Claire Mann to deliver FluteFling Online 12 & 19 December
FluteFling’s first venture into online events takes place in just a week’s time when Claire Mann will deliver four 45 minute workshops on Zoom over two consecutive Saturdays. The response has been terrific but luckily we are not limited by space and places are still available.
Tailored to flute, whistle and low whistle, Claire has helped to shape the workshop mini series to provide a way for people to focus on their music and instrument over three weekends and more. Uploads of Claire’s teaching material — both PDF sheet music and recording — go up this weekend, followed by the workshops themselves, which will be recorded. With time to go over the tunes, work on the ideas and techniques AND revisit the workshops, this is a close but realistic alternative to an immersive weekend away.
Although there won’t be any sessions, there is the additional option of recording some of the material covered by Claire for a group video, to be submitted for compilation by the end of December. That’s almost a month of digging deep into the music after the extended fallow period we all currently have had to endure. The video will be completed and made available later in January, giving us all something to look forward to in 2021.
It promises to be a memorable experience and much needed by many of us traditional musicians. How can you be sure? Well, all of the organisers have all bought tickets — Sharon Creasey, John Crawford, Pete Saunders and Gordon Turnbull.
Photo of Anascaul Lake, County Kerry by Peter Church
The Autumn workshops got off to a fine start with a look at a pair of Irish polkas that I have been teaching for many years that make a great way to warm up.
Tune background
I learned Patrick O’Connor’s Polkas from a cassette recording of a County Cork band called The Monks of the Screw, who took their name from a drinking club (the screw in their name is a corkscrew). There’s an old web page on them here and you can hear snippets of the recording at Irishtune.info.
I have also recorded the version I wrote and will add sheet music to the Repertoire page. Polkas have an interesting history as a dance form and can found around the world. In Ireland, a distinction can be drawn between the polkas of the south west, in particular Cork and Kerry and the area around Sliabh Luachra, and those of the Connaught area (Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon) further north.
The Cork and Kerry polkas are played very briskly and often have an off-beat emphasis, while those of the Connaught area are more like marches in many ways. Indeed, some of the Irish polkas can be traced to Scottish 2/4 marches. Farewell to Whiskey and The Barren Rocks of Aden are two obvious examples. For this latter reason, I find the way of playing Irish polkas on the flute and whistle a useful in road to playing Scottish marches on those instruments.
Patrick O’Connor’s Polkas were originally collected in Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol 2 as untitled tunes and I reversed the order that they appeared there and in the recording as I preferred the contrast between the runs of the first and the more punchy jumps in the second. It turns out that the one we learned first is better known as the Anascaul Polka (notation and discussion on The Session), named after a village on the Dingle peninsular, whereas the other one has no other name of its own (notation and discussion on The Session).
Caution: The Session is a very useful website that I often refer to, but the notation and information can sometimes contain errors, so please refer to it with a pinch of salt
To my knowledge the tunes are not as widely known as they maybe should be. Perhaps their relative simplicity puts people off, but this also creates an opportunity to concentrate on playing techniques.
Techniques
We began by listening to the Annascaul Polka, which is constructed on simple runs up and down. In A Dorian (see here for some ready modes information) with A as the top note and G at the bottom, it sits within the bagpipe scale, hinting that it may even have been a bagpipe tune at one point. There is a C natural as it ascends, but this and the F# are missed on the descent, making it a little ambiguous. Patrick O’Connor’s No. 1 is more punchy within the same scale.
We then alternately sang and played that part of the tune to help root it and connect it to our breathing more directly. Singing the tune, no matter how quietly, helps to develop the ear and to find places to breathe. We also naturally articulate parts of the melody in diddling that can be referenced when playing our instruments, particularly the whistle or low whistle.
It is arguably present in Gaelic puirt à beul, here’s a direct Irish example:
On the flute, glottal stops are more common in Ireland for rhythm and articulation, but tonguing is sometimes subtly used and is generally associated with whistle playing.
We looked at generating pulse with breath and on the low whistle this proved to be subtle but effective.
We discussed cuts, strikes, rolls and crans and also what I call The Sylvain Barou Method for learning and developing them, which is described in this post from 2017.
Finally, we looked at some books to support our learning. Some of the stand-out ones are discussed in this post, to which I would add Steph Geremia’s Up She Flew, a CD with her accompanying book of transcriptions and notes. To date, the only book on the low whistle I am aware of is The Low Whistle Book by Steáfán Hannigan and David Ledsam.
