Recordings of lots of tunes

So here is a link to a bunch of recordings that I made while I was in class at Blas. The teachers included Martin Hayes, John Carty, Eileen O Brien and Siobhan Peoples.

http://soundcloud.com/shimonsmith/sets/blas-2013

I have more recordings of the class working through the tunes slowly if anyone wants to try to learn some of them. 

So this is what we'll be learning first

So, if you're currently in the Mather Orchestra and would like to play some Irish Music with me when school starts up again in August, this is what we will learn first. This is the Connaughtman's Rambles (from an earlier post) in action in a Pub in Limerick. You might spot me on the left. If you look and listen you'll see guitars, concertina, fiddles, flutes and bodrahn. Near the end of the clip you can see the guy in the middle with glasses on turn around and call the next tune to the folks around him. This was his "set", he started it off with a different tune and was leading.

By the way, I'm sorry for the abrupt edit. I don't know why my camera did this. The jig comes in at the 17 second mark. I spend the first 16 seconds filming the feet of a dancer who was sitting next to me. There are a couple of different types of Irish dancing. The one that most everyone associates with Ireland is set dancing or step dancing. This is similar to what you might see in Riverdance. Everything is highly choreographed  and is often performed with multiple people. There is also Ceili dancing. I spoke of this in an earlier post. You might think of Ceili dancing as similar to square dancing. It is group dancing, often very complex, that is performed at social events.

My favorite type of dancing is Sean-nós dancing. Sean-nos means "old style" in Gaelic and reminds me of tap dancing. You can see sean-nos dancers with hard or soft shoes, but it is a much more improvised form with free arm movements. It is just as rhythmic as the other styles but much more individualized. This is what the girl sitting next to me was practicing. 

Irish sung at pub

So, even if you are a Mather student and have never been to a bar, you can imagine the scene at a crowded bar on a Friday night. People laughing, talking, drinking, having a good time. Maybe there's a jukebox playing. In the US, there is undoubtedly a TV going with a sporting event on. Well at this bar during a trad music session, it was much the same way. Until, as I mentioned in a previous post, someone stands up to sing. Everyone in the bar listens.

Give me a song

So this is a lovely part of the Irish vernacular that I have noticed. And, when I think of it, it is certainly indicative of the aural folk tradition.

While listening back to one of my fiddle lessons today, I noticed that Eileen O Brien kept saying, "Let me give you this one..." when referring to a song that we were about to learn. When the other, more experienced students in the class would play things she would often say, who gave you that or where did you get that. More often people would answer I got it from so and so in such and such a place. It was never where did you learn that it was always who gave it to you or who showed you how to play that. Not only does this harken to the times when the transmission of folk tunes was purely aural, there were no recordings and most people didn’t know how to read music, but it recognizes the fact that the tunes have a million different variations. A certain player in a certain region might play a song in a certain way with a specific embellishment or turn of phrase. I actually already saw this in practice during my limited experience. Eileen taught us a couple of polkas that she referred to as two Begley polkas after Seamus Begley (who played here in a concert on the final Thursday of the sesison). I played them at a session later in the week and the guitar player recognized one of them and said is this such and such a piece? I said no, it is Begley's polka. He kind of laughed and said that Begley was still alive (he’s coming to this program to play next week) and the polka actually had a name. Eileen had gotten the polka from Begley, but just couldn't place the name.

Something that I wish for everyone

It  goes withòut saying that I like music. I like to play music, listen to music, talk about music, listen to people play music and listen to people talk about muisc.

Most times when I go out to see my friends or some other social gathering, I find myself,  at some point wishing we could play some music- but it's just not socially acceptable. Many times I have found myself at a party huddlled in the corner with someone playing the guitar or out on the balcony or porch. There was a time when I was younger when people that I knew would just say, "You can't just start playing music at a party because it takes over everything- It's actually impolite." I agree with this and am well aware of this.


It is very fun for me to be in an environment where everyone is a musician or a dancer. We had the most amazing house session today. It is Saturday, so there are no classes or concerts at the summer school. After a day of sightseeing with some of my colleagues (more on that later) we decided no to go to the session at the local pub, but rather to get some food and play in the common room in our dorm.

There were about 8-10 people. Dancers, Irish flute, fiddle, mandolin and singers. People were from US, Dublin, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Wales and Scotland.    We spent a while going around the circle calling tunes. Most of the tunes were Irish Trad tunes. A couple of people sung some ballads.   Then, everyone started to sing a folk song from their country. A couple of people had never sung in front of others, but the atmosphere was so supportive that literally everyone had a song. The songs were beautiful. There were songs in Swedish, Gaelic English and German. I sung a Steve Earle song and a John Prine song with a girl from California who, like me knew many American folk tunes. We all learned a couple of dance steps from some different places as well.

