my way around the concertina by ear yet. i know i'll never give up flute, and it will always be my main instrument, but i hope i can get much better at the concertina. still working on my concertina rolls!
i've dabbled a bit with fiddle. i am pretty bad. but i dont really mind, i am in no rush to learn. i got the rest of my life, and every time i pick it up i'm better (tho i dont pick it up often).
pipes... i am gonna wait on those! haha. in response nicprendergast's comment, they are definately hard to play. of course not impossible. i find they violin is easier, tho difficult of course. the problem with the pipes (not even accounting for the drones and regs) is that you have to trick it into the upper octave, and that it is very temperamental in everything it does. plus the fingering is all cross fingering, or i like to think of it as weighted down fingering. i was at a session the other day and the piper's pipes kept falling apart for a good half hour at the beginning, and sometimes they just refused to play, and it really wasnt his fault. sometimes the pipes just get mean.
my uncle plays the pipes, and he says that when he watches even the best pipers, at least once a show they drop the upper octave. which means that while they are in it, it falls down, and they have to trick it back up. of course, no one but other pipers really notice it, because it happens so fast, but it happens even to the best.
# Posted on October 12th 2004 by daiv
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
One aspect of this question has been discussed in some detail not so long ago on the thread
"from cello to fiddle" http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/4651
Trevor
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
I started on flute, then whistle, then guitar, then banjo, now i play the pipes( and piano throughtout the whole thing). I still play em all and I think the more experince you can get on each instrument the better. This helps you understand what other people are playing and helps a band play better together.(you have to be in a band to play a bunch of instruments of course).
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by bmcclat
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Tenor and mandolin for 20 years and then I picked up the B/C box just so I could play "The Sustained Note"!! I can't say it's easy going but I sure love playing airs and ballads now.
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by blackwatermusic
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
I played mandolin for years and years before I discovered ITM and became completely obsessed. As I had previous singing experience I started learning songs too, and began flirting with the idea of DADGAD guitar for self-accompaniment. Then a luthier friend of mine built the most incredibly beautiful, unique mandola...I knew it had to be mine the very first time I played it. So now I have the best of both worlds, I can play both tunes and songs, backup and lead, on the same instrument. With the added benefit of feeling like my fingers are greased lightning when I return to the smaller scale neck of the mandolin!
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by ketida
Re: Answer to stewpot
Regarding note layouts on button accordions:
Each row is laid out like a harmonica. It's in a specific key. When you push on the bellows, you get a major triad repeating over and over as you go down the fingerboard. For example, on a 10-button row in C, the notes are E, G, C E G c e g c' e'. Pulling on the bellows, you get the other four notes of the scale repeating. Again, on a C row, they would be A, B, D F A B d f a b, (which makes a D Minor 6th arpeggio.)
A B/C box has a row in the key of B placed below the C row, staggered so that if you move from a key on the C row to the key just below and slightly toward your chin, the two notes on that button are a half step lower.
When you play in D or G, you get the F# and C# from the B row, where it turns out that they use the bellows in the opposite direction from the notes they replace in the C scale. As a result, the bellows pattern in the D scale is Pull-Push-Push-Push-Pull-Pull-Pull-Pull. So push for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and pull for the rest of the notes. The E-F#-G and B-C#-D segments of the scale form little triangles using adjacent buttons on the C row and the button that lies between them on the B row, so they fall nicely under the fingers.
An additional complication/flexibility is that two notes (E and B on the B/C and F# and C# on the C#/D) are available on both rows, and in opposite directions, so they can be substituted when it makes the bellows work or fingering easier or improves the phrasing.
It's not as complicated as it sounds, but it does take a bit of getting used to.
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by GaryAMartin
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
started on mandolin, found banjo a lot easier later
# Posted on October 13th 2004 by Celtic1234
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
I was at a house session recently in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The other flute player there had brought along his latest "toy", a set of Northumbrian pipes. My god, are they a tough set of gizmos to get your brain round.
Until he showed me, I hadn't realised that to get any note, you have to have ALL your other fingers down, ie only the hole for the required note is opened. D'zat make sense? Totally different from the simple flute. So you have to be very nimble-fingered. This, of course is a long term project for this guy!
