Tag Archives: Improvers

The North East Scotland Session Tunes Project

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The Sunday session at Ma Cameron’s, Aberdeen FluteFling 2019 (c) Gordon Turnbull

A music project for the Winter

Everyone needs a project for the winter and an idea I had over lockdown has finally clicked for me. Inspired by elements of the Dig Where You Stand movement, I looked at an underused resource that already existed within the FluteFling archives.

John Crawford put together a couple of PDFs of session tunes ahead of the 2019 Aberdeen weekend with the idea that people would learn the tunes and have a few core common tunes for the music sessions. This made sense because people attending come from different areas and have different repertoires.

The result was a useful document containing 10 sets of session tunes that might be expected to be found in NE Scotland sessions. The resources were drawn freely from those already available online and might even be regarded as standards, from Shetland reels to pipe jigs, strathspeys and more. Despite it being a good idea, we failed to promote the idea enough and then the pandemic came along and swept things away.

During lockdown I looked at John’s PDF again and realised that it would be useful to learn  those tunes that I didn’t play properly. Recently I also felt I needed a focus for my playing as I haven’t been in sessions for a long time and nor have I been teaching. So my FluteFling NE Session Tunebook Project was born.

Ten weeks of videos

Over the next 10 weeks or so, I will be recording and uploading to YouTube a set of tunes from the PDF roughly once a week. The aim is to introduce the tunes, point out some techniques along the way and then play them as a set as I might play them in a session.

As I go along, I’ll take in suggestions to improve the sound and presentation and get back into the way of teaching again. There is an in-built slow down function in YouTube and the PDF is available to everyone, so why not join me on the journey?

You can download the PDF here: FluteFling Aberdeen 2019 NE Scotland Tunes

FluteFling NE Tunebook Project: 01 Hurlock’s Reel / Da Rodd to Houl

Two Shetland reels by fiddler Tom Anderson, the first of these I associate with Cathal McConnell’s flute playing with The Boys of the Lough, with Shetlander Aly Bain on fiddle. Composed in 1938, Hurlock was apparently the drummer in the ceilidh band Tom Anderson played with. There is discussion and other settings on The Session website.

Hurlock’s Reel is in A and I use the G# key on my flute. See the video and video notes for some more discussion on the keys I use.

Da Rodd to Houl is in D (not G as suggested in the video). Houl  (sometimes spelled Houll) is on the Isle of Whalsay in the Shetland Islands. Shetland has its own language (Norn) and dialect; “da rodd” means ” the road”. This comment on The Session website gives more information:

In “Haand Me Doon Da Fiddle” Tom Anderson says “Dis tun was written in 1936 whin I came up to Unst to visit a schoolmaister friend o’ mine. It happened it dat moarnin wis da prizegiving an I was axed to play at it. I guid fir a walk an da tun cam in me head. Da place I wis walkin ower wis caaed da Houll Road bit I tocht da Road ta Houll soonded better”

I’ll try to record and upload the tunes in the order that they appear in the PDF. Look out for some Shetland jigs in the next week or so. In the meantime, enjoy the music!

Aberdeen weekend report

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The farewell session at Ma Cameron’s. (c) John Crawford

Well, what a weekend we had in Aberdeen in November! This was the second annual event in the Granite City and was again based upon a day of flute and whistle workshops. This year we had three tutors — Dougie Pincock, Sharon Creasey and Gordon Turnbull — with a very strong turn-out to the classes and sessions and lots of positive feedback.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden on whistles. (c) John Crawford

Thanks to everyone who attended and to Kenny Hadden and the supporters for helping it run so well on the ground. A big thank you too to Inchgarth Community Centre for looking after us and to the Blue Lamp and Ma Cameron’s for their hospitality with the sessions.

Dougie’s workshop (c) John Crawford

One pleasing comment that stood out referred to the unified thread of musicality running through the workshops, of going beyond the notes and into phrasing and rhythm. While this wasn’t consciously planned, all of the tutors and those involved in organising FluteFling events do have a clear idea of what good traditional flute and whistle playing sounds like and there are many ways to achieve this.

Gordon’s workshop (c) John Crawford

By having different tutors with different approaches and experiences, we do hope that this opens up possibilities for others. And let’s face it, we are all learning and continue to learn from each other — tutors included — which is why these events are always a joy and an inspiration to everyone involved.

