The Start of Something New

So, today was my first day of guitar-building at the Irish School of Luthrie. Duuuuude, it's only my first day and I'm hooked!! I spent a good 9 hours in the shop today and got a lot done!! I'm building two instruments for myself: a good ol' steel-string acoustic guitar, and an arch-top 10-string guitar-bodied bouzouki!! This blog will temporarily serve as the forum to keep ya'll updated on the progress of the two instruments as they're brought into this world. Hey, this blog is about me learning stuff, so I supposed it suits that I post my current learnings!

Today was a productive day!! I chose my woods to start: Englmann Spruce (top) and Indian Rosewood (back & sides) for the guitar; and Englmann Spruce (t) and Flamed Maple (b&s) for the guitar-bouzouki! I jointed the two pieces of the tops together today, as well as the maple back for the bouzouki. Probably the most tiring part of the day was 'thicknessing' the backs and sides in the thickness sander. Running em through a massive sander and checking them with a micrometer as I went a long to check the thickness, aiming for 2.4 and 2.2 millimeters. And I also glued the maple back of the guitar-bouzouki! Tomorrow I'll glue the rosewood back, and then see what I have to do next!! I'm diggin' this!!!!!

Hello!!

Hey ya'll!!

Long story short...I moved up to Galway, and its an AMAZING city!!!! More music than you can shake a stick at, and of all varieties!! There seems to be some sort of festival here every weekend!! Though the city is absolutely awesome, I don't really get to participate in much of its fun activities...unless of course you count becoming a connoisseur of coffee shops, then I'm doing loads of that!! But even that, I really only go to two of them. One has cheap eggs, decent coffee, and Brazilian waitresses, while the other has amazing coffee, good bagels, and French waitresses. I've become such a regular at the French place that I now get free coffee!! Its great!!!

My days are spent, well...let me just walk you through one.
- Wake up around 9; check email and take allergy pills (when it doesn't rain during the summer, Irish plants grow really fast and produce gargantuan amounts of pollen); perhaps take a bikeride to stretch the old knee; head to the café on the quays for cheap eggs and coffee and spectate the tourists; come home and either work at my computer for hours on end doing verbatim transcriptions of interviews I've done (slightly mind-numbing, but exciting when you get to the good parts), or gather a stack of papers and books and head to the French café to sit in the window, read and watch more tourists; take a break/come home and play the fiddle until I get frustrated, then try to tune my guitar till I get frustrated, then go back to work/go back to the café; dinner; back to the café for more coffee and reading; home around 12 or 1, email/facebook; watch some Father Ted; bed. This is roughly my schedule, though the order does change, and somedays there is more or less fiddling. Now that I've been in this routine, its actually kind of enjoyable. Its still stressful, sure! But seeing progress and coming to the conclusion that I actually know what I'm talking about and could even be post something about the bouzouki on wikipedia and it would be reputable. Yeah, I've thought about that...

I've also had the epiphany that I'm lucky as hell to be doing what I'm doing in the environment and circumstances that I'm in. I mean, I'm in Ireland, around the corner from the sea, 5 minutes walk from the main drag, I have so much music within striking distance its ridiculous (and honesly, there are maybe a few cities in the U.S. that can boast the equivalent), and all I have to do is to work on a project about a musical instrument that is awesome, versatile, fun to play, has a very cosmopolitan and interesting history, and has found its way into my hands as well. Though it can be a fairly lonely existence, and the ol' knee doesn't get along with Irish weather patterns, I can't really complain. I'd be a fool to. I'm learning more about the world than I ever thought I would, while still being in an english-speaking (somewhat) Western nation. I perception of the world has changed, my perception of music has definitely changed, and I'm feeling a passion well-up inside me that I've never felt before. Don't really know how to explain it, but I can't ignore it. I see that the world is a smaller place than I once thought, and that the possibilities are greater than I could have ever imagined. I will admit, part of me does think about not going back to the states. The European way of life, and way of understanding and thinking, is much different from that of the U.S.

Its interesting to see the mode in which Ireland functions. (positive generalization) Its based on happiness, friendship, exploration of thought, a love of history and an acceptance of the problems and mistakes of the past. Then comparing that mode to the U.S. and those nations that the U.S. has so greatly economically and culturally affected. China being one of them. So hurried to "modernize", so in a rush to keep up with the rich, but dysfunctional, neighbors across the street/sea. Granted, no place is perfect, but there are definitely things that can be learned from those who have learned from the mistakes and tragedies of their past.

Ok, I've deviated from my schedule long enough. It's time to run errands, walk the housemate's dog, and go to the French café for my morning fix. Love to all you who read this. I'm off to Greece in a few days for a much needed recharge of the old batteries! I will be 30 in a couple weeks, the batteries do need recharging in my old age.

Well...

Its been a while since I've written in this. So long that I'm too tired to even start trying to write out all that has happened in the last 4 months. So, instead. I've decided to post this picture. It more or less sums up what I've been doing, in more than one way.


This was at the last session of the year.

