What's New

*11/24/2000
I hope everyone who celebrates it had a happy Thanksgiving!
Well, because I have a new son, and it's near Christmas time, I thougth I'd add some kids songs and some Christmas carols. I've added: Oranges and Lemons, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Good King Wenceslas, and Here We Come a-Caroling. Some of these have recordings.
I also added one of my favorite airs: Roisin Dubh. The sheet music I had was for the uilleann pipes, and a lot more march-like, and less haunting than the recordings I've heard (like from Joanie Madden, for instance), so I sat down with the sheet music I had, and tried to make it look/sound like the music I've heard. Since the sheet music for an air is really just supposed to be an approximation anyway, I think I've done a fair job of representing it. If one of you has a better version for the whistle, please don't hesitate to send it to me!
Since I spent all of one day after work sitting with the sheet music and recordings of Roisin Dubh trying to transcribe it properly, it was stuck in my head, so it only took me about 5 minutes to learn to play it. I've added my MP3's of it as well (played on the Silkstone D and the Chieftain low D. I'll have to get my lungs used to the Copeland low D's more difficult air-volume requirements before I attempt to record a song like Roisin Dubh with it.)
Ok, and now for the Whistler Soapbox; feel free to ignore the following paragraph: I've heard a few people say that sheet music should never have the ornamentation (grace notes, phrasing, etc) noted. While I respect those people's opinion, I disagree. If it weren't for songbooks like Learn Pennywhistle Now (Amsco Publications), The Clarke Tinwhistle (The Clarke Company) or The Irish Tinwhistle Book (Mel Bay), I still wouldn't have some of the more complex irish ornaments down. For a long time, I could hear complex 3 and 4-note cuts, but had no idea what the person was actually doing to make them. After finding songbooks that had ornaments noted, I quickly learned what certain cut groupings sounded like when played. Now I can duplicate them by ear. A person should absolutely add their own flair to a piece, and not strictly follow ornaments as noted. However if someone doesn't have a clue as to how to do more complex cuts and the like, seeing the grace notes noted can tive them a big leg up. It sure did me. And, since my archive is to help people learn, to pass music along, and to keep people from having to buy traditional music, I'll often note the ornaments in a piece, if I feel it warranted. Just remember that there are many ways to phrase and ornament, and anyone who feels that they do not need the ornamentation noted can freely ignore it at your whim. Don't be afraid to experiment. :)

*11/17/2000
Sorry about the short update. Things will get better soon! Donovan is already starting to sleep longer during the night.
I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival this year, and took my wife and son. Check out some pictures in the gallery!
Recorded Down By the Sally Gardens on my new Copeland low D (happy birthday to me!)…wow, that whistle is awesome! I put a couple pictures of it in the Whistles gallery. Also, re-notated Siobhain Ni Dhuibhir, so that I could make a MIDI for it, and recorded an MP3 while I was at it. Re-recorded Shepherd's Hey without the flubs in the 3rd phrase. Re-recorded Casadh An tSugain so that it didn't sound so rushed.
These re-recordings came about beause I got the latest version of Goldwave recording/editing software, and actually spent some time learning how to use it, other than hitting the "record" button (grin). I bought Goldwave a long time ago, but really only learned enough to record and trim music and then encode it to MP3. Now, I've gone through all of my old MP3's and "sweetened" most of them, by using complex noise reductions (to get rid of the computer fan and speaker hum), and adding a tiny amount of reverb so that it sounds less like the songs are recorded in my computer room! A few of the old files are recorded at such a small sampling rate that reverbing them made it sound like I was playing a kazoo, so those were merely filtered for noise. For those who care about such things, I made the reverb by using the echo effect, set at .075s delay, 40% volume, with the reverb box checked. If I made the echo any less, I couldn't hear it at all. I personally don't like recordings of whistlers that are heavily reverbed..I prefer the effect to be barely noticeable. The art should be in the playing of the music, not in the editing.

*11/10/2000
As expected, it's been a busy week, so I got very little done on the site. However, I have notated and recorded one of my favorite Joanie Madden songs: Sliabh na mBan. The version recorded here is on a Silkstone Bb whistle.
Also: reclassified Planxties as "O'Carolan & Planxties" & put Si Beg Si Mor (which has about a million different spellings) under it.

*11/3/2000
Well, Donovan started sleeping fairly well pretty quickly, so I managed to sneak some web page work in while he and my wife were sleeping and I wasn't working at my paying job. Other than having no song re-notations, this is a fairly standard weekly update. Next week's will probably be short, if I had to guess.
Notated the following music: The Battle of New Orleans, Newcastle, The Rising of the Moon, and the other two polkas in the Ballydesmond Polka set (though I personally don't like them as much as #2).
Recorded Si Beg Si Mor (low D included) for MP3