Greensleeves - History and Theory

“Greensleeves” is one of the most famous English folk songs. It dates from the Renaissance and has picked up a lot of stories and speculation. It is one of several songs that are so popular, some musicians only play them by request. It has a good melody and some rather interesting harmonies that keep people listening to it over and over. It has been used as the basis for many Classical and Jazz pieces and has even been given Christmas lyrics ("What Child is This") in 1865 (over 200 years after the tune was written).

Publication and Attribution
It is generally accepted that the first printed version of “Greensleeves” dates from 1580 as a broadside ballad but that almost certainly means it existed for at least a little bit before this. (The publication history of this tune is pretty crowded; lots of versions, lots of different lyrics and lots of titles. I'm not even going to try to trace that since it can be found elsewhere.) But it is still not likely old enough to have been written by King Henry VIII in spite of the persistent rumor and unfortunate attributions on sheet music. He did write music and lyrics for existing music but he didn’t write this tune or any of its lyrics. Anonymous should get all the credit for this little song.

Meaning of Lyrics
The color green had a number of associations in the Renaissance. Sleeves in this era could be detached and switched out for a colorful splash if you had the money for that sort of thing. Green skirts, on the other hand, was a slang reference to grass stains acquired from "rolling around" on the ground and generally misbehaving. But green was also used to represent fidelity and is still very much a color associated with the fairy-folk. All of this has been used to claim the green sleeves in the folksong lyrics refer to an upper-class lady, a virtuous woman wrongly suspected of being a prostitute, an actual prostitute, a fairy or just a someone who liked the color green. Most likely, we won't ever know.

Melody and Meter
There are several versions of this melody in natural minor, melodic minor, Dorian mode and major. I’ve even run into someone claiming this tune was Eastern European in origin. This last theory could possibly explain why there are so many competing versions since when tunes travel that far, they are often shoehorned into different musical systems. But there was no musical analysis offered to support this idea so that particular theory must be left in the entirely unproven category. And of course, folk songs often develop many different versions over the centuries even when they don't travel quite so far.
Most people I know play this tune in A minor-ish but G minor-ish is fairly common and of course it can be transposed to any starting note you like. One more thing to remember is this song can be written in different meters. Some form of triple meter (6/8 or 3/4 usually) is more common in my experience but plenty of people have shifted it into duple or even odder time signatures.

A Bit of Musical Theory
Here is what I have observed about this tune.
Musically, what sounds “right” to a society changes over time. During the European Renaissance, the musical sound was shifting away from modes (scales that sound odd to modern ears) and towards the major-minor system (what Western listeners are most used to today). “Greensleeves” uses both systems and therefore shows that transition as it was happening. This is true of all the minor versions of the melody; they constantly switch back and forth from one system to the other at regular intervals, rather like a kid on a swing.
(The earliest version was printed in minor and since major just sounds wrong to me, I won’t examine that version.)

Aeolian / Natural Minor
This version starts out in the older Aeolian mode but uses the more recent melodic minor scale for the cadences at the end of phrases.

The following sound bite demonstrates the Aeolian mode, the ascending melodic minor scale and a simple version of the melody.



Aeolian (same as natural minor) uses lowered 6^th and 7^th scale steps. This scale is used at the start of and in the middle of phrases. The chorus actually starts on the lowered 7^th scale step, a distinctly modal sound.
The ascending melodic minor scale raises both the 6^th and 7^th scale steps. This scale is used exclusively at the end of phrases.

Dorian Mode
Now, the Dorian version follows the same basic pattern as the Aeolian version - the tune starts in the older Dorian mode and switches to the more recent melodic minor for the ends of phrases. Dorian is almost the same as Aeolian (natural minor) but has a raised 6th. Melodic minor is actually closer to Dorian than Aeolian in some ways.
(For a more complete explanation of the different modes see my earlier post Modern Modes.)

This sound clip demonstrates the Dorian mode, melodic minor and a short run through of a Dorian version of this song.
(You may notice that this version is one whole note lower than the Aeolian version. This can create the impression that this version is darker or sadder when played right after the other one. It is an auditory illusion created purely by the contrasting starting notes. I chose to play it in the same key as the sheet music for those who find mismatches between notation and performance disconcerting.)



Both Aeolian and Dorian are modes that work well on whistles and keyless flutes with the main difference being how high or low they sound. It isn't uncommon for folktunes to shift between the two, likely for the convenience of the instrumentalist's or the vocalist's range. In this tune, the lowest notes fall outside the Dorian range on keyless flutes unless you choose to play in the upper two octaves (making the top notes of the chorus challenging) or jump the those low notes up the octave (or just use other notes). But that raised 6th in Dorian also creates a different mood than Aeolian. It is well worth considering both versions.

