YES!!! The "I'm So Happy!" thread - 2011

[David Nicholson]

Very nice indeed Paddy, looks a lovely instrument.

[Maggi Young]

Many Happy Returns of the day to John.
A good choice for the mandolin, I think.... Ian has a lovely Tanglewood guitar that he is fond of. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

I think Tanglewood is a Scottish company. John has a guitar made by them already as has another son, David. Both like them very much.

David, it certainly looks well though I have only seen the photograph you have also seen on the internet. John is in college in Cork, about two hours away, and bought it there today. I'm sure John will play it for me many times when he comes home.

Paddy

[Martinr]

Tanglewood. Tasty website. Could get seriously poor if I spend too long looking at it. It still amazes me how much guitar you can get for fairly reasonable money, the same cannot be said for violins.

[Maggi Young]

It still amazes me how much guitar you can get for fairly reasonable money, the same cannot be said for violins.

Ah, Martin, you should have a word with the Aberdeen SRGC Treasurer, Bill , he restores and builds violins 
I can provide contact details if you wish.
He did a wonderfu job of rebuliding/restoring a sweet liitle old parlour guitar of Ian's and I don't doubt he can do wonders with a violin if you have a good one that has seen better days.

[Martinr]

Thanks Maggi, but I have an old Scottish violin, already restored. Looks a bit rough in places but sounds good. I only hope I look, and sound, as good when I'm 180

[Martinr]

Paddy, for real virtuoso guitar playing go to davidrussellguitar.com.  Listen to Spatter the dew and the Bucks of Oranmore. A Scotsman playing two Irish tunes - be impressed at the technique and musicality.

Tom, agree this is virtuoso classical guitar playing but.....I'm going to get on a hobbyhorse and get shot down in flames

I do wish classical musicians would leave traditional music alone, they completely destroy it. Can I suggest people got to Youtube, search for The Bucks of Oranmore and listen to Matt Molloy playing it on flute or Seamus Ennis on the Irish pipes. This music is meant to make your feet tap and be played in a rhythm it is very difficult for classically trained musicians to get right, partly I think because standard notation makes it very difficult to write the rhythm down, it's very much an aural tradition.

Just the other day I was played the CD which accompanies the most recent edition of Associated Board exam pieces for Violin grade 6. It includes a brilliant Bluegrass tune completely destroyed on the demo CD. It was so bad my teacher, who teaches Classical and traditional styles, and I were laughing before it finished.

Rant over, please get back to being happy

[Paddy Tobin]

Martin,

I can understand your laughing at the music you mention above - because it was so bad.

However, I could never understand my son finding particular musical phrases of runs of notes amusing as though they were a musical joke. He would ask me to listen to them and I would simply be completely lost, couldn't see what he was talking about at all. He would explain  but never got through the fog of my musical brain.

Paddy

[alpines]

Just the other day I was played the CD which accompanies the most recent edition of Associated Board exam pieces for Violin grade 6. It includes a brilliant Bluegrass tune completely destroyed on the demo CD.

There's an old joke in Kentucky (and I suppose in other States too):
Q. What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
A. A violin has strings and a fiddle has 'straangs' (spoken with a 'deep south' accent)

I never appreciated fiddle music till I moved here. Oh boy are there some great fiddle players in Kentucky.

[alpines]

...and speaking of Bluegrass. Check out this link....it's awesome

[David Nicholson]

...and speaking of Bluegrass. Check out this link....it's awesome

Makes yer sick don't it!

He said with his fingers aching after an hours practise playing scales to try to get them moving and more flexible.

[alpines]

Stick with it David.....everything comes to he who waits. There's another wonderful band called the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys. the youngest is 8 years old so by the time you're 76 I expect you to be at this standard !!!!

[TC]

Martin
Yes, I like both versions  preferring the Uillean pipes.  However, David Russell's version is an arrangement for the guitar and not meant to be a guitar "copy" of the original.
I used to think the same as you as to classical musicians "interfering" with traditional melodies, however, in my time, I have heard some lousy traditional instrumentalists and singers destroying traditional tunes and songs.  Now I listen and either like the rendition or not. I can remember a guitarist called Pepe de Madrid who ran a local cafe in Ibiza.  My wife and I were on holiday there in 1963.  We used to visit the cafe every evening and when he found out that I was interested in the guitar, we were invited to stay on when the cafe closed and his relations would play, sing and dance Flamenco until the small hours.  In my very poor Spanish I found out that he was a classically trained guitarist who had studied under Segovia but had a love of his musical heritage in Andalusia.  He was the real thing.  He could play Bach perfectly but was totally authentic and passionate in his Flamenco heritage.

Paddy
Tanglewood are an English company.  However, I think their instruments are made in China or Vietnam to their design and specifications. I do not see how they could be made and sold in the UK at these prices.  Wherever they are made, they look very good value.  To have one made by a UK luthier would set you back between £800/2000

[Casalima]

...and speaking of Bluegrass. Check out this link....it's awesome

Great!
The Portuguese guitar in overdrive:

Chloe
daughter of a fiddle player
(of the violin variety, but who always called her violin a fiddle!)

[Martinr]

And here's the Bluegrass tune, Grey Eagle, as it should be heard.



I suppose sooner or later we'll have to go back to talking about plants.........well maybe