Update on my playing

Hello, I’ve been posting alot lately (pros and cons of having winter break I suppose) I don’t know if anyone remembers, but the second discussion I ever posted was on tin whistle playing styles and in that discussion I posted some recordings of my playing a whole 4 months ago. I believe Creadur was the one who said to keep posting updates on my progress and I figured now was a good time to do it with the new year coming around I’m two months off from playing a full year! 🙂 I would say I’ve improved quite a bit since I first bought my Waltons D whistle and butchered the swallowtail jig on it 😛. I have learned a lot from every single one of you, and I would just like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the support that you guys and gals have shown me! Enough of my rambles.

Here’s the recording of me playing The Silver spear and The Green mountain: https://www.dropbox.com/s/70ug1j4mp4vrm15/Vocaroo_s1IWM4ELygLO.mp3?dl=0

Recording of Up Leitrim: https://www.dropbox.com/s/63qo42iz0u07m7a/Vocaroo_s19ZA4GKXDXG.mp3?dl=0

I am impressed. Truly I didn’t expect anything with that much mastery in such a short time. I didn’t hear anything that made me unhappy and I’m a bit jealous that you are only going to get better. Good job. I hear the tune and the skill. What I want to hear now is the heart. Ya gotta own the tune.

Step 2 is to “sell” it to me. Play it so I’d go out of my way to hear it again. I hope you can understand what I mean here because I hear skilled, talented people like yourself, play all the time, especially in sessions. The thing that will separate you is what you, alone, bring to the tune. Just be sure that what you bring is all about the tune, what you hear in it and how it makes you feel, and not about the player. If you can do that you can someday count yourself among the great.

Thanks ross! 🙂 I think I get what you mean. When I’m playing the tunes there isn’t any personal flare that distinguishes my playing from anyone else, correct?

The personal flare will come naturally by itself Kellie. You are doing brilliantly. Just keep patient and enjoy the playing and your progress will just keep doubling.

I think that’s really cool, particularly the Green mountain, given the short amount of time you’re learning. Thinking of the related discussion, I think you don’t have to be afraid at all of starting too late.

In Silver spear, some of the rolls sound a bit off for some reason, but that can be due to the whistle as well. Rhythm is a bit like a wild horse that needs some more taming, but I think it’s nothing to be afraid of - if you just play and play, it will fix itself if you keep it in mind.

I think the important thing is that you’re not playing like some eternal beginners I know, forcing tonguing everywhere, constantly breathing in wrong places, etc. (then again, some tonguing can be great and can higlight a tune’s flow very well, but it’s a bit different to the beginners’ one).

Keep it up and you can be a very good player in a reasonable amount of time, I’d say.

I agree-your doing something right in your practice! But allow me to give a bit of constructive criticism:

Your ornaments are a bit untidy. This makes things sound a bit sloppy and probably contributes to any timing issues you have. Practice rolls and cuts and taps in isolation from tunes-s l o w l y. Make sure you tap your foot while you’re playing too. My fiddle ornaments are sloppy too, so I’m speaking in a spirit of solidarity here!

Why did you change the tempo after the Silver Spear? You got a good deal faster for the tune after. My guess: you have practiced the other tune more? But I would avoid changing the tempo mid-set. Again, tap your foot, (or play with a metronome, at least some of the time.)

All in all your on the right track!

Thanks Jakub! 🙂 I haven’t really 100% mastered the A rolls yet.

Yeah fearfeasog, you would be correct the green mountain is one of the first tunes I ever learned and therefore more time has been dedicated to practicing it. It’s my go to tune whenever someone asks me to play my whistle for them.

Yeah I can see what you mean with making my ornaments more solid. I’ll get to work on that.

Yes Kellie that’s it. If you play a tune as a string of notes, even with good rhythm, it may be technically masterful. Try and understand what it is about the tune that makes you want to play it and then about the way you want me to feel about it. Just make sure it’s about the tune. And no, not every good tune is worth that kind of introspection. You can still play them with competence and have a great time in sessions. Maybe that’s the difference between a good performer and a great one. The best are defined by how much of themselves they’re willing to risk. Technical skills will get better with work and time. The other, well, I think you have what it takes.

Sounds terrific Kellie! I reckon you and I must have started playing at a similar time as I’m two months away from playing for a whole year also. Keep up the good work, I can’t wait to hear more from you!

Thanks Shane! I think we might’ve started playing at a similar time as well.

You play excellently, keep up the good work.

Thanks Vincent! 🙂

Well done! I was going to criticize you on the Silver Spear for coming to such a full stop at the end of many of the phrases, but you did not do that at all on the Green Mountain. I suspect you are more secure on the second tune, so I won’t worry about the first one not being as good.

I admire that you have already mastered the ability to make your ornaments integral to the tune as opposed to sounding like an addition or afterthought. That does much to help the tune flow, which is vital. There is nothing I feel you have to pay particular attention to that won’t get sorted in the fullness of time anyway. That is to say, you haven’t cultivated any bad habits that need undoing. The level of competence, I feel, will simply improve with time, experience and your seemingly boundless enthusiasm.

Good on ya, lad!

Cheers Ailin!

You would be correct in assuming that I’m more secure with the Green Mountain because it is one of the first tunes I learned and is my go to tune if someone asks me to play my whistle for them. I do still have a bit of work to do on the Silver Spear. I’ll get better by just playing it just as I have with the Green Mountain.

Great progress! I think all of what I would have said has been said, but to reiterate a couple of points:

1. The rhythm is a little unsteady. Overall, your tempo is constant (notwithstanding the foot-to-the-floor acceleration into the second tune), but you have a tendency to rush through certain phrases and make up time by slowing down on others.

2. Some of the ornamentation is a bit ragged. There is a tendency for the fingers to run away on the ‘easy’ rolls (e.g. F#) and get sluggish on the trickier ones (e.g. A). My approach to tightening up rolls is to look at them in terms of their component parts - i.e. cut + tap. The aim is i. to make a cut or tap as short as you can make it, so that it is purely a rhythmic device, not a note; ii. to be able to insert a cut or tap exactly at the moment you want it, so it comes out right on the beat, not early or late; iii. to be able to space out your cuts and taps evenly in time at any speed. Once you can do those three things, you should be able to play a tune as slowly or as fast as you like, with all the rolls, cuts and taps sounding clean and even. I should say (obvious though it may be) is that the ultimate goal is not to play with mechanical timing, but to have enough control of the fingers to be able to do so.

Keep up the good work!

Rhythm is primary. Ornaments are optional. Ornaments are one of the ways to bring our personality to the music, but first you need to be able to play your tunes well, without them. You might think it’s a short cut to jump ahead and bring in the advanced aspects of musicality to your playing, but actually it’s the opposite, almost a terminal error that you may well need ,at some stage to relearn and start again almost at the beginning…..
learn to play your tunes three times through with no ornaments and make your music exciting tunes driving and lively, good to dance to and get a basic repertoire of a 50- 100 tunes like this . Practice your ornaments ,if you choose, as seperate technical exercises.
Eventually your mind will be free of the technical constraints involved in playing lively dance music at pace and you will find yourself bringing in ornaments as and when you choose , at that point you will be developing your individual style .

I think your playing is exceptional, considering the time you’ve been playing. The rhythm is a teeny bit unsteady, but that will right itself as you progress. Dont get too hung up on metronomes, it’s more about feeling the flow than mechanical perfection.
“I’ll get better by just playing it just as I have with the Green Mountain” That’s the way to go!

“I’ll get better by just playing it just as I have with the Green Mountain”

That is true, of course. But, although much better than The Silver Spear, your playing of The Green Mountain still has a little of that wavering tempo issue. Also, the fact that you suddenly step up the tempo for that tune suggests to me that you don’t quite have full control over your fingers. Could you have stuck to the original tempo and still played it to the same standard?

I agree with others‘ comments that you are far ahead of most ’yearlings’ (and many who have been playing much, much longer). But if you want to be up there with the best, then encouragement alone won’t get you there - it has to be balanced with honest criticism.

You need to slow down and play with a metronome. Isolate your rolls and work on them, they should sound identical no matter what note you play them on. Once you have done that for a year or so things should be falling more into place.

Playing in sessions is hurting your overall ability to play in time and take appropriate breaths, because in a session the other musicians will keep going and you can jump back in. It is also making you play too fast for your skill level.

Think about rhythm and swing. You like Micho Russell, right? Close your eyes and feel it.

So I should stop going to sessions Wesley?

“So I should stop going to sessions Wesley?”

I should wait for Wesley’s answer, but I felt the urge to butt in. I think his concerns are valid - sessions do not necessarily give you the opportunity to play your best, or to attend to the finer details of playing. But they do give you the valuable experience of hearing and seeing other players close up, playing with and connecting with other players. Since you are only getting to play in sessions twice a month (as you said in a previous discussion), that, I assume, only accounts for a small part of your total playing time - the in-between times are when you can listen to and study recordings, work on technique and learn new tunes. As you said in another recent discussion, you were surprised to find that you had difficulty keeping in time in a session. This is exactly why, in my opinion, playing in sessions is useful - it is a frame of reference (albeit not the only one) by which you can gauge your progress. For me personally, the best bit of playing this music is the communication, through music, with other musicians, getting in the same groove and bouncing off each other, lifting each others’ playing; granted, it doesn’t happen at every session, but you never know when it might.

So, my take is, don’t stop going to sessions, no sir! Just be aware of their limitations and their strengths. Don’t assume that the way someone else plays, or the speed they play at, is the way you have to play all the time, but learn to lock in with their way of playing in the moment.

So sessions are valuable because they allow me to gain experience with playing to an external rhythm?

“Rhythm is primary. Ornaments are optional. Ornaments are one of the ways to bring our personality to the music, but first you need to be able to play your tunes well, without them. You might think it’s a short cut to jump ahead and bring in the advanced aspects of musicality to your playing, but actually it’s the opposite, almost a terminal error that you may well need ,at some stage to relearn and start again almost at the beginning….. ”

So if I continue practicing how I do then I may have to start all over from the beginning?

Yes. They’re also valuable because they’re fun - at best, magical - and there’s no point in the music if you can’t have fun with it.

….But the more work you put in in between sessions, the better your playing gets and the more enjoyment you get.

Very True! 🙂

“So if I continue practicing how I do then I may have to start all over from the beginning?”

I cannot speak from experience, but I imagine that to achieve excellence in anything, you need to start from the beginning every time you practise. I don’t go with the idea of ‘unlearning’ anything - why would you want to forget anything you’ve learned? But, when practising, it is important not to allow yourself to do things ‘on autopilot’. Learn to isolate every part of your playing; every time you learn to do something, make sure you learn *not* to do it as well.

You are at the beginning Kellie, so now the time to get your basics solid to stand you in good stead 20 yrs down the line.
Get the tunes , the melody, down and incorporate melodic variations and variations in your phraseing so that you don’t just repeat yourself three times. So that people not only want to get up and dance, but that you put the notes under their feet. Drive the tunes with the excitement you feel and you will transmit that excitement .thats what is important, your energy .
The rolls trills cuts and pats and all the other bits and pieces are all tools to use once your tunes are already exciting and lively full of bounce and drive, lift .in themselves they are mere technical tricks that impress no one apart from maybe novice players .
I don’t mean they are not important because in many ways they are , but there is a real risk in loseing the oomph, the power, with all these tricks as the focus.
Take the playing of Micho as an example of how a player can be outstanding through the use of subtlety and nuance.
To find your own style and to have soul in your music it has to be real. There needs to be a connection between you , your heart and the music otherwise it’s just fluff. Could be impressive highly ornamented technical and clever, but it’s still fluff. May be plenty of gigs and critical acclaim, but the old boys who’ve been there know what it is.
There is a really good quote that Encaptures all I say .

As written in Elements of Style,
“The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style—all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, "

The thing is when I learn a tune I already think about where to add ornaments and things like that I don’t see them as extra bits and bobs I see them as an integral part to making the tune flow. What you’re saying is that I should start by making the tunes simple and breaking them down into their respective parts, correct? Or can I learn to add the extra bits and bobs first and then practice playing them simply alongside playing them with ornaments? Would tonguing the notes count as ornamentation or could I use that in place of rolls? In my opinion the tune specifically the Green Mountain does not flow without rolls.

« The thing is when I learn a tune I already think about where to add ornaments and things like that I don’t see them as extra bits and bobs I see them as an integral part to making the tune flow »

Stick with that view Kellie. Making it flow is what it’s all about. I agree with others that you need to tighten up your rolls, though.

They sound pretty tight to me. Maybe it’s just because I’m not 100% certain what making my rolls tighter actually means…

Kellie - I suggest you invest $10 approx on iTunes and listen to “The Green Mountain”* - and a lot of other great whistle tunes - played by Tom McHaile. Link to the recording here :

https://thesession.org/recordings/1224

[ “The Green Mountain” is on track #3 in “iTunes” [ it was #8 on the LP record ] and mistakenly titled “The Maid Behind The Bar” sandwiched between “The Gooseberry Bush”, and “Carmel O’Mahoney Mulhaire’s”, also mis-titled. Even if you only buy that single track - less than $2, - 3 classic whistle tunes ]

I don’t think titling it the maid behind the bar is a mistake because the two tunes are very closely related and some people call the maid behind the bar the green mountain and vice versa. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!

Can anyone explain what it means to tighten my rolls and if so are there any exercises to help practice this?

Sorry bit rude. If anyone could please explain what it means to tighten my rolls that would be appreciated. 🙂

Thanks!

“If anyone could please explain what it means to tighten my rolls that would be appreciated.”

A roll is a rhythmic device, so it needs to be in keeping with the overall rhythm of the tune. Essential, what a roll does is break up one long note into two or three shorter notes of the same pitch, by separating them with a cut and a tap - those shorter notes need to follow the same rhythm as any other sequence of notes in the tune. You come close to this at times during the second tune, but not consistently. For an approach to achieving this, see my comment further up the page https://thesession.org/discussions/40036#comment806765 (point #2).

If we want to be able to play with people, we need practise and we need to play with people. The activities reinforce each other.

Another take on Green Mountain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzzhxPlrP7M

play video

Definitely learning this version! Thanks Jeff! This is the version I wanted to learn but ended up learning X:3
on this site for some reason.

My teacher, Brian McCoy, says that short and snappy rolls come with a lot of time and patience, and they won’t just happen overnight.

« The thing is when I learn a tune I already think about where to add ornaments and things like that I don’t see them as extra bits and bobs I see them as an integral part to making the tune flow »


And thats exactly what I’m saying, if you can’t make a tune flow without rolls, what makes you think you can with rolls? How would a banjo player do it? Or a box player……… there are amazing musicians playing these tunes with not a roll in site, if they can do it , why can’t you? Think about that.

I don’t know if this is lazy the way I’ve done it but here’s 2 different versions or ways that I’ve thought of to play the green mountain without rolls please tell me which sounds better and indicate if I’m on the right track if you could. Thanks! 🙂

1.) http://vocaroo.com/i/s1q6FLJZeR4k

2.) http://vocaroo.com/i/s1hIHMA6J0RZ

No advice is good advice but here’s my take. A metronome will teach you how to play along with a metronome, and a metronome is not another human being. In a half-decent session you learn by active listening and interacting with other real, live people. Identify a good melody player and latch on to them. You’ll learn a damn sight more that way than by any other method how to play well in sessions. As for ornamentation, ornaments are not add-ons to tunes that can be bolted on later. Ornamentation IS the tune. Learning a “bare-bones tune” thinking you can add on ornaments later will doom you to becoming a third-rate player of this music. In fact, you may well end up not bothering with ornamentation at all, which would be a tragedy. Been there, done it, got the tee shirt, and I’m a hairy-arse untutored player who had more fun with this music over decades than a barrel-load of monkeys. No theory from me. Just speaking from solid experience.

I think I get what tightening my rolls means, when I’m playing with a metronome I want each one of my rolls to take up 3 beats and each cut and tap to land on a beat, right?

I’m not saying to not go to sessions. I’m saying that they are not the place to practice at. You get better by listening at sessions and applying what you hear when you practice, not vice versa.

By the way, I disagree wholeheartedly with ANYONE who says not to practice with a metronome. This notion that practicing with a metronome will not improve your ability to play in time is utter nonsense, as is the idea that it will somehow prevent you from playing with the proper feel. Practicing with it will only benefit your ability to play in time, and it also provides practice on the key element to playing with others: being able to listen to yourself and another player at the same time.

While I’m typing, I feel the need to point out that this forum is not chock full of experts on music. It is an open forum that can be posted on anonymously, and as such advice should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s not going to do any good to listen to everything everyone says on here. At a certain point it will benefit you more to back away and find out what works for you.

Gonna be honest feelin slightly discouraged…

Why?

I don’t know I just can’t hear a very big difference between the people in the recording aboves rolls and my rolls. I know there probably is a difference but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.

I just can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong…

Sorry should put my thoughts in more of a complete sentence: In order to improve I have to figure out what I’m doing wrong and I just can’t figure that out. It’s getting me down.

You aren’t playing in time, and practicing with a metronome will fix that. Plenty of people have told you the same thing. Your rolls don’t sound right because you are rushing them and making them uneven.

Oh Ok duh I must have been blind to not see that sorry. So playing along to a metronome with my rolls will help that. What do you think is a good tempo to start at? because whenever I start the metronome it sounds like I’m playing to slow.

Slow is good. It puts good habits in place.

good point. Just had a trip back to old Brother steve’s Tin Whistle Rolls tutorial and now I fully understand what you mean. Thanks Wesley. Should I set the metronome to 2/4 or 4/4 with reels? And with jigs should I change it to 6/8 or keep it at 2/4?

The reel thing is a whole can of worms, but I recommend 4/4 to students so that they can hear the off beat. Stick with slow 6/8 for jigs right now.

Got it! Thanks Wesley! 🙂

As wonderful as it is to have the satisfaction of getting instruction from several knowledgable instructors on thesession forum please remember to focus on improving through your regular, local teacher.

Open forums are not always well coordinated between their wide spectrum of what is best for each and every eager student posting . Consider all advice which is offered on the forum. But if you have your teacher’s ear, ask him the same questions.

Does that sound reasonable?

Yes, it sounds reasonable but it’s difficult to get a hold of Brian sometimes we haven’t had a lesson in a few weeks. Besides I just figured I’d update everyone on where I’m at with my playing.

Kellie, some of your rolls are great. Take what you’re doing with all the other rolls and apply that to the A rolls. In particular, the last part of the roll, the tap or pat as it is called. It’s just not crisp enough, and muddies up the back end of that roll. I think what you might be doing is dropping your ring finger a bit early and a bit too slow. Work on getting your finger to hit faster so it really pops.

One other thing that stood out to me is the triplet (followed shortly by the roll )in bar 6 the A part. The timing’s a bit off there - feels like you’re rushing into that roll. Personally, on Silver Spear I like to do |dfed B/c/def| ~g2. * I think the Bcd triplet lies quite naturally there (meaning I think it fits the rhythmic flow of this tune), and on the whistle in general. Also the extra space between the triplet and the g roll might allow you to compartmentalize the two things and have better timing on each of them. You can always learn both ways and have both of them in your toolbox.

*Don’t feel like you always need to roll that g3 or the following f3- you can slide/smear into it or cut it in the middle to make it g2g or f2f. Or slide/cut or tongue/cut(what we fiddlers call a double cut) or slide/tongue/cut. I much prefer these to the rolls there - I feel they fit better, but that’s personal preference. Another variation: I like to open the tune with |:FAAd BAFA|, and again on the repeat of the A part. Another one I do in bar 5 is FEFA BAFA or ~F3A BAFA


Like so:
|:FAAd BAFA|dfed BcdA|FA~A2 BAFA|dfed B2AG|
FEFA BAFA |dfed B/c/def| ~g3e ~f3e|dfed B4:| etc.
or even
|:FAAd BAFA|dfed BcdA|FA~A2 BAFA|dfed B2AG|
F3A BAFA |dfed B/c/def| ~g3e ~f3e|dfed B4:|

As others have said, you’re doing really good. Keep at it!

“Or slide/cut or tongue/cut(what we fiddlers call a double cut) or slide/tongue/cut”

Thanks Aaron I didn’t even know I that ornament existed!

Which one? The tongue+cut? That’s one of my favorites. The trick is to tongue at the normal time and delay the cut just a tiny bit so both articulations are audible.

yeah that ornament. Also apparently most of the problems with rolls start in the green mountain tune. I don’t know I’ll work on my timing.

Your Green Mountain rolls are better by miles. It’s that A roll from the first tune that has the opportunity for the most improvement.

Re the gnome for jigs I actually prefer 2/4 because it allows more fluidity of expression, but it’s also good to get each note bang on the head at 6/8 , just that when playing them the first note is longer generally. most gnomes are pretty rudimentary compared to real music .
Re your rolls for practice, yes just up and down scales and arpeggios rolling on each note, just as Kevin Burke demonstrates for fiddle , good to do with and without the gnome. And of course as is standard practice for pipers who have loads of other ornaments to master….
Re your roll less samples, one had the notes a bit off but the other http://vocaroo.com/i/s1hIHMA6J0RZ was fine.
A breath of fresh air to me, your on the right track.
concentrate on rhythm, getting each starting note in the right place , find good places to pause, that change 3 times through, remember that’s the aim….. 3 times through with variation as a singer would but no ornaments. Every note in place and pushing the tune along . Not even one little rhythmic error. Get a note wrong , ok but the beat needs to be absolutely precise.
While your mastering the bare tune, practice your rolls cuts double cuts pats triplets, etc etc etc after a while you will find you can slip them in ,or not, as you chose , consciously…… you give yourself time enough to think about what you fancy, experiment….
I also think it’s good practice not to learn one setting, but to try all the settings , pick and chose , what feels right to you. The advantages of knowing more than one way of playing a tune are many, some of which : you have plenty of variation potential!! You will gain an appreciation of how a tune can change ,yet stay the same. You will be able to fit in with other players who might play a different setting and your brain will learn how you can navigate around a tune and bring in variations without losing the tune. Check out https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whistles-Paddy-Moloney-Sean-Potts/dp/B000053VYH. recording of 2 whistlers playing together for a lesson in mastery .
I presume and hope that you listen to a lot of trad , so the tunes will percolate through osmosis in a sense, i.e. One setting might appeal and sound right but others not…. likely to you having heard it like that before somewhere.

I can’t stress how important it is to approach the tunes like this, so the melody and rhythm is super strong and functional ,there is one thing that’s certain, it’s not in the ornaments, it’s in the tune.
Then , then , then , ornament to your hearts content, if you feel.
As you progress, years away , in sessions , you will appreciate the advantages of this approach. It is as much about space for other musicians as it is space for yourself to grow as a musician.
At the end of the day It’s dance music , the dancers want to dance, in truth they don’t care much beyond that 🙂

Not so much of the “old Brother Steve” if you don’t mind. If you must draw attention to his admittedly advancing decrepitude, may I suggest “Venerable” as an adjective less likely to hurt his feelings, and one with a monastic pedigree to boot.

Sorry I wasn’t trying to refer to him as old, it was more using the word old to say that the site is reliable and trustworthy.

I have a friend who plays electric guitar. Best wisdom I ever gleaned from my conversations with him was “make sure each note has its own zip code”.

If you record yourself playing rolls or any other ornaments, you should hear any timing issues immediately. If you can’t hear the timing issues you have a problem. A metronome will not enlighten you beyond telling you that you’re wrong. It can’t tell you how to correct the problem. Good players will be able to tell you, either directly or through example. Sadly, some players, often those who are otherwise pretty good on their instrument, never seem to get it. Playing to a click track when you’re recording is one thing. Relying on a metronome to sort you out is like riding a bike with permanent stabilisers. Take away the crutch and you’re back to square one. Everything I’ve learned about playing this music I’ve learned the hard way. You’ll get no theoretical bullshit from me!

Well I use a metronome , because as a drummer it really helps, and to learn to play steady , you got to play steady. Juggling 8 + different instruments played by 4 limbs …. aaagh
when your in the groove the clicks disappear, that’s hypnotic in a way, trance …to catch that is tricky enough , then to keep it amongst a bunch of other people all doing their thing 🙂
Every instrument is different in its requirements and they are not interchangeable , wind, percussion, strings , physically different skills. Different parts of the brain are used and pathways formed and carved over decades .
Id rather play with real people of course but a drum machine is fun to play with, can be more interesting than click click click 🙂
hunt out real players and of course playing along with recordings is going to be great for steady rhythm there are many ways to get up the mountain.

“hunt out real players and of course playing along with recordings is going to be great for steady rhythm there are many ways to get up the mountain.”

Is that mountain green perhaps? 😛

I just listened to the first recording and then read all replies so far.
There is a great deal of information above. So, I’ll keep my response brief based on what I heard.
Also I don’t want to add too much to what has alrerady been pointed out.

What I hear is exactly as Creadur describes, "The rhythm is a little unsteady. Overall, your tempo is constant …,
but you have a tendency to rush through certain phrases and make up time by slowing down on others."

Thanks for the update. I appreciate hearing from you. And once again, schedule with Brian McCoy as soon as he is available.

Ben

Will do, have a happy holiday AB! 🙂

love your playing. Maith an cailin deas!

Isn’t Kellie a lad?

Yes I am indeed a lad.
or
Ní cailín mé. Tá buachaill mé.

Bit rusty not sure if that’s correct.

Kellie, There’s a lot I hear in your playing that I like - feel, musicality, honesty, spirit — and a sound that’s nice to listen to.

Tight rolls - I’m a fiddler so keep that in mind, bit I think something you’ll find out as you listen and play more is that no two players’ rolls sound exactly alike, on any instrument. You said somewhere that you couldn’t hear a difference between yours and someone’s, or something like that. This is where it would be great if you could Skype a player/teacher one time. That person would play a roll, and, compared to your own, you’d hear a difference immediately.

Don’t think of a roll as a thing with only one basic sound, or feel. It can be many things, played in different tunes and in different moods - and they will all be tight by definition, because they’re being played well. Keep listening. You’ll hear it. Them.

About playing with no ornaments. Good idea, because it’s something different, and that gets you thinking and learning more about yourself.

If something is hard to play without any rolls, then you should back up and slow down and go through the tune slowly. You have good natural talent - so things come easily, so you want to rush in and do them. Don’t be afraid to slow something down to make it better.

Session playing - The tunes I play in sessions are often nothing like what I play at home. At home I love to play different types of energy, ornaments, bowings, etc. But in the session, I play simpler versions, and in whatever style suits at the time.

So go - but don’t try to do too much. If you try that new ornament you discovered earlier, don’t expect it to come out perfectly at the session. In fact, better you do away with the ornaments for a few tunes.

Going back a ways to the rolls thing--i remember that my concertina “cranns” (or whatever you like to call them) just didn’t sound “bouncy” like, say, Caitlín Nic Ghabhainn’s or Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh’s. I got to participate in a workshop with Caitlín herself and asked her about it. She sorted me out in about 30 seconds. I suggest you get an instructor, of not in person then on Skype at least. Even if only for one session. I think it’s best to get that one on one demonstration. It’s fastest and best. That said “tightening rolls” means not just playing in time, but, as with fiddle, making the cuts and taps lightning fast, so you never hear any note but the note you are playing. Not the note above or below. It’s purely rhythmic. Look for a YouTube demo at least.

Gabh mo leithsceal! mar buachaill nó cailin is mór an cheoltoir thú!