Tunes taught on the day included repertoire from Aberdeen, highland pipe tunes and others with technical challenges, and port-a-beul.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden listen to Dougie Pincock talk about his experiences and thoughts on playing the flute and whistle. (c) John Crawford

The Saturday afternoon ended with Dougie Pincock in conversation with Kenny Hadden. Dougie is full of entertaining anecdotes about his early experiences learning the pipes, entering the Glasgow folk and session scene and learning to play the flute. It was an hour but it flew by and we could have all listened to many more.

The weekend sessions featured strathspeys, marches, slow airs, jigs, reels, Border hornpipes and tunes old and new. One particularly memorable moment was Sharon and Dougie duetting on piccolos, which is not something you see every day!

Upcoming in 2019

Participants and tutors continue to have ideas to develop our weekends together and we will try an implement them as and when we can. The Aberdeen weekend will return in November 2019.

The next weekend will be in Edinburgh April 26-28th. Dates and details for other events will appear on the website very shortly, so look out for those.

Scotch Mary and Peter Pan

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A danger of running an event on the third weekend of the month is that eventually you get to December and meet Christmas head-on. When that happens, it’s hard to know what to expect. So when Kenny Hadden said he would come down that weekend, I jumped at the chance to get him to also do some teaching alongside me and it became something bigger than usual.

Flutes at The Dalriada: (l-r) John Corbett, Malcolm Reavell, Sean Paul Newman, Kenny Hadden, John Crawford. (c) Gordon Turnbull

John Crawford and Malcolm Reavell were also there, also from Aberdeen, and we went for a flutey session afterwards at The Dalriada with Sean Paul Newman welcoming as usual and providing accompaniment. Later that evening Sharon Creasey came along with Cathal McConnell  to play at The Captain’s Bar. All in all a bit of a mini flute festival.

Sharon Creasey and Cathal McConnell at The Captain’s Bar, Edinburgh

The workshop began with a slow tune to warm up: Caol Muile (The Sound of Mull), the air to a Gaelic song (Youtube link to a version sung at Plockton School). I have a version with some harmony parts and added another myself, so we had some fun trying them out. Grace notes and breathing came up as we added expression.

I followed this up with a reel that seems to be from Donegal and presented problems in pinning down a definitive version. We had one for the day and Kenny and I also had some variations. Scotch Mary can be found in various collections and with various titles. Irish Molly is one, Ireland Green is a title given by PJ Hayes and Martin Hayes too. Flute players John Skelton and Kieran O’Hare recorded it on whistles on their great CD Double Barrelled (link has a clip of the music).

The tune actually exists in three main versions, as two parts: A+B, B+C or three parts: A+B+C. To confuse things, the A and C parts are similar, there are different changes in other versions and key shifts too. The version I taught includes elements of these. Here’s a closely related Donegal version on Youtube played by Paddy, Seamus and Kevin Glackin. It’s the second tune in the set.

Kenny Hadden with others walking and feeling the rhythm while playing at the December FluteFling workshop.

Kenny took over after the break and kept the festive theme by teaching and sharing some tunes by Johnny Cunningham that were originally for a musical theatre performance on Peter Pan. Johnny and brother Phil studied at local Portobello High School so it was doubly apt for the location.

The first tune, Two is the Beginning of the End, not only had a strange title, but was in an enigmatic scale that served as a useful warm-up piece to get the ears tuned in. As it has actually been a good while since I found myself learning a tune by ear in a workshop, it was good to have the tables turned and be reminded of the experience.

The second tune Kenny introduced was more traditional, but recorded by Johnny Cunningham. The Celtic Society’s Quickstep (music and background can be round at the Traditional Tune Archive) is a dance tune first published in Kerr’s Merrie Melodies of the 1880s, but in existence since at least 1820. A delightful tune with some interesting jumps and straightforward runs that can be played with some bounce. It doesn’t seem to be played very much and could benefit from more exposure.

Resources for the tunes are to be found on the resources page for 2017. Two is the Beginning of the End doesn’t feature for copyright reasons, but those who attended will have something to work with. I will add The Celtic Society’s Quickstep very shortly.

Here’s Johnny’s version of The Celtic Society’s Quickstep, as recorded on Fair Warning:

Kenny has a YouTube channel with some rare archive video and TV footage, particularly of music from Scotland, that is worth exploring.

Finally, a wee plug for the Scottish Flute channel on YouTube, which has evolved out of the FluteFling workshops and sessions. Set up and run by volunteers and supporters in the Aberdeen area, there is some footage from the Aberdeen weekend in November and more can expected both from the archive and as more events occur.

