Music takes up most of my life (sessions, gigs, listening, learning, busking, rehearsing, repairing instruments) and makes me most of my "earned income", in one way or another. So what will I be remembered for?
Your thesis might be remembered for the hoaryness of some line in it which will be condescendingly quoted for evermore as being "very much of its time", and your music might travel on forever towards the receding margins of the cosmos unregistered by the cloth ears of all its denizens.
But I hope more gratifying recognition is accorded to both.
It's good when every now and then a rock star achieves something serious in the real world. Jon Lord, of Deep Purple, wrote a Durham Concerto which duly got performed here. (He had a lot of Classical training before he got into rock.) I often put it on - it's a thoroughgoing piece of music, not just a curiosity, in the manner of Elgar as far as I can make out. And isn't somebody in Metallica a qualified airline pilot? One of the metal bands, anyway.
Playing music is a better hobby than some other things you could do when you aren't working on your thesis.
As for making enough money to support your piping habit, that depends on what you are smoking in your pipe or pipes.
According to the late pianist Artur Rubinstein, Einstein was unable to count to four while playing his fiddle.
If I did a cost/benefit analysis of everything I do musically, I would have to give up my music and go into a less dishonest line of work such as politics or selling pre-owned (as in used) cars.
But politics, used-car-salesmanship, crime, scamming a congregation, rogue banking, etc., etc., are simply *terribly hard work*, especially in the matter of having to live constantly by one's wits or go under. I could never have done them.
Music is the best way I've found of combining a creative, pleasurable and - at least for some - paying pursuit with total, unalloyed indolence. For such was I made.
i come from a long line of book keepers and I am a university professor. I have two grown kids who are a stay at home mum and a financial analyst at a bank. For everyone in my family, going back as far as I know, music has been central, playing some instrument, singing or whatever. Without it the life is not lived.
"Without music life is not lived." Too true. I have a friend who regretfully stopped playing music. I know he would be much happier if he would just begin playing again.
I feel somewhat sad that my brother stopped playing fiddle....he played classical but it wasn't music that spoke to his heart.
I made him the beneficiary of my fiddle and tons of Celtic music.....he'd better play it!
Nicholas, as I am sure you and the other members of this web site have noticed by now, I don't have any "wits" which I can live on or by so I guess I will just have to continue to make a living as a medical clerk at a hospital while I play music in my free time.
The more I play, the less music I am looking at. Even at the Church gig.
I try to do my playing at times when Herself is not around. Partly not to bug her with a newfound search for playing things right, Partly so she won't bug me about all the things I am not doing because "all you do is sit there and play your music". But mostly because playing alone makes everything in the wolrd less of a crisis. I suppose this is what zen gets you to.
Playing in with others is fun, but it is less than satisfying because things never fall together the way you want them to. Frustrating because its hard to control other play or the sound conditions (on the flip side, I suppose I am frustrating to others)
Odd though, playing alone no one hears except the dog and the parakeet.
So. Does the Music go away or stay in the universe forever. Scary thought. Herself contends the sound stays in the Universe forever.
Don't do what I done -- Go Get those Exam's, Thesis. - WHATEVER - Done first --
Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ...
Problem with that approach is that by the time you get to any sort of money, you are to old, have too many other commitments or have an "other" who is fed up with your musical dreaming to enjoy the Feadhs, Festivals and Sessions.
SilverSpear - heh, folks often ask me if I wish I'd taken up the fiddle as a kid. And - well, maybe; I have more patience now than I did then, and I don't know if I would have stuck with it if I'd started as a kid. But I do know that if I'd taken up music in grad school, I'd never have gotten my degree. I don't know how students who play this stuff for fun manage it. (I took up pottery as a grad student; took an extra year to complete my Master's. I sure made a lot of teapots that year, though.)
FIDDLE4 - "...Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ..."
Not just money, but time and flexibility. I attend a session every Thursday. I schedule all quizzes and tests for Fridays, because I know I'll be in no shape to lecture all day .