Perhaps one reason this 400 year old melody remains so popular is that it gives us a small sweet taste of the different variations in music when the collective musical ear was shifting between different scale patterns, creating variegated melodies and harmonies that shimmer and shift with each hearing.

Playing the Baroque Flute

I'm not an "expert" on the Baroque flute (also called Traverso.) I was trained on the concert flute and that is where a lot of my skill comes from. But I've been playing Baroque flute for a couple of decades now and I believe I have enough experience to share some tips. In many ways, information about any transverse flute, modern or ancient, can be transferred to the others. But they do have their personal quirks which is what makes them so interesting (and frustrating) to play. Fingerings, tone, volume, range, chromatic notes, basically everything shifts for each flute. This is what gives them their unique sounds.  

-There are several books on Baroque flutes, old and new, out there and I do suggest taking a look at one or more of them. "Method for the One-Keyed Flute" by Boland has some great advice for ANY wood flute, care instructions and some technique exercises. Treat the fingerings as a starting suggestion (this applies to any fingering chart really). Each flute is a bit differently and different fingerings may work better than others. Most of these books assume you already play the modern flute or have a teacher and do not include much basic how-to-get-a-sound-out stuff. If you are starting from scratch you may want to talk to, or take lessons from, a flute teacher to get those basics down.
-Now, another approach is to get an instruction book for the Irish flute. Irish flutes are basically historical flutes of one type or another and these books often have more absolute beginner info in them. These books tend to emphasize Irish trad. playing styles which are different from Baroque/Classical styles so keep that in mind. Comparing the two styles is quite a good idea for anyone regardless of which style you want to play; there are lots of insights into both styles you can get that way.
-When looking for advice and tips, keep in mind that there are several different Baroque flutes out there. The flute went through a radical redesign at the beginning of the Baroque era (1600-1750) and then continued to change without any one style becoming standard. Some of the changes included the shape of the bore (inside of the tube), adjusting the tuning and adding a key. Then they added a couple more keys. Then they added yet more keys.  Then they argued about which keys were useful, which were "decadent" and which got in the way. Some keys closed holes when they were pressed and others opened them. The only key they all more or less agreed on was that first one for the right hand pinky. After that, it was anyone's guess which keys an instrument maker would use or a player would prefer. Plus, some Baroque flutes can be taken apart into 3 pieces, some come in 4 pieces, some have multiple different sized middle sections and the foot joint can sprout a telescoping extension that is almost steampunk looking.
There are reasons for all these apparently conflicting designs; they sound different and some music works better on one and some on an other. Baroque music was not uniform by any practical definition (this is the era of J. S. Bach, Barbara Strozzi and Turlough O'Carolan; the era when opera was invented and folk music began crossing the Atlantic Ocean) and musicians and audiences alike loved variety so naturally there was a wide range of instruments to go with all the different musical styles.

In spite of all that, tips for one style of Baroque flute can generally be applied to the others. But it helps tremendously to know exactly what kind of Baroque flute a person is talking about.
I play a one-keyed, four-piece Baroque flute. It is one of the simpler (though not simplest) styles. It has some of the most limits on chromatics and scales unless you are comfortable with half-hole fingerings. It is one of the last flutes that could be held to either side of the body though it was usually held to the right so the flute section wouldn't knock into each other too often.

Baroque flute in action. Photo by STL Photovisions

Baroque flute in pieces. Maple wood.

Now here are my three main tips (plus one extra);
1) Work with tuning and modes.
2) Try to improvise on the flute you are learning.
3) Finally play the flute regularly even if you don't sound the way you want yet.
Extra; Consider learning the pennywhistle.

1) Tuning on the Baroque flute is not the same as the concert flute. Not just because of the reduced chromatic notes either. The internal scale is tuned a bit differently than a modern flute and it takes time to adjust. Any tuning work on any flute will help so if tuning the Baroque flute gets too frustrating, do some tuning exercises on another flute for a bit. This improves your ear which WILL help your tuning on the Baroque flute eventually. Remember, as your ear improves, you hear the flaws in your playing more and it can feel like you are getting worse. You aren't. Your hearing and your playing are just improving at different rates.
In general, typical tuning issues on the concert flute are magnified on the Baroque flute. For example, the 3rd and 7th degrees of the major scale need attention. And any note in a chord that needs tweaking on the concert flute likely will need very careful adjusting on the Baroque flute. The trick is that you may or may not need to adjust in the same direction or the same amount.
Closely related to tuning is playing in modes. These are scales that use different patterns than major or minor. Playing in a mode is often easier than trying to play in many major or minor scales other than the scale the flute is tuned to. (That's what all those keys are for-chromatics and shifting keys.) This is why you will find quite a bit of older music and folk music that uses modes. It fit the instruments better (or the instruments fit the music better if you prefer). 
What's more, playing in a mode makes you listen to your tuning differently. You will notice that some modes are easier to play in tune than others. This is partly a result of how you are listening to and adjusting your tuning. Each scale rearranges your hearing and tuning sense whether you notice it or not. A note that sounds fine in one mode may sound badly out of tune in another. This teaches you a lot about the tuning of your instrument.
This takes time and work, no way around it. But here's the good thing; if you keep at it, you eventually will develop a more instinctive understanding of how to adjust on the Baroque flute. You will always need to pay attention but it will become more natural, at least on some scales. This link is a short introduction to the modes if you want to know more about them.

