Would you be willing...

[ImNotIrish]

to give me some feedback on this tune. It is an air/song, recorded on a Burns Blackwood Bb.
It has reverb, so, purists....beware!

Arbo


http://www.box.net/shared/pa5oo9hby4

[farmer]

I enjoyed it! Clean and expressive came to mind.

[Denny]

[Doug_Tipple]

Arbo, I'm not a great critic of flute performance, so take my comments with that in mind, but I do like this clip. The flute sounds great. One thing that I noticed that Denny already mentioned is that some of your vibrato feels strained with quite audible body sounds (gutturals?). I prefer vibrato from the silent pulsing of the diaphragm.

[Flexismart]

Nicely played Arbo. I wouldn't change a thing.
If the tune takes you away - it has accomplished its goal.

[eilam]

Flexismart said it in a perfect way.

[Aanvil]

What do you expect to sound like Arbo?

[benhall.1]

Given that it's solo (not having to fit in with anyone else), I thought the choice of key was unfortunate. I found that all the octave folding got in the way. And I found the few places where you had to substitute a note that isn't in the tune just plain irritating. If I were doing it on a Bb flute, I'd put it up a whole fifth to F. That way you can play the whole tune without any octave folding or note substitution at all.

[Aanvil]

I found that all the octave folding got in the way.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that most folks won't understand what you are talking about.

I'm not going to pick out anything too specific.

Arbo, as mentioned, I'd drop the mouth/lip vibrato entirely and work on using finger vib.

You are certainly starting to get a solid tone. Very nice.

[oleorezinator]

In one word, Stellar.

[MTGuru]

@Arbo: I'm guessing you don't have a C foot/key on this flute (actually Ab key in this case)? That would solve having to fold those important cadences.

It's hard when it's the D note you want to jiggle. But I'd try finger vibrato on the E's, then decrease the depth of the D vibrato to try to match the finger vibrato. Or just swell the D or do something else with it to add interest. Or just solid and steady, no tricks at all.

@Ben: Sure, moving it up to F (A fingering) would eliminate folding. And incidentally solve the finger vibrato problem by landing the cadences on F and Eb (fingered A and G). But I do kind of like the big, low, fat sound of the flute in this range. Too bad about the foot.

@Arbo: As long as you're folding, you could experiment picking different fold points to make the transitions less jarring and not have to rework those middle 2 cadences. Maybe use octave breath pushes (notated {D} below) to add ambiguity to the upward folds. For example:

X:1
T:Arbo's Green Shamrock Shore
M:3/4
K:DMix
D2|A3B c2|A4 D2|A3F A2|G2 F2 {D}d2|
c3B c2|d4 d2|d6-|d4 {D}d2|
B3A G2|A3B c2|d4 c2|A4 d2|
c3B A2|G2 {D}d2 e2|c6-|c4 d2|
B3A G2|A3B c2|d4 c2|A4 d2|
c3B A2|G2 {D}d2 e2|c6-|c4 D2|
A3B c2|A4 D2|A3F A2|Jg2 f2 d2|
c3B c2|d4 d2|D6-|D4|]

Of course, keep in mind that I am not a flooter.

[andref]

Hi,

Arbo, as mentioned, I'd drop the mouth/lip vibrato entirely and work on using finger vib.

Exactly. The vibrato gets in the way with the melody, but the overall result is beautiful. I wish I could one day sound like that!

[ImNotIrish]

What do you expect to sound like Arbo?

I don't know.... me, I suppose.

To Others.... yes, I can definitely lose some of the vibrato, play around with the octave folding, or change keys entirely, and back off of the high notes. Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't spent a lot of time with the Burns Bb lately, so I am kinda reacquainting myself with it.

MT: Thanks for the ABC! I'll give it a look this weekend.

Arbo

[m31]

Nice tone, but agree with comments on vibrato. Hitting certain notes too hard and others too soft --too much dynamics.

[talasiga]

I found that all the octave folding got in the way.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that most folks won't understand what you are talking about.
.........

well I am pretty stupid, I haven't heard the thing because I am travelling and this PC doesn't have audio, I don't know what "octave folding" means and without looking it up, with my limited intelligence, I reckon it has something to do with playing a lower note (or a phrase) up at the higher octave because its not available on the instrument at the lower end.
Therefore, if you can play the piece at a higher point on the instrument you will be able to catch all the notes that dip down as lower notes rather than having to talk them up so to speak.

Now, if I have, more or less, got it right, then, your "most folks" would have to be dumber than dumb because, as I said earlier, I am stupid to begin with.