Yeah, I play music when I should be working on my master's work as well, which is why my grade point average leaves a little to be desired. Ah, hell, it's an MBA, who cares about the grade point average?
Next week I pick up a fiddle. Now watch my average drop.
Go on, Silver. Neglect your schoolwork. Let everything slide. Then, write about the grinding poverty that will be your lot; and describe your torment at not being able to get your horse back from the pawn shop.
I remember when I first got the bug to play. I gave up some other stuff quickly afterwards to make more time to practise and let studying slide a lot..... ......... and I dont regret any of it.
Oh, I'm not saying I regret it at all. As long as I can maintain an adequate average to graduate, I'm fine. I'm not going for a doctorate. All this school is about making a decent enough living to support my family and my habits, that's it.
I am 34 years out from my thesis. The scariest thing that could happen- I googled my thesis title last year.....the school had put all the thesis records on-line! Some one might actually read the damned thing.
At the time I was debating about whether to be staid and serious architect or a cartoonist. I was supporting myself as a full time church musician.
Shoulda been a cartoonist. Most intellectually challenging pursuit of the lot.
And what was nice about my MBA- No Thesis. Most of the courses were pretty much BS anyway. Arrogant sorts trying to impress each other, even though they couldn't string six words in a row to make a coherent sentence. And those were the folks who did biz undergrad at U of C.
As a kid, I grew up on the street. I contend the best education to learn about business is selling newspapers and scrambling to sell newspaper subscriptions door-to-door.
But here I am staring 60 in the face and I am still playing the Music!
The benefits of a higher education are debatable, I suspect.
I look about me, and amongst the scholars and white-collar types I see plenty of happy, well-off folks who did not find a college degree mandatory.
As the cliche goes: If I knew i was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself - but I would have saved up for the Rowsome full-set, and lived under the radar in Ireland for a few years and learned it prioper.
I still probably would have ended up a hack fiddler in Northern New England, but, hey - no regrets.
ha ha. I am also a student. What I notice is, on the days I've allocated for studying, my apartment is immaculate, I spend so much time procrastinating, cleaning, straightening up, avoiding the books. But on my fiddle days, there's not a clean plate to be found.
Music
Always there
Skookum companion
Blessed be
Music
People come
People go
Who will stay
I don't know
Music on the other hand
Is with me be I thick or thin
Anger bitter burning pain
Will never frighten you away
Tragic in my drunken state
Bewildered when I'm filled with hate
Enter music now my friend
Calm me down
Hold my hand
Music...........My immortal friend
"Boatpiper" 2010
Ah Boatpiper, I wish we could know what Llig thinks of your poetry. I'm a soft touch, so good on ya.
From the exciting, (ahem) middle aged, high flying (zzz) white collar world of marketing I often look back to my days of being a penniless, college drop out, homeless, 'professional' musician.
It's a always a toss up between "yes, but isn't it nice to be able to pay the electric bill?" and "GIVE ME MY FREEDOM BACK!"
I have a bachelor's degree in music and haven't tried to go any further yet as in a master's or a doctorate in music. Nor am I sure that I even want to go any further. I accidentally stumbled into a good job which I like as a medical clerk in a hospital and really don't feel a need to take my education any further. Also, my wife is going to school full time right now and it would probably be better for us to wait until she finishes before I go back to school.
I like how it sounds -- some of it anyway. Also, there is culture
of sessions here in Oz that I like. I have to say though that if
the same culture of sessions existed for kletzmer and Balkan
music, that I might busy with that music instead.
I should have written this PhD on the social role of alcohol at Scottish/Irish traditional music sessions, or something along those lines. Then I could have claimed every epic pished night of tunes and madness was participant observation.
If I spent all the time I now spend playing tunes actually doing research, I'd either have a hell of a lot more research done or, more likely, have gone totally off the rails and would be more insane than I already am. It's all about balancing things.
