tranzac

Hey, my sister's book, Me and My Sister, is in its SECOND printing. How very cool.

Really enjoyed the Irish music session at the Tranzac last night. I had to miss the last two biweekly sessions, so was going through withdrawal pangs. Bigger crowd yesterday evening. We started off by learning Sweet Biddy Daly, went over Charlie Harris #1 (which they apparently learned last session), and then did a round-robin. I chose Dusty Windowsills. Also played along on several other tunes including The Butterfly, the tune I learned at my last whistle lesson.

Instead of leaving around 9:30 pm as usual, I decided to stay as late as possible. So glad I did! More of the seasoned pros started showing up then, and the session started speeding up and including lesser-known tunes. I put my whistle down and just listened for most of it, all the while feeling incredibly lucky to be in the audience.



Did pick up my whistle and play during St. Mary's Polka, though, which is apparently another name for Paige's Polka, the tune Dave Clement taught me at FKO! You can find a version of it at TheSession.org (it's also known as Gurteen Cross). Click on the tabs along the top to find the ABC transcription and sheet music. I updated the database to list its alternate name as Paige's Polka.

Anyway, Karen Light (my whistle teacher) led the tune and told the others I had taught it to her. :-D When the tune was over, Dennis showed us a variation we could add. I love this oral tradition of learning tunes, which I'm finding far more satisfying than learning tunes on my own or from a recording.

One challenge I'm finding is keeping up my tunes while still learning new ones. Attending sessions regularly helps tremendously because the tunes settle into your brain, making it easier to pick them up again. And I have much more sympathy for those who can play a tune but can't remember the name; I'm starting to find this as well. I'm also finding, as Mary Bertke described, that my ear is improving. I may not have purposely memorized a tune, for example, but find I can play along in a session simply because I've heard it so often and because there are certain musical patterns that occur frequently across tunes.

Also starting to recognize more of the players. Let's see (writing this list down for my own reference)...

Karen - my whistle teacher, also plays concertina
Dennis - banjo, one of the group leaders
Bob - pipes, sells the Black Book, one of the group leaders
Heather - accordion
Emma - whistle
Tim - whistle
Lisa - flute
Frances - flute
Nick - pipes, flute, whistle
Bob & Patricia - father (accordian) & Patricia (concertina)
Deirdre - flute
Nick & Jodi - whistle & concertina
Emily - whistle, the only other Asian I've seen so far
Adam - concertina
Mike - fiddle

There are others I chat with but don't know their names yet. And yet others with whom I've corresponded with in e-mail but haven't connected their names with faces yet. The group changes each session, and also changes over the course of each session as people come and go.

I am so SO glad I decided to open the door at that first session last December.

15 more days.

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