Recalling tunes...

In trad it is vitally important to be able to hear tunes in your inner ear at will. As music has no words attached recall becomes a little tricky unless you learn the title - words act as our labels for recall and association. You need a conscious tag for the unconscious memory.

If you can tag your tune, then you can also organise your tunes, this assists with recall too.
However there is always the great folky saying:

"If you know all the names of the tunes you know you don't know enough tunes"

Going sessioning without a harp part 2

I've been taking enjoying my break from sessioning with the harp. I have still been going out to listen and join in but it's had a different emphasis (as my harp is my job I tend to get a bit serious when I'm playing). Instead, I've been diddling or listening or playing percussion and it's been a lot of fun. I will probably still go out harpless sometimes when I'm playing again.

It's also been very interesting. As I mentioned before I realised my inner tune library was a bit poor, but even within the past few sessions it's been improving.

Various things have occurred to me:

• I really like just learning the tunes from hearing or listening
  
• Tunes I can start easily on the harp I don't necessarily have in my head to diddle
  
• If I've learnt a song with harp backing it's not so easy without.. oops!
• In a session environment, the tune is where it's at - if you want to shape the music you need to be on the tune
  
• It really feels like a struggle to be a harp in a session

Learning tunes can be conscious (note by note) or unconscious (like gradually absorbing the layout of a new building). I find the second much more fun - it gives you a much greater flavour of what and how the tune is communicating. It also allows you to absorb subtle rhythmic variations that are almost impossible to capture in score. Engaged listening seems to make this happen fastest in me. I often dance in my seat or actually get up and dance at a session. I'm interested to see if this makes the tunes go in faster!

Over the past year and a half I've tackled an almighty job and swapped from playing with my right hand melody to using my left hand for melody. I already have better resources as a player but this does mean I've been working very hard, very consciously on the movement. As a result I have a couple of tunes that I easily have in my hand but have less so in my head. I was really surprised and a bit disconcerted when I discovered this but very glad that I have and can do something about it.

In a similar vein I discovered that the first verse of songs had a habit of going walk about if I started them without harp accompaniment. It's such a different thing to sing a song unaccompanied, both in the mental recall process and also how you make space for yourself as a musician. I use the harp to hush an audience and get me the space in which to place my phrases. Unaccompanied you have to claim that space and time in a different way.

I've been sessioning with a harp for a while now, since 2004. In traditional music the main thing that changes the mood of a tune are the subtle rhythmic and gestural variations (the same tune can be agressive, calm, sweet, tragic... ). The accompaniment is there to support the tune, and I would argue that if the accompaniment becomes more important than the tune, it might not be trad anymore. Anyway, this boils down to the fact that in terms of fun interaction, the tune is most definitely the place to be. If you want maximum tune shaping options then it needs to be a sustaining instrument, like a fiddle or flute.

The other issue I find is that harps have their own special repertoire which not many people know. This combined with a general "aaahhh it's harp" factor means that you start a tune and no one joins in. Not good. I play solo professionally for events, I go the pub to have fun.

The other problem I find with harps and sessions is that while harps are loud, their sound dissolves into background noise. Unfortunately this means that other players can't hear you, so even if they would join in they and you are locked you out of fun interaction. This is way more of a problem, only solved by small sessions with people who listen carefully and have stopped being in awe of what a harp sounds like.

While I whinge about harps and sessions I love my instrument and I love being down the pub for tunes. I'm still figuring out what is most fun to do with a harp in a session but on the balance I'd rather go than not. Without a doubt sessions are a vital and important part of the trad scene, socially incredibly important as well as musically. They are our network, our place to learn and improve our music. Even if I never take a harp out again I will still be sessioning.

The bigger picture

I've been stuck at home for the past two weeks and have been doing a lot of thinking. A chunk of time off is always a blessing and a curse - it makes me question what I am aiming for (good) but until I find the answers I'm pretty anxious (difficult).

I've been passionate about music for as long as I can remember. For various reasons sorting out a career has been a difficult process though I remain determined. However as I'm getting older my priorities are shifting. Just playing music is not enough - while I remain completely nuts about the stuff and it is vitally important to me that I go somewhere amazing with my playing, I want to use my skills to change the world around me too. It doesn't matter how good your performances are - a gig is only ever a gig.

At heart I am a folkie for two reasons -

• the aural method suits me well and music to me has always been movement in sound
• folk music has such a community / cross generational element to it

It is this second point that I am thinking on now. There is a capacity for all music to help develop communities and friendship groups. These are the structures that sustain people through difficult times. However you find it, wherever you find it, your support network is vital.

