hi all. I've been playing the fiddle for some years now and learned/forgot many tunes.( thanks God the ones retained are more than the ones lost on my way). Over this time, however, there has been one particular tune which I've always considered like a challenge, becoming a costant in my daily practice, which i consider a very good indicator of my progresses/non progresses. That tune ,which i love and hate at the same time is a rendition of "The mason Apron", full of nice and difficult (for me) variations . Do You have a similar favourite tune which has been with you over the time, and shows your improvements more than other tunes ? why? thanks Massimo
The tune that I found most difficult at first, but in the end helped me most with trad technique was a tune given to me by the younger Jimmy Shand called "Crossing the Minch". It is a great tune for getting your triplets crisp.
One of the most challenging tunes for me would have to be ' O'Carlon's Concerto' In D on BCC# three row accordion. I learnt it after much practice back in the seventies, and even now I still have to take a few short cuts near the end of the second part of the tune. Incidentally I played it at a Ceoltas session in London around that time only to be told by the guy in charge that it wasn't traditional and as such was not suitable.....
Why look for "challenging" tunes for the sake of it?
I have tried and actually can play(some) more difficult tunes but I only do so if I happen to like them. There are many simple tunes which are just as enjoyable.
as challanging i meant something like intriguing, a tune where you can learn and add something to it , which develops with you, which never gets you bored of it. there are many tunes that i liked for a while and then didn't appeal me anymore.
Rob Millner - you'd get metaphorically rapped on the notional knuckles for playing "Crossing the Minch" with triplets up here!
one short/one long as in "Scotch snap" is preferred. Just as tricky, if not more so, than using triplets.
There's always some simple little thing like that you can work on in a tune, a nuance or something you want to get to sound a certain way, so I suppose any tune's challenging.
I've only been fiddling for a year and change, but I have a couple of tunes that have fallen into that category at some time or other. The first was the Swallowtail Jig - hardly a "difficult" tune by most standards, but my teacher gave it to me early (less than three months in), and it tormented me for the longest time. When I first started playing it, I could barely scratch it out at 30bpm, and didn't sound like anything resembling music. But over the months, it became a barometer of my progress. First, there was the week that I was finally able to play it steadily and vaguely in tune. A few weeks later, I was able to get through the B part at the session; some time after that, the A part. The next month, I could play it three times through at the session. A few weeks later, I could play it three times through at the session without feeling like I'd just run a marathon. Then, I changed my bowing, and for the first time since I'd picked up the fiddle, I could play it without despairing of it ever sounding halfway decent. A year in, I can play the Swallowtail Jig in tune, at a reasonable clip, keeping the beat, and with decent lift and pulse - and although I've obviously got a long way to go, I look forward to practicing it because I'm happy with how much better it sounds from week to week.
Actually, thinking about it, it's my simpler tunes, not the more challenging ones, that serve as measures of how I'm doing, though I suspect that might change once I have the basics of technique down. I first learned The Wind that Shakes the Barley...oh, four months on the fiddle, and it's such a simple tune that I've been able to work in ornaments and variations, and lately I've been working on putting some lilt into it. With my more difficult tunes, I'm spending so much energy just trying to get through them that I'm not able to focus as much on lift, pulse, ornamentation, and subtle variations.
TD&M has the right idea. I'm pretty much obsessed with Rolling in the Ryegrass, since it has a whole lot going on for it - simple, charming, short and easy to remember, which means that it has abundant opportunities to ornament and variegate the playing. Playing RitRG and making it sound legitimately good, pleasant and enjoyable is pretty much the highest bar I could set for myself.
I've been trying to learn Jean's Reel for quite a while. The third part always trips up my fingers. I gave up on the Musical Priest years ago...I'm just not great at using my pinky to reach that high B, without already being on G or A.
The Tempest for me. I can play the bare bones of this tune, but I know there is so much more. I listen to the Declan Folan version frequently (form Skin and Bow) and I work at it and work at it. Not to play it the same way as Declan Folan, but to find the way to something beyond the bare bones.
But another tune that I feel like I've "mastered" over the years is the jig Rose in the Heather. Still one of my favorites and one that always seems to come out nicely and a bit differently every time I play it.
