Posting clips

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:08 am

Arbo - so much better without the electrickery - we can hear you and the flute properly! You really don't need reverb! Rolling Wave is a recognisable tune now and much better rhythmically. The Spanish Tune comes over really well too. The Choice Wife (An Phis Fliuch) needs more work, though - the rhythm of the slip jig is not fluent or regular and your timing wanders around. You sound very tense again in it and your tone production (not the strength of your low notes, but the clarity and the actual hitting of higher pitches), breathing and phrasing all suffer as a result.

ImNotIrish · Post by **ImNotIrish** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:41 am

Thanks Jem. Perhaps you would post a selection of the Choice Wife? It's not an easy tune. I'll work on it and see if I can get a better recording of it to post. Thanks for the feedback.
Arbo

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:11 pm

Well, I did a short burst of it (once through) as a rush-job demo clip for the swirly headed anon. Pratten style I sold a little while ago - it's linked on my FOR SALE thread on the posting of the close-up pics of the embouchure of that flute just as "slip jig" It isn't my best playing, I'm afraid, and unwarmed up on a not-so-familiar instrument, so definitely some off intonation, but it may serve for the time being. I'm sure there are plenty of good recordings by "name" players out there! I think I learnt it mentally (i.e. for the sound of it) chiefly from Liam O'Flynn's rendition on Planxty's Well Below The Valley album, but I only started playing it properly a couple of years back when I dug out the dots and gave it some attention.
Here's a new link for it:- An Phis Fliuch.

While I'm posting clips, I tried last week to see if there was any mileage in a thread similar to this one over on the whistle forum. No dice, seemingly - far too reticent, these whistlers! Anyway, shoot me for this not being a flute clip, but maybe someone here will like it?

Here are a couple of jigs I've been playing for donkey's years on my old (untweaked) Generation Bb - could anyone wish for a better sounding whistle? The tunes are The Dancing Master and The Jolly Old Man - O'Neill's 1001 #183 and #142 respectively. The Dancing Master is transposed to E Dorian (fingering) from the original A Dorian and The Jolly Old Man is also known as Bung Your Eye or The Brisk Young Lads, though those versions seem to have a slightly different B music.

If anyone is interested, I also put some self-composed (mostly) tunes/sets on whistle up on this thread.

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:32 pm

cocus and jem

thank you for your replies! i have been very busy and have not had time to to respond.

cocus-your advice has helped a lot. i have cd's by the artists you mention as exemplary for tempo and rhythm. the ones you list as being tasteless i am not familiar with except one--jem's objections to my videos are in part based on the fact that i prefer the older recordings and pure drop.

i have spent some time working with the recordings you suggest as well as others, and have even slowed them down a lot as they are. it was really a struggle to keep up with mike rafferty on several tunes, even though i had learned them FROM his recordings, and i discovered at what points in the music i stop paying attention and get caught looking backwards instead of forwards, looking towards effect rather than rhythm. i have identified patterns of behavior and thought that are now all but deflated. it will take time of practice to make it stick, as without a recording, it is about 5 minutes before my fingers start to speed up and my beat becomes erratic, which is a great improvement of about half a second before i would become erratic.

in the past i know i have played tastefully and well (the rakes of mallow above as an example), but it would happen on accident and i couldnt replicate it. i now know how to replicate it and do it purposely, and thanks to everybody's input am working on internalizing it.

which leads me to:

jem-i am very grateful for your response and have no problem with the negative aspect you view my playing. i guess after a while you start to think something is good enough when the only feedback you have is from people who do not play the music.

i posted the responses for help. it does not bother me that it was beyond my sensibilities. i was having trouble getting the music i could hear in my head and feel in my heart into my fingers... strange enough to say, your disdain and cocus' was very helpful, as it helped solidify what i had felt and thought, but had been confused on how to deal with. i am not ashamed of asking for help, and i needed to hear how bad my rushing was, and i am very grateful for the suggestions i received. i have heard all of it before, and to be honest, i have worked on the suggestions all at some point before, but never committed to them. however, the suggestions combined with the negative comments, in conjunction with you and cocus' support on my musicality and how it did not fit my playing, helped me to break through a wall and ultimately helped me start the task of rebuilding my playing, an endeavor i have been trying so hard at for a long time now.

---

in regards to noel hill... i think the problem is that i HAVENT been listening to him. i have very many recordings he has made for me of him playing very slowly, with a lot of lift, showing how rhythm and speed are not to be confused. he does not approve of my rushing, or my speed, and i know that the musicians he respects the most are those like willie clancy, mike rafferty, mrs. crotty, etc. one of the most important things he has taught me is to respect the music, respect where it has come from, and to look to the past. it was very humbling to hear noel talk so highly of mike rafferty, only to hear mike play live a year later, to realize that this slow, rhythmic, flute playing was what noel held to the highest esteem.

---

i suppose it takes hearing the same things over and over from many people to change... family, friends, teachers, people on the internet... i think it's about time i listen! i think i was ready to listen, which is why i finally posted the videos as i have often thought of doing.

thanks again everyone for your feedback. i dont know about anyone else, but it was honest feedback i was going for, and honest feedback that i got! it's not disappointing or discouraging in any way... in a sense, its a feeling of relief, that i can stop playing like that, learn to relax, and move away from that deep down need to be impressive, when i was really just acting the fool.