The folk community thrives and those within it are happy and healthy. Old and young mix and are supported by each other. The social dances provide community meeting spaces, safe spaces. The dances and sessions themselves provide human contact in a brilliant way, well balanced. Music and dance provides a reason for us to enjoy each other, a way in to share our lives.

So my questions are... what does the folk scene provide that makes it so supportive? What in this do I think is important? How do I want to use it?

More Wit and Mirth

Hooray for lovely people making facsimiles available online...!

Mudcat thread on Wit and Mirth

leads to

Gutenberg project facsimile

Also to be looked at:
Review article on jstor.org

Folkies - join the dots

There is a network of dedicated and passionate people through out this country supporting the folk arts. There are plenty of websites detailing the activities and providing information. However the professional community is spread out over many miles and often there may be something just around the corner that you know nothing about. Even as someone working within the folk arts, I will not come into contact with these people unless I actively arrange to do so.

Mostly we consider communities to be something that just evolve. However faced with this situation, I feel like my professional community is something that I have to seek out, to construct, until there are enough links it can take care of itself.

Sessioning and harp technique

For various reasons I spent the weekend in sessions without a harp. This proved very interesting as I realised many of my tunes were in my fingers, not so much my head. How very frustrating. This, plus various conversations, makes the mechanism of playing folk music much clearer:

tune in your ear (supported by memory, imagination)
=> tune out your fingers (supported by your technique)

as opposed to the classical

dots on the page (supported by your ability to fluently translate code i.e. score and imagine how to phrase it nicely)
=> tune out of your fingers (supported by your technique)

The last part is the same, it's just the musical intake and subsequent memory load that is different. You either have to learn to sight read or learn to memorise and develop your inner ear.

While performances allow time for preparation, sessions are fast, furious and for a harp player can be a bit of a nightmare if you don't just want to accompany. This means that your technique has got be good enough to cope with 'on-the-fly' playing - something that harpists don't naturally do. Generally, we find our tunes, figure out the version including ornamentation we want, and then finger and learn it (lots of prep). I think is because we have to think so far ahead with each tune (we have to place, then pluck) and the double action for each note gets too complicated to do on the fly.

This is where I think striking strings (one movement to get a sound) is inherently more folky than plucking (releasing the string to get a sound). Given that folk is so much more of a acquisition of technique to then be used unconsciously, striking (where you do not have to plan ahead so much) suits it much better.

As an exercise I think I might look at practising tunes in terms of building blocks, the little melodic fragments that add up to a tune. Those little blocks will be really well practised, the placing a well as the playing well rehearsed. That way I can have a rough and ready fingering at my grasp and allow my unconscious mind to take over without screwing up hand shape or creating loads of tension.

However, if I really want to play a tune for performance, that extra work to sort and assess and finger will still take place. It is through that extra conscious work and then unconscious wearing in of a tune that we make them our own.

Mouth music / diddling in English

I'm really interested in singing tunes for dancing. You find this in Scots, Irish and Breton folk traditions but not English so much. Diddling is something I really enjoy doing so I'm going on a hunt for any tune singing links I can find in English repertoire.

So far I've come across a couple of possible links. I had one book recommended - Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy by Thomas D'Urfey. The book was initially published by Henry Playford (son of John Playford who published the English Dancing Master). I understand that some of the songs were based on dance tunes of the time.

The second possibility is John Gay's Beggar's Opera of which I have a facsimile as part of Michael Raven's 1000 English Country Dance Tunes.

Hopefully I can have a look at a copy of Wit and Mirth on Thursday and go from there.

Online trad resources

If you are miles away from good traditional players then the next best thing are online resources. My two main resources to study other harpers are comhaltas.ie and youtube. The video archive (http://comhaltas.ie/music/video) is particularly useful.

Youtube is a little trickier to navigate so I tend to search for names I know or series - like the Transatlantic Sessions or the Highland Sessions series. You can also look for anything from Ayepod.

Other online resources can include tune sites and discussion boards. The discussion boards are particularly interesting as they provide access to an otherwise very spread out network of people. Probably the most established of these are:
thesession.org - very established online community dedicated to sharing tunes. The first tune was submitted on 15 May 2001
mudcat.org - online community to discuss blues and folk tunes. The Digital Tradition Song bank has evolved from this and is searchable here
www.tradsong.org - whilst not all resources are available without you becoming a member, this has some excellent starting links.

