Seriously, how do you lilt? I really want to enter the lilting comp at the fleadh this year.. (because how cool/crazy is that??? a lilting competition!!!! it's awesome..) but problem is I'm a fiddler, not a lilter.. so I know all the tunes!! that wont be a problem.. but basically, like, HOW do you lilt? Are there things you "say" other then basically, dightldy dightldy.. how do you start? are there lilting resources? lol.. I've poked around a bit of youtube but there didn't seem to be many videos.. (a lot of Lilting Banshees)
I just think it's so wierd and awesome they have a competition for it, and am absolutely dying to enter..
I've noticed that lilting is much easier for me when I'm drunk
the more drunk I'm the better lilting I get
I think it has something to do with loosening your tongue or something
Lilting, diddling, mouth music, puss music ~ I love it, including scat singing (jazz) and the like, like Bobby McFerrin, "Don't Worry, Be Happy". One of my all time favourites though, as far as a recorded lilting, is Joe Holmes & Len Graham, especially on the Topic/Ossian recording "After Dawning"... The duo's fine lilting of a fling is brilliant. The recording was cut just a few days before Joe's death in 1977...
You can find more of Len & Joe, with Eddie Butcher, now reissued as a double album CD that includes "I Once Was a Daysman" & "Chaste Muses, Bardes & Sages" ~
"Ballads And Songs Of The North Of Ireland: Eddie Butcher, Joe Holmes & Len Graham"
Another fine re-release courtesy of the fine folk at Free Reed ~
Sometimes you just can't hold in the music, it bursting out all over, and no instrument in reach, you just have to lilt. If I'm fixing dinner or doing other work and it comes on me, I can continue with what I'm doing and lilt too... It just comes on me, more often not by choice or design, sometimes with accompanying dancing, sometimes with a partner, sometimes with a full set of four couples or more...
padre ~ no one lilts well drunk, they just think they do... However, it might be a good excuse for the slurring that tends to issues out of the mouth of the seriously inebriated, pre and post vomit...
Nah, why abuse the term, it could hardly be said to have any lilt to it, more of a slur, not even decent ulullation is possible pickled....speaking from personal experience...
I'm often tempted, but I usually wimp out and just whistle, or hum. It's a small step from humming to lilting, I know, but even though I try privately sometimes, I still feel like "I'm not doing it correctly".
"Are there things you "say" other then basically, dightldy dightldy.. how do you start?" ~ It is all quite individual, though there are things that do get more currency than others, such as the 'D' based lilters ~ the "Diddlee-Idle-Doh" camp, or as you've given as another example ~ "Dightldee"... If there's a consonant or syllable or combination of the two, it can be used to effect in lilting. There were, in Scotland, even proscribed syllables to use in the puss music, to emulate the highland and lowland pipes and to teach pipping ~ one means of sharing tunes... I've heard some great things equal in sense to 'lilting' from traditions outside of these two realms, Ireland & Scotland.
Just go for it, spread your wings and start singing your favourite tunes, then use the same articulation in speaking to speak/sing the melodies, for example using consonants to give the beat and notes a crisp start ~ such as with a 'D'...
Slip Jigs work well for a start, taking slow and unhurried, for example:
Get hold of a copy of Séamus Fay's 'Cavan's Lilter' from Cavan Music - http://www.cavanmusic.com/store.html - or try to track down a copy of 'Celtic Mouth Music' released by Ellipsis Arts (it's OOP, but eBay might have one).
granama, anyone that's putting rules to it, what you can and can't do, and disqualifying people ~ to hell with such institutionalized ignorance. There's the real 'prat'...
I have this vague notion we've chatted on this subject in the past and compiled a list of recordings and tracks ~ or did I dream it?
"Mouth music" is known by many different names: cheek music, chin music, lilting, diddling, gobbing, reel à bouche, port-a-beul. It is built on favorite old melodies and rhythms and used for making music -- for dancing -- when there are no instruments to play. They are not songs but instrumental tunes whose lyrics power the rhythm.
It can be found in various forms throughout the world, but it is highly developed among the Gaels. It became part of the musical baggage of Scottish and Irish emigrants and traveled with them to Nova Scotia and down into the southern Appalachians. The term "mouth music" is likely to be a translation of the Scots-Gaelic "port-a-beul" ("tunes from the mouth"). It is sometimes sung with sparse instrumental accompaniment (bones, bells, drums) but is mostly unaccompanied. It was used as dance music and to make work lighter.
Lilting is part of a larger tradition in Ireland, called "séan nos" or "old style." It emphasizes subtle ornamentation and embellishment in song. But with economic development, lilting declined. ~
Seamus Ennis used to tell a story about a fiddler who took to bed with a terrible cold. His dutiful daughter brought him up a very large hot rum, and told him to drink it down and get some sleep.
In the morning, the fiddler appeared in the kitchen looking noticeably improved. The daughter asked "Did the rum do, da?"
The fiddler was instantly inspired to compose a new tune, dancing about the kitchen singing
"Ditherum do, ditherum do da, ditherum do da de da dum...."