Holiday Recap and the New Term

Well, now that I'm back at a new semester I figured I might as well get this thing going again! Last term ended in a flurry of chaos and stress, but alas its done and gone and my grades from last term show me that the hard work was worth the effort. The break was EXACTLY what I needed. A week traveling through Northern Ireland and Scotland fed my soul a good bit, but also made me long to be back in the states. Thus convincing me to extend my trip home and add a week in New York to my voyage. Which was $$ well spent. I love New York, and this last trip has put it in the running for my new home when I return to the US. The week in southern California was exactly what the doctor ordered - besides that fact that the reason I was there in the first place was to see my doctor. Warm sun, clear skys, beaches, good coffee, great food, great family and friends made it the best week I've had in a long time!! I have to give thanks to my dad and Laura for putting together such a great weekend, and to everyone else that was a part of that amazing week!

Upon returning to Ireland I felt obligated to partake in ungodly and chaotic sleeping hours for the next three days. I discovered that even four bottles of wine can't make one go to bed at a reasonable hour, but can still wake you up with a blinding headache as soon as the sun peers over the back fence. I actually should give that day more credit, for without the pain from what felt like a brain stung by 100 honey bees, I would have slept all day instead of lying awake wishing I were dead which in turn allowed me to sleep that night. So, perhaps wine has a secondary - and somewhat delayed - function in curing jetlag from the other side of the planet.

Since being back I've been playing a fair bit of bouzouki with my fiddle-touting friends Jessie and Kay. They've been kind enough to let me bash away and explore chords and wrong notes while they work on their already amazing fiddling. Just in the maybe five times we've played tunes I feel I've learned a great deal. Hopefully it'll be enough, as I was asked to play in one of the performance ensembles with the MA Trad Performance kids here. They are all great, so I feel honored that they'd ask me to join them. If I get departmental permission to do this, I see myself learning a lot this term while hopefully not annoying those who already know what they're doing.

The spring term is going to be very busy, yet fun and exciting. Our workload is reduced, but we have our thesis to mainly focus on plus a good deal of international conferences and research proposals with ethnomusicologists at the University of Cork. We're attending (perhaps presenting at) the International Conference of Traditional Music in Dublin at the end of the month, then there is also an intensive 10-day seminal/conference ethnochoreology conference in Norway at the end of April. There is also a recording engineers conference/trade show in London in May, and another ethnomusicology conference in the Czech Republic later in the summer. My classes should be informative and quite interesting. One is solely based on theoretical issues in the field, while the other is a survey on music from around the world. As of now we'll be looking at music from Egypt, Morocco, West Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Hungary, and others.

It'll be a very busy 8 months, but it'll be rewarding just the same. My main concern is not losing my mind and myself in all the chaos. I've come to realize that not playing music regularly makes me a very edgy and irritable person. You'd think regular exercise would help such a thing, but as of now its just making me hungry and sore. Not exactly great additions to someone already pent up with musical frustration. So, though I vowed to not any new years resolutions, I've made one anyway. Well, sort of. I've decided to not let my academic work completely rule my life, as it'll do me no good if I just want to kill anyone around me who happens to say anything remotely dumb. Music is why I'm here, so music is going to get out of the trunk and hop into the passenger seat for the next 8 months, at which time it'll probably take the driver seat again.

Week of Music in Retrospect

Last week was one of perhaps the most musically inspiring weeks I've ever experienced! The university brought a slough of musicians and music-academic minds to us so we could pick their minds!!

Starting the week, we had the band Mozaik (look them up), which is made up of living legends from three different folk genres. Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine and legends in the Irish music scene, and were founding members of the original Irish super groups (Planxty, The Bothy Band, Sweeney's Men, and other more contemporary groups). These men are two of the founding fathers of the Irish Bouzouki, so I was obviously very excited. Dónal plays bouzouki mainly, as well as guitar. While Andy plays bouzouki, mandolin, guitar, harmonica, and other stuff. Bruce Molsky is an American Old Tyme fiddler and singer. Nicola Parlov is a Bulgarian and Hungarian multi-instrumentalist, and is highly respected in Balkan music. And Rens van der Zalm is a Dutch multi-instrumentalist who can basically play anything that the other four can, and just as well. The band did workshops with the Irish traditional music MA students in a band setting. Helping them fine tune arrangements they are working on for a concert with the Chieftains at the end of this month. Later on that afternoon, the band performed in the small performing arts center on campus. One of the best parts about this, the PA went out 3 songs in. The guys decided to continue playing their mix of Irish, American Old Tyme, and Bulgarian folk music acoustically, while standing in the center of the hall amongst the crowd. It was awesome!!! After the concert, the gave a two-hour seminar talking about their music and how they make decisions when it comes to mixing these three styles of music. It was inspiring to say the least. One of the best quotes, the band was talking about life as a professional musician and that one has to make sacrifices to do it. Then they also mentioned that the music will make hard decisions for you. Meaning, that if the music has a grip on you, it will guide your decisions. A girl asked, "Is it really black and white like that?" Nicola Parlov responded, "Its mostly black." It may not seem funny to you, but it was hilarious given the context of the conversation.