Not at the moment Atahu. But I quite like the sound of it...... Topaz...... Hmmm...... Yes...... Has a very gemlike quality to it.
Maybe a new adopted alias.
Topaz Boatpiper.
Or Capt. Topaz Boatpiper.....Must ponder that a bit....Hmmmmm........
Last smoke I encountered was a car fire last week. Nothing quite like the odour au oily rubber gasket wiring bubbling laquer stench of 1979 Buick Skylark. Luckily Nobody got hurt.
Al, Nicely done. Way to get the bus back on the road.
This thread explains why I play ITM. Folks who play the music and the music itself get so very passionate. The passion takes the bus on an amazing journey, like this thread has with its turns and hills and canyons.
"There's something wonderfully bizarre and somehow cheering about seeing a guy I mostly know for writing Fat-Bottomed Girls promoting his detailed analysis of an obscure astronomical phenomenon."
So it's not all compatible with Heavenly Bodies?
"Don't do what I done -- Go Get those Exam's, Thesis. - WHATEVER - Done first --
Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ..."
On the other hand, I gave up music for 20+ years to do that stuff, finally went bankrupt, and found music again. I would have happily skipped the part in between, and just played music.
Bazouki Dave, have you ever heard the following story which Artur Rubinstein told about a rehearsal with Einstein?
Shortly after the end of World War Two, Rubinstein and Einstein had volunteered to perform together on piano and violin as part of a benefit concert for survivors of the infamous concentration camps. Rubinstein and Einstein were supposed to play a piano and violin sonata by Beethoven as their contribution to the benefit concert.
This particular piano and violin sonata by Beethoven starts with the piano playing solo by itself for a few measures. When the piano part pauses temporarily on a certain note, the violin player is supposed to start counting to four and when the violin player gets to four, their part begins and the violin player is supposed to start playing.
Rubinstein and Einstein were trying to rehearse for the concert and Rubinstein began playing the piano part in the sonata. Einstein came in late so they started over again and Einstein came in late a second time. Rubinstein was becoming frustrated with Einstein but he agreed to start playing the sonata a third time.
When Einstein came in late a third time, Rubinstein was so frustrated with the famous mathematician that he asked whether or not Einstein knew how to count to four.
What "Counting to Three" thread? Oh, wait a minute, did you mean the "PI" thread where we are supposed to count to 3.141593 before the discussion starts going around and around in the same depressing, well-trodden circles which have already been repeatedly discussed to death several times?
I've often thought of coming up with a mathematical formula for how long it takes a thread to start going "pi." But I realized I would not be good for that since my mathematical skills in that regard are not strong enough. However, my initial thought would be that there is a mathematical equation that determines when a thread starts to go round and round and devolves into slagging/trolling/repetition/etc. The variables in the equation would be things like the thread title, the topic in the OP, the apparent mood/slant/belligerence of the OP, the sudden appearance of a premature wind-up by some of our more illustrious and notorious members (you know who you are), etc. There must be a math nut here skilled in linear equations who could come up with something, ay?
A thread title containing the word "backing" or "accompaniment" would have a certain variable factor, and titles containing the word "bodhran" would have another.
llig leachim posting a thread would have a different variable factor than, say, a thread posted by SWFL Fiddler.
Then we just give the equation a clever name and "poof," we have a wonderful inside joke to indicate when a thread has run it's course and become silly.
Because at the end of the long day, when I'm worn-out and bleary-eyed, and I haul myself to the session, I hear the sweet flow of those notes, and I melt away.
Jimmy B, since I am not as good at math as my father, I probably shouldn't try to come with a mathematical formula for how fast the discussions on this web site degenerate.
Why I play Irish music.....
Why I play Irish music.....
..... when I should be working on my thesis.
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1281
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Yes! You will only ever be remembered for your music.
On the other hand, there was once this fiddle player called Albert Einstein...
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Joe CSS
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Let us not forget Sherlock Holmes...