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by Rudall the time
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Thanks garymartin for your time and effort in response to my question. Didn't realise though Gary that you get a different sound on the push and pull.I once tried an Anglo concertina, which is the same, but couldn't get used to the push pull different notes buisness, perhaps if I'd have tried harder who knows?
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by Justintime
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
That was my hurdle, too, of course. The way I got past it was to buy a cheap Chinese anglo concertina for $85 (including shipping!) on e-bay. I played it for two months mostly to get my head around the push/pull stuff. At about $10/week, that's a great way to allow yourself a fair shot at familiarizing yourself with the system before taking the plunge on a real instrument.
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by GaryAMartin
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
I played recorder and piano for years. Joined a folk band (mostly Eastern European music) with a lot of fiddlers in it, and started thinking about picking up the fiddle. After living in Ireland for a year, I decided to get one so I could play Irish music. I love it! It's harder starting an instrument later in life, but on the other hand you already have the 'feel' for music that you probably didn't have at 5/6 years old (when I started the recorder).
Next instrument (if any!) will be the upright bass, don't know if I'll bring it to sessions
Letty
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by Letty
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
It is sometimes useful if you're in a small ensemble to play more than one instrument. (not at once though)
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by jimbob
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Mandolin to whistle to flute. About 15 years ago I started on the B/C box, and I've gradually become addicted to playing that. Practicing the box for several hours a week has done my flute playing a world of good, but I notice that the weeks don't have as many hours in them as they used to.
At some level it's all grist for the mill though - the more you know about learning music on one instrument, the less you have to sort out on the next one.
# Posted on October 14th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Hey Nic
I hope that frustration is not the cause of your thinking of switching. If so, I would hold on in there. No instrument is "easy", some might be easier than others and I would certainly have thought that the pipes and fiddles, where there is no fret board to help you hit the notes, are always going to be more difficult!
Clearly, if you have got bored of the banjo sound or find it limiting as an instrument, then by all means switch. Otherwise I would just encourage you to stick at it, keep practising away at the 'ol triplets and picking technique and your playing will come on in leaps and bounds. But it does take time (unfortunately), as I have found too! I am always wanting to be better than I am and find it frustrating that I am not, but I am a lot better than I was!
So keep plugging away and you will get the benefit - it will be the same with any other instrument after all.
If you really can't stand the banjo anymore, how about the bodhran or piano accordion - at least your skin will be thick enough to take the abuse after playing the banjo for a while!
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Nick
# Posted on October 15th 2004 by nick b
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
After reading about the mind-boggling complexities of the button accordion fingering (who thought that one up, btw?) I can't help comparing it with the apparent simplicity of the Chinese fiddle. Just one string to cope with and the note is where you put your finger down.
A couple of years ago we had a fine Chinese classical violinist join our chamber orchestra for a year. Initially, he didn't have any English whatsoever, and his wife came to rehearsals as his interpreter. One evening he brought along his Chinese fiddle and gave us a mini recital during the coffee break. It gave out an attractive mellow sound, and he showed what could be done on it by playing a movement from one of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas.
Trevor
# Posted on October 15th 2004 by Trevor Jennings
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
i was going through a bit of a black patch. but as you say just gotta keep on practicing! i heard a wicked tune sung by paul brady called coleraine regatta which makes the tenor banjo sound amazing! my faith has been restored
# Posted on October 15th 2004 by NickP
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
Recorder, tin whistle, accordian, bodhran, flute, whistle, saxophone....clarinet....
I think one can over do things, don't you?
I've settled with my flute for certain types of tune, e.g. airs etc. and my fiddle for the rest. No probs.
Sigh...I'd love to learn the uilean pipes, and the harp.
Sue
# Posted on October 17th 2004 by Susie-Lee
Re: shifting from one instrument to another
It all started with the whistle which I played for about ten years. Too many whistle players at local sessions led me to my first flute. A Grinter simple "D", no keys, plays so sweetly. Five years later took up mando which works out nicely in our Irish pub band. Guitar and tenor banjo came along too over the years, and now I find myself going back to whistle and flute when at home and not practicing pub material for the band.
Anyone out there from the West Coast of Florida?
# Posted on October 17th 2004 by westcoastfluter