 

Northeast flute gathering success

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Davy Maguire with Claire Hawes and Martin MacDonald, headlining the FluteFling Aberdeen concert. Photo (c) John Crawford, used with permission.

First FluteFling Aberdeen weekend fuels appetite for more

Gordon Turnbull with Kenny Hadden

The first weekend of November saw Scottish traditional flute players gather together for the first FluteFling Aberdeen weekend. The event was supported by Tasgadh funding and saw 16 people attend the workshops with others also attending the Saturday night concert and weekend sessions.

Davy Maguire (c) John Crawford

Davy Maguire came over from Belfast and Sharon Creasey from Dumbarton, to teach, perform and encourage others as part of the ongoing Scottish traditional flute revival. Workshop students came from Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Brechin, Stirling and Edinburgh and local tutor and FluteFling colleague Kenny Hadden, assisted by Gordon Turnbull, ensured everything ran smoothly, from sessions to workshop and concert. The event took place almost exactly 16 years after the original one in 2001 that has inspired four years of FluteFling weekends.

An underlying theme connected the music of Northern Ireland with that of Scotland as Sharon’s extensive knowledge of the music of County Fermanagh complemented Davy’s own experience as a musician and flute teacher. The overlapping blends between strathspeys, highlands and barndances dance forms apparent to all and as tunes were shared over the weekend, the variations that emerged seemed to endlessly stimulate the recollection of others.

Friday saw people gather for tunes in The Blue Lamp, which was also the centre of Saturday evening’s activities and a supporter of the weekend’s events.

Saturday workshop

Davy Maguire explaining a finer point of technique (c) Gordon Turnbull

At the Saturday workshop, Davy Maguire taught a Scottish jig, a Highland from Donegal (which one of the Aberdeen students identified as a strathspey originally from Orkney), and a reel composed by Shetland fiddler Tom Anderson. Sharon Creasey taught 4 tunes — a 6/8 pipe march from the Willie Ross collection of 1875, a reel by Scott Skinner, a jig from the Northumberland tradition, and a jig from Co. Donegal. The afternoon ended with a question and answer session led by Davy, which rounded up the loose threads from the day.

Sharon Creasey demonstrates My Love is the Fair Lad #fluteflingaberdeen

A post shared by Gordon Turnbull (@gordontheflow) on


The selection of tunes was fairly wide-ranging, and quite challenging, but the students enjoyed being pushed a bit in their abilities, and also the variety of tunes which were taught and demonstrated. The high standard of the teaching and levels of encouragement from the tutors was commented upon by several.

Saturday concert and session

The Aberdeen Traditional Flute Players led by Kenny Hadden (c) Gordon Turnbull

The Saturday concert upstairs at The Blue Lamp opened with the Aberdeen Traditional Flute Players playing some tune selections. The ensemble was led by Kenny Hadden and comprised of people who have attended his flute classes at Scottish Culture and Tradition (SCAT) in Aberdeen. They were ably accompanied by Claire Hawes (bodhrán) and Martin MacDonald (guitar), who also accompanied others throughout the evening. Watch out for more from the flute group in the future and thanks to Claire and Martin for their support too. Kenny, hard working all weekend, went on to perform a solo set and was joined by John Crawford for a flute duet.

Malcolm and Janice Reavell (c) John Crawford

Local flute player and composer Malcolm Reavell followed, with Janice Reavell on guitar, playing a fine set of rare tunes and some of his own compositions. Gordon Turnbull played a mixture of traditional tunes as well as music by contemporary Scottish composers such as Dougie MacLean and Freeland Barbour.

Sharon Creasey demonstrated the suitability and versatility of the classical Boehm system keyed flute for both Scottish and Irish traditional music, playing tunes in the keys of F and G minor as well as the more common keys. Davy Maguire ended the two-hour concert with inspirational solo sets of flute music mainly from the Northern counties of Ireland.

Sharon Creasey with Claire Hawes and Martin MacDonald (c) John Crawford

Gordon Turnbull (c) John Crawford

A member of the audience remarked on the variety of flute styles being performed, a comment which echoed similar observations at Edinburgh performances. This response highlights one of the reasons for events like this — to hear and pick up on different ideas to take away to your own music. For traditional flute players, who are relatively thin on the ground in Scotland, the opportunity to come together with like-minded musicians is a key motive behind FluteFling events.

