I'm pondering, as once again I find myself in "the grip" of my tune addiction --- I stumbled on some reels when listening to the year 2001 performance of Brendan Mulvihill, Billy McComiskey and Zan McLeod at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage (which has an archive -- very nice -- you can tune in using Real Time).
WHY IS IT THAT -- the reel I *just heard* and *don't know* is suddenly the best reel I have ever heard in my life, and I have the urge to stop performing my "Activities of Daily Living" (excuse me -- I am a medical transcriptionist) and LEARN THIS TUNE. I must learn this tune. I have to learn this tune. This reel is "to die for." (Okay -- so I started learning it.) The thing is --- IF I already knew this tune and had just stumbled across a different one -- the one I feel is "to die for" right now would be "a nice tune which I really love," but the "other one" which I just heard would be the one "to die for" -- one that would compel me to skip dinner so I could stuff it into my brain........ And furthermore, the tune which I now think "is to die for" would be "a great tune" but it wouldn't make me practically "tipsy" with joy!
Why?
Do I just love Irish music, or am I an Irish music addict? C'mon now -- you've all heard the phrase "tune-head" before. Okay, so I'm much prouder of being a tune-head than I would be of being a "crack-head."
Why can't we live on tunes? Why do we have to eat and drink?
Obviously, the person who invented "having a job" -- did not play Irish music -- or he/she would never have done so.
Why can't I train my cats to do the housework, so I can learn more tunes?
Tunes are kind of like card tricks. Before you know how it works you're amazed with the magic and you have to know how it's done right now. You want to own it -- you want it in your collection of tricks right away. Once you know how it's done you enjoy doing it but it will never amaze you in the same way again.
I am dying to be a fiddle teacher. I mean, it's glorious to learn a fantastic new tune, but giving it to somebody else - that's like not only discovering fire, but getting to see the look on somebody else's face as it lights up in the night. Amazing!
well, i'm going nuts trying to find out the title of a reel finbarr dwyer plays in the last third or quarter of the "kitchen session" in tom steele's of ennis at ennis tradfest....before he plays it, he says it is a paddy o'brien comp that doesn't sound like a po'b tune (which is true, it sounds more like a dwyer or fahy tune), and that he'd recently played it with eileen o'brien in miltown. but he doesn't name it. i have eileen o'brien's "newtown bridge," cd, but i don't think it's on there.....so in addict terms, i guess this is called, JONESING....
Oh goodness. There's another in this world, and here was me thinking I was the ONLY one. I say go with flow and hang the rest. Its a good addiction, and whose life is it anyhow?
This is all part of the wonderful world of human psychology. The newness of something makes it seem amazing till you do it again, when it's not quite so amazing, so you go lloking for an even newer thing.
At least it's tunes, and not narcotics.
"Hullo, my name is Daniel, and I'm a tune addict."
I think the same can be said for any type of music. I once stayed back in a cinema to watch the credits just to get the name of a piece of music that was played in the film. It took about 15 minutes before it came up, and the cleaners kept asking me to move. Often came home from a session with a 'must have tune' bouncing around in my head. It's not appreciated by the other occupants when you try to play something at 3 in the morning. People just don't understand.
Well, that's very comforting to know there is someone else out there (another medical transcriptionist, no less!) who goes crazy for a new tune. I've had to drop my habit of leaving my fiddle out while I type up the surgeries and whatnot, as I was becoming so much less productive that my paychecks were considerably less. Ouch! I am pretty much a newbie to ITM, but it still has me hooked! Thanks for sharing.
You are absolutely normal for having to learn tunes all the time. It's the other occupants of the planet that are crazy. Self help books say addicts often replace one addition with another, so you are probably saving yourself from other terrible addiction by allowing yourself to learn new tunes. You owe it to yourself!
Why does everybody think it is an addiction? That's just silly. The fact is that some people simply find joy in learning. It's a main motivator, a calling, something that forms a central piece in our personality. That we found something that can continually satisfy that need to learn is a wonderful thing to be happy about, not something to disparage as an addiction.
My initial post was half in jest -- for anyone who might be taking it VERY seriously -- although I do experience "tune LUST," especially when I hear a "tasty new reel" with a lovely melody -- played by an excellent fiddle player who coaxes every conceivable nuance out of that tune.
Tune LUST -- yeah that's what it feels like. Gotta have it.
And thank you "Phantom Button" -- for your very excellent analysis of "what it is."
When I practice, I try to learn a little bit of a new tune which I am "lusting after" and then I always wind up going back to working on my bowing, on tunes I already know, since I've absolutely realized that this is what's gonna make me a much stronger player. I also work on getting the ornamentation in without losing speed - and I work on playing rolls on the G (low) string.
All of this work is aimed at me being able to fulfill my tune lust with more agility and more solidity to my playing.... and more,,,,More....MOre, MORE just GIVE ME MORE TUNES.
Well Britt, as you so graciously note, I guess I'm on my way to being a *craic whore* but I swear by the stars above -- I will by a *tidy craic whore,* not a sloppy one.
A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
I'm pondering, as once again I find myself in "the grip" of my tune addiction --- I stumbled on some reels when listening to the year 2001 performance of Brendan Mulvihill, Billy McComiskey and Zan McLeod at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage (which has an archive -- very nice -- you can tune in using Real Time).
WHY IS IT THAT -- the reel I *just heard* and *don't know* is suddenly the best reel I have ever heard in my life, and I have the urge to stop performing my "Activities of Daily Living" (excuse me -- I am a medical transcriptionist) and LEARN THIS TUNE. I must learn this tune. I have to learn this tune. This reel is "to die for." (Okay -- so I started learning it.) The thing is --- IF I already knew this tune and had just stumbled across a different one -- the one I feel is "to die for" right now would be "a nice tune which I really love," but the "other one" which I just heard would be the one "to die for" -- one that would compel me to skip dinner so I could stuff it into my brain........ And furthermore, the tune which I now think "is to die for" would be "a great tune" but it wouldn't make me practically "tipsy" with joy!
Why?
Do I just love Irish music, or am I an Irish music addict? C'mon now -- you've all heard the phrase "tune-head" before. Okay, so I'm much prouder of being a tune-head than I would be of being a "crack-head."
Why can't we live on tunes? Why do we have to eat and drink?
Obviously, the person who invented "having a job" -- did not play Irish music -- or he/she would never have done so.
Why can't I train my cats to do the housework, so I can learn more tunes?
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Fid42
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Tunes are kind of like card tricks. Before you know how it works you're amazed with the magic and you have to know how it's done right now. You want to own it -- you want it in your collection of tricks right away. Once you know how it's done you enjoy doing it but it will never amaze you in the same way again.
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Phantom Button
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
I am dying to be a fiddle teacher. I mean, it's glorious to learn a fantastic new tune, but giving it to somebody else - that's like not only discovering fire, but getting to see the look on somebody else's face as it lights up in the night. Amazing!
--DtM
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Dan the Man
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
well, i'm going nuts trying to find out the title of a reel finbarr dwyer plays in the last third or quarter of the "kitchen session" in tom steele's of ennis at ennis tradfest....before he plays it, he says it is a paddy o'brien comp that doesn't sound like a po'b tune (which is true, it sounds more like a dwyer or fahy tune), and that he'd recently played it with eileen o'brien in miltown. but he doesn't name it. i have eileen o'brien's "newtown bridge," cd, but i don't think it's on there.....so in addict terms, i guess this is called, JONESING....
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by ceemonster
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Phantom is spot on here. And each tune has this quirk that is new, and seems impossible (on the flute), but after a dozen times or so, its old hat.
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by jtrout
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Oh goodness. There's another in this world, and here was me thinking I was the ONLY one. I say go with flow and hang the rest. Its a good addiction, and whose life is it anyhow?
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Clear Drops
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
This is all part of the wonderful world of human psychology. The newness of something makes it seem amazing till you do it again, when it's not quite so amazing, so you go lloking for an even newer thing.
At least it's tunes, and not narcotics.
"Hullo, my name is Daniel, and I'm a tune addict."
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
I think the same can be said for any type of music. I once stayed back in a cinema to watch the credits just to get the name of a piece of music that was played in the film. It took about 15 minutes before it came up, and the cleaners kept asking me to move. Often came home from a session with a 'must have tune' bouncing around in my head. It's not appreciated by the other occupants when you try to play something at 3 in the morning. People just don't understand.
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by Free Reed
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Well, that's very comforting to know there is someone else out there (another medical transcriptionist, no less!) who goes crazy for a new tune. I've had to drop my habit of leaving my fiddle out while I type up the surgeries and whatnot, as I was becoming so much less productive that my paychecks were considerably less. Ouch! I am pretty much a newbie to ITM, but it still has me hooked! Thanks for sharing.
# Posted on January 20th 2008 by swillybay
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
You are absolutely normal for having to learn tunes all the time. It's the other occupants of the planet that are crazy. Self help books say addicts often replace one addition with another, so you are probably saving yourself from other terrible addiction by allowing yourself to learn new tunes. You owe it to yourself!
# Posted on January 21st 2008 by jonathanamos
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Why does everybody think it is an addiction? That's just silly. The fact is that some people simply find joy in learning. It's a main motivator, a calling, something that forms a central piece in our personality. That we found something that can continually satisfy that need to learn is a wonderful thing to be happy about, not something to disparage as an addiction.
# Posted on January 21st 2008 by sbhikes
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Soon you will be a craic whore and sloppiness will take on a whole new meaning. Moderation.
# Posted on January 21st 2008 by Ray Mariani
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
My initial post was half in jest -- for anyone who might be taking it VERY seriously -- although I do experience "tune LUST," especially when I hear a "tasty new reel" with a lovely melody -- played by an excellent fiddle player who coaxes every conceivable nuance out of that tune.
Tune LUST -- yeah that's what it feels like. Gotta have it.
And thank you "Phantom Button" -- for your very excellent analysis of "what it is."
When I practice, I try to learn a little bit of a new tune which I am "lusting after" and then I always wind up going back to working on my bowing, on tunes I already know, since I've absolutely realized that this is what's gonna make me a much stronger player. I also work on getting the ornamentation in without losing speed - and I work on playing rolls on the G (low) string.
All of this work is aimed at me being able to fulfill my tune lust with more agility and more solidity to my playing.... and more,,,,More....MOre, MORE just GIVE ME MORE TUNES.
Well Britt, as you so graciously note, I guess I'm on my way to being a *craic whore* but I swear by the stars above -- I will by a *tidy craic whore,* not a sloppy one.
# Posted on January 21st 2008 by Fid42
Re: A Query Into the Nature of My Tune Addiction
Misbelief alone misleads; singlemindedness always leads to the goal.
# Posted on January 21st 2008 by Ray Mariani