#the typical of me album as an entirety is just wonderful a master piece beautiful makes my soul melt into a puddle of frank sinatra esque

[mcneelamusic]

Switching from Classical Music to Traditional Irish Music – Everything You Need to Know

Are you a classically trained musician who wants to learn traditional Irish music for the first time? Well then, you’ve come to the right place.

Making the switch from classical to Irish music can seem a little daunting at first, especially if you’re to believe everything you read online. Most of this advice would be enough to put anyone off. Don’t worry. I’m here to help.

If you’ve researched the topic at all, I’m sure you’ve come across several opinions stating that classical musicians can’t play traditional music authentically and will need to leave their formal training behind. Nonsense! There are far more pros than cons to being classically trained.

So what are they?

Keep reading to find out. I’ll show you the main pitfalls to watch out for when learning traditional Irish music. You’ll learn the nuances and stylistic elements to be mindful of and I’ll provide some handy tips and tricks for learning traditional Irish music. I’ll also dispel the common misconceptions about both disciplines.

You’ll be an authentic trad musician in no time.

Contents

The Quick Answer

Understanding the Genre

Technique

Find the Right Teacher

Aural Skills

Sheet Music

Expression

The Right Instrument

The Next Step

Musical Techniques

Music Notation Interpretation

Melodic Variations

Slow Airs

The Quick Answer

Once you are prepared to listen and learn, there’s nothing holding you back:

Learn to listen, and most importantly, learn to swing.

Go to as many trad sessions as you can.

Immerse yourself as much as possible in traditional Irish music.

Understanding the Genre

If you’ve listened to a life changing trad album for the first time and decided you want to make the switch to traditional Irish music, great. Now go listen to at least ten more albums so you have a better understanding of the music before you begin.

Find out who the masters of your chosen instrument are and listen to their music. Identify the elements of their playing that sound foreign to you. These will be the aspects that will need the most attention.

Listening is so important and something you can never do too much of. Immersing yourself in the tradition through listening will be of massive benefit to both your learning and playing. It’s also one of the least challenging and most enjoyable parts of learning a new instrument or genre of music.

Technique

Classically trained musicians typically have excellent technique. Whether it comes to posture, holding the instrument or the technicalities of playing. None of this will be a hindrance to your learning or playing.

Just know that when you go to a session, you’ll see people holding their instruments in weird and wonderful ways. This is particularly true for flute and fiddle players.

You’ll see flutes resting on shoulders, and fiddles held with a flat palm against the neck. You might not want to look too closely at the bow holds either.  

Personally, I’m a fan of good posture. It leads to less injuries further down the line. That being said, some of the greatest traditional Irish musicians hold their instruments the ‘wrong’ way and succeed in producing a beautiful sound.

Musical Techniques

When it comes to playing, there are certain musical techniques that don’t translate well from classical music to Irish music and should be used sparingly.

Vibrato is achieved by a different method on the Irish flute than on the classical flute for example. To learn more about this, take a look at my helpful blog post: Switching from Classical Flute to Irish Flute.

Don’t worry too much about these small differences though. A good teacher will soon set you straight. Which brings me to my next piece of advice…

Find the Right Teacher

Where’s the best place to find a teacher?

I always recommend starting with your local Comhaltas branch. Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann is the Irish national organisation responsible for the preservation and promotion of traditional Irish music, song and dance.

These days however, they have branches throughout the world, making them very much a global operation.

If there’s no Comhaltas branch near you, I would still recommend contacting them as they may be able to recommend a musician who teaches in your area.

I know you might be thinking ‘Do I really need a teacher? Can’t I just teach myself?’.

You could try. You might even succeed. But, you might also miss out on the nuances and subtle stylistic differences that set traditional irish music apart.

A good teacher will set you on the right path and offer invaluable guidance and expertise. Lessons are a worthy investment that will equip you with all the necessary skills to take your playing to the next level.

Next, make sure that your teacher understands you’re already a fully functioning musician in your own right. You may need a little fine tuning. But as a classically trained musician (unless you’re learning a new instrument), you already know the basics.

This means your teacher can start to focus on playing style and the intricacies of the music right from the beginning.

If you’re struggling to find a teacher local to you, don’t despair! With online learning becoming so prolific, it’s easy to find a teacher these days who can carry out lessons via Skype or Zoom.

There’s also an abundance of pre-recorded courses available online for almost every traditional Irish instrument. They’re really handy if you can’t get hold of a teacher. They’re portable, you can access them whenever suits you and you can slow them down or stop and repeat tricky parts whenever you need to, so you don’t miss anything.

Aural Skills

Most classical musicians already have great aural skills in many ways. To learn Irish music you may need to retrain your ear slightly.

Many tunes are taught ‘by ear’ – in other words, aurally.

Here’s how it usually works in a lesson format:

Your teacher will play the tune through in its entirety to give you a feel for it and to allow you to absorb the melody.

Starting from the beginning, your teacher will play the tune at a slower pace, phrase by phrase.

You will be expected to play back the phrase as you hear it in a call and answer style.

Don’t panic if this sounds daunting. Your teacher will break the tune into manageable chunks and work at a pace that suits you. You can (and will) practice and improve your aural skills.

Eventually you’ll be picking tunes up by ear at a session without having to slow anything down at all!

Sheet Music

Traditional Irish musicians are not musically illiterate. Many trad musicians can and do read sheet music. We just don’t use it for performance purposes.

There are many handy tips available to help with memorising tunes. Listen to the melody repeatedly, but most importantly, practice, practice, practice. The muscle memory in your hands and fingers will work wonders!

Many teachers are also happy to use sheet music notation as a teaching aid. You don’t have to learn by ear all the time. Yes, you should always be listening to recordings as a guide. But no, you won’t always have to learn by ear.

The ability to learn by ear is an incredibly useful skill to have however, and one well worth honing. But you won’t be left in the dark if you struggle with this a little at the beginning.

Music Notation Interpretation

You may struggle slightly if you’re attempting to play a traditional Irish jig or reel directly from the sheet music notation however.

Traditional Irish music has an unwritten swing which can vary according to each regional style.

This swing exists in jigs and reels alike but you will never see it notated. That’s why listening to the music is so important. Only then will you understand the rhythm and phrasing of a tune, as well as where to place the accents.

While the signature ‘dotted’ rhythm of hornpipes is usually easier to identify on a page, even this notated rhythm is nuanced.

Some classical players can struggle with understanding the swing and natural rhythm of tunes. It’s not that different to jazz or blues. You just need to listen and feel the groove.

Melodic Variations

Another aspect of traditional Irish music playing that you won’t learn from sheet music notation is the use of melodic variations. It’s rare that you’d hear the melody of a tune performed the same way twice in a row.

Improvisation is a musical skill that some classical players may not be quite as used to. This one really depends on individual musical experience. But, like all skills, it’s one that can be practiced and perfected with time.

How can you practice your improv skills? I’m aware I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but listening to recordings will give you all the inspiration you need.

Simply try playing along to your favourite tracks. Try to play something different each time, even if it’s just something small. Change the duration of a note. Play a different pitch or note in place of another. Use a different form of ornamentation. Then gradually build all of these ideas up together.

Sometimes ideas will work. Sometimes they won’t. Trial and error really is the best way to learn!

Expression

I sometimes hear trad musicians claim that classical musicians just can’t feel the music in the same way. I heartily disagree.

Any talented musician who is in touch with the music on an emotional level can play expressively. Listen to any classically trained pianist play a Chopin nocturne and try to tell me they don’t understand musical expression. This is an unfair and unfounded claim.

For most musicians, the sheer enjoyment of making music with others is so evident when they play, that musical expression is not a worry. The infectious energy of traditional Irish music creates such joy in those who play it.

Slow Airs

Slow airs or laments are tunes that truly allow musical expression to shine.

Airs are more than a beautiful, haunting melody. The most popular Irish slow airs are usually taken from the melodies of well known sean nós songs.

The best way to learn a slow air on your instrument is to listen to it being sung first. Try to match the singer’s phrasing on your own instrument. Find a copy of the lyrics and follow along as you listen to the placement of the words.These are all important aspects that should influence your instrumental playing.

The lyrics of the song, and the singer’s breath dictate the phrasing, while the overall text or message of the song will dictate the mood. It’s important to know and understand the history and subject matter of the air or song.

We’re not exactly a nation that’s known for our uplifting ballads. More often than not, the subject matter is heartache, unrequited love, banishment or death. This is important to keep in mind when attempting to play any slow air.

Have a listen to these two versions of the beautiful air Amhrán na Leabhair, sung here by sean nós singer, Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaíoch:

Next, played on the Irish wooden flute by Conal Ó Gráda. It’s clear Conal understands the subject matter of the text and has listened to the phrasing as performed by an experienced sean nós singer:

The Right Instrument

While some instruments, such as the piano or violin, are universal and can be used to play any genre of music, certain other instruments are specific to traditional Irish music.

If you’re a classically trained flautist for example, I would highly recommend investing in an Irish wooden flute, rather than attempting to learn to play Irish music on your Boehm system flute. It can be done, but for that authentic Irish sound, a wooden flute is best.

Alternatively, you may have your eye on learning a brand new instrument entirely. If that’s the case, then you’ve definitely come to the right place.

McNeela Instruments has been specialising in Traditional Irish Musical Instruments since 1979, so you know you’re in good hands.

The Next Step

Our online store offers a range of Irish fiddles, bodhráns, tin whistles, Irish button accordions, tenor banjos, concertinas and much more.

Whether you’re looking to re-learn on your current instrument or take up a new one, we have something for everyone. Every good musician needs a good instrument in hand.

With a new instrument in hand and this new information in your head, you’re already well on your way to becoming a fully fledged traditional Irish musician – no one need ever know otherwise!  

