The Ashokan Farewell

[mudmucker]

Beautiful with the flute. Thanks for sharing, and actually stirring up some fun memories.

The following is a true story.

I never had the opportunity to play an instrument as a child. I always loved the fiddle/violin.

Ashoken Farewell is THE tune that compelled me to purchase a violin, after hearing it on the Civil War series. It is just hauntingly beautiful. I bought a violin to ultimately play that tune. At the time I bought it, I didn't know how to play at all. And, I didn't know how to read music. But I knew I could teach myself. Because my goal, was to play that song.

So at age 40, I went to my favorite music store in Brattleboro, VT and they had a good selection of violins. I said to the woman, this is my price range. But I don't play. So you are going to have to take the 5 or 6 that are in my price range and play them for me. I will then choose which one I like the best based on tonal qualities. I told her I was going to walk out of there with a violin in my hand. So we went out in the back, and I spent 2 hours with her, listening to her play the same songs on the different violins until I narrowed it down to one. It had a beautiful mellow tone to it.

Lessons were out of the question because they were so expensive. I taught myself the foundation of the song by ear. But I also wanted to read the notes as well. I went and looked for the music sheet for the song and found it. Then, I bought a beginner's violin book and proceeded to teach myself to read music. I bought a basic beginner "how to" video tape to get the knack of slides and slurs. After 3 months or so I had gotten a very good rendition of the song and it's better ever since. I finally "got" the vibrato after 6 months and was tickled pink for a week. It "just" happened, finally after alot of trying. I still don't play great - I need to advance and lessons are still too expensive and I can't find anyone close to me. I need to hang out with fiddle type musicians but I don't know any. All I know, is that I feel wonderful inside when I play.

[oxysback]

Thanks to those who've listened and commented. It means a lot.

Mudmucker, thanks for sharing your story. And props to you for keeping at it even though you couldn't afford lessons. I really admire those that can play by ear. I'm so 'chained' to the music that some styles are difficult to play, especially if they require any sort of ad lib.

It is really all about the feeling, isn't it? I'm the children's chorister at my church and a lot of them are a bit shy about singing. I always tell them it's not as much about how you sound, but how you feel when you sing (or play...or whatever!).

[Mr. Bloom]

Good job!

Greatings from the other Newburgh Indiana too!

[mimitabby]

very sweet rendition

[Zen]

It sounds so lonely.

Since fourth grade when kids got their band instruments I've wanted to play the flute. I told that to a friend and he gave me one. Unfortunately my story does not have such a happy ending as mudmucker's.

The flute is complicated!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Mudmucker,
Fiddlers have traditionally learned to play merely by ear, by listening long and hard and working the tunes out by themselves. Traditonally, fiddlers did not ever take "lessons". So you are learning exactly the way fiddlers have learned for many generations. Good job!

[oxysback]

It sounds so lonely.

Yes it does. Here's a bit of background from the composer...

Ashokan is the name of a fiddle camp in the Catskills.

"I was feeling a great sense of loss and longing for the music, the dancing and the community of people that had developed at Ashokan that summer. The transition from living at a secluded woodland camp with a small group of people who needed little excuse to celebrate the joy of living, back to life as usual, with traffic, newscasts, telephones and impersonal relationships, had been difficult. By the time the tune took form, I was in tears. I kept it to myself for months, unable to fully understand the emotions that welled up whenever I played it. I had no idea that this simple tune could effect others in the same way."

http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfaq.shtml

Funny story...last year when my daugher was in 8th grade they had an 'instrument exchange' program where you buddy up with another student and trade instruments for 2 weeks. A fun concert came at the end, and hopefully the students had a new appreciation for instruments other than their own. Well, Jess had buddied up with her friend, Justin, who played trumpet (I think he had a secret crush on her, being that he was willing to play a 'girlie instrument'...hehe). We were taking him home one day after he was at our house for a 'lesson'...and I use that term very loosely...and he all of a sudden asked, "Who would EVER choose to play flute? It's SO HARD!"

I guess it's all relative. I can't get any sound out of anything brass. Tickles my lips!!

[oxysback]

Good job!

Greatings from the other Newburgh Indiana too!

Thanks! I hope your Newburgh is as delightful as my Newberg.

[mudmucker]

I'm so 'chained' to the music that some styles are difficult to play, especially if they require any sort of ad lib.

Gee, you're also playing in front of an audience. With that comes some level of expectation on how a piece might be played, how the audience expects to receive it.

It is really all about the feeling, isn't it?.

Boy is it. Although I can read a little music I'm not good with the timing or intonation. So my "ad lib" is exactly that. It is my own interpretation and it's in a vacuum if I haven't heard the music at all. I learned a song from a music sheet, and months later I heard it on a radio program and it was very laughably different. At that point I discovered something. It didn't matter, it was ok to sound different because yes, it is all about the feeling. At that point, I felt free and liberated from any rules, which transcended me to even another level.

Which leads me to your choir kids when you tell them it's about the feeling. This is all about a form of expression. You really are offering them a wonderful form of encouragement. And, a permission at a young age that it's not always about perfect. That can come later if they wish. As for your own children, you are a mom with music and that's cool. I envy music families; your kids will have another dimensional facet to their beings.

[Tuckervill]

I lovely rendition! Thanks for sharing it.

Mudmucker, your story is so similar to mine with how I became interested in ukulele. I was 40, as well, and taught myself. But I wanted to be able to play and sing with my Campfire kids (which I don't do anymore). Now we have a whole wall of stringed instruments and both of my adult sons play something (my middle son is a guitar prodigy of some kind, I swear, and he plays everything from uke to hammer dulcimer now, and composes songs with the most clever lyrics. We're in the process of trying to talk him into at least getting some coffee house gigs. He's reluctant.)

There are many many songs I want to be able to play with my uke, but I'm just not talented enough. After 3 years of intense playing and learning, I moved on to other things, like cycling. That's pretty much how my learning cycle works. I loved your story.

Karen