New Marla Fibish Video on PegHead Nation

[Annette Siegel]

https://pegheadnation.com/index.php?...tBookForm-4523


Wouldn't it be cool to have Marla's Irish mandolin classes online at Peghead Nation!

[Clement Barrera-Ng]

Thanks for sharing Annette. Can't wait to get home to watch it. Were you involved in the making of the video ?

[Jim Garber]

Nice video and I love the story of her mandolin. Any clues as to the identity of the first tune she plays to open the video? Is that an original one? It sounds sort of Irish but not quite...

[Niall Anderson]

Jim, the intro tune is a 9/8 called Moll Roe (or Maire Rua). It's Irish and traditional (ie no known composer), as far as I know.

[Annette Siegel]

Hmmmm...I thought it might be The Humours of Bandon off of her Morning Star album with Jimmy Crowely...but tunes can have several different names and have similar parts...so there you go...clear as mud. :-)

Hiya Clement! I wasn't involved with the making, just the sharing!

[whistler]

Lovely lady, lovely player, lovely mandolin.

[Annette Siegel]

Okey dokie, I checked with MF... the winner of name that tune is Niall!

Per Marla - "the tune is Moll Rua - its the opening tune on the Three Mile Stone album (except we call it The Wheels of the World)"

[Jim Garber]

Jim, the intro tune is a 9/8 called Moll Roe (or Maire Rua). It's Irish and traditional (ie no known composer), as far as I know.

Tune is here on TheSession: https://thesession.org/tunes/993

I do love slip jigs.

[foldedpath]

Great video clip, and I love hearing her history with that instrument! She's a great player.

That said, I will still strongly disagree with her statement that the "favored sound" of a mandolin in this genre is an archtop oval hole. That's not been my experience, with either my own playing, or the players I've been listening to. It's unnecessarily divisive when it comes to instrument choice. Does that mean Simon Mayor and others favoring F-hole archtops are doing it wrong?

An F-hole works fine in this music. An oval hole can work fine too, although you may have trouble in larger groups. There are pros and cons for each type, but I think it's misleading to say that one particular design is somehow "favored." There are just too many great Irish trad mandolin players playing archtop F-hole instruments (and I'm not going through the full litany here that says otherwise, but there are many).

And that's not even getting into the learning experience of playing in sessions, where the real work of learning how to play this music happens for many of us, and where enough volume and "bite" (as she puts it) can at least let you hear your instrument among the fiddles and pipes.

I don't think this is a style of music you can learn sitting at home alone. Well, maybe you can, but I didn't learn anything about this music until I started playing with others who weren't playing mandolin.

[MarlaFibish]

Dear Foldedpath,
My apologies if you found my comments to be divisive. That was not my intent, and I'm sorry if it came across that way. Players are of course welcome to choose the instrument they like that has the qualities of sound they like best to play the music they like to play. Pure and simple.
I would only differ from you in your implication that one cannot hear oneself in a session on an oval hole instrument. That has not been my experience. That is where I learned to play, and where I have experienced countless hours of joy of playing Irish Music on my oval-holed instrument.

[Steve L]

When I learned that opening slip jig, the title I was given was "I'm In Arrears". Great tune.

Marla, hope to catch you when you play in Gloucester Ma in May.

[Nick Quig]

Great vid Marla!..love the history of your mandolin and pick!

[Shelagh Moore]

I know the opening tune as The Wheels of the World as well. Thanks Niall for the correct name.

I enjoyed watching the video and hearing about the history of that mandolin. Like you, I always keep going back to a pick I've had for more than 20 years (an old pink pointed D'Andrea of about 1.2mm with a lovely fat, rounded tone)! Thanks Marla!

[Dagger Gordon]

Dear Foldedpath,
My apologies if you found my comments to be divisive. That was not my intent, and I'm sorry if it came across that way. Players are of course welcome to choose the instrument they like that has the qualities of sound they like best to play the music they like to play. Pure and simple.
I would only differ from you in your implication that one cannot hear oneself in a session on an oval hole instrument. That has not been my experience. That is where I learned to play, and where I have experienced countless hours of joy of playing Irish Music on my oval-holed instrument.

I hardly think your comments were divisive. It is abundantly clear that your mandolin sounds wonderful (and in my view looks wonderful!) and the joy you get from playing shines through with every note.

[Bertram Henze]

The old f-hole vs oval hole debate and even a pick choice debate are completely overrated IMO, and they stand out in connection with this video only because it is possible to talk about them. What is much harder to describe in words than that but has a much bigger impact is the playing style that comes from feeling the music.

You don't sound like that because you have the right hole shape or the right pick, you sound like that because you do the right kind of little hints at triplets, of hammer-ons, and above all because you do it all at exactly the right time - "negotiating time" (as Ciaran Carson put it) is what makes it sound totally Irish, that knack of being almost late but not quite, like almost falling over but elegantly making it look like dancing (think: Freddie Frinton in Dinner for One). No hole shape nor pick can give you that.

