"There are no tired tunes only tired musicians" - discuss.
For all those who are fed up hearing Jig of Slurs or the Kesh Jig etc. (again). And for all those new to the game who just heard them for the first time (and love playing them).
Okay, so it's Friday night and I'm being just a litte provocative for a change!
This is a pretty straightforward issue really. Human beings tend to get sick of things they experience too often, and they crave change. I really like Walkers Sensations caramelised onion flavoured crisps. They can't be beaten. However, if I ate a bag every day, I'm sure to get sick of them after a while. No surprise then, that it's the same with tunes. Some tunes are so unpopular that people stop playing them all together, and then they experience a comeback, a bit like the Irish Washerwoman is doing now. So I don't think it has much to do with "tired old musicians". It's simply human nature and nothing to get uptight about. So if someone groans when you start a tune because it's overplayed, instead of moaning and going "there's no such thing as a tired tune", for god's sake just play something else. It's not like there aren't enough tunes out there.
Take a time machine back to the 70s - 80s and hand your tired tunes over to a Scottish band called Ossian; they would have made The Jig Of Slurs or The Kesh sound exquisite, fresh and captivating - maybe a whistle or two backed by bouzouki, that sort of thing; as opposed to the sometimes sludgy wall of sound that a session can make, with everybody playing them.
I don't think there are any good tunes that have an inbuilt decay factor, that renders them unfit to play after so many years / decades of popularity: players may get tired of them, but the tunes don't get tired. I'd agree with the quote at the top of the thread.
What has actually happened is that whole traditions have come to an end. Various English and Scottish / Border bagpipes died out in c19 - maybe regulations were not conducive to their public performance; most likely people just didn't want to hear them any more, preferring the fiddle and other instruments. The old Irish harp tradition came to an end as society changed; the Uilleann pipes became very popular instead, but they in turn came not far from dying out. A lot of experimentation and research has gone into reviving these instruments and rediscovering their repertoires, brushing off the tunes. But yes, I think a tradition can get tired, because people opt out of it, are compelled to drop it, or find themselves feeling no further use for it. The latter happened I think with the English bagpipe traditions (except for Northumbrian pipes).
Fiddler Magazine has a bumper sticker... "So many tunes... So little time." I have to admit, that playing in pubs, the tune I'm most tired of is "Beaumont Rag." (not exactly a Pub tune, but people love it) So I replaced it with "Mason's Apron" and I try to do it the way it is on one of my Dubliner's recordings... freshens the air... even Haste to the Wedding is more exciting after I change one tune in the act.
Yet another thread about getting fed up of playing the same old warhorses. I know. I can sympathise. But try introducing new tunes, even if you fluff it halfway through. At least you tried, goddammit, you tried.
Yes - some tunes can eventually sound tired. However, perhaps if someone plays that same tired old tune, but plays it so nicely, or imaginatively, that it makes you sit up and realize it's not really the tune that's the problem - it's just that it needs a fresh approach. It's so nice when a player you've maybe never heard before, does that..
Ayebit, you don't hear or play *a* particular Bach tune twice a week for 2 and a half decades though do you? Or O'Carolan one for that matter....on 2nd thoughts re O'Carolan....
(Mozart, Dylan, Simon don't count in the same league as JSB to me.)
I think a lot of the "tired" tunes are snubbed at because they're often the standards that we all learned at an early point in our playing. Which means that we didn't play them very well. And often STILL don't play them very differently than when we first learned them.
I had a teacher when I was first beginning that latched onto The Irish Washerwoman as her "favorite tune" for a while. She had gotten ahold of a beautiful old recording of it, and heard things in the tune that she'd never heard before. She started playing it slower and very beautifully.
So maybe we just need to just take all of our old tired out tunes, let go of the prejudices against them, and re-work them to re-discover the inner beauty of the tunes themselves.
I agree with you too, reverend Pete. I get really tired of practicing my tunes at home by myself after a while, but as soon as the band gets together or I start laying down tracks and different instruments on the old recorder, it seems fresh and exciting again and I am re-energized and don't want to stop.
