From another tradition - some of the best Irish fiddlers, especially from Clare, play what at first seems painfully slow, then you realise the wonderful things they are doing between the melody notes. A lot of players (eg in Kerry) play far quicker for dancing than is musically satisfying - if the dancers stop, everyone slows down quite significantly to something musical again. The best Irish pipers sound so relaxed when playing that it feels slow, even when it isn't.
Relaxation in playing music is central to the enjoyment of it - never play faster than you can think. John -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Matt Seattle Sent: 09 June 2009 14:14 To: nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [NSP] Re: this list is safer now On 6/9/09, Di Jevons <d...@picklewood.info> wrote: > I do think however there is a danger that 'life and bounce' can be mistaken > for 'breakneck speed' Well said, Di. Going further, 'life and bounce' are (imho) incompatible with 'breakneck speed'. Try, for example, to play a jig with any kind of lilt AND to play it fast, and you'll soon stop wanting to play it fast. This is so obvious to me now, but I admit it took me years to arrive at the obvious. Breakneck speed with accuracy IS impressive, as Paul points out with some irony; it is unattainable for many (self included), and more importantly - do you want to be impressed by music, or caressed by music? To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