2) Now, improvising is a WONDERFUL way of getting to know an instrument, in my humble opinion. Chasing down a melody in your head will really teach you what an instrument is capable of in your hands. Additionally, playing a wide range of music helps you find out what works on a specific instrument faster than almost anything. I suggest looking at older music that was written when these flutes were commonly played (though some of these may prove a bit challenging!) or folk music (those books on Irish flutes I mentioned often have Celtic tunes in them that work well). This music is often written with some awareness of which chromatics are difficult to handle. Take these tunes as leaping off points; ornament them, add notes and let the tunes lead you into improvised melodies that explore the flute's sound. But don't stop there. Experiment with music you like that is outside the typical style for the Baroque flute. Some pieces will work, some will sound dreadful and others will sound oddly transformed. This is all useful when getting comfortable with a new instrument.
You also need time to develop the tone you want and improvising is a great tool for that too. The tone of a wooden Baroque flute will naturally be different than a metal concert flute (this is why many people like it.) But there is a wide range of possible sounds within that wood tone. Listen to your sound, the sound of other players and see if you can change your sound to match others. Experiment to find out just how many changes you can make to your tone. Not every change will create a "pleasant" tone and this is ok for our purposes. The more tone options you have, the easier it is to create a tone you like or that fits a specific performance. It is nearly impossible to describe in words just HOW a person changes their tone. We tend to resort to "relax your throat" or "let the air pour out" or "make it sound like melted chocolate" to cause students to change embouchure shapes. The control of those tiny muscles develops almost subconsciously the longer you play and listen to others. Which makes playing for fun (and I think improvising is wildly fun) one of the best tone exercises around.

3) Don't be discouraged if you don't sound like a virtuoso right away. Just keep at it. Playing/practicing in short, regular sessions is the key. Five minutes once a day will bring about improvement. Fifteen minute sessions each day or every other day are plenty long enough when starting out. You don't want to exhaust yourself and regular practice rather than long is what keeps you from forgetting what you've learned.
And if you miss a day (or three) don't beat yourself up. You won't forget everything THAT fast! Besides, breaks are good both for your playing and for your enthusiasm. I firmly believe that having one scheduled day a week that you do not practice (unless you just feel like it) keeps you from getting overwhelmed and frustrated. You need that down time to remember how much you enjoy playing, to find and listen to recordings you want to sound like and to get some rest.

Whatever you do, make sure you have fun! Perfection is not the goal of music; delight and joy is.

P. S. 
It recently occurred to me that learning the pennywhistle is tremendously useful for learning the Baroque (or any period) flute. Whistles use a 6-hole fingering pattern that is basically the same as the Baroque flute AND uses cross-fingerings most people don't mention with period instruments. The cross fingering are not always transferable but sometimes they are. Add to that, you get to hold the whistle in front of you and PUT YOUR ARMS DOWN! Trust me, the chance to rest your arms and keep playing is fantastic. Not to mention whistles are a great deal of fun all on their own. For more on this idea, see my post 6 Holes-Where Traversos and Whistles Meet.
Just make sure you get a pennywhistle with a tone you like! You don't have to go to the most expensive or fancy whistle (though you can; I sprang for a wooden whistle and couldn't be happier). But do ask to hear a sound clip or try the whistle out first to see if you like it. I suggest Elf Song Whistles (the Jasper Whistle) or Tilbury Whistles as fairly good starting points without spending large amounts of cash. There are cheaper whistles but they can be inconsistent. That doesn't mean all bad-some professional players use $15 whistles to this day-it just get trickier to find a good one. (By the way, the word "tweaked" next to a cheap whistle means "someone has modified this whistle from the original". This is usually good and means various issues have been cleaned up a bit.)
Or look up the "Wandering Whistler" on-line and check out his whistle reviews.

Second P. S.
Tone advice; Since I can't comment or reply to my own posts (a tech issue I hope is resolved soon), I'm including a reply to a question on tone here.
All the tone exercises concert flute players learn are great for the Baroque flute too. Slow but beautiful tunes are good when you've gotten bored with the long tones. Octave jumps can help since the more your upper and lower octaves match in tone, the more likely you are to have a good (or better) tone. Listen to other players and compare your tone to theirs. You may not like their tone but that's ok. You want your ear to process that Baroque sound so you can hear yourself as accurately as possible. Wood instruments often sound "softer" or "darker" or "airier" than metal flutes and that can take getting used to. Try to change your tone intentionally. The more changes you can make to your tone, the more control you will have over it.
And try to play the Baroque flute fairly regularly (daily, every other day or every third day if possible) so your embouchure muscles remember all the new things your trying to do. Keep at it and good luck!