I have taken several of the first tunes that I learned (Irish Washerwoman being one of them) and played around with different arrangements of them and find that just as exciting as learning a new tune that I love. But the magic of hearing someone else do a really great tune and saying "WOW! That's an amazing tune. I have to learn that one" always seems to fade a little bit after learning it and playing it for a while. But if I dump a little more creativity back into it, then it really does breath some life back into me and the tune.
I like a lot of the old standards (and loath a few, too). I also believe that standard or not, a tune should get better once you develop a relationship with it over a long period. Either that or you fall out of love with it and move on.
We all have tunes we feel are "uncool" I suppose. I know I do. And it's hard to play them with a good grace, let alone any real interest. Once a lot of people start to feel that way about a tune then it ends up sounding really naff if they play it.
I think everybody has a right to their opinion, but it's a shame to dismiss a tune simply because its unfashionable. A lot of good tunes don't get played (or just get murdered) because of that.
These are the words of a musician gloating over the fact that he/she happens not to be tired.
Music and musicians are inseparable. A musician is not a musician without tunes to play. A tune is not a tune if there is no musician to play it.. A tired tune is a tune played by a tired musician. A tired musician is a musician who plays tired tunes.
"I really like Walkers Sensations caramelised onion flavoured crisps. They can't be beaten. However, if I ate a bag every day, I'm sure to get sick of them after a while."
Yes, I like them. Fortunately, I also like the Thai Sweet Chilli flavoured ones, so I can alternate between them., thus prolonging my appreciation of both varieties. I'm not so keen on the Lime and Thai Spices ones, though - too limey for crisps.
This reminds me of a "largish" session at Fiddle 2006 in Edinburgh last year. Many of the old favourites were gettting an airing as you might expect in such a situation.
One young fiddler(late teens) moaned "I just wish they'd play something else". Actually, so did I but I just accepted the situation as I feel you have to do sometimes.
Anyway, the young lady eventually (after some encouragement) played a choice of her own tunes(one or two of them were, literally..self compositions). Of course, she just played on her own. Very nice it was but, as Michael said elsewhere, it's not really why we come.
It's one thing knowing "different" and "new" tunes but I've frequently found that different people's "different tunes" are well... different.
So, the point of all this is that situations do arise when you might have to play common tunes and even tunes you don't like if you want to be part of particular session.
Of course, we can also choose not to take part or find something else that suits us better but there's no point in moaning too much.
Rev!!! Halelujah!!! I'm taking sides of course... What's wrong with being old and tired anyway? Sometimes you just have to face up to it and have a nice long soak in a hot tub and a comfortable sleep with pleasant dreams...
(Crisps/Chip wise I prefer corn, tortilla chips, but potato are OK too... But a nice big plate of nachos ~ mmmm!!!)
If you approach something half-heartedly the result is no surprise... I think sometimes we get too wrapped up and serious about it all, and if we can ease up, and see the humour (& full heart) in it all ~ there ain't nothing we can't breath life into and make dance...
I was never surprised visiting source musicians to find that their repertoire was narrowly defined, by the usual session standards, that they had a list they could easily make of their 'old and established standards' = favourites... I never heard them talk about 'old and tired' tunes... They may have gone through a lot of music to get to their selection ~ but they were 'satisfied' and didn't tire of these favourites, always revealing the pleasure in their face and voice when the melody weaving began... I also never heard them chastise another musician for their choice, how ever simple or well known the tune... Musicwise, they were never tired or half-hearted, even those who struggled, like a certain friend who had emphysema and played flute... (RIP old friend)...
What's wrong with proper plain potato chip crisps? I really can't be doing with these artificial flavours. (for which we must blame an Irishman it seems, Joseph "Spud" Murphy of Taytos)
There was a thing in the pub last week called Thai Sweet Chili Chicken flavoured crisps. So taken aback by the sheer effrontery it takes to ask us believe we could taste all these things in a dusting of E numbered powder over formed reconstituted potato, that I actually bought a pack. Plus the pub had run out of pre-packed toasties.
What you get is the usual tired (on topic, see!) taste of formed reconstituted potato snacks with a sweet slightly spicy taste. Chicken my arse.