[Shelagh Moore]

You don't sound like that because you have the right hole shape or the right pick, you sound like that because you do the right kind of little hints at triplets, of hammer-ons, and above all because you do it all at exactly the right time - "negotiating time" (as Ciaran Carson put it) is what makes it sound totally Irish, that knack of being almost late but not quite, like almost falling over but elegantly making it look like dancing (think: Freddie Frinton in Dinner for One). No hole shape nor pick can give you that.

Endorsed entirely!

I used to live in another European country. In one part of it, Irish music is very popular and there are groups of local musicians who take it very seriously indeed (no smiling or enjoyment allowed). I once joined a session there with a hard-core group who were technically excellent but who seemed to lack any sensitivity to the music and was shunned because my style was not "correct". Asked why I thought I should be there I sheepishly said "Because I'm Irish, love Irish music and grew up playing it from listening to my father and grandfather..?"

[Beanzy]

Ah but given whatever blas you have, you'll produce a different sound with different mandolins. That's why we end up buying one for this and one for that, or taking a different one on a night because you're in that mood, or it looks like rain later or whatever.

The observation that oval holed mandolins currently predominate in Irish music seems perfectly valid.
In terms of tone it needs to sound nice when you're playing at home, and as no one is looking for solos in a session it just needs to be present rather than cut through or dominate any other instruments.
I'm not going to try to ascribe one cause but if my experience of Irish musicians in a music shop is anything to go by, then price would have been up there with easy availability on the decision list.

[Dagger Gordon]

For what it's worth, I usually find my Collings MT F holed mandolin works better in a session but my oval holed Sobell is probably actually louder and has a sweeter tone. They both work very well for playing Celtic music but don't sound the same.

[Spruce]

Fabulous video!

Check out the wood in the top...4-5 grains per inch or so?
Curved graining too, with maybe some compression wood?...
Man, that tree would be heading for the pulp mill these days...

Marla, is it a one-piece top? (Look for the joint near the center)...
Are there any pics of the mandolin (especially the top) floating around?
Love to see them if "yes"...

I just love those great sounding A's that have that wide-grained funky wood...
Such workhorses...

Made my day...thanks.

[foldedpath]

Dear Foldedpath,
My apologies if you found my comments to be divisive. That was not my intent, and I'm sorry if it came across that way. Players are of course welcome to choose the instrument they like that has the qualities of sound they like best to play the music they like to play. Pure and simple.

Hi Marla, thanks for the reply, and I hope my post wasn't too contentious. I can't argue with your last statement at all. As a mandolin player drawn to this music, I think we're all still finding our way into The Music alongside the older, sustaining instruments.

Irish flute players are still arguing over the merits of different late 19th Century wooden flute designs (smaller-hole Ruddal & Rose vs. Pratten large hole), so mandolin players might well be arguing about this for the next 100 years too.

I would only differ from you in your implication that one cannot hear oneself in a session on an oval hole instrument. That has not been my experience. That is where I learned to play, and where I have experienced countless hours of joy of playing Irish Music on my oval-holed instrument.

I'm probably coming from a slightly different perspective here, because my wife (a fiddler) has developed an obsession for Scottish and Cape Breton music in the last few years. That puts me in sessions and workshops filled with pipers and aggressive Cape Breton fiddling, which I'm sure tilts my perspective a bit.

I still prefer the lyricism and odd/beautiful modal shifts of Irish traditional music, but there is something interesting about the slightly more "aggressive" and forceful tone (if that's the right description) of Scottish fiddling music too. I'm trying to develop an ear for it.

At least I haven't picked up the tenor banjo yet. Or the bagpipes, which I think my wife really wants me to play. So there is still some hope here...

[Bertram Henze]

Asked why I thought I should be there I sheepishly said "Because I'm Irish, love Irish music and grew up playing it from listening to my father and grandfather..?"

Robbie O'Connell had to say something about that...

[Loretta Callahan]

Wow. I'm uber impressed that anybody could hang on to a pick for 15 years; especially someone like Marla who's out there performing in public … a lot.

So, it sound like aholes make the best Irish sounds? Good to know.

[Gan Ainm]

Bertram comes close I think, but here's the thing: being heard isn't just about being loud. Marla projects plenty, but more importantly, it sound so #######' good that the other players give her "space" (well sometimes) and the listeners (this one anyway) lean in to her sound. Matt Molloy doesn't produce the most dB's of sound but you can bet he is heard at a session!
Oval hole arch top? Well Moloney and Swarbrick played 'em "early on" so that's "tradition" sort of.... but they all can sound good if...ahhh y'all know what I mean.

[sgarrity]

That old Gibson really sings in Marla's hands. Beautiful tone!

[Annette Siegel]

Fabulous video!

Check out the wood in the top...4-5 grains per inch or so?
Curved graining too, with maybe some compression wood?...
Man, that tree would be heading for the pulp mill these days...

Marla, is it a one-piece top? (Look for the joint near the center)...
Are there any pics of the mandolin (especially the top) floating around?
Love to see them if "yes"...

I just love those great sounding A's that have that wide-grained funky wood...
Such workhorses...

Made my day...thanks.

Here's pic I took a few years ago...