Singing (8)

Play recording: Singing (8)

‘Nyaah’ and ‘drone’

Jim Cowdery observes that playing instrumental music sounds best to him when it imitates vocal style. Joe says about the pipes that it’s the ‘drone that’s in the human voice – nature’s accompaniment – some people have and some don’t.’ Describes how somebody gets ready to sing, taking a note, and how Joe describes the ‘nyaah’ – how to find the note before you start. He says that people who don’t do that, ‘they don’t class them as good sean-nós singers.’ It’s a note that Joe says is always there in the background as you’re singing the song – it’s the note you tune to, you can’t go wrong if that note is still there. This is what he means when he says the drone of the pipes is like the human voice. When he’s singing, he’s following that, accompanying that note in his head.

Ballad groups

You never sing a song the same way twice. Never gets tired of doing it – keeping it fresh, keeping it protected, don’t want it abused or insulted or destroyed. The present ballad-groups are taking good songs and taking guitars and knocking hell out of them. You’ve got to have feeling in a song – it depends on the song. If you don’t bring that out in the song, nobody can enjoy it.