Christmas shopping poll, Irish session music

Ok, I have to know: how many of you have finished your Christmas or holiday season shopping already? I've only just gotten started. Do you do most of the gift shopping in your household? Do you enjoy it? Do you have any strategies on making the process more enjoyable?

Abrupt change of topic: Avenue Q. Have any of you heard of it? I just found out about it through Erin's blog comments, and LOVE the lyrics. I want to go see this play!

Session tunes update (tunes I've learned so far):
The Swallow Tail, The Donegal Reel, The Galway Rambler, Cooley's Reel, The Boyne Hunt, The Sligo Maid, Drowsy Maggie, Ms. McLeod's Reel, The Green Groves Of Erin, working on The Bank of Ireland.

Slower going these days because I'm putting as much focus on reviewing old tunes to makes sure I remember them as I am on learning new ones. I'm finding the memorization process much different than the process in memorizing piano pieces. Happily so.

After using sheet music to learn and memorize the tunes, I rely on my memory of the tune itself and recreating by ear to review. In piano, I always mentally pictured the sheet music in front of me; I found that if I relied too much on how a piece "felt" as I memorized, things could go Terribly Wrong if I happened to have an off day, or I was playing on a different piano, or the acoustics were different for some reason.

Also, learning tunes on a penny whistle is easier because I only have to focus on one note at a time. On piano, multiple lines could be going at once, plus many levels of dynamics and other nuances that make a character of a piano piece. There are nuances to whistle tunes as well, of course, but at least I only have to focus on one at a time. :-)

My updated Irish session tunes book arrived from Homespun Tapes a few days ago! As I've mentioned before, I already have this music but the new version includes chording as well as four CDs. For each tune, there is a slow learning version as well as one played at normal tempo, both with instrumental accompaniment.

I've already uploaded the recordings onto my iPod and am doing a lot of listening. I've already noticed subtle ways I need to change my playing style to make it more Celtic/Irish; right now, I tend to play the tunes too straight. Must loosen up, add a bit of fun. I played some penny whistle over the phone for Dave Clement a couple days ago and he was pretty encouraging. :-)

Going to see Feist in concert tonight with Jeff, Ray, Carmen, Roxanne and Parki!

December 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments