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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
 Posted - 12/17/2007 : 09:51:15 AM
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Hi Peter -
Mark Nelson here. Welcome to the wonderful world of slack key. As a longtime traditional player my self-- I started with American old time & quickly veered into Irish & Scottish fiddle tunes, then anything that struck my fancy--- let me say the slack key actually has a great deal in common with the other traditional music styles. It may take you a while to get your head around it, but once you do you'll be fine.
As with other folk styles, as soon as someone writes down a tune, that becomes "the way" the tune gets played for a number of folks. T'ain't so--- the way you play it is "the way."
Ah, but getting to that point takes a lot of listening. So, in addition to the suggestions for books and tab, let me add the need for building up a nice record collection (I know, they are on CDs, but they are still recordings, right?) I'd start with some of the compilations, then follow with full-length recordings by artists who strike your fancy.
Then save up your coins and come to one of the camps. Ask Trev, it is possible. And life changing.
One last thing: about six or seven years ago I worked the big Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. A young Scottish broadcaster-- and bang-up fiddler-- was on hand to document the festival for the Scottish BBC (I think). Never mind that he had the year wrong, the non-American guests that year were Welsh, not Scots. But he did record a couple of duets we played with him playing Scottish airs and such and me backing him up with slack key stylings. It works wonderfully.
quote:
although slack key is simpler, it's more difficult to play
Ah, a zen moment!
Good luck to you.
cheers,
Mark
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 1:26:41 PM
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Our next door neighbor is a Scot - and I love their cooking. Straightforward but what you eat has wonderful taste.
Welcome.
PS I went from slack ket to bag pipe tuner! |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 09:56:43 AM
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quote:
I went from slack ket to bag pipe tuner!
That would imply that you can tune a bagpipe!
This is not a slur on pipers, BTW: Remember, I play in a gaita band.
Tho' my piping career came and went rather quickly. How was I to know you weren't supposed to use a foot pump to inflate the bellows? |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 12:29:59 PM
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I used to be a pipe fanatic, and there used to be very trad Scottish "games" at a private estate in Stamford, CT (the Gold Coast area of CT). I went every June. They had truly serious pipe competitions in different pipe genres (pibroch, band, etc.) It became very clear very fast that pipe playing is an outdoor sport and the piper(s) is/are always walking or marching. When I was in France and Sweden, it also became clear that the French substituted the accordion for the pipe, and the Swedes substituted the fiddle. Both were mostly played outside and, of course, standing. Pipes were once ubiquitous from Sweden to Turkey (it is no accident that a Turkish province is named Galicia). Even in the north of Old Blighty, there are pipes of various sizes and sounds and mechanisms. I could believe it was the favored instrument of Peninsular Europe and the Islands not too many centuries ago.
...Reid |
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 3:47:55 PM
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Ah, my mistake. Incipient senility
A bagpipe chanter (not tuner) |
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pifarrell
Aloha
United Kingdom
32 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 10:10:38 AM
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Hi folks,
Theresa and I went to York for a few days, got back yesterday so I'm just now catching up with the messages.
I'm still waiting for the Ozzie book to arrive but I found a couple of samples on the Sheet Music Plus site so I was working on them today and Glory Be(or possibly a Hawaiian exclamation)! it's all starting to take shape. Once I cracked the timing it sort of fell into place. I was in Edinburgh this morning, looking for any slack key CD's in the record shops but couldn't find any, only some pedal steel guitar stuff by someone called "Sol Hoopii's Novelty Trio", and some others that didn't look particularly interesting. I'm going to have to order through the internet.
I'm a fan of the smallpipes myself. I played in a band for a couple of years with a friend who played the Northumbrian smallpipes which are played with bellows. I especially love the Irish Uilleann pipes which, to me, have a much better sound than the Great pipes. |
bigeedjit |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 12:35:59 PM
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quote:
the French substituted the accordion for the pipe, and the Swedes substituted the fiddle.....Pipes were once ubiquitous from Sweden to Turkey (it is no accident that a Turkish province is named Galicia).
I think just about everyone substituted the accordion for the pipes. But they are very much still alive and undergoing a huge surge in popularity all over Europe.
I'm lucky (?) enough to hang out from time to time with a guy who plays (at last count) Highland, Northumberland smallpipes, Scottish shuttle pipes, uilleann, Galician Gaita, two or three different French pipes (cabrette, & cornemuse fer sure), zampogna (Italian), Breton petit binou, and several Hungarian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic pipes in various states of repair.
His name is Kevin Carr, & he has a delightfully CD of stories about pipes and pipers, with appropriate music called "King of the Pipers" Available here http://cdbaby.com/cd/kevincarr2, among other places. Disclaimer: He's my bud, and we recorded it in my studio.
Funny thing is, although he also plays fiddle, banjo, mando, whistle, accordion & guitar-- all damn well, and all in a variety of ethnoid styles, he says he can't make heads nor tails of slack key.
Happy slacking! |
Edited by - Mark on 12/20/2007 12:37:05 PM |
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pifarrell
Aloha
United Kingdom
32 Posts |
Posted - 12/24/2007 : 11:36:28 AM
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Ozzie's book arrived today, Yahoo (or possibly a Hawaiian exclamation)! Won't get a chance to have a look at it until after Christmas though, I'm doing the cooking, there's eight of us.
Merry Christmas to all!!!! |
bigeedjit |
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chunky monkey
Ha`aha`a
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2007 : 09:40:20 AM
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Welcome Peter,
I'm 1/4 Scot. My grandmother was from the Shetland Islands. But now I have Slack Key blood. I'm pretty sure that I've played enough John Keawe to make me related to him. |
Edited by - chunky monkey on 12/26/2007 07:40:03 AM |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2007 : 11:11:44 AM
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| Shetland Islands (Hjaltland in Norse)spoke a Norse dialect into the 1700s. The "musette" accordion of Parisian fame was tuned to go with the Auvergnat pipes in the late 1800s. The "wet" tuned bosex go well with pipes. The Swedes have a "sackpipa". The accordion really came into vogue because it was portable, loud and fit with the existing folk instruments. It also didn't hurt that 2 of the dance crazes of the Industrial Revolution were the polka and the waltz. The dreaded "Chicken Dance" came along way after. |
Edited by - thumbstruck on 12/25/2007 11:12:53 AM |
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