Pied Pipers, Ghosts and Devil Tales

A Few Haunted Tunes
Blues guitarists (acoustic and electric) are famous for selling their souls to the devil, usually at crossroads, but this turns out to be an old tradition for musicians.

Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was a violinist and composer. He once dreamed the devil appeared before him and asked for a violin lesson. After the lesson was over, the devil played the most beautiful music Tartini had ever heard. When he woke, he attempted to recreate the music. The result was the Devil's Trill Sonata though Tartini said it was nowhere near as beautiful as the music in his dream.

Niccolò Paganini (27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was a violinist and a composer. People said his mother had made a pact with the devil when he was 6 and traded his soul for his virtuoso violin skills. Others said he was the devil himself. His concerts were said to enthrall his audiences and render them insensible to anything other than his playing.

Philippe Musard (1793 - 1859) was composer and conductor. His conducting was so wild (jumping up and down, kicking, throwing his baton into the audience) that people believed he must have made a deal with the devil.

"He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune"

There are several stories dating back to the Middle Ages of a musician stealing children away with music. The piper is usually dressed in multi-colored (pied) clothing and strikes a deal with the town of some sort. The piper completes the task but the town refuses to pay. And so the piper plays music that causes the children to follow him out of town and disappear.
In the "Pied Piper of Newton", the piper is hired to get rid of a hoard of rats with his music. When the town refuses to pay him, he plays a new tune and the children follow him up Silver street and down Gold street and into the forest outside of town where their laughter echos in the green shadows and the piper's brightly colored clothing flashes in the dark.
In Hamlin (made famous by Browning's poem) the earliest reference to the piper is a stained glass window (now destroyed). The window showed the piper who was said to have come to town in 1284. Some versions of the story say one, two or three children escaped and stayed behind. They described the music they followed and the joy they felt as the children were lead into a hilltop that opened and swallowed them or as they were lead to the river to drown. Even today, it is forbidden to play music on Bungelosen street (the street without drums), where the children danced after the piper.
In Korneuberg, Austria, the piper gave his name as Hans Mousehole. Here, the people not only refused to pay but threatened to turn the flute player over to the witches court. This time, the children were led onto a ship and sailed away.
The musician is usually a piper or flute player but in Brandenburg, it was a hurdy-gurdy player who led a group of children away, never to be seen again.
Meanwhile, in the city of Erfurt in 1257, over 100 children suddenly gathered and danced their way to Arnstadt where they were rounded up and returned home. No one ever learned why.

Some say these stories may be about groups of young people migrating to Eastern Europe. There were people known as lokators who traveled Germany recruiting people to travel east. They sometimes dressed brightly and were considered to be silver-tongued. Some of these "settlers" were on ships that sank before they reached their goal.
Others say these stories are about children being recruited for military campaigns or even the Children's Crusade. Since criticizing these campaigns was not allowed, the people told a more fanciful story to remember the children who never returned.
And still others say these stories are about an out break of dancing mania in the 13th century that caused people to lose themselves in dance and music, possibly even dancing to death.
And some people say the Piper was Death himself and the children drowned or died in a landslide or during a plague.

 


The Flute in the Cemetery
Around 200 years ago, a German musician named Casper Dielman came to America. He wrote music for several presidents, led symphony orchestras in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore and taught music at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland. He want his son, Larry Dielman, to be a composer and musician too. He even gave Larry a flute. But Larry wanted to play banjo and became a grocer instead. After Casper died (1880s) Larry pulled out the flute his father had given him which Larry had taught himself to play it in private. He went to his father's grave on Christmas and played in honor of his father. He did this each year and the neighbors soon noticed. They began waiting for the flute music to drift through the night and would go out and follow the piper to the cemetery, dancing. Larry died in 1923 but people said that each Christmas night they still heard flute music coming from cemetery. Sometimes the flute made dogs howl and other times ghostly laughter would follow the music around the gravestones.

Wandering in the MIM

I went to the Musical Instrument Museum in AZ earlier this summer. After 4 hours, I was dragged out by my hair. Mostly, I wandered about, happily drooling on the pretty instruments, listening to the musical clips and noticing odd little relations between different instruments/music/dance from wildly different areas (compare hula and flamenco dancing sometime!) But I also had fun taking a few pics. Sadly, the flutes usually don't have much information included in their display (a common symptom of string instruments getting more respect than winds) but there is still a wonderful range of flutes; end-blown, rim-blown, vessel, transverse, block and duct types and more. I did not even attempt to take pictures of all of them since that would have been too distracting from the thinking and dreaming I was doing. Nor did I take pics of only flutes.
Here are a few to share.
Enjoy.