Depends on whether you're talking about technically challenging - surprised not to see the usual Reavy, Fahy stuff here - or challenging in other ways (e.g. The Butterfly, Kid on the Mountain, Cooley's, Bride's Favourite, Dusty Windowsill, Cuz Teahan's Barndance)....
Gosh lots of tunes here to look up and learn... I just learnt one from Tommy Peoples at the Willie Clancy Week... (well he taught several that were pretty challenging) but why not try "the rumour".
Didn't realise Tommy Peoples was at WCSC this year - you lucky people!! Tommy does seem to take tricky tunes in his stride (jigs in A and E that most of us would play in G and D). Also some of the ones he wrote himself like Grainne's Jig or the Jocelyn Tree take a bit of learning but believe me it's well worth the effort as they're tunes you'll treasure for life.
most challenging tune
most challenging tune
hi all. I've been playing the fiddle for some years now and learned/forgot many tunes.( thanks God the ones retained are more than the ones lost on my way). Over this time, however, there has been one particular tune which I've always considered like a challenge, becoming a costant in my daily practice, which i consider a very good indicator of my progresses/non progresses. That tune ,which i love and hate at the same time is a rendition of "The mason Apron", full of nice and difficult (for me) variations . Do You have a similar favourite tune which has been with you over the time, and shows your improvements more than other tunes ? why? thanks Massimo
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by fiddlemax
Re: most challenging tune
for me, its" the musical priest" on the tenor banjo.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by molloy
Re: most challenging tune
The tune that I found most difficult at first, but in the end helped me most with trad technique was a tune given to me by the younger Jimmy Shand called "Crossing the Minch". It is a great tune for getting your triplets crisp.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Rob Millner
Re: most challenging tune
One of the most challenging tunes for me would have to be ' O'Carlon's Concerto' In D on BCC# three row accordion. I learnt it after much practice back in the seventies, and even now I still have to take a few short cuts near the end of the second part of the tune. Incidentally I played it at a Ceoltas session in London around that time only to be told by the guy in charge that it wasn't traditional and as such was not suitable.....
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Free Reed
Re: most challenging tune
OK, before Llig gets in here, I'll say it first.
Why look for "challenging" tunes for the sake of it?
I have tried and actually can play(some
) more difficult tunes but I only do so if I happen to like them. There are many simple tunes which are just as enjoyable.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Johannes J
Re: most challenging tune
as challanging i meant something like intriguing, a tune where you can learn and add something to it , which develops with you, which never gets you bored of it. there are many tunes that i liked for a while and then didn't appeal me anymore.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by fiddlemax
Re: most challenging tune
The Mathematician hornpipe.
I've only recently managed to get through the second part fully, but I'm nowhere near comfortable with it. Nor would I play it in public yet.
There are a few tricky ones that I try to play every so often, just to keep them alive, but none so brutal as the Mathematician.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by tradshark
Re: most challenging tune
Musical Priest, Independance Hornpipe and Tommy Tamburkas are all fairly tough to play on tenor banjo. Musical Priest isn't so bad on mandolin though.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by PaddyCmusic
Re: most challenging tune
Rob Millner - you'd get metaphorically rapped on the notional knuckles for playing "Crossing the Minch" with triplets up here!
one short/one long as in "Scotch snap" is preferred. Just as tricky, if not more so, than using triplets.
There's always some simple little thing like that you can work on in a tune, a nuance or something you want to get to sound a certain way, so I suppose any tune's challenging.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Bren
Re: most challenging tune
I've only been fiddling for a year and change, but I have a couple of tunes that have fallen into that category at some time or other. The first was the Swallowtail Jig - hardly a "difficult" tune by most standards, but my teacher gave it to me early (less than three months in), and it tormented me for the longest time. When I first started playing it, I could barely scratch it out at 30bpm, and didn't sound like anything resembling music. But over the months, it became a barometer of my progress. First, there was the week that I was finally able to play it steadily and vaguely in tune. A few weeks later, I was able to get through the B part at the session; some time after that, the A part. The next month, I could play it three times through at the session. A few weeks later, I could play it three times through at the session without feeling like I'd just run a marathon. Then, I changed my bowing, and for the first time since I'd picked up the fiddle, I could play it without despairing of it ever sounding halfway decent. A year in, I can play the Swallowtail Jig in tune, at a reasonable clip, keeping the beat, and with decent lift and pulse - and although I've obviously got a long way to go, I look forward to practicing it because I'm happy with how much better it sounds from week to week.
