Do you love traditional music and wonder if there is anything more you could be doing? We asked our FaceBook friends to come up with suggestions for young people starting out in traditional music. We had lots of responses and below is a sample. Any questions please get in touch with us info@handsupfortrad.scot.
Make time to connect with / learn from people outwith your immediate peer group
Play music for fun! Have tunes with your pals, go to gigs with your pals, etc.
Learn about the tradition. Learn a *trad* tune or song a week as well as learning contemporary pieces. Learn about the place you’re from / live in – there will be a wealth of material / people / tunes / stories to explore…
Playing lots of sessions and trying new tunes all the time. Learning to use your ears as a means of learning new tunes not just music!
Make things happen! Start a session, gig night, etc where you live. If you don’t do it, who are you expecting to do it?
Don’t get stuck in genres, when I started playing I was fairly isolated so I played along with records including, the Indian jazz band Shakti (sp??), pipe band records and the Blue oyster cult…. I got involved with the local folk club, the fiddle and accordion club and played double bass in the local free jazz band… I loved it all and eventually settled with playing diddly tunes on the cittern and playing bodhran… I’m still involved in lots of genres ( on the edge of most) but keep coming back to folk music which has always been the ‘broad church’.
Little and often is the key. Much better to practice 10 mins a day than a longer stint once a week
Spend lots of time listening to loads of live and recorded music.
Develop your own style and copying others is a good way in – which is the nature of the tradition anyway…. don’t assume that older musicians are just old fogies they will have lots to pass on. much the early advice I got from local players has stuck with me, don’t try to reinvent the wheel – invent a new mode of transport all together!
Make stuff up, don’t just play other peoples tunes. There is a lot we can contribute as composers and anybody can make up a wee tune – go for it! I used to write tunes that stretched my abilities as a musician and made me work harder. Many of those tunes such have entered the tradition now. There is nothing quite like walking down princess street and hearing poeple youve never met busking, playing your tunes! (Jim Sutherland, author of Easy Club Reel and mucn more)
Always keep your mind, and ears, open
Get hands on an old collection and learn a tune a day, even if you forget many of them, you’re still developing the skill of retention. Put emotion into every note!
Start with the tradition. You can write your own tunes later.
Don’t play anything that doesn’t feel right, musically, in your gut. Learn from your elders, youngers, share with everybody and above all LISTEN to as much as you can of everything. Sessions are great for learning, songs tunes and harmonies . Using recordings as source material is fantastic. Controversially, maybe – Learn to read music, as it’s just a tool , and opens up reams of tunes and songs which may have been lost over the years, and with which you can then do what you will…
Some young traditional players we meet are like some young classical players in that they have become so accustomed to sounding ‘beautiful’ and ‘correct’ by a certain set of rules that when you try to get them to improvise they can’t easily emotionally handle sounding ‘wrong’ and the weird and unpredictable sounds that come out of experimentation and freedom . So I would recommend to young players to enjoy sounding beautiful and mastering the rules and also enjoy exploring weird and strange sounds and making up your own rules and exploring space and energy texture tone and silence.
All of the above – and don’t forget the 2/4 marches!
Don’t be scared to make mistakes. It doesn’t always have to be perfect.
As one such ‘young musician’ not in a position to be giving advice to others, rather taking it instead, I don’t feel qualified for this thread, but I’d say to treat it as an art, or at least know that it CAN be an art rather than just a person playing tunes (which is obviously in itself art but i think we forget that there can be more). Watch performances you wouldn’t necessarily see yourself being a part of- dance, art, collaborations. Feel like a potential part of a wider artistic community and respect what you do, as feeling apologetic or like ‘folk musician’ is an unworthy or unnecessary role to ‘play’ is a) plain daft, there’s plenty to offer to greater causes and b) it’s nice to feel like part of something bigger.
Stay aff the bevvy (given our sad history of casualties) should perhaps be near the top of this list…
I always liked this as my overall teaching advice template from the (recently deceased) legend trumpeter & beautiful educator Clark Terry.
If you only just do the first two that’s also fine. “Imitate-Assimilate-Innovate”
It’s not linear, it’s more of a triangle that you can move back/forth around
Find someone much older with years of experience and absorb everything you can from them while they’re still around. There is so much to learn from someone who has lived a lifetime of music. When I was a kid I did this with Buddy MacMaster and Alasdair Fraser. When you are ready, there is no better teacher than life on the road with a band. Just make sure to remember why you fell in love with the music in the beginning.
Listen, emulate, enjoy.
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