n >> Members >> Michael Gill
Details History
Michael Gill

1. You shouldn't share tunes with strangers via musical notation. You've no idea how they might murder them. (This of course, flies in the face of Jeremy's mission statement, but its importance is evidenced the world over. The only saving factor is that this website has zero impact on the people who can actually play this music. Which leads me to the next point.)

2. If the worth of this website to you is as a "valuable resource", then you are severely under resourced. So much so in fact, that it stands to reason that your music making will be severely impaired.

3. You can't play the tunes on a bodhran.

4. The twiddley bits are part of the music.

5. (This one's a little more erudite, and linked to the first point.) Phrasing is what makes the tunes work. Its importance can not be overstated. It's what can lift the music beyond being a mere vehicle to dance to. It is the bread and butter of playing across/through bar lines. It is the art available to you when you remove the necessity to indicate to set dancers where they should be. And it is the meat and potatoes of making the tunes work when played too fast or too slow to dance to. I'm not saying that phrasing is not important when you do play for dancers, but that when freed from that constriction, it is what explodes the music to a different level.



Some short insights into to some of the regular posters:

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/65115
I'd say probably the bloke who knows more than anyone else. If you disagree with anything he says, you are wrong.

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/58
Will Harmon. Top bloke, knows his stuff. Listen to him. Though his only problem is he can be a bit wet sometimes with the useless feckers.

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/30831
A lot of people here claim that they have no alternative to thesession as a resource because of their geographical isolation, but this fella has proved that a feeble excuse at best … at worst an admission of stupidity. It should be good, and helpful, to be able to post said truth, but Jeremy would just delete it.

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/7182
I have no doubt that this bloke is genuine and that he loves the music ... it's just that he hasn't a scooby and his diddley playing is awful. It's very frustrating because he gives advice all the time to newcomers who don't know any better.

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/39208
I always think of this fellow as "Jig", but he changes his name often. Don't be fooled. He really is an awful player, absolutely hopeless (don't take my word for it, click above for clips). However, more importantly, he's schizophrenic and prone to violence. Be careful. I've said that if Jeremy bars him for good, I'll post clips of my playing. That offer still stands (but me thinks that he's probably Jeremy's uncle).


Me: Michael Gill. Yes, I do have a certain naive arrogance in my quest to save the music from those that would "murder" it. Yes, I generally just say what I think, instead of sugar coating it to avoid stirring things up. People say I should think before I post? But I don't understand that ... I post what I think.

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/22817
An oasis of sanity in a world gone mad.



Tunes in ...'s head: too bloody many

Tunes in ...'s tunebook: They're not in a book, they're in my head

Tunes in Michael Gill's tunebook: 0