(Imagine Seamus lilting and dancing about, before picking up his pipes).
thanks everyone.. very helpful! well wish me luck.. (don't you wish you were going to be there now? a beginner lilter.. the comedy levels have the potential of being pretty high..)
how do you LILT?
how do you LILT?
Seriously, how do you lilt? I really want to enter the lilting comp at the fleadh this year.. (because how cool/crazy is that??? a lilting competition!!!! it's awesome..) but problem is I'm a fiddler, not a lilter.. so I know all the tunes!! that wont be a problem.. but basically, like, HOW do you lilt? Are there things you "say" other then basically, dightldy dightldy.. how do you start? are there lilting resources? lol.. I've poked around a bit of youtube but there didn't seem to be many videos.. (a lot of Lilting Banshees)
I just think it's so wierd and awesome they have a competition for it, and am absolutely dying to enter..
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by baby
Re: how do you LILT?
I've no idea, but I believe you have to be a bit of a SPRITE to do it.
Apparently it's FANTA lilt, but do it in the summer - don't let your TANGO.
Hope this helps.
Max
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by maxF
Re: how do you LILT?
Some examples:
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_236_4_lilting_from_seamus_brogan_in_west_london/
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_241_6_seamus_brogan_lilting_honans_hornpipe/
not easy.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by tnoumarap
Re: how do you LILT?
and:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ltErDTkHK6Y
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by tnoumarap
Re: how do you LILT?
Max - are you on Coke?
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: how do you LILT?
...or is it Pepsi-Max.......
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: how do you LILT?
oh Danny
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by session savage
Re: how do you LILT?
I've noticed that lilting is much easier for me when I'm drunk
the more drunk I'm the better lilting I get
I think it has something to do with loosening your tongue or something
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by padre
Re: how do you LILT?
Lilting, diddling, mouth music, puss music ~ I love it, including scat singing (jazz) and the like, like Bobby McFerrin, "Don't Worry, Be Happy". One of my all time favourites though, as far as a recorded lilting, is Joe Holmes & Len Graham, especially on the Topic/Ossian recording "After Dawning"... The duo's fine lilting of a fling is brilliant. The recording was cut just a few days before Joe's death in 1977...
Ossian U.S.A. still have it on cassette ~
http://www.ossianusa.com/
You can find more of Len & Joe, with Eddie Butcher, now reissued as a double album CD that includes "I Once Was a Daysman" & "Chaste Muses, Bardes & Sages" ~
"Ballads And Songs Of The North Of Ireland: Eddie Butcher, Joe Holmes & Len Graham"
Another fine re-release courtesy of the fine folk at Free Reed ~
http://www.free-reed.co.uk/frrr08
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
Sometimes you just can't hold in the music, it bursting out all over, and no instrument in reach, you just have to lilt. If I'm fixing dinner or doing other work and it comes on me, I can continue with what I'm doing and lilt too... It just comes on me, more often not by choice or design, sometimes with accompanying dancing, sometimes with a partner, sometimes with a full set of four couples or more...
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
padre ~ no one lilts well drunk, they just think they do... However, it might be a good excuse for the slurring that tends to issues out of the mouth of the seriously inebriated, pre and post vomit...
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
Nah, why abuse the term, it could hardly be said to have any lilt to it, more of a slur, not even decent ulullation is possible pickled....speaking from personal experience...
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
Are Orangemen allowed to Lilt?
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by geoffwright
Re: how do you LILT?
No, they tango.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ragaman
Re: how do you LILT?
After two Guiness it gets easier
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by zippydw
Re: how do you LILT?
I'm often tempted, but I usually wimp out and just whistle, or hum. It's a small step from humming to lilting, I know, but even though I try privately sometimes, I still feel like "I'm not doing it correctly".
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: how do you LILT?
"Are there things you "say" other then basically, dightldy dightldy.. how do you start?" ~ It is all quite individual, though there are things that do get more currency than others, such as the 'D' based lilters ~ the "Diddlee-Idle-Doh" camp, or as you've given as another example ~ "Dightldee"... If there's a consonant or syllable or combination of the two, it can be used to effect in lilting. There were, in Scotland, even proscribed syllables to use in the puss music, to emulate the highland and lowland pipes and to teach pipping ~ one means of sharing tunes... I've heard some great things equal in sense to 'lilting' from traditions outside of these two realms, Ireland & Scotland.
Just go for it, spread your wings and start singing your favourite tunes, then use the same articulation in speaking to speak/sing the melodies, for example using consonants to give the beat and notes a crisp start ~ such as with a 'D'...
Slip Jigs work well for a start, taking slow and unhurried, for example:
The Drops Of Brandy
Key signature: D Major
Submitted on November 21st 2001 by Jdharv.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/388/comments
I might be more inclined to take it so ~
K: G Major
|: d2 B BGB BGB | d2 B B/A/GB cBA | d2 B BGB BGB | cA/B/c A2 B cBA :|
| : Rrye-dum diddledum darruhdum | Rrye-dum dither-rye-dum dowduldum | Rye-dum diddledum darruhdum | Rowdidul-eye Dowdul Ah-rrruh-dum :|
Just one group of possibilities for the A-part, off the cuff... The double rs are 'rolled' but don't have to be rolled...