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
He is still remembered for his fiddling and substance abuse, as well as his canny unravelling of criminal mysteries, and his mate Watson...
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2008/08/brian-mays-phd-thesis-published.html
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by David50
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Music takes up most of my life (sessions, gigs, listening, learning, busking, rehearsing, repairing instruments) and makes me most of my "earned income", in one way or another. So what will I be remembered for?
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
a life well-lived?
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by baylady
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Once I had a thesis dealing with the theme of thieving theists.
Then Sally was selling shells by the sea shore, and...I don't know.
The real question here though is: Will you eventually make enough money to support your piping habit?
Time for a little cost/benefit analysis?
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Your thesis might be remembered for the hoaryness of some line in it which will be condescendingly quoted for evermore as being "very much of its time", and your music might travel on forever towards the receding margins of the cosmos unregistered by the cloth ears of all its denizens.
But I hope more gratifying recognition is accorded to both.
It's good when every now and then a rock star achieves something serious in the real world. Jon Lord, of Deep Purple, wrote a Durham Concerto which duly got performed here. (He had a lot of Classical training before he got into rock.) I often put it on - it's a thoroughgoing piece of music, not just a curiosity, in the manner of Elgar as far as I can make out. And isn't somebody in Metallica a qualified airline pilot? One of the metal bands, anyway.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by nicholas
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Playing music is a better hobby than some other things you could do when you aren't working on your thesis.
As for making enough money to support your piping habit, that depends on what you are smoking in your pipe or pipes.
According to the late pianist Artur Rubinstein, Einstein was unable to count to four while playing his fiddle.
If I did a cost/benefit analysis of everything I do musically, I would have to give up my music and go into a less dishonest line of work such as politics or selling pre-owned (as in used) cars.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
But politics, used-car-salesmanship, crime, scamming a congregation, rogue banking, etc., etc., are simply *terribly hard work*, especially in the matter of having to live constantly by one's wits or go under. I could never have done them.
Music is the best way I've found of combining a creative, pleasurable and - at least for some - paying pursuit with total, unalloyed indolence. For such was I made.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by nicholas
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
i come from a long line of book keepers and I am a university professor. I have two grown kids who are a stay at home mum and a financial analyst at a bank. For everyone in my family, going back as far as I know, music has been central, playing some instrument, singing or whatever. Without it the life is not lived.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by nfldbox
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I play it because it's lovely -- although not so lovely when *I* play it.
What keeps me going is every now and then what I do *does* sound lovely, and those occasions happen a little more often every day I play.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Marc C
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
"Without music life is not lived." Too true. I have a friend who regretfully stopped playing music. I know he would be much happier if he would just begin playing again.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I feel somewhat sad that my brother stopped playing fiddle....he played classical but it wasn't music that spoke to his heart.
I made him the beneficiary of my fiddle and tons of Celtic music.....he'd better play it!
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by baylady
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Nicholas, as I am sure you and the other members of this web site have noticed by now, I don't have any "wits" which I can live on or by so I guess I will just have to continue to make a living as a medical clerk at a hospital while I play music in my free time.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
'Tons of Celtic Music'
The more I play, the less music I am looking at. Even at the Church gig.
I try to do my playing at times when Herself is not around. Partly not to bug her with a newfound search for playing things right, Partly so she won't bug me about all the things I am not doing because "all you do is sit there and play your music". But mostly because playing alone makes everything in the wolrd less of a crisis. I suppose this is what zen gets you to.
Playing in with others is fun, but it is less than satisfying because things never fall together the way you want them to. Frustrating because its hard to control other play or the sound conditions (on the flip side, I suppose I am frustrating to others)
Odd though, playing alone no one hears except the dog and the parakeet.
So. Does the Music go away or stay in the universe forever. Scary thought. Herself contends the sound stays in the Universe forever.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by zippydw
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Yes - Irish music can an Addiction --
Don't do what I done -- Go Get those Exam's, Thesis. - WHATEVER - Done first --
Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ...