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:56 am

Dear Daiv, I'm very glad that you have felt helped and supported by my and others' comments and analysis, and that you have taken all this in the spirit extolled by Boyd a few posts back. I don't think either Cocusflute or myself felt any "disdain" for your clips, however. If you listen to our own clips, neither of us is at a level to have any right to disdain even if that was an appropriate feeling on this thread - which it isn't! Firm, even harsh analytical criticism may be helpful and is not negative when its target is capable of understanding it and using it to move on and up - but there is a responsibility on the critic to attempt to tailor a critique to their perception of its recipient's understanding and resilience! (Teaching skills stuff, if you like.) Negativity and crushing people have no place here.

I hope I am as open to receiving honest and constructive assessment of my offerings. I've certainly put myself up to be shot at!

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:21 am

Right, no more excuses! Here's a rendition, warmed-up, practised, best of multiple takes, on my own best and familiar flute, of An Phis Fliuch - still plenty of deficiencies, though. The flute is my original R&R Patent Head.
Arbo, I simply don't have your ringing strong bottom end - my low register has improved significantly recently, but is still far from what I might wish! It's not the flute's fault, BTW - Chris Wilkes and others who have played it can make those sounds on it - I only get them occasionally. This afternoon was a relatively good embouchure one for me too!

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 12:42 pm

jemtheflute wrote:Dear Daiv, I'm very glad that you have felt helped and supported by my and others' comments and analysis, and that you have taken all this in the spirit extolled by Boyd a few posts back. I don't think either Cocusflute or myself felt any "disdain" for your clips, however. If you listen to our own clips, neither of us is at a level to have any right to disdain even if that was an appropriate feeling on this thread - which it isn't! Firm, even harsh analytical criticism may be helpful and is not negative when its target is capable of understanding it and using it to move on and up - but there is a responsibility on the critic to attempt to tailor a critique to their perception of its recipient's understanding and resilience! (Teaching skills stuff, if you like.) Negativity and crushing people have no place here.

I hope I am as open to receiving honest and constructive assessment of my offerings. I've certainly put myself up to be shot at!

haha, yeah. i guess the disdain was my own. you were both firm, harsh, and analytical, but you are right, never negative. i was having trouble finding the right words.

Hoovorff · Post by **Hoovorff** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:04 pm

Question: As a box.net newbie, how do I link my folder there to here? I've downloaded files to my box and marked them as shared but am not sure about how to share them and get them here.

Thanks for any info/help.

Jeanie

boyd · Post by **boyd** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:09 pm

Hoovorff wrote:Question: As a box.net newbie, how do I link my folder there to here? I've downloaded files to my box and marked them as shared but am not sure about how to share them and get them here.

Thanks for any info/help.

Jeanie

Look here
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... &start=105 and the pages about there and I think most of the answers you need will be found

Boyd

chas · Post by **chas** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:33 pm

peeplj wrote:I like this thread and that people are posting and it seems to be overall a positive experience for all concerned.

This is what I was hoping could happen years ago!

It's good to see.

Thank you.

I agree, James. I haven't been recording myself nearly enough lately -- I think I've had one lesson in the last six months or so, so recording is something I should be doing. Hopefully I'll get around to it and upload a tune or two in the next couple of weeks.

Hoovorff · Post by **Hoovorff** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:08 pm

So, I think I've got my box.net files loaded here. These tunes are still works in progress, particularly Jean's Reel. (I figured I should learn it since it's my name.)

Hmmm. It doesn't seem to load the way other people's files load....It still may not be right.....

Thanks for the information about how to upload it, but I'm not sure if I have it quite yet...

http://public.box.net/hoovorff31877

Jeanie

ImNotIrish · Post by **ImNotIrish** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:39 pm

JEANE,
great job. Love the sound of the Nicholson and the Gallagher. Boy, that Jean's reel sounds like it's challenging, or is it one of those tunes that sounds that way, but is deceptively easy?
Keep posting!
Arbo

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:39 pm

Jeanie, it works.

I haven't had a chance to listen to them all yet, but I enjoyed your Toss the Feathers very much.

--James

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:17 pm

Hi Jeanie - it would be great if you could post direct links - I have to save the files to my computer and then find and open them to get them to play if I download from your box. When you open your Boxnet file, you get a page with all your uploaded files in little boxes. If you R click on a box, you should get a menu box. Click on "Link to this File" and another window will open with a URL in it. Highlight and copy that URL, then paste it into your posting text on C&F. Then bracket it with the URL tags by highlighting it in the typing box and then clicking on the URL tag in the header. You can get it to show as a title hotlink by replacing the closing square bracket of the opening tag with an = sign, replacing that square bracket back-to-back with the opening one of the closing tag and typing in the title between them. It will look like this, minus the asterisks I have inserted to deactivate the code.

[*url=http://public.box.net/hoovorff31877]Jeanie's Clips Box[*/url].

That should provide direct links where a window opens and one can just click "Play" without having to download the file to hear it.

I'll have a listen to your clips tomorrow, even if I have to save them all and get at them that way. I'm for bed now!

Hoovorff · Post by **Hoovorff** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:19 am

Jem,

Thanks for the information. When I have a longer break today, I'll try to get those links fixed. I knew I was missing some steps!

Thanks much, Jeanie

Chiff and Fipple Forums

Posting clips

Arbo's redone clips