I loved Brady’s intensity, and I loved Arty McGlynn’s solid musicianship. I was an urban musician, so my style was angst-ridden, but I would go back and have this rural time as well.įrom a very early age, I was really influenced by Arty McGlynn and Paul Brady, and I was trying to mix the two of them up. How did you arrive at the perpetual-motion rhythm style you first became known for in Solas?ĭOYLE I grew up in Dublin and my father was from Sligo, so I had this dual aspect about the music. Before the show, the easygoing virtuoso sat down with his left-handed Muiderman flattop to shed light on how he honors and stretches tradition as a guitarist and songwriter.
#PLAY CELTIC MUSIC FULL#
I met up with Doyle at a Philadelphia-area house concert where, joined by fiddler Duncan Wickel, he performed a stunning show that displayed the full range of his powers on guitar, from rollicking rhythm to beautifully melodic fingerstyle (actually played with a pick and one finger). Doyle has lived in the United States for more than 20 years now (currently in Asheville, North Carolina) and performs solo and with Casey and others. Since Doyle left Solas in 2001, he has pursued a number of projects, including collaborations with fiddler Liz Carroll and original Solas vocalist Karan Casey a recent stint leading Joan Baez’s band and two other solo albums, Wayward Son and Evening Comes Early. On tunes that most players would cover with two or three chords, Doyle is all over the neck, substituting chords on the fly so each pass through a tune is a different harmonic journey, with bass runs and countermelodies that make the music jump. Few rhythm guitarists demand the spotlight, but Doyle’s superpowered accompaniment in trad-music settings like Solas is a marvel. This 2011 album is a natural step for the Dublin-raised musician, who first made a splash in Celtic music circles in the ’90s for his kinetic guitar work with the Irish-American group Solas. Shadow and Light is a singer-songwriter album that finds its lyrical power not by pondering personal experience, but by personalizing history. A scan of the liner notes, though, reveals that these sturdy tunes are not “Traditional, arranged by” but Doyle’s new creations-even songs about 19th-century shipwrecks and the travails of Irish soldiers in the Civil War. Spinning the John Doyle album Shadow and Light (Compass), you might easily believe you’re hearing a set of Irish songs and tunes dating back centuries, all sung and played beautifully on acoustic guitar, bouzouki, and other stringed instruments. So we're asking you to give just $1 (or whatever you can afford) right now. Research questions included: What were the various attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of session participants regarding learning traditional Irish/Celtic music? What are the characteristics of learning that occurred in this informal setting? What are the implications for lifelong music learning and formal music education? Information about this kind of informal learning practice has implications for formal school instrumental learning.Hey, fellow guitarist! Did you know 99.9% of visitors to this site will scroll past this message without making a contribution? Many plan to pledge later, but then forget. We conducted session documentation through photo, video, cyberspace information and audio recording balanced against in-depth interviews. Because CTM is an aural/oral culture, participants valued learning "by ear," but did regard written notation as a useful aid, particularly as a mnemonic strategy.
Participants were attracted to CTM and traditional instruments for various reasons, and learned through the medium ofitunesj rather than scales and exercises. Three had learned to play an instrument at school but had discontinued playing their school instruments after graduation. There were 2 women and 4 men, the average age of participants was 45, and each had been learning Celtic Traditional Music (CTM) between six and 16years. This on-going ethnographic study focuses on adult music learning by examining motivations and successful learning strategies favored by 6 players in one weekly Celtic pub session.