Drum Skirt Honoring Yemaja

A Few South American Flutes

Flute from the Andes

Extremely Tall Drums

African Flutes and Whistles-Worn as status symbols

Flutes and whistles from the Balkans

Animal Shaped Whistles

Spanish Chiflo (duct flute) and Salterio (string drum)

Welsh Crwth

The Gem Flutes of Gilgamesh and Tammuzi

I put off this post in a deluded attempt to find more information but have now admitted the truth; I likely have all the information I can find. Both of these instruments are only mentioned in fragments of myths, making our information spotty at best but I'll do what I can.
First, a note about the term flute in these myths. The instrument in Gilgamesh’s story is often called a flute in English translations (and other languages) however it most likely was a reed instrument. This seems to be an extremely common mistranslation when dealing with old texts; any old or archaic wind instrument that is basically a hollow pipe is translated as flute regardless of the type of mouthpiece or how it is held. Why I’m not quite sure aside from the translators not realizing that “pipe” is a generic instrumental term and was never exclusively used for flutes. In the case of Gilgamesh's story, there is some doubt as to what kind of instrument is really meant but it was almost certainly end-blown (held vertical to the body instead of horizontal) and most likely had a reed in the mouthpiece. I have yet to find anyone examining the term for Tammuzi’s wind instrument but given the prevalence of musical translation issues and the popularity of reed instruments in this time and area, I think it is safe to assume it wasn’t a flute either. At this point, the use of the word flute in translations of myths is so common, I think it is quite reasonable to include these stories as part of the flute’s mythology so long as it is made clear when the instrument in question was really a flute or reed instrument.
Second, I apologize for using so many different versions of Dumuzi/Tammuzi and Ishtar/Inanna. It is a result of the how many cultures have told these stories and the fact that I do not feel qualified to simply "merge" the names into one without damaging the stories. I have kept things as simple as I could.

The Carnelian Pipe
The story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu comes from Mesopotamia. This is a very old and very fragmented poem. The different fragments are pieced together in different ways creating several versions. In short, Gilgamesh is the King of Urek (possibly Sumeria or thereabouts). He has divine parentage (quite common for royalty in myths) and a bad temper (ditto). Enkidu is created by the Gods to be his friend and calm him down. They have a number of adventures and encounters with the Gods which are anything but calm (but at least they stop bothering ordinary people so much). Eventually, Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh holds a funeral for his friend. In the process, Gilgamesh offers a wind instrument made of carnelian to Dumuzi (the Sun God is witnessing this ceremony I believe, not keeping the offerings) so that Enkidu will be welcomed into the afterlife. It is worth noticing that he also offers a flask made of lapis lazuli to Ereshkigal for the same reason (both lapis lazuli and Ereshkigal will be mentioned later). 

He displayed to the Sun God a flask of lapis lazuli
   for Ereshkigal, the queen of the Netherworld:
"May Ereshkigal, the queen of the teeming Netherworld, accept this,
   may she welcome my friend and walk by his side!"

He displayed to the Sun God a flute of carnelian
   for Dumuzi, the shepherd beloved of Ishtar:
"May Dumuzi, the shepherd beloved of Ishtar, accept this,
   may he welcome my friend and walk by his side!"

---from Book VIII of the Epic, lines 144–149

The Lapis Lazuli Pipe

Now for Tammuzi’s other wind instrument we have to look at the story of the descent of Ishtar into the Underworld. Again, there are several different, fragmented versions of this story. Ishtar is often related to Inanna the Sumerian Goddess of love, fertility and war. Tammuzi/Dumuzi (and various other spellings) is Ishtar’s/Inanna’s lover. Ishtar/Inanna decides to go to the Underworld to see her sister Ereshkigal the Queen of the Dead. In the process, Ishtar/Inanna basically dies but being a Goddess, she can return to her home and divine role of keeping the world alive if some one will take her place in the Underworld. Now while she was gone Tammuzi/Dumuzi has been living it up in her palace, sitting on her throne and playing a wind instrument (often called a flute but likely something else) made of lapis lazuli. She sends him to take her place in the Underworld supposedly for not mourning her properly. Tammuzi/Dumuzi took his lapis lazuli instrument with him to play comforting music for the dead. In some versions Dumuzi’s sister takes his place for half the year so he will not always be dead. The seasons change when they trade places in the Underworld. 