Okay, the next day, us ethnomusicologists had the band to ourselves over breakfast and coffee before they headed off to the next town on their tour. Svend (another ethnomusicologist in our program, and friend of Dónal) grabbed Dónal and myself to do a private interview and small recording session. Svend and Dónal are developing bass-bodhran techniques, so I just king of hung out. This we a great opportunity to get to know Dónal, and I owe great thanks to Svend for letting me tag along. Long story short, Dónal and I got to know one another and he's agreed to an interview at the end of january. We exchanged email address' and I'll also be asking him questions here and there as well, as at this moment I'm in process of writing a 20 page paper on the man.

Wednesday, ethnochoreologist (dance) Ruth Hillier, gave a lecture on work she'd done in eastern Mexico. This was interesting, but my mind was on other things so I didn't really pay attention. But, on thursday, ethnomusicologist Tim Cooley gave a lecture on work he's done on Surf-music. Yes, music that is related to surfing. It was rad!! He's from Santa Barbara, so he and I ended up having a conversation over lunch about the west-coast punk scene, its relationship to skateboarding, as a possible PhD topic for myself.

The week was topped off by a trip to Ennis in East Clare for the Ennis Trad Fest!! After a considerable amount of persuasion, I was convinced to play bouzouki in a session in Ennis on friday night. I'm glad I did, it was a good time!! The entire next day was spent walking around Ennis hanging out in sessions, then we (myself a a good lot of musicians from school) all went to see Lúnasa (considered the greatest of Irish super-groups). The concert went until about 3:30am, and was absolutely insane!!

It was one hell of a week, but now I'm back into books and freaking out that I won't get everything done on time. But, on December 3rd, all my worries will be over as that is the day all my work is due. In that case, there's a good chance I won't be writing in this till after then. So until then, wish me luck!! I'll be reading and writing till the wee hours of the morning from here on out.

Cheers.

Finally!!!!!

No more rainy days!!!! Metaphorically, this means that I've now found inspiration for my thesis and I'm damn excited to spend the next year exhausting every aspect of the topic. The Irish Bouzouki!!!! Basically, its the bass version of a mandolin. The little time I have to play is mostly spent with the bouzouki, as I've fallen in love with its beautiful tone and feel. In Irish Trad, one can play chords to accompany, play melody, melodic harmony, or a combination of all three. It's super diverse and a ton of fun to play!!

In discussing other thesis options with my director today, he casually mentioned bouzouki as he knew I'd taken to playing it. He then brought up the fact that nobody - that he or another professor knew of - had ever done a full e

xamination of bouzouki in Irish Trad. (It's a relatively new instrument, but has been widely accepted into Irish music.) My ears perked up, and we spent the next 45 minutes talking about ideas for the papers I have due in a month, and how I can use them as a part of my thesis to come.

I'm so stoked I can barely contain myself!!! To this point school has been interesting, but not to the point that I'd like. Its been more stressful than anything. But, now that I have a vision, I'm fucking stoked!!!!! I've already got a list of names of bouzouki players in the area, as well instrument makers. I was already thinking about taking bouzouki lessons in the spring, this just seals that in stone!! I couldn't be more excited about this project!!!

I've got to consult the head of the MA Trad program and get her approval and thoughts, but I think I'll be good to go!!

This has already changed my outlook for the year. I'm so happy.

My mando, and the new addition...

Hackin' On

We're now in the last month of classes for the term. And I admit, I'm more stressed now than I've been...perhaps ever. Sorry if this thing has turned into a venue for bitching about stress. But, I gotta do it somehow. Luckily our workload has lessened in the last week so that we'll be able to give more focus to our three major written projects, and - as I've come to learn - an ethnographic dvd cataloging audio and video recordings that we haven't even done yet. How time will present itself to get this done, I have not a clue. But, oh well.

Went to a halloween/punkin-carving party last night with all the Tradies (Irish Trad Performance peeps). Of course, I found myself a cow costume to don. The night was loads of fun, and we even managed to carve some punkins as well.

The next week is going to be insane here! The band, Mozaik, which is comprised of some of the most famous and best of Irish musicians, is coming to UL to do a weeks worth of work with the performance and ethno students. Loads of workshops and performances by the band, then they're also coming into our class so we can pick their brain's for a while! Two of the musicians, Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine (Planxty, the Bothy Band, Sweeny's Men, Moving Hearts) are for lack of a better term, Gods, in Irish traditional music. Mozaik takes folk music from all over the world and puts them together to create their own brand of folk. Largely influenced by Irish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, and whatever else they can use, they make some very interesting and technical music. I'm looking forward to learning from them. Also next week, noted ethnomusicologist Tim Cooley, will be here and in our class to give as a lecture on his new work focusing on music and affinity groups. In this specific case, music associated with Surf (as in surfing) culture. It should be really cool, as we've read a couple of his books so far this term and we'll have an opportunity to pick his brain a bit. Plus, we also have audio, photography, and video workshops mixed in every week till the end of term. Lots of cool stuff happening!!

I'm off to the library to wrap my head around some stuff! I can't wait for winter break so I can finally put some time into playing music!!

Cheers!