11 min
Tara Diamond Boxwood Conversations
-
- Music
TRANSCRIPT
CHRIS NORMAN: Hi, I’m Chris Norman and you’re listening to Boxwood’s Artist Huddle – Conversations. Our August 15th 2020 Artist Huddle, featured the Irish flute player Tara Diamond to talk about her influences and life-long passion for traditional Irish music on the flute and whistle. Later on, she’s joined by her husband Dermy Diamond for a few tunes.
So, Tara I wondered if you could tell me a little bit about how you got started? You’re originally from County Down and I’m curious about that moment when you first heard the flute, or heard the whistle, heard traditional music and what that looked like and how you got your start?
TARA DIAMOND: My father was a flute player, flute and whistle player, so it was really from listening to him. I didn’t want to learn the flute at all, I wanted to learn the pipes. You know when I began to listen to music and realized, found out about the different instruments, the pipes were the ones that appealed to me the most. I play left-handed and it was really difficult in those days to pick up a left-handed practice set, and also very expensive. So, I just ended up with a flute because there was a flute in the house.
CHRIS NORMAN: Right, so did you Dad play left-handed as well, Tara?
TARA DIAMOND: No, he didn’t, he played right-handed.
CHRIS NORMAN: Uh-huh, was that an issue when you got started? Did he ever try to steer you in a right-handed direction?
TARA DIAMOND: No, he said the way you take it up, the way you lift it up should be the way you play it. He didn’t correct me, and I didn’t have a teacher as such, um, he used to write tunes out and sort of insist that we learn them, myself and my brothers. But none of us read music so he would give us the ABCs or he would give us a recording on a tape, on a big reel-to-reel tape recorder to learn from. We didn’t learn tunes directly from him, he just encouraged us to learn at that stage.
CHRIS NORMAN: That’s fantastic. And you bumped shoulders with some legends of traditional Irish music in the north there, Paddy Tyrrell.
TARA DIAMOND: Paddy Tyrrell – we pronounce it ter’-el – he used to come play in our house when we were young and he gave me lots of pointers because my Dad was only really a few steps ahead of us all, and Paddy was more advanced, and he played jazz on the silver flute as well.
CHRIS NORMAN: Right, he’s a name that you come across regularly but there aren’t many recordings of him, so tell me a little bit about his playing.
TARA DIAMOND: He played traditional music but it really wasn’t really, you know, it was on the silver flute so he probably was a bit restricted in the ornamentation and that wasn’t the same ornamentation as I would do on the wooden flute. But he did teach me how to do rolls when I was about 14, 13 and I couldn’t get the hang of them at all, and he sat down with me one day and showed me what to do that that was a huge benefit, a huge help. And he also told me to practice breathing exercises on the floor, lying on the floor with a book on my stomach …
CHRIS NORMAN: [Laughs] That one has gone the world around, hasn’t it? With opera singers and flute players and… And who else did you come into contact with early on with?
TARA DIAMOND: Cathal McConnell came to stay at the house several times. Tom McHale, who’s a whistle player who’s no longer with us.
CHRIS NORMAN: Yes, of course everyone know
TRANSCRIPT
CHRIS NORMAN: Hi, I’m Chris Norman and you’re listening to Boxwood’s Artist Huddle – Conversations. Our August 15th 2020 Artist Huddle, featured the Irish flute player Tara Diamond to talk about her influences and life-long passion for traditional Irish music on the flute and whistle. Later on, she’s joined by her husband Dermy Diamond for a few tunes.
So, Tara I wondered if you could tell me a little bit about how you got started? You’re originally from County Down and I’m curious about that moment when you first heard the flute, or heard the whistle, heard traditional music and what that looked like and how you got your start?
TARA DIAMOND: My father was a flute player, flute and whistle player, so it was really from listening to him. I didn’t want to learn the flute at all, I wanted to learn the pipes. You know when I began to listen to music and realized, found out about the different instruments, the pipes were the ones that appealed to me the most. I play left-handed and it was really difficult in those days to pick up a left-handed practice set, and also very expensive. So, I just ended up with a flute because there was a flute in the house.
CHRIS NORMAN: Right, so did you Dad play left-handed as well, Tara?
TARA DIAMOND: No, he didn’t, he played right-handed.
CHRIS NORMAN: Uh-huh, was that an issue when you got started? Did he ever try to steer you in a right-handed direction?
TARA DIAMOND: No, he said the way you take it up, the way you lift it up should be the way you play it. He didn’t correct me, and I didn’t have a teacher as such, um, he used to write tunes out and sort of insist that we learn them, myself and my brothers. But none of us read music so he would give us the ABCs or he would give us a recording on a tape, on a big reel-to-reel tape recorder to learn from. We didn’t learn tunes directly from him, he just encouraged us to learn at that stage.
CHRIS NORMAN: That’s fantastic. And you bumped shoulders with some legends of traditional Irish music in the north there, Paddy Tyrrell.
TARA DIAMOND: Paddy Tyrrell – we pronounce it ter’-el – he used to come play in our house when we were young and he gave me lots of pointers because my Dad was only really a few steps ahead of us all, and Paddy was more advanced, and he played jazz on the silver flute as well.
CHRIS NORMAN: Right, he’s a name that you come across regularly but there aren’t many recordings of him, so tell me a little bit about his playing.
TARA DIAMOND: He played traditional music but it really wasn’t really, you know, it was on the silver flute so he probably was a bit restricted in the ornamentation and that wasn’t the same ornamentation as I would do on the wooden flute. But he did teach me how to do rolls when I was about 14, 13 and I couldn’t get the hang of them at all, and he sat down with me one day and showed me what to do that that was a huge benefit, a huge help. And he also told me to practice breathing exercises on the floor, lying on the floor with a book on my stomach …
CHRIS NORMAN: [Laughs] That one has gone the world around, hasn’t it? With opera singers and flute players and… And who else did you come into contact with early on with?
TARA DIAMOND: Cathal McConnell came to stay at the house several times. Tom McHale, who’s a whistle player who’s no longer with us.
CHRIS NORMAN: Yes, of course everyone know
11 min