The "tired tunes" are often the ones you're most likely to have in common when you're playing with different people for the first time. They wouldn't have been overplayed so much if they weren't great tunes to begin with. They're useful to break the ice in a session, and shouldn't be sneered at!
I have found that doing that is a good way to get into a groove with someone you've never played with before. Once the session is rolling, then you can pull out your other tunes that the other folks may not know, because sharing new tunes is part of what this is all about.
And once in a while, you will find that you're playing with people that know a lot of your "non-standard" tunes too, and that makes it even more fun!
The best potato anything I have ever tasted has not been pre-processed ~ the very best we grew ourselves. Crisps ('potato chips' to the 'other side') will never stand up to a good roast potato or mash, not for us, those old standards are in the luxury list of comfort foods, along with soups and sandwiches, homemade and rough hewn, like the best breads... I have never and will never grow tired of these things... The potato is a wonderous thing, and I love the tomato too, and ~ ... That love does not have an expiry date on it. I will always enjoy making bread, even when arthritis makes it a labour of pain ~ the act, the smell, the taste...
The food analogy is a good one...I think the real issue is whether you are someone who can love and cherish what you know and is familiar and find ways to approach it with new wonder and awe, if you are someone who can truly enjoy this moment and what you do have, or if you are someone for whom happiness is always in what comes next, what is new, what's just about to be.
Being human even the most serene, centred and contemplative of us probably flip flop from being contented to being discontented regularly.
For me, music is something that has an almost meditative quality to it....most of the time! I get a bit worried when I find that I've practiced in auto mode though, and like driving a car, have reached my destination but not noticed a thing about the journey.
I figure that the 'tired tunes' are the ones that people find themselves NOT having enjoyed the labour....they find them the preparation or the washing up to the making bread. They are the ones we know so well we don't pay proper attention to them anymore (like partners and kids?). Until you injure yourself and can't play them for a long while, or come across someone else treating them with love and respect and playing them so much better that it makes you re-think.
In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.
Ryszard Kapuscinski
Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.
Mark Twain
"What I have known with respect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others."
Joseph Priestley
You should never assume contempt for that which it is not very manifest that you have it in your power to possess, nor does a wit ever make a more contemptible figure than when, in attempting satire, he shows that he does not understand that which he would make the subject of his ridicule.
Lord Melbourne
I consider myself a "beginning musician", in that I don’t yet have a lot of tunes in my repertoire, the tunes I do know are pretty much these “standards”, and everyone of them still need to be worked on. I very much look forward to the day when there is the (remote) possibility that I will be tired of playing the Kesh jigs because I know a hundred other tunes that have not been played by a million other people in countless other sessions. Until that time, I am going to enjoy making mistakes while I play “Banish Misfortune” again.
But I know that when I get to the point that all of these standards are sounding a bit stale, I will not roll my eyes and take a deep dramatic breath of weariness. My parents did not look bored when I was learning to walk, but instead saw it as something wondrous. My math teachers did not heap contempt upon me when I could not figure out how much money Jill had if she had two-times as much money as John and Joe put together, but instead worked through the tired old standard with good grace, and patience.
So when you hear that darn old tune AGAIN, maybe try leaning over to that scared looking newbie in the corner, smile in encouragement, show them how it is done, and try to remember what it was like when it was all new to you!
I have been deliberately forcing myself to start different sets when I get the nod in sessions--I have fallen into the trap of starting off the same few sets whenever it is my turn, and now I have a few "party pieces" that I can rip through, and a far larger body of tunes that I know, but have lacked the confidence to lead in public. When folks think they know what tune you are about to start, you have become too predictable!
When I traveled to Ireland some years back, I was worried that I'd trot out "Banish" or "Farewell to Ireland" and be given the bum's rush out the door whilst everyone rolled their eyes in disgust. So I resolved to sit and see what the locals played. Lo and behold, I knew about 3 out of 4 tunes played, and I could relax. A good reason all in itself to keep those old warhorses going, eh what?