A Few Gems
We don’t always know exactly what stones the ancients meant by carnelian or lapis lazuli but they generally meant something reddish with carnelian and something bluish with lapis lazuli. We do know they meant something valuable as these gems were used in trade and by royalty. It would have been expensive to make instruments from them but not impossible and since both stones were associated with the Gods, anything made from them would have been appropriate as offerings. There have been a number of gem encrusted flutes (and other instruments) made in history, both for display and just to see how they would work, so there’s no reason to assume more ancient cultures wouldn’t have made instruments out of something flashy too. It is also quite common to say someone in a story or myth is playing an instrument made out of unusual or exotic materials to enhance the mythic or magical quality of the instrument.

So what shall we take from this? Well, we can't say anything for certain but I like the idea of Tammuzi’s/Dumuzi’s music changing colors as the seasons shift. Blue and red, cool and warm, living and dead, circling and harmonizing every year as the earth spins year after year.

6 Holes-Where Traversos and Whistles Meet

Pennywhistles and Baroque flutes.
Whistles are often used to introduce children to musical instruments based on the (mistaken) idea that all you have to do is blow. Traverso or Period flutes are often considered challenging for skilled musicians let alone beginners.
The current pennywhistle design was invented in the mid 1800s. Traverso players typically go back as far as the 1600s for their flute designs and avoid playing any style of flute after 1850 or so (when Boehm's redesign more or less created the modern concert flute).
In spite of these differences, these instruments are oddly entwined with each other. So much so, that I think learning one increases skill on the other and vice versa.

Let's start with an odd similarity in how these instruments are taught. They aren't. That's right, students rarely get any instruction on either instrument.
It is often assumed people can work out how to play a whistle by themselves because it has no keys and no special embouchure (mouth shape) is required. This means few people bother with much instruction. Now, it is true that if you ALREADY play a wind instrument, you may be able to work out the fingerings and get a decent start but kids being introduced to playing have a much tougher time. It strikes be as very odd and contradictory that previous musical experience is (somewhat unconsciously) assumed with an instrument that is often given to young children!
Meanwhile, traverso flutes have a reputation for being mysterious and difficult to learn partly because it has no keys (ironically enough) and don't play chromatic notes the same way modern flutes do. Finding a teacher is difficult not only because of how few concert flute players "dare" to pick up period instruments but also because there are so many different styles of flutes. If you do find a teacher, the odds are they aren't playing the exact same instrument as you and may not play flute at all (I ended up working with a Baroque bassoon player to get started). Books are still few and far between and generally assume the student is already a college-trained concert flutist, not a beginner. Generally, traverso players are left to muddle along on their own just like the whistlers.
The result is that both of these instruments are largely self taught because of the myth of their difficulty/easiness level and an assumption of previous musical experience.

Now the basic finger-hole pattern of these instruments.

Both are based on 6 finger holes, covered by the first three fingers of each hand with the left hand closer to the mouth. And both play a major scale using (basically) the same fingering pattern. The earliest traverso flutes from the Baroque era (1600s) have 6 finger holes plus one hole that is covered by a key that is almost always closed and therefore functions more or less like a 6 holed flute. Later traverso flutes had more keys added and with them more holes but the basic idea of 6 holes remained the framework design for most styles. (Fifes have the 6 finger pattern too in case anyone was wondering.)

Three Whistles-6 Finger Holes

Baroque Flute-6 Finger Holes Plus One Key

This means the fingerings of the pennywhistle often work on the traverso and vice versa though some fingerings need tweaking. This is especially helpful with the chromatic notes. Whistles have a slew of alternate fingerings for chromatic notes (so many it can be overwhelming) many of  which work on a period instrument. This can be wonderfully helpful since the fingerings for older flutes are not as detailed or extensive as the modern flute by a long stretch.

Modes, scales and folk music.
Both play the same basic set of scales or modes with relative ease. This means whistles and traversos can both play major/ionian, dorian, mixolydian and natural minor/aeolian and harmonic or melodic minor without too many half-holes or cross-fingerings.
Celtic music, old time fiddle tunes and a lot of other folk music use these modes and scales all the time. These styles use whistles pretty regularly and therefore, lots of this music will "fit" on the traverso flutes without resorting to chromatic fingerings. This means you can learn the ins and outs of the traverso on tunes that don't require the more difficult half-holes and cross-fingerings nearly as often as the more formal (and modulating) Baroque and Classical composers. And learning to play a couple of Bach or Telemann tunes on the whistle can make learning the half-holes and cross-fingerings a bit less challenging. Not to mention a great deal of Classical music actually was inspired by folk music so you may find some interesting musical relationships hiding in the staffs.

An interesting cross-over from the Celtic folk music realm; Because the Irish flute is (more or less) a traverso, an instruction book for Irish flute can be used with some traverso flutes. These books tend to have more absolute beginner information and you get some modal Celtic tunes in some of them.