Think about it --- jim,,
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
FIDDLE4
Problem with that approach is that by the time you get to any sort of money, you are to old, have too many other commitments or have an "other" who is fed up with your musical dreaming to enjoy the Feadhs, Festivals and Sessions.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by zippydw
Re: Why I do other stuff beside music...
If it wasn't for music, I could not write a thesis, teach, write papers, be somewhat sane, be me. When asked what I do in life, I say I play fiddle.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Dr.Carabus
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Carabus - oh, yes, yes, exactly.
.
SilverSpear - heh, folks often ask me if I wish I'd taken up the fiddle as a kid. And - well, maybe; I have more patience now than I did then, and I don't know if I would have stuck with it if I'd started as a kid. But I do know that if I'd taken up music in grad school, I'd never have gotten my degree. I don't know how students who play this stuff for fun manage it. (I took up pottery as a grad student; took an extra year to complete my Master's. I sure made a lot of teapots that year, though.)
FIDDLE4 - "...Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ..."
Not just money, but time and flexibility. I attend a session every Thursday. I schedule all quizzes and tests for Fridays, because I know I'll be in no shape to lecture all day
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Yeah, I play music when I should be working on my master's work as well, which is why my grade point average leaves a little to be desired. Ah, hell, it's an MBA, who cares about the grade point average?
Next week I pick up a fiddle. Now watch my average drop.
# Posted on February 18th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Go on, Silver. Neglect your schoolwork. Let everything slide. Then, write about the grinding poverty that will be your lot; and describe your torment at not being able to get your horse back from the pawn shop.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I remember when I first got the bug to play. I gave up some other stuff quickly afterwards to make more time to practise and let studying slide a lot..... ......... and I dont regret any of it.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by richrua
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Oh, I'm not saying I regret it at all. As long as I can maintain an adequate average to graduate, I'm fine. I'm not going for a doctorate. All this school is about making a decent enough living to support my family and my habits, that's it.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I am 34 years out from my thesis. The scariest thing that could happen- I googled my thesis title last year.....the school had put all the thesis records on-line! Some one might actually read the damned thing.
At the time I was debating about whether to be staid and serious architect or a cartoonist. I was supporting myself as a full time church musician.
Shoulda been a cartoonist. Most intellectually challenging pursuit of the lot.
And what was nice about my MBA- No Thesis. Most of the courses were pretty much BS anyway. Arrogant sorts trying to impress each other, even though they couldn't string six words in a row to make a coherent sentence. And those were the folks who did biz undergrad at U of C.
As a kid, I grew up on the street. I contend the best education to learn about business is selling newspapers and scrambling to sell newspaper subscriptions door-to-door.
But here I am staring 60 in the face and I am still playing the Music!
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by zippydw
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
The benefits of a higher education are debatable, I suspect.
I look about me, and amongst the scholars and white-collar types I see plenty of happy, well-off folks who did not find a college degree mandatory.
As the cliche goes: If I knew i was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself - but I would have saved up for the Rowsome full-set, and lived under the radar in Ireland for a few years and learned it prioper.
I still probably would have ended up a hack fiddler in Northern New England, but, hey - no regrets.
Just a wee drinking habit.
FWIW,
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Piece
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
ha ha. I am also a student. What I notice is, on the days I've allocated for studying, my apartment is immaculate, I spend so much time procrastinating, cleaning, straightening up, avoiding the books. But on my fiddle days, there's not a clean plate to be found.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by sara505sings
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Music
Always there
Skookum companion
Blessed be
Music
People come
People go
Who will stay
I don't know
Music on the other hand
Is with me be I thick or thin
Anger bitter burning pain
Will never frighten you away
Tragic in my drunken state
Bewildered when I'm filled with hate
Enter music now my friend
Calm me down
Hold my hand
Music...........My immortal friend
"Boatpiper" 2010
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Ah Boatpiper, I wish we could know what Llig thinks of your poetry. I'm a soft touch, so good on ya.