[vincentsmusic]

Brad Mehldau, After Bach

Anyone who has had to sit through a conversation of people delineating musical styles which might include a jazz-snob pontificating: 'There is no such thing as Jazz' knows all too well that discussing musical categories is annoying. Largely nonsensical distinctions and demarcations that certain personality types, who one suspects have little experience ever listening to music, can get energized and combative about. I heard the best retort to this whole line of thinking once from Eddie Daniels who shut down such a conversation like this: "Look, there really are only two kinds of music, good music... and not so good music". Boom.

The mixing of musical styles has produced an endless variety of very interesting results in popular music. In fact, the development of popular music can rightly be seen as an endless cross-pollination of styles within and across cultures. In the end, it is the quality, the genius, of the musicianship that matters here, not the musical materials used. And so we arrive at Eddie Daniels point, the style doesn't matter, the musicianship does. And musicianship is the ability to communicate, to the point of transporting another person's mind and emotions to a different realm, preferably of wonder and beauty, by doing something as seemingly innocuous as pushing down keys on a piano keyboard.

Perhaps though there is one category of music which seems so wrong, so easily predictably awful, as to perhaps deserve a quick and brutal renunciation? Can we all agree perhaps that the genre-crossing popular musician garishly daring to flirt with classical music is not worth listening to? Because there is no magic there. Only painful humiliation. My introduction to this nauseating musical netherworld was probably Wendy Carlos with 'Switched-on Bach'. There have been many examples since. In general, it appears people who do not appreciate classical music are momentarily titillated by this stuff and think perhaps foolishly that they understand something of classical music. The people who do enjoy classical music experience, well.... there are really no words... no comparable calamities or medical conditions that come close to describing the abject horror...

As snobbish and self-righteous (yet true) as the last paragraph is, there actually is no good reason why this should be so. For sure, the set of musical skills, the way one approaches, assimilates and grows as a musician, have completely different trajectories for classical musicians than they do for accomplished popular musicians. In the case where the ability to execute the notes is not the problem, so much is still foreign that it just doesn't work. At least not to the ears of the musicians in the opposite camp.

But then many musicians are far from typical, there are musicians who actually do inhabit a number of very different worlds. Chris Thile, for instance, is a master in the disparate formats of Classical, Bluegrass, Pop, and whatever category we wish to bestow on his unique Bunch Brothers band. Still, even there, his musical skill benefits from being proficient in all these different categories, but he is not actually blending the musical genres themselves. You can recognize it is Chris playing a Bach Violin Sonata on the mandolin, yet his style of playing is different when playing his many different musical genres. This remains true even in Eddie Daniels Five Seasons album which does deliberately mix classical and jazz, yet there it's often more of a juxtaposition, done with skill and sensitivity, between the two genres. They remain distinct.

This is where Brad Mehldau is more interesting. Even though he does not possess the pseudo superhuman virtuosity required, and somehow seemingly achieved, by most classical pianist these days. He has an extraordinary sensitivity to touch, phrasing, and a sense of rhythmic balance that makes him highly unique as a jazz pianist. The most obvious connection to make between his other albums and this latest project is how Brad uses, not baroque counterpoint for sure, but a unique multi-voice improvisational style that is at least vaguely reminiscent of baroque polyphonic keyboard music.

On the surface, the album appears to be juxtaposing classical pieces with his own. He does, in fact, play five well-known pieces from the Bach keyboard repertoire verbatim. Taken by themselves there is nothing much special about how he plays these. In fact, my heart sank hearing the first one, Prelude no.3 in C# from the Well-Tempered Clavier, it's an admirable performance for a music major, a bit more polished than a freshman would play it, but not with any brilliance or depth, as say Glenn Gould would play it. Herein of course lies the risk. He plays classical pieces and so we are tempted to listen with classical sensibilities. But it would be missing the point to listen to it that way.

This recording needs to be consumed old school: It needs to be listened to in its entirety. The Bach compositions are musical islands of a sort. Islands of beauty and memory that anchor the compositions around it. The prelude becomes suddenly stunning as an introduction and inspiration to the dramatic and beautiful weaving and swaying Rondo that Brad follows it with. The connections and similarities between Brad's compositions and Bach are fascinating, often because in certain ways they become so remote, so obviously and completely in a different domain, yet at the same time somehow reminiscent and relating to each other. Something might be said of the order in Bach and chaos in Jazz. Yet I don't experience the music in this way. There is, to me, a large element of freedom and even wildness to Bach just as there is a lot of order and logic to Jazz. Both, at their best, find a place of magical balance between order and chaos we could never reach by ourselves in our own mind. I have no idea how, but somehow Brad has achieved this throughout this album. A completely different enchanted musical world, at once familiar, recognizable as his particular approach to the instrument, and Bach's particular genius at composition, and starting from this he has created something completely different new and exhilarating.

After Bach complete playlist