Finally, there is one other advantage to learning the whistle with the traverso. It gives you a way to change your arm position and lower your arms from time to time. This helps with the repetitive use injuries musicians are so very prone to. Just the act of switching instruments lets you rest and recover without having to stop playing.

The more instruments I learn, the more each one informs my understanding and skill on the others. They open up worlds of musical styles and ways of thinking. They expand the possibilities and styles of music I experience and, with a little luck, let me share something fun and lovely with others.

Forest Music

"Know the Structure...Compare the piece to a forest. I first try to see the entire forest...figure out where the forest begins and ends and which kinds of trees are located where...observe the other creatures and landmarks...It becomes difficult to get lost while playing."
---Jasmine Choi

Music as a forest.
Forests have shapes and patterns. Music has form, variation, repetition and contrast.
Forests rise and fall on the landscape they cover. Music's history shapes the groundwork of each new piece. How a piece was played changes as it travels from country to country and person to person.
Forests are made up of many different kinds of trees, vines, herbs and flowers. Meadows, clearings, deer trails, bird's nests and dense thickets may emerge or vanish as we wander. Chords, harmony, other instruments, ornaments, improvisations, modulations and imitation weave throughout music. We never play the music exactly the same twice.
Forests have canopies, various under-layers, brush and floor layers that are linked together in a shifting pattern. Music has countermelodies, themes, motives, counterpoint, ostinatos, bass lines, recurring lines and notes that link to each other in complex tapestries.
The seasons transform the forest year after year. Time reshapes the music with each performance, each rehearsal, each change in musical expression.  We learn new skills, polish old ones and old music becomes new.
Other creatures live within this realm though you may not see them. Audiences (large, small or solitary practice) change our choices in every performance. Our experiences and memories of other performers and teachers (even those we have forgotten) appear and disappear like magic.
The forest is ancient and immediate. Music is ephemeral and inescapable.

Whistle While You Work

As some of you may know, I've been adding to my flute collection the last couple of years. I've also been working on playing by memory and recording more often. The result is I have music tracks of pennywhistles to share.

The first track is a low F whistle from MK Whistles in Scotland and the tune is "The Farewell to Music" by O'Carolan.
The second track is a wood whistle in D made by Gene Milligan and the tune is "Banish Misfortune." Still a bit slow since I only memorized it a month or so ago.
The third track is a high F copper whistle from Elf Song Whistles made by Sandy Jasper and the tune is "The Little Beggar Man." I used this tune to teach myself double tonguing as a youngster.



What I've learned so far.
Of course each whistle has a distinct sound/personality (just like other flutes) but I was startled by how some folk tunes "fit" under the fingers better on the whistles than on the concert flute. There are times when playing by ear is considerable less tricky on the whistles too. I think this is partly due to being able to see my fingers without a mirror for the first time ever. But only partly. The tunes (well, some of them) are just easier to work out on the whistles.
Playing with brass bands on the tiny whistle also seems to work better than the concert flute or even the picc. It's challenging to be heard but the tone works better when it is audible. Whistles with flats (F major whistle is my pick but B-flat would do) are best for this.
I vastly prefer the quieter whistles, especially the high ones, to save my ears and ear plugs travel with the whistles everywhere. Loud whistles may cut through large groups better but I like my hearing and intend to keep it. And I prefer the tone of the quiet whistles when playing solo or just "dreaming" in the woods.

I've realized that when I first played pennywhistle (as a grade-schooler) there were two basic issues that caused me to think I didn't like the instrument. First, the cheap, easy-to-find whistles aren't always in tune and I didn't like their tone at all. Knowing enough to be able to find whistles that are in tune and that have tones I like makes a big difference (the wood whistle is my favorite on pure tone but they all have their charms). Second, I wasn't a good enough player to handle the whistle at the time. I already played flute but even so, I wasn't ready to tackle the whistle alone. Which is very intriguing since teachers often give whistles or recorders to kids to get started in music because "they're easy" and then never give them much, if any, instruction on the whistle. No wonder so many kids who start that way don't continue! The first time they can't figure something out without help (which happens soon!) they are likely to think that if they can't play this "easy" instrument, they will have an even more difficult time with other instruments. If they got some instruction, they would have a much better experience.

Two important tips: 1) Learn your modes and where they are on the whistle! Especially Dorian and Mixolydian; there are many folk/Celtic tunes in those two modes. (Modern Modes Intro) 2) Learn to transpose in some fashion. You can chose to re-write tunes into the key you read or learn to transpose by sight (several tricks for that-Transposition on Key-less flutes) whichever. Not all tunes are written in the whistle's range but that doesn't mean you can't play them. Just learn how to put them in your range!