From the exciting, (ahem) middle aged, high flying (zzz) white collar world of marketing I often look back to my days of being a penniless, college drop out, homeless, 'professional' musician.
It's a always a toss up between "yes, but isn't it nice to be able to pay the electric bill?" and "GIVE ME MY FREEDOM BACK!"
So, you know. [shrug] Grass. Greener. Etc.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Yes Swiffle, me too, Mr. Gillllig always seems to inspire a verse or two. : )
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/23681#comment493295
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by ...
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I have a bachelor's degree in music and haven't tried to go any further yet as in a master's or a doctorate in music. Nor am I sure that I even want to go any further. I accidentally stumbled into a good job which I like as a medical clerk in a hospital and really don't feel a need to take my education any further. Also, my wife is going to school full time right now and it would probably be better for us to wait until she finishes before I go back to school.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Hail, Hail, the gang's all here!!
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Boatpiper, would your middle name be Topaz? I'm asking 'cause my middle name happens to be Topaz.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I like how it sounds -- some of it anyway. Also, there is culture
of sessions here in Oz that I like. I have to say though that if
the same culture of sessions existed for kletzmer and Balkan
music, that I might busy with that music instead.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Hup
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I should have written this PhD on the social role of alcohol at Scottish/Irish traditional music sessions, or something along those lines. Then I could have claimed every epic pished night of tunes and madness was participant observation.
It's all about balancing things.
If I spent all the time I now spend playing tunes actually doing research, I'd either have a hell of a lot more research done or, more likely, have gone totally off the rails and would be more insane than I already am.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Not at the moment Atahu. But I quite like the sound of it...... Topaz...... Hmmm...... Yes...... Has a very gemlike quality to it.
Maybe a new adopted alias.
Topaz Boatpiper.
Or Capt. Topaz Boatpiper.....Must ponder that a bit....Hmmmmm........
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Dude, can I have some of whatever you are smoking? ;)
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
It's never too late to change your major;
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/skygazer69/caterpillar.jpg
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Last smoke I encountered was a car fire last week. Nothing quite like the odour au oily rubber gasket wiring bubbling laquer stench of 1979 Buick Skylark. Luckily Nobody got hurt.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
to get back to the original question....because I love it! Pretty simple.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Al, Nicely done. Way to get the bus back on the road.
This thread explains why I play ITM. Folks who play the music and the music itself get so very passionate. The passion takes the bus on an amazing journey, like this thread has with its turns and hills and canyons.
I also love Scandanavian music for passionate reasons. Here, have a listen to some. http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/erik-dram/
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
"There's something wonderfully bizarre and somehow cheering about seeing a guy I mostly know for writing Fat-Bottomed Girls promoting his detailed analysis of an obscure astronomical phenomenon."
So it's not all compatible with Heavenly Bodies?
"Don't do what I done -- Go Get those Exam's, Thesis. - WHATEVER - Done first --
Then you might have all the Money to go to - Lots of Fleadhs, Festivals, and Music session - That you want ..."
On the other hand, I gave up music for 20+ years to do that stuff, finally went bankrupt, and found music again. I would have happily skipped the part in between, and just played music.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by oldstrings
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
'Cos it gets me drunk and laid. Now what more can you ask?
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by The Session
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
No regrets the next day.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Dots what I like......
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Toppish
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Because it's there.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Because its fun
Fauxcelt : counting to 4 is good I play with a fiddle player you cannot count to B
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by bazouki dave
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I was answering an email about a Child Ballad when I discovered something about the man that refers to this topic, actually.
I had always assumed he was just some nice ballad collector.
No clue that he was the first Professor of English at Harvard!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_James_Child
...but, on topic, who cares? He's the ballad guy!
(From the Wiki link)
"...Had he done nothing else he would today be remembered for his critical editions of the English poets..."