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
Orangmen lilting? Well, I suppose they can give it a try, but how are you going to hear them over the lambegs?
See? Good natured jocularity, that's how we do the reconicliation thing.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: how do you LILT?
THAT'S IT! Thanks C, that's exactly what we need "to go for it"!
In all honesty, years ago, before I knew what it was called, I often jokingly referred to lilting as Celtic Scat Singing.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: how do you LILT?
Somebody once told me you get disqualified from competitions for using 'ditheree'.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by ragaman
Re: how do you LILT?
Get hold of a copy of Séamus Fay's 'Cavan's Lilter' from Cavan Music - http://www.cavanmusic.com/store.html - or try to track down a copy of 'Celtic Mouth Music' released by Ellipsis Arts (it's OOP, but eBay might have one).
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: how do you LILT?
"Celtic Mouth Music" review, Rambles magazine, 1997:
http://www.rambles.net/va_mouthmusic.html
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: how do you LILT?
...and I can sing Whiskey You're The Devil just fine, chorus and all, so I can't be that far off the mark. I'll get cracking!
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: how do you LILT?
Easily, to put it simply. But you need to have confidence, otherwise you will feel like a prat.
# Posted on April 29th 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: how do you LILT?
Garry Shannon. Master flute player from Clare. Director of Meitheal Summer School.
And a ****in' lilting GENIUS!
The last track on all of his albums is him lilting. You honestly haven't lived till you've heard it.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by Joe CSS
Re: how do you LILT?
granama, anyone that's putting rules to it, what you can and can't do, and disqualifying people ~ to hell with such institutionalized ignorance. There's the real 'prat'...
I have this vague notion we've chatted on this subject in the past and compiled a list of recordings and tracks ~ or did I dream it?
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
From SWFL's link ~
"Celtic Mouth Music" review, Rambles magazine, 1997:
http://www.rambles.net/va_mouthmusic.html
"Mouth music" is known by many different names: cheek music, chin music, lilting, diddling, gobbing, reel à bouche, port-a-beul. It is built on favorite old melodies and rhythms and used for making music -- for dancing -- when there are no instruments to play. They are not songs but instrumental tunes whose lyrics power the rhythm.
It can be found in various forms throughout the world, but it is highly developed among the Gaels. It became part of the musical baggage of Scottish and Irish emigrants and traveled with them to Nova Scotia and down into the southern Appalachians. The term "mouth music" is likely to be a translation of the Scots-Gaelic "port-a-beul" ("tunes from the mouth"). It is sometimes sung with sparse instrumental accompaniment (bones, bells, drums) but is mostly unaccompanied. It was used as dance music and to make work lighter.
Lilting is part of a larger tradition in Ireland, called "séan nos" or "old style." It emphasizes subtle ornamentation and embellishment in song. But with economic development, lilting declined. ~
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
I lilt in the style of Elmer Fudd.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by chuneboi slim
Re: how do you LILT?
That would be after 4 and a half pints?
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
Name this tune done in the style of Mr Fudd after 4.5 pints
" Dum diddewe dum dah dah dah dumpah dumpah dumpah
diddewe etc. etc.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by chuneboi slim
Re: how do you LILT?
that sounds like elmer fudd doing an
imitation of Bruce Spingsteen ...
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by dogmageek
Re: how do you LILT?
Incowwect !
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by chuneboi slim
Re: how do you LILT?
Seamus Ennis used to tell a story about a fiddler who took to bed with a terrible cold. His dutiful daughter brought him up a very large hot rum, and told him to drink it down and get some sleep.
In the morning, the fiddler appeared in the kitchen looking noticeably improved. The daughter asked "Did the rum do, da?"
The fiddler was instantly inspired to compose a new tune, dancing about the kitchen singing
"Ditherum do, ditherum do da, ditherum do da de da dum...."
(Imagine Seamus lilting and dancing about, before picking up his pipes).
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: how do you LILT?
Then there was the country singer who gave instructions for learning to yodel:
"Keep repeating 'Your Old Lady, My Old Lady Too' .
OK, I'll stop now.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: how do you LILT?
Google John Mc Manus from Fermanagh who lilts on his sons rock/techno track
Pat Mc Manus 'AYE' from compilation 'Cool Ceili'.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by iwerzon
Re: how do you LILT?
I haven't heard that one for some time oldstrings, thanks for the memory...
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: how do you LILT?
thanks everyone.. very helpful! well wish me luck.. (don't you wish you were going to be there now? a beginner lilter.. the comedy levels have the potential of being pretty high..)
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by baby
Re: how do you LILT?
Oh, yes!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HLM7gbQZy2A
Legend
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by Joe CSS
Re: how do you LILT?
The one instrument you can take anywhere in the world and they can't get you for it.
# Posted on April 30th 2008 by lazyhound
Re: how do you LILT?
"just think it's so wierd and awesome" Baby, how old are you?
# Posted on May 1st 2008 by Björn
Re: how do you LILT?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qkChjAW0E0E
# Posted on May 5th 2008 by swisspiper