First of all, a Big Thank You to everyone who was involved or attended the Edinburgh Weekend a couple of weeks ago. This was our biggest event yet and we were very close to being sold out.
Regulars Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden (basking in his new-found honour) provided our core continuity, with Niall Kenny as guest tutor and Claire Mann as guest speaker bringing in their own takes on the music and instruments. Feedback has been very positive and there was a real buzz about the place all day and into the evening.
A special thanks to the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church for hosting our event again – it really is a lovely venue with great acoustics. A big thumbs up to the Boda Bar on Leith Walk for hosting Friday night with such enthusiasm and to the Mercat Bar on West Maitland Street for sympathetically and efficiently sorting us out for Saturday. Very different venues to each other, but both highly recommended. Anyone looking to put something on should consider them as potential venues.
And of course Sandy Bells looked after us well on the Sunday lunchtime as always. One or two of us also made it to the Waverly Bar afterwards, where a great session was also to be had. A pantomime Booooo! however, to the session venue that let us down badly at very short notice (see the archive). I will try and do a more comprehensive round-up very soon, but I am now in the throes of report writing for school.
Summer workshops
After the April break, May and June workshops return this month. These will be the first since returning from Cruinniú na bhFliúit (Flutemeet) in Ballyvourney, County Cork and also since the FluteFling Edinburgh Weekend, of course, so I hope to share some ideas that I picked up over that period. NB Dates now corrected below – thanks to David Flett for pointing out the error.
Saturday 19 May 1-4 pm | Back at Tribe Porty, this will be suitable for everyone as I intend to focus on slowing things down, getting into the tunes further and helping with playing by ear. Tickets now on sale.
Saturday 16 June 1-4 pm | This will be a more sociable event and include a slow session that will utilise the FluteFling back catalogue. Venue and tickets tbc.
There will be a summer break over July and August, but there will definitely be further events from September, which will be announced just as soon as they become finalised.
FluteFling goes on the road this November as traditional flute playing in Scotland focuses on Aberdeen. Following 4 years in Edinburgh, the successful format of weekend workshops, concert and informal sessions over 3-5 November will give you and your music a boost ahead of the winter months. Come and join us on the excursion to the first FluteFling Aberdeen Weekend and be part of the traditional flute revival in Scotland!
The weekend’s tutors will be Davy Maguire from Belfast and Sharon Creasey from Dumbarton. Davy has a wealth of music from Ireland, including the northern tunes that cross over into Scotland and music from the distinctive Breton tradition.
Davy is in great demand as a teacher, from Belfast to Brittany and Italy — he will arrive immediately after teaching and playing in Brittany — while Sharon is one of the foremost exponents of traditional music on the Boehm flute in Scotland and returns with her Fermanagh, Irish and Scottish repertoire. Regardless of the type of flute you play, you will be in excellent hands.
A concert on the Saturday evening will be headlined by Davy Maguire with support from many others including Kenny Hadden, Sharon Creasey, Malcolm Reavell and Gordon Turnbull. And there will be plenty more music too with sessions on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday — a great opportunity to let your hair down and catch up with everyone. We hope to see you there.
Tickets for the weekend and the concert will go on sale in the next day or two. The event’s web page has further details, including links to tickets.
Davy Maguire has taught with Belfast Trad since its inception and teaches and performs regularly both in Ireland and abroad with various groups and as a solo performer. A frequent visitor to Brittany, Davy has toured and played at the Festival Interceltic de Lorient and the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper with several different line-ups, including Dealán Dartha and Commonalty as well as in duo with Jamie McMenemy. In Ireland he has been adjudicator for several county Fleadhanna Cheoil and has recorded a CD of music for traditional set dancing along with the cream of Northern musicians.
As a taster, here he is (extreme right hand side) with Harry Bradley, Michael Clarkson, Tara Diamond and Brendan O’Hare at the Gradam Ceoil Irish Traditional Musician of the Year Award 2014:
The FluteFling January workshop explored some of the issues around decoration, looking at cuts and strikes, their combining into rolls and the construction of crans. Techniques for finger decoration are the same on flutes and whistles alike.
We focused on Irish music as this generally lends itself to decoration more readily than the Scottish repertoire, there are more examples and anything gleaned can then be applied to a Scottish context.
A method for cuts, strikes and rolls
We began by familiarising ourselves with Breton flute player Sylvain Barou and his method for practicing cuts, strikes and rolls that he demonstrated at a flute weekend at Wiston Lodge a good few years back now. While this isn’t a hard and fast rule (more on that below), this serves as a useful foundation and hopefully allows people to experiment with confidence.