(Yeah, right. [snicker])
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Oh yes, I had forgotten:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/23681#comment493293
Now that's my kinda critical English poetry right there!
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Bazouki Dave, have you ever heard the following story which Artur Rubinstein told about a rehearsal with Einstein?
Shortly after the end of World War Two, Rubinstein and Einstein had volunteered to perform together on piano and violin as part of a benefit concert for survivors of the infamous concentration camps. Rubinstein and Einstein were supposed to play a piano and violin sonata by Beethoven as their contribution to the benefit concert.
This particular piano and violin sonata by Beethoven starts with the piano playing solo by itself for a few measures. When the piano part pauses temporarily on a certain note, the violin player is supposed to start counting to four and when the violin player gets to four, their part begins and the violin player is supposed to start playing.
Rubinstein and Einstein were trying to rehearse for the concert and Rubinstein began playing the piano part in the sonata. Einstein came in late so they started over again and Einstein came in late a second time. Rubinstein was becoming frustrated with Einstein but he agreed to start playing the sonata a third time.
When Einstein came in late a third time, Rubinstein was so frustrated with the famous mathematician that he asked whether or not Einstein knew how to count to four.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Ha! Doesn't that story also belong in the recent "Counting to Three" thread?
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I like this music. LIKE it . . . okay? It loves me more than I love it. All relationships have an imbalance.
So I play this music occasionally. Then eat, work, cough, stretch, chortle, drive, ski, throw, sit, weep, trim, seduce, etc.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
What "Counting to Three" thread? Oh, wait a minute, did you mean the "PI" thread where we are supposed to count to 3.141593 before the discussion starts going around and around in the same depressing, well-trodden circles which have already been repeatedly discussed to death several times?
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Now there's a discussion which would be geometrically correct.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I've often thought of coming up with a mathematical formula for how long it takes a thread to start going "pi." But I realized I would not be good for that since my mathematical skills in that regard are not strong enough. However, my initial thought would be that there is a mathematical equation that determines when a thread starts to go round and round and devolves into slagging/trolling/repetition/etc. The variables in the equation would be things like the thread title, the topic in the OP, the apparent mood/slant/belligerence of the OP, the sudden appearance of a premature wind-up by some of our more illustrious and notorious members (you know who you are), etc. There must be a math nut here skilled in linear equations who could come up with something, ay?
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Examples of these variables:
A thread title containing the word "backing" or "accompaniment" would have a certain variable factor, and titles containing the word "bodhran" would have another.
llig leachim posting a thread would have a different variable factor than, say, a thread posted by SWFL Fiddler.
Then we just give the equation a clever name and "poof," we have a wonderful inside joke to indicate when a thread has run it's course and become silly.
# Posted on February 19th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
It doesn't love me.
Nothing loves me.
...THAT'S WHY I PLAY IRISH MUSIC !!
# Posted on February 20th 2010 by nicholas
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
# Posted on February 20th 2010 by nicholas
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Jaysus, Jimmy, you don't have to quantify everything!
It's like the music. At the end of the day it can't be reduced to numbers. Or dots.
# Posted on February 20th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Silver -
That was a joke
# Posted on February 20th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Because in the '70's when I heard "Boys of Bluehill" and "Sailor's Bonnet" something stuck. Kinda like a Toyota.
# Posted on February 21st 2010 by dogmageek
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Because at the end of the long day, when I'm worn-out and bleary-eyed, and I haul myself to the session, I hear the sweet flow of those notes, and I melt away.
# Posted on February 21st 2010 by TheChrispy
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
Jimmy B, since I am not as good at math as my father, I probably shouldn't try to come with a mathematical formula for how fast the discussions on this web site degenerate.
# Posted on February 24th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Why I play Irish music.....
I know, Jimmy. So was my comment, in a kind of sarcastic way that didn't translate very well over the interweb.
# Posted on February 24th 2010 by DrSilverSpear