Sunday farewell session

Flute session conversations (c) Gordon Turnbull

Just as Saturday evening ended with another fine session and a chance for everyone to be involved and share their tunes and music together, Sunday lunchtime picked up the threads and the tunes and conversations continued where they left off.

This time in the snug of Ma Cameron’s with its fine acoustics, people shared tunes, ideas and tried out different flutes. Making connections and arrangements before having to head home.

Davy and Alice in Ma Cameron’s, Aberdeen

The Sunday sessions are always more relaxed and often sees the emergence of rare musical gems that have surfaced over the weekend.

Thanks again to everyone involved for their hospitality and time. Thanks too to Tasgadh, for helping to fund the event — a memorable weekend to fire everyone up over the winter.

FluteFling weekends 2018

FluteFling Aberdeen will return next year, but before then, the FluteFling Edinburgh weekend will celebrate its 5th year in 2018 and plans are being laid for that already.

There was also enthusiastic discussion of events in other locations and we will also explore those possibilities.

Mullindhu: an ambiguous tune

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September’s workshop looked at a version of Mullindhu, which translates as The Black Mill. A Scottish tune with Highland origins, there are a few different versions and spellings about in the main collections (Skye, Fraser and Athole are ones I regularly refer to). A reel in A Dorian, our version is slow and stately, more like a march, and was recorded by Jock Tamson’s Bairns.

Resources for this and the two other tunes we looked at (PDF, ABC and MP3 formats) have been added to the Resources Page.

Alba Low whistle in D (c) Gordon Turnbull

The story I originally heard about this melody from Edinburgh fiddler Doug Patience (now in County Clare) was that the mill in question stood on disputed land between two rival families and was burnt down by one of the sides. The composer was local and diplomatically wrote a tune that could be seen as either celebratory or in lament, depending on the point of view of the listener.

On The Session.org, a discussion on the tune quotes a story from Cape Breton Island about the Mill as a clandestine rendezvous for romance that similarly divides opinion:

Apparently, on Cape Breton Island the tune/song was not allowed to be played in certain parts because it was so closely associated with the MacDougalls of Margaree, who apparently were extremely touchy about hearing it played within their earshot! It appears that one line of a stanza of the puirt a beul set to the melody goes “Tha nead circe fraoiche ‘s a’ mhuilean dubh.” (In the black mill is the heather-hen’s nest). The offense to the Margaree MacDougalls was due to a joke that was told about hens at the expense of the clan, and they were so sensitive to any reference to the joke that they could not tolerate mention of poultry of any kind, and took the playing of the tune to be a veiled insult against the clan.

More on the tune background and stories can be found at the Fiddler’s Companion, including one story that includes devilish dealings.

I was pleasantly surprised that a bit of playing about with the tune reveals it to be a version of The Oyster Wives’ Rant, a reel I have known for many years but not often played. We also had a look at this in the workshop. The Fiddler’s Companion informs us that the earliest printed version is in Bremner’s Collection of 1775 and that it is part of a family of tunes and variants from Scotland to England and Ireland — so our Mullin Dhu connection is no surprise.

In searching about for a possible companion piece, I came across the distinctively titled An Oidhche Bha Na Gabhair Againn (The Night We Had the Goats) in the Athole Collection, a book which handily orders the tunes by key. This is in the relatively rare G major and I have adapted it slightly to my playing style. We didn’t have time to look at it properly, but it bounces nicely off the Ds and Gs and lends itself to short sharp spiky rolls. Interestingly, it resolves on to A, which lends it a whistful, inconclusive feel to my ears.

While it is described as a pipe tune, and printed versions may go back to 1795, the origins may be in puirt-à-beul. The odd title might be explained by another translation, The Night the Goats Came Home.

Here’s a version played a few years ago by then 17 year olds Hannah Stockley and Brad Murphy at the Gaelic Society in Sydney, Cape Breton.

After the workshop, myself and Malcolm Reavell rounded off the day by walking along to the Dalriada in Joppa and joined in the regular Saturday afternoon session for a couple of hours. Thanks to Sean Paul Newman (guitar) and Robert Chalmers (concertina) for their hospitality.

Reminder: FluteFling workshops take a break in October, but goes on the road in November with a big Aberdeen weekend featuring tutors Davy Maguire, Sharon Creasey, with a concert and sessions. And to keep the momentum going, regular Edinburgh workshops resume in November and December.