Wanting to "blast the Kesh fast" is, I'm afraid, one of the worst symptoms of being a Bothy Band fan. Unfortunately, this tune seems to have a peculiar effect on the body whereby the immune system is supressed, and the body doesn't realise that it is being assaulted and tortured by the tune. It's a bit like how biting insects first inject a sort of anaesthetic into the skin. Poor llig, he's terribly ill and he doesn't know it. If only there were a cure...
Tired tunes...
Tired tunes...
"There are no tired tunes only tired musicians" - discuss.
For all those who are fed up hearing Jig of Slurs or the Kesh Jig etc. (again). And for all those new to the game who just heard them for the first time (and love playing them).
Okay, so it's Friday night and I'm being just a litte provocative for a change!
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Rhod
Re: Tired tunes...
This is a pretty straightforward issue really. Human beings tend to get sick of things they experience too often, and they crave change. I really like Walkers Sensations caramelised onion flavoured crisps. They can't be beaten. However, if I ate a bag every day, I'm sure to get sick of them after a while. No surprise then, that it's the same with tunes. Some tunes are so unpopular that people stop playing them all together, and then they experience a comeback, a bit like the Irish Washerwoman is doing now. So I don't think it has much to do with "tired old musicians". It's simply human nature and nothing to get uptight about. So if someone groans when you start a tune because it's overplayed, instead of moaning and going "there's no such thing as a tired tune", for god's sake just play something else. It's not like there aren't enough tunes out there.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Dow
Re: Tired tunes...
Take a time machine back to the 70s - 80s and hand your tired tunes over to a Scottish band called Ossian; they would have made The Jig Of Slurs or The Kesh sound exquisite, fresh and captivating - maybe a whistle or two backed by bouzouki, that sort of thing; as opposed to the sometimes sludgy wall of sound that a session can make, with everybody playing them.
I don't think there are any good tunes that have an inbuilt decay factor, that renders them unfit to play after so many years / decades of popularity: players may get tired of them, but the tunes don't get tired. I'd agree with the quote at the top of the thread.
What has actually happened is that whole traditions have come to an end. Various English and Scottish / Border bagpipes died out in c19 - maybe regulations were not conducive to their public performance; most likely people just didn't want to hear them any more, preferring the fiddle and other instruments. The old Irish harp tradition came to an end as society changed; the Uilleann pipes became very popular instead, but they in turn came not far from dying out. A lot of experimentation and research has gone into reviving these instruments and rediscovering their repertoires, brushing off the tunes. But yes, I think a tradition can get tired, because people opt out of it, are compelled to drop it, or find themselves feeling no further use for it. The latter happened I think with the English bagpipe traditions (except for Northumbrian pipes).
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by nicholas
Re: Tired tunes...
Fiddler Magazine has a bumper sticker... "So many tunes... So little time." I have to admit, that playing in pubs, the tune I'm most tired of is "Beaumont Rag." (not exactly a Pub tune, but people love it) So I replaced it with "Mason's Apron" and I try to do it the way it is on one of my Dubliner's recordings... freshens the air... even Haste to the Wedding is more exciting after I change one tune in the act.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by pastrings
Re: Tired threads...
Yet another thread about getting fed up of playing the same old warhorses. I know. I can sympathise. But try introducing new tunes, even if you fluff it halfway through. At least you tried, goddammit, you tried.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Alf Tupper
Re: Tired tunes...
What about the Boys of Bluehill and The Harvest Home? I get the chills just thinking about them!
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by rob_handel
Re: Tired tunes...
The new tunes will soon become old. Just because a tune has been played to death, should not detract from its merit.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: Tired tunes...
Yes it does Played to death as you said. Death stinks.
As you know bb, an athlete is only as good as his last race. A tune *sounds* only as good as its last airing.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Alf Tupper
Re: Tired tunes...
Yes - some tunes can eventually sound tired. However, perhaps if someone plays that same tired old tune, but plays it so nicely, or imaginatively, that it makes you sit up and realize it's not really the tune that's the problem - it's just that it needs a fresh approach. It's so nice when a player you've maybe never heard before, does that..
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Ron P
Re: Tired tunes...
