Tag Archives: improver

Flute and whistle workshops in Callendar

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I’m just putting together material for this weekend’s Fèis Fhoirt Adult flute and whistle workshops, which will take place 24-25 October in Callendar.

There are two single day-long workshops and there are still some spaces available in both:

  • Saturday 24 Oct: improver/ lower intermediate whistle. Low whistles are welcome to the whistle workshop.
  • Sunday 25 Oct: upper intermediate/ advanced flute. Boehm system (silver) flutes are welcome to the flute workshop, as well as the keyed or unkeyed wooden flutes that are more commonly associated with traditional music.

Both workshops will include a mix of repertoire and technique for the respective instruments. I will aim to cover a few bases, including some different tune types and probably repertoire from both Scotland and Ireland.

There are a number of other workshops also taking place, including Complete Beginners Whistle, led by Chris Ferrie. A tutors’ concert is planned and I expect some informal music sessions too.

All details, including booking, can be found on the Fèis Fhoirt web site.

The Glentown Reel/ Lord MacDonald’s

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I am fascinated by Scottish tunes that cross over into Ireland and this week’s tune is no exception. The Glentown Reel has 2 parts and many names in Ireland, but it was originally a 4 part Scottish tune entitled Lord MacDonald’s Reel.

In G, it suits flutes and whistles well and the missing two parts are very similar but played lower than the range of our instruments but within the compass of the fiddle. There are various recordings of it on YouTube. Here’s a version from Unst in the Shetland Isles found on the Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o’ Riches website.

Some background on the tune and resources can be found on The Flow Music Workshops website and The Flow website, where I posted about them a few years ago. I will eventually move the resources over to this site too.

Update 27 September: New recordings and the notation have now been added to the Resources page for this year.

 

More tunes: Scottish and Irish jigs

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A quick post to say that the remaining tunes for the term have been posted up, rounding off a set of Irish jigs and a set of Scottish jigs. Some of these have been discussed previously.

The new ones are The Jig of Slurs (follows The House of Gray and Drummond Castle) and The Mug of Brown Ale (follows The Killaloe Boat). You can find background information on some of these in previous posts, but all resources for them are now up to date, along with all of the other tunes. The Mug of Brown Ale I wrote about when I taught it at the Scots Music Group. The bonus tune is Dónal na Gréine, which we won’t have time to cover this term, but goes well after The Mug of Brown Ale.

Photo: Killaloe by BillH-GSACC, some rights reserved.

 

 

 

A strathspey: The Braes of Mar

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This is a four part strathspey that sounds very much like a pipe tune but the fourth part drops below the piping range, suggesting that this may be a fiddle setting.

The Fiddler’s Companion confirms that the itself tune is old, having first appeared in the Drummond Castle Manuscript of 1734 as Sir Alexander McDonald’s Reel and later printed in Bremner’s Collection of 1757 as Sir Alexander McDonald. It has traveled to Canada and Ireland and exists in many forms under different names, including as as fling and as a jig. Some say the Devil’s Dead is a well-known song in Ireland that is set to this tune.

I first learned this as an Irish two-part reel that I later realised was a fling. I then found it was a strathspey and discovered from Edinburgh fiddler Doug Patience (now in Meenross, County Clare) that it had a third part. And finally, years later I learned it had a fourth part. It seems that 2, 3 and 4-part versions are common.

The most frequent decoration here is cuts and casadhs (a late double grace note), but there is an opportunity to roll in the third part on the high E in the opening phrase and later in the 4th part on a low E phrase near the end. Keep a regular pulse throughout with the breath and it’s OK to tongue the shorter parts of the scotch snaps to give them more punch. Look out too for opportunities to put in a brief pause on the longer parts of the snaps.

The resources for the tune can be found on the Resources page for this year’s classes.

Photo: Native pine at Glen Derry, Mar Lodge Estate. Copyright C Mills 2013. Used with kind permisssion.

A tricky jig: Tom Billy’s No.2

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To follow on from the first jig of the term, we learned Tom Billy’s No.2, a three part tune associated with the playing of Julia Clifford, who recorded it with Tom Billy’s No.1, our previous tune.

This tune shifts key through the parts and is awkward on the flute and whistle at first as the notes don’t seem to fall where the fingers would expect them and want to go. As such it is very distinctive, but can make for hard work. Listening to a recording of it certainly helps as it becomes easier with familiarity.

There are opportunities for rolls and variations in this tune and fiddles are likely to have a different approach to this from flutes and whistles. The recordings in the resources show some of the ways I approach the tune.

Here’s a video of Julia Clifford playing an air and a slide (12/8 type of jig):

You can find out more about Julia Clifford at the Rambling House web site and this interview with her on the Journal of Sliab Luachra web site. There’s a nice little appreciation of her recording with Denis Murphy on the IvyLeaf web site.

Photo of Julia Clifford (right) pictured with her sister Bridgie Kelleher (c) Journal of Sliabh Luachra no.4