I have heard that anthropologists have not yet found a culture that has not had music, and music is the perfect medium through which to understand other people and cultures.

I hope that everyone would be able to find something that they like to do and someone with whom they like doing it.

Our session lasted 6 hours....

So now, apparently I introduce super-famous Irish traditional musicians in Gaelic

Dia yeev a harche. Chris is ainem dom. Is fiddler me. Is as mericaw me. Shah ee Katherine Foley. Is rinkoree ee, agas is Magella Bartley. Is fluteedor ee. (pause) Bool hay boss moor.

That's right. I'm a joiner. I also raise my hand for things and sit in front (I am getting blinder by the day). So after my first 45 minutes of taking Irish (Gaelic) when Ian, our lecturer, asked who would like to volunteer to join someone from the advanced Irish class to introduce the performers for the lunchtime concert, I volunteered. The moment is captured somewhere on digital media, but, as of yet, I am unsure as to how to flip over the video from me appearing upside down to me appearing right side up. It went great. I think that I should retire from Irish right now because I really can't learn anything else.

....seriously, I really don't think that I can learn anything else. I'm no language expert, but Irish makes absolutely no sense. As far as I can tell there are no rules as far as pronunciation, syntax or spelling. I'm not sure what it is based on, but there is something about the Romans never making it to Ireland (they stopped in England) that screws the whole thing up. We did watch a video in class- see it's not just in CPS where you go to class and watch movies- it's kinda cute. It's in the margin off to the right. I know that it doesn't work if you are on a phone, so here is a link.

Anyhow. I'm super sad because I literally do not have enough time to write this blog. I know that is really a good thing because I am having very full days that are full of activity, but I keep wanting to get things down.

My day starts with a lecture on some Irish subject. The lectures have included Changing trends in Irish Traditional Muisc, Diversity in Irish Step Dance Practices, Place, Meaning and Function in Sean-Nos Singing and Irish Balladry and Balladeers. I  know that they may sound super boring or that I'm stuck at some obscure music conference or locked in a room and forced to read a pile of arcane dissertations but the lectureshave actually been fairly enjoyable
? Really it's the same phenomenon that you might get when you watch a nature show, a VH1 Behind the Music on Grand Funk Railroad or a This Old House  episode. You really might not have any interest in this person's desire to install track lighting in the third floor bathroom of the victorian, but it's oddly interesting to see how someone would do it.

Although I suppose that what I really like is one of the things that I miss from being in collection;  Its just nice to listen to someone who is a scholar in a subject share their knowledge with others.

So now, apparently, I dance....

Let's just say that when I saw "Ice breaker céilí" on the schedule for this afternoon, I was not necessarily looking forward to it. Now, I don't know what a céilí is, but I do know what an icebreaker activity is and, after years of working with teenagers and less-than-motivated teacher teams, I was expecting something that involved a name game, post it notes, balloons, string and possibly an obstacle course.

Turns out... céilí (pronounced KAY-lee) is a Gaelic social gathering which usually includes dancing. Up until now, my dancing experience has been limited to weddings where I have had too many White Russians, the Mather Teacher Talent Show and the occasional Grateful Dead cover band concert. But, always the team player, I pressed on determined not to be the worst one out there. I’m not sure that happened, but I did have a super fun afternoon learning some Irish set dances. While Michael Flatley certainly doesn’t have anything to worry about, suffice to say if someone stopped me on the street and demanded that I show them the Waltz of Limerick, the Siege of Ennis  and Shoe the Donkey I could do it! I hope that happens before tomorrow though because I am afraid that there is a small chance that I may forget them.

I actually did learn something musical during my fit of physical activity. Much folk music,  certainly Irish traditional music, was written for some purpose. Much “art music” is written for its own sake and is designed to be heard primarily in a concert setting. Other music was written for religious services, weddings, funerals, songs to be played while working and, in this case, for social dances. It is actually very important to keep that in mind when learning and playing this type of music. Someone will be moving to your music. This should inform the rhythm and certainly the tempo. filddle players are notorious for speeding though things. It’s fun to see a hot-shot filddle player play something that is 100 miles per hour, when in reality many things should be slowed down so that they are at a reasonable tempo to dance to.

My experience here will afford me the opportunity to hear and work with many famous Irish musicians. While many of the names are unfamiliar to me as a non-Irish player, I can certainly appreciate the accomplishments and abilities of these folks. The lecture that I listened to today was by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin who spoke on a historically famous collection of Irish tunes. He is a professor, musicologist, recording artist and many other things. He is a phenomenal pianist. I could have listened to him play for hours. Most of his subject matter is far too specific to note here, but one of the themes that he kept touching on was the idea that the traditional tunes are actually a living thing. The collection of tunes that were notated in this, the first, famous collection were only a snapshot of a tune and how it might have been played in the 18th century.  The tradition was constantly changing, songs were being added, forgotten and then reintroduced. He even talked about different instruments and how they came to be known as Irish “traditional” instruments. I thought that he was extremely open minded for someone of his position. Often people who are academics or traditional “purists” seem very inflexible towards things and avow that certain things have to be done the “right” way. If you’re not doing something a particular way, then that is “wrong”. It is not part of the style, tradition or genre. He was very cognizant of the fact that the tradition was always changing and adapting and music can move in and out of the tradition.

That was all a precursor to the couple of sessions that I went to later in the day and into the evening. A session is basically vernacular for a group getting together to play music. House sessions are often more informal and then, of course there are sessions at pubs which can be fast and furious. A nice feature of this school is that the students can immediately put into practice the material they learn in a real-world setting, or in this case, a real pub setting.Folk music is music of the people and while there is traditional music played in concert settings, it is meant to be played in social groups and in public by amateur and professional musicians. 

I got together with some of my fellow students for a house session that was very lovely. We played 10-15 songs, some of which I knew and could play along. It was moving along at a moderate pace, people were calling songs and asking if people knew them. There was plenty of opportunity to know what was being played (I was actually taking notes).

This all changed when the session at the pub started. I don't know if it was a typical session for a pub in Ireland, I think that it was probably larger than normal since there were so many music students nearby. Anyhow, I found it very exhilarating. There were fiddles, Irish flutes,, Irish flutes, bodhrán, a concertina, whistles, guitar and button accordions which they refer to as a "box". There isn't really any calling of songs, people just start to play and then everyone who knows the song jumps in. Oh... and they play songs in groups of 3 called sets so, often they will seamlessly transition from one song to the next because certain songs are customarily played in sets with certain other songs. The songs go zipping along. I found that, more often than not, if you ask someone who just finished a song what that song was called, they don't know the title- even though they just got finished playing it. I stopped trying to take notes at this point.  

So that was going well until someone moved a table and people would come up one at a time and dance along with the music. That was quite something to see as everyone is smushed together in the corner of the bar. Needless to say, I imagined that I was having an authentic Irish experience at that point until, after one of the sets, one woman started to sing. She sang a capella, a long, lamenting ballad during which the entire bar was silent. The next time it happened, a different woman did the same thing, only she sang in Gaelic. That was about the time that I thought I should put my fiddle away and stop pretending.

I'll try again tomorrow. 

The Irish Summer

As I stepped off of the plane from Chicago I learned the mearning of Irish Summer. An Irish Summer, in Chicagoese means that it’s freezing. I immediately wish that I would have flipped the jeans-to-shorts ratio that I came up with while I was packing.  Oh well, one really can’t wear jeans too many days in a row can one? I met a guy from Claire who told me that last year they had two summers: Tuesday and Wednesday.  Something tells me he didn't come up with that one himself,  but I told him that I would steal it nonetheless.


After spending the last 5 summers traveling primarily in Mexico and Central America, all I can say is that Ireland certainly seems to have the bus and road part of the infrastructure down. I was able to get on a bus directly outside of the airport, pay the driver and get deposited right on the campus of the University of Limerick. The roads were fast, the people were friendly and the bus even had WiFi.

I  had a very pleasant 4 hours looking out the window as we cut directly across the island. We bussed along though soft rolling hills dotted with cows and sheep, passed through several small Irish towns and only had to slow down a couple hundred times for traffic circles. It was better than Wisconsin. Who needs stoplights!

The University of Limerick Campus has a very modern, if not dated feel. They are celebrating its 40th year this year so a lot of the architecture has a 60’s/early 70’s look- although not necessarily the bad shag carpeting/orange plastic furniture/fuzzy dice/lava lamp vibe. This campus has more the UIC Chicago campus thing going on. Although it is a Sunday in the summer so I literally only saw a handful of people. It was actually a little bit creepy. It made me think that I was in some kind of deserted post-apocalyptic alcademic setting or at least like I was in that Simpsons episode where Bart gets a fake ID, rents a car and the only place that they can think to go is to Knoxville because Milhouse has an old coupon to the 1982 World’s Fair. When they get there, the only thing that is open is the sphere of the future that was turned in to a wig store.

Anyhow, I’ll start tomorrow and then actually be able to talk about something musical. Today I met a woman named Sarah who lives in the dorm here somewhere. She is an Irish dancer from Buffalo. I also met one of my apartment-mates who is called Ian. He is a fiddle player from Edinburgh Scotland. Don’t get me started about how nervous I’m going to be trying to fake Irish tunes whilst sitting next to a fiddle player from Scotland.