A musician I encountered a few years back described the whistle as the scariest instrument to play in front of others because it is all about breath and lung control. There is no reed, no register key and no way to change-your-embouchure-to-help-adjust. Controlling the speed of the air is all there is between a good note and a missed one. This means the whistle requires precise and exacting control of your own lungs and every large and small muscle linked to your lungs. Rewarding, delightful, good for everyday breathing issues and intensely personal but not easy.

Anyway, here I am falling madly in love, at last, with several new whistles.
Enjoy!

The Glories of Trying

I’ve never liked the quote “do or do not; there is no try”. Don’t get me wrong, in some ways this saying is very true in music but there are other ways that it is just wrong. When you hit a wrong note, there’s no two ways about it, it is wrong. But that doesn’t mean you should give up. This quote is, sadly, often used to imply that if you can't get something done right on your first try, don't bother. Which I simply can not accept. (A friend of mine points out that this is a misinterpretation of the original use of the quote, but it is a common one.)
When we first study music, we make mistakes. We try to do something new and rarely do we get it right the first time. The mistakes show us what not to do and if we don't make them, we can't learn. All skilled musicians got skilled by making mistakes. Lots of them. They are just like gardeners with green thumbs, who have killed more plants than most of us can imagine, learning exactly what it takes to keep the plants alive. They just tried again and with time made fewer and fewer mistakes until their mistakes were few, far between and mostly small. And the best musician to draw breath still makes mistakes every time they play even though the audience usually can’t hear it. They are human and humans are not perfect. But the magic of music, and all art, is that perfection is not required. Art is about beauty, fascination and thinking and feeling in different ways. It is meant to engage people in deep ways that are difficult to express or understand. The overall experience is rarely ruined by a mistake or three.
There are books that discuss the advantage of practicing new music veerrryyyy slowly so that you will not play wrong notes and therefore not “practice making mistakes”. Now it is quite true that this is a wonderful way to practice (and this is my favorite way to wake up in the morning) but it does not mean that if you make a mistake, the practice session is a waste of time. In fact, part of this method says that if you are focusing on one aspect of the music (correct rhythm, good tone, accurate pitches etc.), mistakes in other areas don’t really count. It is about not getting stuck in the mistakes, not panicking and taking the time to correct the mistakes as best you can. Or even learning how to work around them.

An Imperfect Picture

“Do or do not” is about looking at and critiquing the results after the effort has been made. “Trying” is about the effort itself. Without being willing to try, there are no results to criticize. To try is to make an honest attempt and to be willing to learn something new from that attempt, successful or not. Trying is how we grow and become able to achieve fantastic, imperfect wonders that surpass our deepest dreams and create accidental beauty we never could have imagined.

"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."--Mahatma Gandhi

Flute and Aulos in Greek Mythology - The Importance of Translation

I have mentioned this before and I know I will again but this particular issue is very widespread and deserves a post all its own. At least if you enjoy researching music in myths.

When reading anything about ancient Greece that mentions "the flute", there are very high odds that it should say "the aulos". Aulos is so frequently mistranslated as flute that you almost have to assume that flute means aulos in any English text. The aulos is a double reed instrument played vertically, sometimes in pairs and sometimes not. The flute has no reeds and is played horizontally/transverse and almost no one is crazy enough to try to play two at once. The recorder and the pennywhistle are both sometimes played in pairs but again, they don't use reeds and so also aren't an aulos either.

Pan Playing Double Aulos Among the White Violets

The aulos does not exist as a modern instrument and we don't know all the details of how the aulos was made or played. We do have enough pictures from vases and sculptures, as well as writings about it, to know it was not like the flute at all. The aulos does seem to be somewhat like an oboe but that comparison is not precise either since oboes are not played in pairs and don't require a strap around the head. This means that whenever you run into something saying "Athena invented the flute", "Euterpe was the Muse of flute players" or "Apollo played flute with the Muses" it almost ALWAYS means aulos, not flute.

Now just to confuse things, there was a transverse flute in use in ancient Greece. It was considered a country instrument, not very sophisticated and linked to shepherds. There are almost no mythological stories that feature this instrument and the only reference to a God playing one (that shouldn't actually read aulos that is) that I have run across is Pan and I'm not sure about that one. It is possible that the original Greek text said panpipes or syrinx instead of flute, another common mistranslation. Although since Pan was a God of shepherds, it is not impossible that in this case, they actually meant the transverse flute.

Pan Playing Transverse Flute Among the Wild Columbine

The transverse flute just didn't have enough respect to be used in the stories. It is one of the oldest instruments in the world but it took centuries for the flute to gain any standing among other instruments in Western culture. Yet people kept playing it, teaching it and writing music for it. And now, it is so hard for us to believe that this instrument didn't matter in the past that we change the name of other instruments to flute. Flutes can be sneaky little things.

For more on the myths of the aulos see  Athena and Hermes Musical Inventions, Apollo the One Man Band and A Night at the Theater