some thing to discuss

AliGorie · October 2017

given all the good discussions on (conventional) 'picking' technique -
and 'whats the best guitar for - -'

Lewy · October 2017

Interesting video. Don't know anything about him....looks a lot like he's using his thumb and first finger as a kind of pseudo flatpick in a down up down up way and using legato for the triplets? Or he could be using the nail of his index on the downstroke then using the thumb, frailing style?

AliGorie · October 2017

93 views an' just you comment Lewy - interesting and good on ya.
Yeah your right, Frankie IS doing some interesting stuff there - with his l/h fingers.
Thats partly why I posted it, I have been trying to find a way to play this (Scots / Irish) traditional dance music that is more in keeping with the (predominantly monophonic) single line melody instruments that it's traditionally played on - fiddle / flute / whistle / bagpipe chanter etc.
The standout thing that caught my ear when I first heard him was - he's playing rolls and even crans etc, some of the flavoring / seasoning that distinguishes 'Gaelic' music. Guitarists in general are reticent to learn this stuff other that the occasional triplet - thats why I call virtually all attempts by guitarists to play this genre 'celticana' as with the marketing of americana is bits of various American folk and traditional music bundled and marketed - it's made up.
Guitarists playing this music fall into to categories - mostly so called fingerstyle players sound like they are trying to mimic a harp or play a simplified / pseudo classical guitarists arrangement or a mixture of both at once - or they flatpick, which because they don't play the applicable ornamentation ends up sounding like dumb'd down bluegrass - and so we have 'Celtic Guitar'.
For anyone interested heres a very basic introduction to (Irish) ornamentation - (grace notes).

http://www.irishworldacademy.ie/inbhear/volume-1/n-keegan/v1-i1-n-keegan-02.html ;

Lewy · October 2017

I read that ornamentation material and listened to the samples, and then went back to the original positing. I have to say I can't hear him using anything other than triplets for ornamentation but maybe my ears aren't tuned in.

Maybe the guitar just isn't a good vehicle getting the nuance of this information across?

BigLicks67 · October 2017

I think you need to remember that when talking about authentic or inauthentic music you are basically stood on shifting sand. Most of what is today perceived as 'Celtic" music is based on the fashions and mores of the 17th/18th Century and the ornamentations they provided. Hence, the prevalence of tunes about a Perth fiddler's dead missus. Discounting Northern Scottish mouth music, I don't think anyone has any idea what the Celts played around the fireside back in the pre-Roman days.

Music is a language and like all languages its' lexicon expands and is added too with time. Just look at how Jazz evolved over the 20th Century. If I want to sing an English Folk Song I don't see why it is necessary to sing it like I'm from the South West, so I can get an authentic folk vibe.

AliGorie · October 2017

Hmmm, OK

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