Actually, thinking about it, it's my simpler tunes, not the more challenging ones, that serve as measures of how I'm doing, though I suspect that might change once I have the basics of technique down. I first learned The Wind that Shakes the Barley...oh, four months on the fiddle, and it's such a simple tune that I've been able to work in ornaments and variations, and lately I've been working on putting some lilt into it. With my more difficult tunes, I'm spending so much energy just trying to get through them that I'm not able to focus as much on lift, pulse, ornamentation, and subtle variations.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
Re: most challenging tune
Challenging tunes? Take the challenge out of ITM! A simple way to instant success! Impress the opposite sex by making ITM look easy!
Buy a bodhran today.
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: most challenging tune
Mawdabawn chapel on fiddle and the Gold Ring on pipes.
Can't synch the A and B parts on Mawdabawn Chapel to sound right. Can't remember all the parts to the Gold Ring. Grr!!!
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by I_Fel
Re: most challenging tune
TD&M has the right idea. I'm pretty much obsessed with Rolling in the Ryegrass, since it has a whole lot going on for it - simple, charming, short and easy to remember, which means that it has abundant opportunities to ornament and variegate the playing. Playing RitRG and making it sound legitimately good, pleasant and enjoyable is pretty much the highest bar I could set for myself.
--Dan
# Posted on July 13th 2007 by Dan the Man
Re: most challenging tune
I've been trying to learn Jean's Reel for quite a while. The third part always trips up my fingers. I gave up on the Musical Priest years ago...I'm just not great at using my pinky to reach that high B, without already being on G or A.
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by irishfiddler32
Re: most challenging tune
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/3601
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by rob_handel
Re: most challenging tune
The Tempest for me. I can play the bare bones of this tune, but I know there is so much more. I listen to the Declan Folan version frequently (form Skin and Bow) and I work at it and work at it. Not to play it the same way as Declan Folan, but to find the way to something beyond the bare bones.
But another tune that I feel like I've "mastered" over the years is the jig Rose in the Heather. Still one of my favorites and one that always seems to come out nicely and a bit differently every time I play it.
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by John Culhane
Re: most challenging tune
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/441
Seriously, it's not easy to play it properly.
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by slainte
Re: most challenging tune
Salamanca, on fiddle. All those weird changes really open up the map. If you care to hear my attempt -
http://www.myspace.com/tjhullandjeffk
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by reenactor
Re: most challenging tune
Depends on whether you're talking about technically challenging - surprised not to see the usual Reavy, Fahy stuff here - or challenging in other ways (e.g. The Butterfly, Kid on the Mountain, Cooley's, Bride's Favourite, Dusty Windowsill, Cuz Teahan's Barndance)....
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by continuo
Re: most challenging tune
ive only been seriously learning trad tunes for about 2 years now.
but i am obsessed with the tune: The Rainy Day.
i love playing variations of it, trying out different ways of attacking the notes.
also: Farewell To Ireland, the 4 part version that Barney McKenna recorded.
i love to disect it, and mess around with it.
# Posted on July 14th 2007 by DubChieftain
Re: most challenging tune
Gosh lots of tunes here to look up and learn... I just learnt one from Tommy Peoples at the Willie Clancy Week... (well he taught several that were pretty challenging) but why not try "the rumour".
# Posted on July 16th 2007 by I have chickens
Re: most challenging tune
I have been playing/learning the fiddle for 6 years now and find every new tune I learn challenging.
# Posted on July 16th 2007 by Maire Mhor
Re: most challenging tune
Didn't realise Tommy Peoples was at WCSC this year - you lucky people!! Tommy does seem to take tricky tunes in his stride (jigs in A and E that most of us would play in G and D). Also some of the ones he wrote himself like Grainne's Jig or the Jocelyn Tree take a bit of learning but believe me it's well worth the effort as they're tunes you'll treasure for life.
# Posted on July 16th 2007 by Bannerman