If you're just searching for tunes / songs you can also use:
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind - wide ranging ABC & title search site
http://sniff.numachi.com/ - mirror for the Digital Tradition Song bank also available on mudcat. I find this mirror easier to search
http://www.ceilidhsoc.org/ - run by Sheffield University Ceilidh Society
http://folktunefinder.com/ - ABC tune search site with an keyboard interface as well for those non-abc fluent (including me)
www.tradfrance.com - ABC site for French and Breton tunes

Not forgetting good old Google. Long live ABC!
And of course the magic switch back from ABC - Tune-O-Tron at Concertina.net

Mouth music / diddling / lilting...

...is not as easy as it looks. I'm off to investigate serious lilters.

Practise

The current practise plan:

lots of tune learning by ear, but using my memory and voice to check if I've memorised it
lots of very slow, gentle technique practise
a little bit of tune practise (so I don't go nuts)

I'm not someone who is naturally relaxed, so my main aim with the physical practise is to build in relaxation after every movement. This means slow practise - the slower you practise, the easier it is for your mind to learn how to use your hands more efficiently and prevent / correct mistakes as you go. As the body learns through repetition, getting it right the first time is very helpful.

This slowness doesn't mean moving as if through treacle, but allowing gaps between each movement (place or pluck) for yourself to relax, sense and process the physical feedback. I'm not brilliant at sensing my body either so taking the time to listen to which muscles I am using is pretty important. I'm doing it now as I type: legs relaxed, back and upper body working, neck working, right arm relaxed, left upper arm holding position, left forearm muscles operating each key stroke.

For figuring out your technique, I think there's nothing to beat slow, repetitive, careful sensing work. The best thing to motivate that work is get fascinated by how your body feels when still, calm and relaxed...

Classical vs Folk

Classical vs folk - two firmly established methods of playing music, each with a passionate following that their way is the right way.

I started by messing about on other people's pianos when I was 5, and fascinated, gradually started exploring sound and deciphering the strange code that is score. So started a love affair- I studied classical music until my A Levels, loving it but still feeling slightly at odds. I decided I wanted to be a full-time musician at 16 but couldn't see how I would do it as a classical musician.

Luckily I went to university to study early music, ditched the score and music came back to life. I also picked up a harp for the first time aged 18 and found my vocation. Since then I've not looked back and now work full-time as a musician and teacher.

I see Classical vs Folk as a result of two different methods - Classical by eye, by score, a very conscious learning; Folk by ear, by heart, often unconcious.

For me the biggest difference comes from the use of score or learning a tune by heart.

Score provides a map to coordinate hundreds of people at once. Grand structures, explorations in sound by one person only - the feted and revered composer. The musicians, the players are merely mouth pieces even though they may be glorious mouth pieces. Perhaps a handful of soloists are revered as great 'interpreters' along with the conductors who provide the link between score and players.

Folk on the other hand is by ear, by heart, jump for the rhythm, a simple melody and even simpler structures, the coordination of only a few at once but with such close, tight rhythm. Instead of big architecture you have personal and intimate gestures - each player following the subtle subtle changes of rhythm and timing, following the groove. Folk music is shape and dancing, and in fact the rhythm of the tunes comes from the dances themselves.

Perhaps the choice of by ear or by score is all down the the mind of player - how do you most easily take in musical patterns? Frequently I find my visual world too much - complicated and busy. Reading and writing are not always easy. However I have no problem remembering a melody and hearing it in detail. I find if I have to use a score I have to concentrate on that so hard and in such an abstract way, my connection, my sense of touch with the sound is compromised.

Many of the classical musicians I've met have a very strong affinity with score, clearly they have no problems with a visual flow of information, it does not impair their sense of shaping or their physical connection with their instrument.

Despite the great divide between classical and folk methods and my own personal preference, I think that each has much to learn from the other. Score is a crucial tool for conscious analysis and making details clear, and in order to give a good musical performance every musician must listen to the shapes they are creating. I believe that all good musicians end up at the same place - with music that they are shaping as they play it that falls easily beneath their fingers. It's just we get there in different ways.

Community

I am really interested in the way that practising folk arts can create communities that then support outside that particular activity. This perhaps the most valuable aspect of all artistic practise - the arts give us a reason to enjoy each other's company and a shared goal.

More and more our localities have a large through-flow of people and this present problems. The less stable a community is the poorer our network is with which to judge newcomers and the more isolated we feel. I think the arts and sports are a crucial tool in breaking this isolation.

Gathering my thoughts

I am a folk musician based in the South of England, I make my living by playing and teaching traditional harp. This isn't always easy but is the way I want to live my life.

I'm going to use this blog to gather my thoughts on a variety of things, all loosely collected to folk music and also my instrument, the harp.