KML you cannot be serious man, to quote from an old tennis buddy of mine.
There goes all Bach, Mozart, Dylan, Simon, etc etc etc etc out the window. And every Carolan tune.
Music is like wine. It matures, develops, and lasts.
Until you open the bottle anyway.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: Tired tunes...
So says the teetotaller.
Ayebit, you don't hear or play *a* particular Bach tune twice a week for 2 and a half decades though do you? Or O'Carolan one for that matter....on 2nd thoughts re O'Carolan....
(Mozart, Dylan, Simon don't count in the same league as JSB to me.)
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Alf Tupper
Re: Tired tunes...
I did mention him first, but a bit structured maybe?
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: Tired tunes...
I think a lot of the "tired" tunes are snubbed at because they're often the standards that we all learned at an early point in our playing. Which means that we didn't play them very well. And often STILL don't play them very differently than when we first learned them.
I had a teacher when I was first beginning that latched onto The Irish Washerwoman as her "favorite tune" for a while. She had gotten ahold of a beautiful old recording of it, and heard things in the tune that she'd never heard before. She started playing it slower and very beautifully.
So maybe we just need to just take all of our old tired out tunes, let go of the prejudices against them, and re-work them to re-discover the inner beauty of the tunes themselves.
Pete
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Reverend
Re: Tired tunes...
I think Pete (Reverend) is spot on. What a great attitude!
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by TheCurvyFiddle
Re: Tired tunes...
I agree with you too, reverend Pete. I get really tired of practicing my tunes at home by myself after a while, but as soon as the band gets together or I start laying down tracks and different instruments on the old recorder, it seems fresh and exciting again and I am re-energized and don't want to stop.
I have taken several of the first tunes that I learned (Irish Washerwoman being one of them) and played around with different arrangements of them and find that just as exciting as learning a new tune that I love. But the magic of hearing someone else do a really great tune and saying "WOW! That's an amazing tune. I have to learn that one" always seems to fade a little bit after learning it and playing it for a while. But if I dump a little more creativity back into it, then it really does breath some life back into me and the tune.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by MartySmith
Re: Tired tunes...
I like a lot of the old standards (and loath a few, too). I also believe that standard or not, a tune should get better once you develop a relationship with it over a long period. Either that or you fall out of love with it and move on.
We all have tunes we feel are "uncool" I suppose. I know I do. And it's hard to play them with a good grace, let alone any real interest. Once a lot of people start to feel that way about a tune then it ends up sounding really naff if they play it.
I think everybody has a right to their opinion, but it's a shame to dismiss a tune simply because its unfashionable. A lot of good tunes don't get played (or just get murdered) because of that.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by kris
Re: Tired tunes...
You can be my echo all the time Rev. Thanks.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: Tired tunes...
The only thing worse than having somebody play a tired tune is to hear somebody else whinge about it...
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by TaoCat
Re: Tired tunes...
"There are no tired tunes only tired musicians"
These are the words of a musician gloating over the fact that he/she happens not to be tired.
Music and musicians are inseparable. A musician is not a musician without tunes to play. A tune is not a tune if there is no musician to play it.. A tired tune is a tune played by a tired musician. A tired musician is a musician who plays tired tunes.
"I really like Walkers Sensations caramelised onion flavoured crisps. They can't be beaten. However, if I ate a bag every day, I'm sure to get sick of them after a while."
Yes, I like them. Fortunately, I also like the Thai Sweet Chilli flavoured ones, so I can alternate between them., thus prolonging my appreciation of both varieties. I'm not so keen on the Lime and Thai Spices ones, though - too limey for crisps.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by ragaman
Re: Tired tunes...
This reminds me of a "largish" session at Fiddle 2006 in Edinburgh last year. Many of the old favourites were gettting an airing as you might expect in such a situation.
One young fiddler(late teens) moaned "I just wish they'd play something else". Actually, so did I but I just accepted the situation as I feel you have to do sometimes.
Anyway, the young lady eventually (after some encouragement) played a choice of her own tunes(one or two of them were, literally..self compositions). Of course, she just played on her own. Very nice it was but, as Michael said elsewhere, it's not really why we come.
It's one thing knowing "different" and "new" tunes but I've frequently found that different people's "different tunes" are well... different.
So, the point of all this is that situations do arise when you might have to play common tunes and even tunes you don't like if you want to be part of particular session.
Of course, we can also choose not to take part or find something else that suits us better but there's no point in moaning too much.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Johannes J
Re: Tired tunes...
Rev!!! Halelujah!!! I'm taking sides of course... What's wrong with being old and tired anyway? Sometimes you just have to face up to it and have a nice long soak in a hot tub and a comfortable sleep with pleasant dreams...
(Crisps/Chip wise I prefer corn, tortilla chips, but potato are OK too... But a nice big plate of nachos ~ mmmm!!!)
If you approach something half-heartedly the result is no surprise... I think sometimes we get too wrapped up and serious about it all, and if we can ease up, and see the humour (& full heart) in it all ~ there ain't nothing we can't breath life into and make dance...
I was never surprised visiting source musicians to find that their repertoire was narrowly defined, by the usual session standards, that they had a list they could easily make of their 'old and established standards' = favourites... I never heard them talk about 'old and tired' tunes... They may have gone through a lot of music to get to their selection ~ but they were 'satisfied' and didn't tire of these favourites, always revealing the pleasure in their face and voice when the melody weaving began... I also never heard them chastise another musician for their choice, how ever simple or well known the tune... Musicwise, they were never tired or half-hearted, even those who struggled, like a certain friend who had emphysema and played flute... (RIP old friend)...
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Tired tunes...
What's wrong with proper plain potato chip crisps? I really can't be doing with these artificial flavours. (for which we must blame an Irishman it seems, Joseph "Spud" Murphy of Taytos)
There was a thing in the pub last week called Thai Sweet Chili Chicken flavoured crisps. So taken aback by the sheer effrontery it takes to ask us believe we could taste all these things in a dusting of E numbered powder over formed reconstituted potato, that I actually bought a pack. Plus the pub had run out of pre-packed toasties.
What you get is the usual tired (on topic, see!) taste of formed reconstituted potato snacks with a sweet slightly spicy taste. Chicken my arse.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Bren
Re: Tired tunes...
Ah! I think I see where you may be going, YBL.
Like all these 'modern' tunes - not new at all, just reconstituted.
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by benhall.1
Re: Tired tunes...
The "tired tunes" are often the ones you're most likely to have in common when you're playing with different people for the first time. They wouldn't have been overplayed so much if they weren't great tunes to begin with. They're useful to break the ice in a session, and shouldn't be sneered at!
I have found that doing that is a good way to get into a groove with someone you've never played with before. Once the session is rolling, then you can pull out your other tunes that the other folks may not know, because sharing new tunes is part of what this is all about.
And once in a while, you will find that you're playing with people that know a lot of your "non-standard" tunes too, and that makes it even more fun!
Pete
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Reverend
Re: Tired tunes...
Just 'who' is setting the 'standard'?
The best potato anything I have ever tasted has not been pre-processed ~ the very best we grew ourselves. Crisps ('potato chips' to the 'other side') will never stand up to a good roast potato or mash, not for us, those old standards are in the luxury list of comfort foods, along with soups and sandwiches, homemade and rough hewn, like the best breads... I have never and will never grow tired of these things... The potato is a wonderous thing, and I love the tomato too, and ~ ... That love does not have an expiry date on it. I will always enjoy making bread, even when arthritis makes it a labour of pain ~ the act, the smell, the taste...
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Tired tunes...
Words of wisdom, Pete (Reverend)... I'm with you (especially your last post there).
Cheers
Rhod
# Posted on February 3rd 2007 by Rhod
Re: Tired tunes...
The food analogy is a good one...I think the real issue is whether you are someone who can love and cherish what you know and is familiar and find ways to approach it with new wonder and awe, if you are someone who can truly enjoy this moment and what you do have, or if you are someone for whom happiness is always in what comes next, what is new, what's just about to be.
Being human even the most serene, centred and contemplative of us probably flip flop from being contented to being discontented regularly.
For me, music is something that has an almost meditative quality to it....most of the time! I get a bit worried when I find that I've practiced in auto mode though, and like driving a car, have reached my destination but not noticed a thing about the journey.
I figure that the 'tired tunes' are the ones that people find themselves NOT having enjoyed the labour....they find them the preparation or the washing up to the making bread. They are the ones we know so well we don't pay proper attention to them anymore (like partners and kids?). Until you injure yourself and can't play them for a long while, or come across someone else treating them with love and respect and playing them so much better that it makes you re-think.
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by TheCurvyFiddle
Re: Tired tunes...
Familiarity breeds contempt
(which is kind of how I feel about this mustard space at the moment)
((ps. I'm not sayinf contempt is a good thing))
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: Tired tunes...
In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.
Ryszard Kapuscinski
Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.
Mark Twain
"What I have known with respect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others."
Joseph Priestley
You should never assume contempt for that which it is not very manifest that you have it in your power to possess, nor does a wit ever make a more contemptible figure than when, in attempting satire, he shows that he does not understand that which he would make the subject of his ridicule.
Lord Melbourne
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by TheCurvyFiddle
Re: Tired tunes...
A tired mind or body, in this sense, is one that has not been sufficiently exercised...
Tiredness like boredom is a choice, exhaustion on the other hand is earned...
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Tired tunes...
Well put ceolachan. Succinct yet eloquent!
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by TheCurvyFiddle
Re: Tired tunes...
He who is tired of the Kesh, is tired of life...
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by TaoCat
Re: Tired tunes...
I consider myself a "beginning musician", in that I don’t yet have a lot of tunes in my repertoire, the tunes I do know are pretty much these “standards”, and everyone of them still need to be worked on. I very much look forward to the day when there is the (remote) possibility that I will be tired of playing the Kesh jigs because I know a hundred other tunes that have not been played by a million other people in countless other sessions. Until that time, I am going to enjoy making mistakes while I play “Banish Misfortune” again.
But I know that when I get to the point that all of these standards are sounding a bit stale, I will not roll my eyes and take a deep dramatic breath of weariness. My parents did not look bored when I was learning to walk, but instead saw it as something wondrous. My math teachers did not heap contempt upon me when I could not figure out how much money Jill had if she had two-times as much money as John and Joe put together, but instead worked through the tired old standard with good grace, and patience.
So when you hear that darn old tune AGAIN, maybe try leaning over to that scared looking newbie in the corner, smile in encouragement, show them how it is done, and try to remember what it was like when it was all new to you!
# Posted on February 4th 2007 by MapleLeafScot
Re: Tired tunes...
Steve, I often enjoy a nice slow run through of The Kesh Jig with a beginner. Infact, what I miss is blasting it fast, I haven't done that in ages.
# Posted on February 5th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: Tired tunes...
I have been deliberately forcing myself to start different sets when I get the nod in sessions--I have fallen into the trap of starting off the same few sets whenever it is my turn, and now I have a few "party pieces" that I can rip through, and a far larger body of tunes that I know, but have lacked the confidence to lead in public. When folks think they know what tune you are about to start, you have become too predictable!
# Posted on February 5th 2007 by AlBrown
Re: Tired tunes...
When I traveled to Ireland some years back, I was worried that I'd trot out "Banish" or "Farewell to Ireland" and be given the bum's rush out the door whilst everyone rolled their eyes in disgust. So I resolved to sit and see what the locals played. Lo and behold, I knew about 3 out of 4 tunes played, and I could relax. A good reason all in itself to keep those old warhorses going, eh what?
# Posted on February 9th 2007 by Ailin
Re: Tired tunes...
Wanting to "blast the Kesh fast" is, I'm afraid, one of the worst symptoms of being a Bothy Band fan. Unfortunately, this tune seems to have a peculiar effect on the body whereby the immune system is supressed, and the body doesn't realise that it is being assaulted and tortured by the tune. It's a bit like how biting insects first inject a sort of anaesthetic into the skin. Poor llig, he's terribly ill and he doesn't know it. If only there were a cure...
# Posted on February 9th 2007 by Dow