Kevin Burke explains the Irish roll

[@radharcanna]

I can’t even play but I find this fascinating to watch and listen to. Kevin’s my favourite fiddler.

[@tullochgorum6323]

The single best resource I've found on the Irish roll... That man is a gem!

[@williamdevlin5233]

Totally agree. And I don't play fiddle, I play whistle and flute. Only time I've heard anyone one explain it this way.

[@JustFiddler]

thank you for the video. i love kevin, i love bothy band. greeting from bali island

[@patfiddles]

How you explain it is just as important as how you play it- I love how he says "I just want to put a dent in the F#"- you totally get the point of this particular ornamentation.

[@2011Matz]

Kevin is able to understand clearly what he is doing and articulate it. This is not necessarily the case with great musicians.

[@lindaj5492]

Thanks for posting this! Just found his YT videos & now hoovering up as much as possible 😉

[@jeffdurkin4893]

Burke is great !

[@JustFiddler]

yes he is

[@williamfleming892]

I slowed it down so much and I don’t really see movement. This is magic

[@Haladriel]

Thank you thank you thank you! Looking forward to practicing this in the morning!

[@TheDawgbro]

Fantastic! Thank you.

[@uhoh007]

Awesome

[@munsterfloyd]

Brilliant!

[@johntait491]

Really excellent information. Off to practice now..!! ;-)

[@munsterfloyd]

Super video.

[@aidanduffield518]

tune played at 4:40?

[@Wanderer-l9h]

Top chef

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

I am trying to develop this for the electric guitar. Making the recessive notes discrete enough that you mostly just hear the note being rolled on is ridiculously difficult as is getting it up to speed without it becoming af full fledged trill

[@zaledalen9931]

I've just about got it for the fiddle. It's all in the timing, and keeping the emphasis on, as you said, the note being rolled on. Get it right and it's magical. Get it just slightly wrong and it sound like your full fledged trill. One tip I can give you, it isn't entirely the speed at which the higher and lower notes are played. It's in the emphasis and the timing. It's possible to get it sounding right while playing it almost slowly. Good luck. I can't imagine what the effect will be on an electric guitar, but please let me know if you feel you have some success. Great idea.

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

@@zaledalen9931 I am working on a bunch of different ornaments having picked up the tin whistle late in life, so now I am trying to fit some of all that into my electric guitar playing. I completely get what you are saying about speed - I am working at it slowly. The issue with speed is in the nature of the guitar. It has frets. When you fret a note, you are very likely to get a full note. There is no bow - so there is precious little to do about the relative volume of notes. What I am trying to do is work on combinations of picked notes and legato ones, where I try to put a finger to the string, muting it a the last moment without fully fretting and then performing the pull-of. This results in a rather choppy feel which is hard to do without tensing up, and that's what makes it difficult to speed up. I can play the same thing as a trill at high speed with no problem, it's eliminating the notes that is difficult, because a bit like a piano, once you press down - a note comes out ... it's fun working at but however close I get I am a little doubtful that the percussive effect will ever be quite as pronounced ...

[@zaledalen9931]

@@whynottalklikeapirat Well, it's an interesting thing to try for, and who knows what you might discover. There are so many things people do with guitars now that were not invented yet when I started playing. Things like tapping. I get what you mean about the frets and what they do to the notes. It's interesting that a lot of Scottish fiddle techniques come from trying to make the instrument sound like a bagpipe. I talked to a bagpipe player and he said that they can't make separate notes on the instrument, so they interrupt the note instead. Tapping the string with the third finger gets somewhat the same effect on the fiddle, but again it's a timing thing and I haven't got it yet.

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

@@zaledalen9931 Hehe - yeah I kinda left the tapping thing back in the early 90s, but almost considered going back to some of it to pull off some ornaments, but it's not for me anymore :D. It's interesting what you say about the bag-pipes I am under the impression that the tin whistle works about the same as the chanter on an uillean pipe - for the low whistles that are bigger I believe they even speak about a "pipers grip". But yeah - on the whistle it's like that you interrupt the air flow with "cuts" above the note and "taps" below and the above cut is usually not even in tune necessarily because you use either the 3rd or 6th hole. Apparently they have the best percussive effect when you make the cut. On the guitar I have to do it from a note thats musical because the not is likely ring out just a little. I came around to a violin video mostly because it's another stringed instrument and I wanted to see if there was something in that technique that might help me, but for this ornament it seems like it's that same approach only more natural to the violin. It was intesting what he said about rolling on the second of two similar notes ...

[@newt702]

This is old but I love seeing a guitar player learning from this. You're smart to pick up great technique from other instruments!

[@dfmontgomery91]

John Carty, in response years ago to my noting..no pun...that Kevin said he didn't fully pick up his finger to play rolls..."he's the laziest man in Irish music !"....had a good chuckle !

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

good one

[@tomgreene1843]

Good simple explanation , ut writing it for a nan trad musician can cause problems.

[@JohninRosc]

If like me you are confused, watch from 4.37 to 4.49 first, then go to the start of the video. If you actually play Irish music then most likely you won't be confused. I've listened to it most of my life and used to accompany it quite well on guitar until Steve Cooney came along and ruined it for us three chord trick brigade! I knew Kevin's cousin John and his aunt too from CCE in London 4 decades ago. Lovely family.

[@petercane6890]

Kevin you are my favourite Irish fiddle player. You are brilliant but the video was full of flaws. Its not your fault. The sound kept changing from on to off in my right ear, you needed to be nearer the microphone so I can hear you better ( i having hearing problems). Also, it would be a lot more helpful if I could have a close up birds eye view of your left hand!. Please take my criticism as poitive as I would like to see that vid again but as described. You are an incredible fiddle player. I listen to you all the time. The best there is. Pete

[@zaledalen9931]

Hi and thanks for the comment.. Kevin had nothing at all to do with this recording. I recorded it on my phone during a workshop he gave. Sorry about the sound quality. There wasn't much I could do about it. But I sure agree about Kevnin Burke. That was one wonderful workshop. If you want a professional recording of the same thing, check out Fiddlevideo.com

[@munsterfloyd]

It sounds fine at my end.

[@dermur68]

@@zaledalen9931 It's good enough for purpose - nobody should expect it to be the National Concert Hall. Thanks for posting!

[@theliamofella]

You talk like my 12 uncles from both sides of my family, they all came from Dublin when they were young men to Birmingham about 50 years ago, but I detect your not a dub but more western like cork.?

[@lindareese4579]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom of Irish rolls!!!!!