Musical Goals

As is usually the case, I haven't been thinking about posting on my blog. I should create a weekly reminder. But to be honest, I haven't had anything to talk about, at least until I reach some of my short-term goals. So this post will hopefully be a start to a trend. My biggest interest is in music and it is that that I will try to write about on a regular basis.

In 2004 I created a website that time-lined my progress at playing the plectrum banjo. It expressed my enthusiasm towards going to my weekly lessons and it highlighted my favorite banjo players. Slowly, I started to lose interest in updating the site. Then I thought to use some available software to create a new site. The amount of work necessary to update it made it worse for the first site. Then spammers were using it to spam. I put the old site back up and it remained static until the information was so old I had to shut it down.

My love for the plectrum banjo has waned somewhat because the style didn't fit well with music and musicians around me. This year I changed to playing the tin whistle and flute, and started playing Irish traditional music. Now I'm putting my feet into the fire and playing in sessions. I'm cramming the tin whistle practice and fast forwarding my skills, hopefully without crashing. My flute progress is slower but I'm building my lungs and focusing on good tone. The whistle is my head start and my current goal is to play the flute full time in one year. The whistle is my head start program.

Between 2007 and 2008 I became musically depressed. I almost gave up the banjo. I took my annual trek to the BBA St. Valentines Day Banjo Fest and Massacre, but had no interest in participating in the events. Somehow, I felt obligated to go, perhaps because I spent the past four years seriously pursuing the craft. Later in 2008 I participated in a variety show in my community and joined the Clubsiders. This kept me going, but just on a steady course with no goals or desires to further my musical skills. This year the Clubsiders broke up.

2012 is a good year, musically speaking. I wanted to learn how to play a flute, in particular because I was enjoying the music of Jethro Tull and in particular, Ian Anderson's flute. I bought a student flute and spent every day practicing to reach a point where I didn't sound like a student. It was enthusiasm that blocked me from realizing that I was not progressing. For me, lifting my left thumb and using my right pinky insured a shift in the flute's position, losing my embouchure position. I figured in time it would go away but it hindered me from progressing anywhere else.

In the meantime I would listen to a Jethro Tull song called "The Whistler." I thought the instrument he was playing was a fife. That is until I saw the video. "What is that?", I thought as a witnessed an instrument I never noticed before. It was a tin whistle, also known as a pennywhistle. I ordered a Clarke Original (really made out of tin) from Amazon and got several more that month. I discovered a website called Chiff and Fipple and like my old website, the creator hadn't maintained it. It is still a treasure trove of information though, and the forums are the best on the Internet.



The tin whistle was my escape to something new. It was like starting over again. This time I focused on diatonic and modal scales. No chromatic scales to learn. No fingering variations for each key beyond the single flattened note that separates the primary key, in this case D and the secondary key, the G. The G is up one counter-clockwise on the circle of fifths and in the key signature, the C# is flattened to a C, the difference between the key of D and the key of G. As long as I can transpose a song to D or G (with exceptions) I can use the same fingering on whistles in other keys.

In May I started to play the whistle and learn about Irish traditional music. Naturally, the flute was still in consideration and I noticed that a keyless flute allowed for my left thumb and right pinky to remain in place. I made a PVC pipe flute to test out playing one. The decision to switch was almost instant and in August I got a delrin keyless flute made by Walt Sweet called "Shannon."

Two weeks ago I attended my first Irish "session" and am preparing to play the tin whistle in a "set" of jigs. That is jumping into the fire, but if the others are receptive to it, this will take me where I couldn't go on the banjo. If I could have played in weekly four-string banjo sessions, I would have been able to avoid the funk of 2007-2008. I have the enthusiasm to start a new website but this time it will be a static archive. All updates will remain on the blog.

More to come...