The method is based on scales, applying initially a single cut to each note of the scale as it is played. A cut is a very quick decoration from above, played by momentarily raising a single finger to sound the decorating note; other fingers remain in position, so making the note imperfect. This is because the point is a quick interruption of the note being decorated, not to play a separate note.
The best way to work with these is to think of them as finger actions or movements. For the bottom hand notes, cut using the G finger (sounding a notional A); for upper hand notes, cut using the B finger (sounding a notional C).
A parallel exercise is to try this with strikes as grace notes. A single grace note, the finger below the played note is struck, or bounced quickly to sound the note below. A strikes is also referred to as a tap, pat or bounce. Of course you can’t do this on D, although it could be possible if using keys, however I have never seen it done.
Rolls consist of a cut followed by a strike, so the next exercise is to combine these elements following the methods already explored. By doing so, a five note combination is created. For example, with grace notes in brackets, a roll on A would become:
A-(cut)-A-(strike)-A
OR
A-(c)-A-(G)-A
A roll on D or d is not possible, but a cran is. Borrowed from uilleann piping, the cran consists of three cuts from above. There is more than one way of playing these:
D-(A)-D-(G)-D-(F#)-D (standard)
OR
D-(A)-D-(F#)-D-(G)-D (my version, also June McCormack)
We looked at working in the lower register, but of course you can try this out using the full scale and octave jumps too. Arpeggios and other note combinations are possible ways of extending and building upon these exercises. When working on these, try them slowly at first and then build up speed as your fingers get used to the actions.
When learning tunes, consider applying cuts as grace notes as a way of building up to rolls. You can add the strikes at a later point.
Some thoughts
Rolls and decoration should be used as appropriate. It’s a matter of taste and it is also possible to lose the tune or timing in a flurry of notes. Micho Russell, Conal O Grada and Harry Bradley (see below) are examples of flute players who don’t use very much decoration or if so, simpler decoration.
Taste too, dictates which notes are used to perform these decorations. I learned with a note above and a note below, for example. However a greater contrast (and thereby definition) can be found using high cuts and low strikes. Most people will use a variety.
Double cut, casadh, condensed rolls, shortened condensed rolls, shortened crans and others are all variations on these techniques and worthy of some time in forthcoming workshops.
You probably also need to check out Roger Millington’s excellent Brother Steve’s Tin Whistle Pages, in particular the “dah-blah-blah” method. Be sure to explore the site, including the recordings of various recitals and sessions.
Repertoire
I suggested that the Irish repertoire is a better place to pick up many of the rudiments than Scottish music. Flutes have a friend in the uillean pipes and share a common decoration language. Of course such spaces do exist in Scottish music, but they are less abundant.
The tunes we explored are below. A PDF of the written music is here:
I find that this is a good tune for getting the fingers going. There are a few ways of playing it, but at some point you will play ascending rolls. It’s the middle tune here:
Rolls – the long, short and middle of it
As promised, here is a link to Niall Keegan’s paper on The Parameters of Style in Irish Music, which has a particular lean towards flutes. Published in Inbhear, The Journal of Irish Music and Dance, it’s a long read with plenty of clips of Niall illustrating the points he makes.
As emerged at the workshop, there is more than one way of playing and writing out rolls and part of it is to do with their duration: are they long or short? If so, where does the emphasis lie? For my money, a long roll tends to have a lead-in or lead-out note, which a short roll does not. I suspect that short rolls may feature more than long rolls in the Scottish repertoire.
Niall Keegan’s take on decoration is on this page.
If you really wish to explore this further in reading, parts of Gray Larson’s book can be found in this link.
An old new jig: Jane Craggs
The second tune we learned was one of my own, named for a friend on her birthday in 1987 and so 30 years old this year as was pointed out. I had included the jig for reference but somehow it caught people’s interest. It was picked up by a few people, including Tom McKean of the American band Dun Creagan:
When I play the tune today I tend to use rolls on the long B and F# notes but initially didn’t do so very much as they were still a challenge, especially on the flute due to hand positions. So feel free to play them either way. The high B jump also presents a little technical challenge.
Other tunes
I have included music and recordings for two Irish jigs, The Legacy and Sonny Brogan’s, and The Green Mountain, an Irish reel I learned from Skye-based uillean piper Duncan MacInnes.
Other resources and inspiration
We mentioned a few interesting people. I have included links, but it is worth googling them to find out so much more:
