Posting clips

[jemtheflute]

Very nice, Michael - typical Shaw sound! Good pace and feel to the way you play it, flubs notwithstanding. Enjoyable.

[ImNotIrish]

Okay, So Jem, Cocusflute, Diane, others,

I re-recorded the HoB and Maid at the Spinning wheel. Just trying to see if I am getting the rhythm a little steadier. I didn't spend but a few minutes running through the tunes. Seems like the more I try to play through them, the worse it gets... There's always another day. The tunes are played on my R&R.

Arbo


http://public.box.net/imnotirish73470

[jemtheflute]

Arbo - HoB is certainly much steadier paced this time, though perhaps drags a touch in places. Kiss/Maid also flows a bit better, but you don't seem sure what speed you want to play it - starts rather fast, slows down, then speeds up again. Also some of the crans over-run their time slots. By the third time through it is much steadier, though again there's one place where it speeds up again.

I get the feeling, but obviously don't know your circumstances, so may be way off here - that you don't get to play much with others?

[ImNotIrish]

Jem thanks again for listening. Fact is, that I don't get enough time with others who play with a steady rhythm.

[sbfluter]

I thought both were lovely, INI. Why is that Humours of Ballyloughlin such a great tune?

I could quite easily dance to your music. None of us is going to be perfect and sound like professional musicians, but you are danceable. And you have a nice tone, which is something I'm simply not capable of. I might give up and switch to low whistle.

Both you and Jem are really good. I pop in here pretty much only to fill my iPod with more good flute music, which seems to be full of Jem and INI tunes .

[ImNotIrish]

Thanks Diane. Don't give up on the flute. Since you have been posting I have heard definite improvement. It's a long journey, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Sometimes we're right on the money, and other times we struggle to get there. As a close friend of mine is fond of saying, "It's all good!" For now I'll take a rest.... By the way, it is dance music after all, so I guess by the fact that you can dance to my tunes I'm not that far off base...
Arbo

[cocusflute]

Here's what I think and I'll leave it at that. I say this in reference to everybody's playing of Maid at the Sewing Machine and The Humors of Ballyloughlin. Sorry to be so preachy.

Everybody plays too fast. When you play too fast you lose the rhythm and the melody becomes more of a blob than a sharply articulated piece of music. Ornaments that are rushed or not filled out impede the rhythm and clutter the melody. Better to play cleanly and without ornaments than to clutter the place up. Better to play slowly and cleanly, with good tone, than to play rushed and messily.

The music is four-square. It has to fit into a box. Every corner must be filled perfectly and completely. Nothing can be rushed or be left to chance. Every note and every ornament must be heard clearly and distinctly, both in itself and as part of the whole. If you can't hear your every note played cleanly and deliberately than it isn't being played cleanly and deliberately. Then you have to slow it down to your comfort level and play it again. When you are playing by yourself, always play within your comfort level.

[ImNotIrish]

Okay, Cocus...
I just listened to your Sligo Polka. While the tempo and the timing seem to keep the drive alive, I feel that some of the other 'corners' of the box aren't filled in. For example, the tone quality is lacking in numerous places, and I feel that the articulation in the B section is passed over, thus one cannot hear every note cleanly, as you have suggested in you previous post. I'n my head, I am able to fill in such notes, still... anyway, the gist is that the tune carries itself well, it's danceable, and seems to flow nicely. So, take the comments with a grain of salt...
Arbo

[jemtheflute]

Both you and Jem are really good. I pop in here pretty much only to fill my iPod with more good flute music, which seems to be full of Jem and INI tunes .

Very kind of you Diane, and much appreciated, if over-generous. There are so many much better things/players out there to pipe-feed your brain via ipod. (Myself, I can't bear having ear-plugs in all the time or not being able to hear the world around me as I move about - never understood how folk could use Walkmans while jogging etc. - anyway, the earplugs won't stay properly in my ears, even sitting still!) Maybe not on the forum most of the time, but oodles of stuff on CD or probably mp3 downloads. If you haven't yet, get and listen to some Jean-Michel Veillon.

[cocusflute]

Yep... what I said certainly applies to me, too.

[sbfluter]

I spend most of my waking life stuffed into a cube, sitting in the near dark and in complete silence, freezing to death with a space heater on even in July. The only pleasure I have is to listen to music. I have a lot of other guys besides just you two. I have cocus, too, and well, just about anybody who sounds half-way decent.

[tin tin]

I'm enjoying the tunes and commentaries--this remains a fine thread. I'll have another go at recording a tune or two soon.
And Diane, don't threaten to quit the flute--you're making good progress and sound very nice. I very much enjoyed the Scone tune (and the gustatory imagery you provided in a later post). Which flute were you playing? Speaking of flutes, I really dig the sound of your Rudalls, Jem and Arbo.
I know we're all itching to reach the destination, as it were, but the journey is a wonderful one.

[sbfluter]

I think I was playing my boxwood flute. I think my tone is mostly ok but it doesn't sound as good as I think when I hear it in a recording. I don't know what else to do, so I'm just going to work on tunes and hope it all works out. If not, that's ok. I'm not going to become a professional musician so I don't have to be perfect. I do enjoy playing quite a bit.

[mahanpots]

Okey Dokey,

I've tried to organize myself a bit at box.net, and I've added two sets of tunes.

The first set is two tunes:

The Goat at the well or something like that (unless someone knows another name for it and the Killavil jig.

I played these two tunes with my headjoint next to the microphone.

The second set of tunes, I tried playing with the lowest holes on my flute below the microphone (C and C#?).

They are a jig I wrote called Phil's jig, The Black Hoe, and Paddy Cronin's.

I'm trying to slow down and play more succinctly. My wife says I'm crazy to submit myself to criticism, but I believe it's a great way to practice. I think I've picked tunes that I feel comfortable playing, but that I want to get better at playing.

I tend to think that my playing sounds a little muddled, and that I haven't figured out my mic level/placement, etc. I'm using a Zoom H4. Any hints as to my recording set up? Maybe I should start a thread on that. Or look back at past threads.

So here's my tunes.

http://public.box.net/mahanpots

[jemtheflute]

Very pleasant, Michael. I like your own tune. Generally nice, flowing playing, though the occasional bit of erratic stuff. I think a touch slower might be even nicer, kinda echoing something Cocus said recently, though not so much about fitting details in, more for the overall feel. I know sometimes jigs get played (very effectively) at a really crisp, cracking pace, but mostly I like them quite moderate, and for me your speed is sort of somewhere between....

As for the recording query, first, I think your transfer level to the computer, or else the pick-up gain, was too low. I've turned all available controls up full and the clips are still rather quiet, which makes it hard to judge the effect of the positional difference. I think the sound of the longer set is probably better - not because you held the foot to the mic (most of the sound comes from the embouchure and very little from the tone-holes, in case you didn't know) but because it is more "developed" - close miking ain't great for flutes. Whatever the acoustic, it takes about 2' for the sound from a flute to blend and mature, and it's best recorded, if environment/equipment allows, from about 3-4' away. Close miking may be necessary in an amplified gig setting, but isn't good otherwise - picks up a rather raw sound and more of the breath flow, obviously. If your mike has a long enough range, move back from it and have it aimed roughly at your L hand.

FWIW, my own recordings are pretty low-tech, done with a minidisc recorder and stereo electret mike. I stand about 4-6' away to record, usually. My clips wouldn't stand up to scrutiny on studio equipment, but I think the MD does a brilliant job for this kind of purpose.