The other thing that I learned about an Irish Summer, which I actually like very much, is that as I type this, it is after 10 p.m. and it is just now getting to be dusk…

Thoughts on learning repertoire by ear

One of the drawbacks of being a classically trained musician is the inevitable dependence on the printed music. Aside from Jazz, certain elements of Baroque and maybe a little 20th century music, the classical musician very rarely is called on to improvise. Most music is learned by strict adherence to sheet music. The classical musician can take some liberties with tempo, bowings and phrasing but, by and large, the musician has to play what the composer has on the page. In many cases the composer is extremely precise in the notation, indicating volume speed, mood, technique and very exact rhythms.

I was never taught to improvise and, while I would listen to recordings of rep before I learned it, I learned music by reading the notes on the page much like one would read a book.

However, that is not how many people in the world learn music and not how most folk music, of which Irish traditional music is an example, is taught.

In my current fiddle lessons, I find myself often frustrated with the painstakingly slow pace that it takes to learn a song by ear. I want to say, "Just give me the sheet music and I'll go learn it, memorize it and come back next week ready to play." God knows I've done it many times. I've played solo recitals and performed memorized pieces in front of an orchestra. How hard can it be to learn a 32 bar folk song?

But an interesting thing has happened as I have been learning these Irish tunes recently. It has gotten me to think a bit differently about learning and teaching music altogether. I noticed that when I take 1/2 hour in class to learn a song by ear, note by note, measure by measure and phrase by phrase, I certainly know and can retain the song better than when I try to learn it from sheet music. It has to do with how one learns music and illustrates why learning music is different than other subjects (and why I think it is important for kids to learn music)

When one learns a piece it is a combination of intellectual memory, muscle memory and aural skills with the element of time thrown in as well. It's like when you learn a dance. You might think, "O.K. I do this, then this, then two steps here, then that thing when I turn on one foot etc." It's a different type of learning than say figuring out a math problem or doing a science experiment. With learning music aurally, you might think, "O.K. I do this phrase, then this connected note, then it ends here, then this next part is the same except for this thing, then I do the whole section again, then I play this little figure, then I go to the B part etc." That type of learning is an attainable skill that takes practice just like anything else. Some folks are real good at it and can learn very complex things by ear very quickly.

In my own lessons I have actually found this to be a fun intellectual challenge, kind of musical puzzle, and I can already see the time it takes me to memorize things improve.

I'm looking forward to trying this out with my students when I get back. I did a little preview lesson the other day where I tried to teach a couple of boys in my advanced orchestra Off to California. One absolutely refused to do it without the music while the other happily sawed away copying each phrase that I played.

I think that I will have my work cut out for me.

Getting Ready

So in the couple of months since I received the news that my fellowship had been funded by Fund For Teachers I have been working in preparation for my journey. While I have been teaching for almost twenty years, and playing music most of my life, I am quite unfamiliar with traditional Irish music. A major inspiration for my decision to design this particular type of professional development was that I could learn something altogether new, and then immediately share that knowledge with my students. Very often, especially for veteran teachers, there is a disconnect between the students and the teacher-as-student. Simply put, it is easy for teachers to forget what it is like to learn something new, especially in their subject.

To that end, I have started to take Irish fiddle lessons with Matt Brown at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Irish traditional music is, in large part, folk music, not art music. It is music played by people of all experience levels. While performed on stage and in concert halls in some instances, Irish traditional music is most often played socially, in pubs, homes and other gatherings. There are literally thousands of Irish tunes in the lexicon. Most of them are relatively simple to learn (although often very ornate and difficult to play well) and vary greatly by style and region. From what I have come to understand, groups of people who get together in different areas will often draw from a similar repertoire of 20-30 tunes that are common to that region.

I wanted to start to at least learn a couple of Irish tunes before I left so that I could start to try to work on some of the unique technical aspects of Irish music. Of course I can play lots of songs with the sheet music, but they always come out sounding like some classical dude trying to play an Irish melody. Inauthentic to say the least.

I have found my lessons to be very enjoyable. Some of the tunes that I have learned include Connaughtman's Rambles, Off to San Francisco, Mug of Brown Ale, The Silver Spear, Bohola's Jig and Many a Wild Night.

Check out sheet music and videos by clicking on the links or in the margins.

So then I found out that Matt, along with some other teachers from the Irish Music School of Chicago collaborate in coordinating the Irish sessions at Cheif O'Neills pub in Chicago. There are sessions every Tuesday and Sunday which are great. I would recommend it to anyone who plays, or would like to go just to eat and listen to music. It is a family friendly environment. All of the songs that I have learned (and many more) are played in these sessions. I have gone a couple of times and it is a super-friendly vibe. I have not been intimidated to sit in. I only hope that I have the same resolve once I actually get to the Emerald Isle.