I don’t know if anyone’s interested, but this is the only topic I consider myself at least somewhat of an expert on and I love talking about it.
So, is there an Irish musician/band you like and want recommendations for similar stuff?
Want to know how a pub session works?
Want to know what those instruments you heard/saw are called?
I’d enjoy try to answer questions like these. Dance isn’t my forte, but I can give you a basic explanation there as well. (It’s not all Riverdance, you know)
Is there any relationship between John and Davey Spillane? Who played the Uillean pipes on John Spillane’s first album - coz it sounds a lot like Davey.
No, I don’t think so. Or at least not in a very close sort of way. I’ve never heard that they were anyway. As one is from Cork, boy, and the other a Dub it seems it even more unlikely, though of course that doesn’t make it impossible.
I know the feeling, though. I used to always confuse them when I was newer to Irish music.
Sorry, I don’t know who played the pipes on that album either. Some expert, huh. :o
Davy Spillane is the only person’s whom I ever correctly identified through his house on the Through the Keyhole. Which you didn’t ask about, but anway.
I was in Doolin over the new year and heard a set by a great trio - I’m a (very amateur) guitarist and picked up the fact that I didn’t recognise any of the chords the guy was playing. Went over to him afterwards and asked what tuning he was playing; turns out it was DADGAD, which I’ve been fooling with since - it’s great. So question 1:
Is dadgad a popular choice among guitarists playing Irish trad music?
Onto 2. We stayed near Kinvarra with my wife’s uncle. There’s a trad music shop there and - on something of a whim - I bought a bodhrain (spelling probably screwy). so Q2:
What’s the best way of learning to play it? I’ve got a book, but it’s a bit pants. If I could find a video/dvd that’d be better. Also, the book seems to be saying that in some places, the bodhrain is looked down on. Is this true? (not that it matters much to me, I’m only likely to be playing with friends).
Yes! I want to know how a pub session works! Do you have to be invited? Do people just show up? Are there a bunch of songs everyone knows, or is it jammed?
And how the %&$# do you play the bodhran? Any teaching videos or such you would recommend? I’m so spastic, I actually make contact with the drum head about once every four strokes, and those are mostly scrapes, not thwacks. Not good. Sounds like a water buffalo with Turrettes.
Speaking of which, do any women play the bodhran professionally? I’ve only ever seen men, now that I think of it. Women = fiddle, men = bodhrain. Tell me it ain’t so!
Yes, it seems to be very popular. IANA guitar player, but it seems a easier way to back Irish music. Too easy, say some, who complain that this tuning makes it too simple for guitarist who then don’t pay any attention at all anymore and just play the same boring/wrong chords. The same or simular people will also say it’s a modern affectation. *
I don’t agree with that assessment myself and have never come across this effect. A bad guitarist is a bad guitarist in whichever tuning and there’s never any excuse for bad playing. Anyone who’s sensitive to music will appreciate that.
You get brownie points for wanting to actually learn how to play it. Bodhrans (no “i” and an accent over the “a”. ) are seen by many people as an easy way into a Irish sessions without needing to learn anything and will show up with drums only bought the day before and annoying the musicians. That’s why it has a bad name, which really is unfair on the people who have spent some time on it and do a good job.
As for the how. Like a good trad head I would argue that the best way is to listen to recording of good players and try to emulate. It’s an oral tradition, so listening is usually the best way if you manage it. Buy some CD’s with good drummers on them and then some without accompaniment so you can be the drummer in that band in your living room.
If it’s the actually technique of how to beat the thing, here’s a video. Don’t how good the video is but I know the bodhran player is a good one.
Good luck.
*In Irish (and probably other kinds) of traditional music there’s constant bickering/arguing/debating between those of want to preserve tradition and those who want to innovate and whether or not the two are mutually exclusive.]
Are tin whistles easy to learn to play? I always see them relatively cheap in music stores, and I’m tempted.
Also, the Pogues are one of my favorite bands of all time, and I also like some American bands that combine rock or punk with the Irish traditional sound, like Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, and Black 47. Anyone else I might like in this vein, or any more traditional bands with that kind of energy and intensity I would enjoy?
Normally sessions are open to all comers. With the proviso that you should be able to either be able to keep up with the general level of musicianship or be polite enough to sit out the bits that are beyond you.
Usually one, two or three experienced players are paid by the landlord to play every week/fortnight or whatever. This way 1. there are some solid musicians in the mix who make sure the session doesn’t derail 2. there will always be some musicians at all on the day so that people who come to hear music will hear music and 3. draws in the less experienced musicians who want to play with and learn from the more experienced people. Everyone else plays for free/one free drink or even free drinks all night, though the last one is sadly becoming rare these days. Spontaneous sessions do happen when musicians feel like it, but are much rarer as they depend on the whims of musicians.
No, it is most certainly not jammed. This is a common misunderstanding in sessions outside of Ireland. Most Irish musicians will actually get very antsy if you jam along with what they’re doing so improvising and harmonising are not the way to go. Specific tunes* are being played and those wishing to join in are expected to learn these.
Repertoire varies from session to session, though there are certain tunes that practically anyone anywhere will know. People learn from listening in sessions, recording sessions, from CD’s, tunebooks, teachers and each other.
What tunes are played is decided on the night in semi-democratic fashion, that is, whoever feels like it starts one and those people who know the tunes being played join in. Usually this works fine, though if someone starts obscure tunes all night or never gives anyone else a chance it might cause grumbling. Solos are fine from time to time, but they objective of the session is mainly to play together.
You’re right, I can’t think of a female pro bodhran player either. Having said that, I know of plenty of amateur female players and zillions of male fiddlers for that matter. I think there aren’t so many professional bodhran players in general, male of female.
*In Irish music as song has words, anything else is referred to as a “tune”. The exception to that would be slow airs and certain harp pieces, but most of the lively stuff you hear in pubs are tunes unless someone is singing. Then it’s a song.
I agree; having messed around with dadgad for a couple of weeks, some chords are definitely easier (and also the whole ‘tone’ of the sound is different, perhaps because you tend to have more drone strings), but some aren’t. Certainly the guitarist I saw in Doolin was no slouch, with all sorts of ornaments coming thick and fast.
Thanks, I’ve ordered it! Now for some serious practice…
Relatively so, yes. Of course it still requires a lot of practice to become really good at it but it easier by a long shot than say, uillean pipes. Most Irish children actually learn to play a bit in primary school, so it can’t be that bad. I say, why not? Like you said, they’re not a lot of money so you don’t have that much to lose.
Tough one. I think The Pogues are pretty much the best around in that genre by a huge margin.
Some stabs at it.
If you don’t mind it being Scottish there is (was?) this band called Nyah Fearties who mixed folk and punk. A lot more raw (well, in a way. You can’t really beat Shane on rawness really) than The Pogues but fun. Might be hard to find, though.
In a much more Irish and much more traditional vein Lunasa are a young Irish band who really like to rev it up. There’s no songs, though.
If PookahMacPhellimey doesn’t mind me putting my 2 cents in: Check out Gaelic Storm if you don’t know them already. Solid traditional Irish underpinning by musical scholars, with fresh modern innovations. There’s quite a few tracks you can stream at their site to decide if you like them. They’re best known as the steerage level band in Titanic, or as they like to call it “Our 200 millian dollar million video co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio!” (They also know how to party - whew! )
Yup, they’re pretty easy. I bought one several years ago, and didn’t take long before I was able to play it reasonably well. The trills and stuff still elude me a little bit. I’ve never played any wind instruments, so don’t let that hold you back (although I do play a string instrument, and I’m already very famliar with reading music and also playing stuff by ear, so YMMV).
I did a most exhaustive listing of classic albums and it got wiped out by the old rodent contingent. :mad:
I really can’t face doing it all over again and these things are a matter of taste anyway. I’ll make you a deal though. You specify how you would like your Irish music to be. Fiery/mellow/edgy/smooth/solo/band/songs/instrumental/earthy and natural/modern/which instruments or whatever else and I’ll try and match you up with some CD’s.
It ain’t so. A couple of female bodhran players come immediately to mind:
Leah Salomaa
Lucy MacNeil
A CD of Lucy MacNeil should be fairly easy to find–she is one of the Barra MacNeils, from Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia, Canada). They have released a number of CDs; you’ll be able to hear Lucy’s bodhran playing on them. Note that she plays fiddle too.
Leah Salomaa is not as well known. She’s based in southern Ontario (again, Canada) last I heard, but she also has at least one CD out: Celtic Trio. It is likely going to be quite hard to find, but since Salomaa pretty much only plays bodhran and sings, you’ll hear some fine drumming if you can find it.
No, they’re not Irish, but a lot of Irish/Scottish influence is in the music of Canada, especially in the province of Nova Scotia. It’s close enough, anyway.
Pookah, hope you didn’t mind the brief and slightly off-topic hijack.
Cape Breton stuff is very Scottish sounding. I’ve even heard of Scottish musicians travelling there to find old Scottish tunes that got lost in Scotland but were preserved there.
As for the female bodhran players. I was trying to think of women playing bodhran exclusively. There is a handful of guys doing just drum in Irish music but no women that I can think of. If you include players who sing or play another instrument as well as bodhran then there are some more to find, I agree.
