🎻 Dream practice rooms, the job I didn't get, and a renewed sense of purpose in fiddling goals

Hi Reader!

For years, I've had this dream where I have my own studio that I can just practice in for several hours a day. I imagine a circular room that's upstairs, light, airy and has an amazing view of somewhere in nature.

Do you picture your creative practice sessions in a similar spot?

My current apartment doesn't quite fit the bill -- it's square, and hard to keep cool. But it also has amazing natural light, is upstairs, looks out mostly on grass instead of concrete, and is a space of my own with a designated room for my office.

So it's not fully the dream, but it's enough for me in this season!

This isn't really a letter about dream practice rooms though. I wanted to talk to you about getting over a slump in just getting the fiddle out for myself. Not for rehearsing for a gig or recording a Tune Library video (though I did record 4 new ones this week)! But just in personal professional development.

You see, Reader, there are a lot of different stylistic pockets within Irish Traditional music, and while I don't want to hem myself into a box, I do really want to go deeper on Sliabh Luachra music.

I interviewed for a residency position last year that I didn't get (but I think they chose a great person for the role), and at the time of the interview I was well aware that I was an underdog candidate, having not grown up with the full history of the tunes.

Yes, I know a lot of polkas and slides, and other tunes that stem from Sliabh Luachra. I know of Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Padraig O'Keeffe, and Johnny O'Leary. I've chatted with Matt Cranitch, read his books, and taken some workshops with him. I lived in Cork City for a year, and went to the Blarney Castle Hotel sessions once a week with the likes of John Walsh and Eoin "Stan" O'Sullivan. (All Sliabh Luachra musicians past and present if you're not familiar!)

I feel comfortable looking at the music now and letting you know how I'd approach the technique to make it sound Sliabh Luachra like.

Coincidentally, a special thanks to Ronan from the Inside Irish Music YouTube channel for the shout out in his video covering Sliabh Luachra music!

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Yet I still feel like I'm on the periphery of Sliabh Luachra music, and that there is so much more left to discover! It's an exciting thing and a daunting thing all at the same time.

But if I'm going to call myself an expert in the Sliabh Luachra style, I know there's plenty of work left to do.

Which brings me back to the office story...

I think it's so easy for us to come up with different narratives of why we don't get the fiddle out to practice. Sometimes it's not having the exact right space or environment to practice in. Here are some more of mine:

• Fear of disturbing my neighbors. My downstairs neighbors are amazing and don't mind the music at all, but I haven't established that same connection with my next door neighbors yet so I really don't know which way they swing.
• Exhaustion by the end of the day.
• Weather-induced... did I mention my apartment is hot?
• Just a general blah feeling.

All of these are things I can combat or control. I can battle my introversion and reach out to my next door neighbors. I can fit practice in earlier in the day, or find a place in town where I can go play uninterrupted in a cool space.

I can also have a strong goal that's more important to me than any of the limiting fears I listed above.

This week started as a blah, unmotivated week, but by Thursday evening I found two goals that turned the tables for me:

1. Become the type of expert on Sliabh Luachra music and history that I would respect and want to learn from in my current level of knowledge.
2. Start compiling new creative ideas to bring to my duo, Shannon Lee, as we start to prep for our upcoming gig in Muskegon for Michigan Irish Fest this September.

There are some amazing Sliabh Luachra resources out there (my current favorite is The Rushy Mountain site), and they're perfect for doing a deep dive into the people, places, and repertoire of the area. I got to work straight away and found Denis Murphy's album, The Music of Sliabh Luachra -- so my current project is playing through all the tunes on that album to ensure I know them or to learn a few new ones.

On the Shannon Lee front, I pulled out Alasdair Fraser and Tony McManus' album from 1999 and had a listen to how they arranged fingerstyle guitar and fiddle. Alasdair has long been a top fiddling influence of mine, and my partner Bear learned from Tony in his college years.

(Also shout out to Bear for filling in for Tony at the Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week this past week. I missed him like crazy but couldn't be more proud of him!)

This "turn-around" is a two part process:

1. Decide why you want to devote time to practice.
2. Take one small action (like listening to an album) that will get you moving. Then another. Then another after that.

If you find yourself coming down off of a high event-filled week, and you need a little pick-me-up motivation to get back in the practice room and reset, I hope that today's story provided at the very least some relatability and possibly some ideas for you too!

Until next week, take care and happy practicing!

~Hannah