Busking

Rispraspers have been busking every Saturday morning at the Boyle Farmers Market 10am till 2pm. Come on down to hear a tune.

Busking at the King’s House – Boyle Market

Members of the Rispraspers will be playing some tunes at the Boyle Farmer’s Market next Saturday 20th of February from 10ish to 1ish.  Come by and say hello.  The farmers market takes place on the grounds of the Kings House.  Lots of yummy treats for sale like cheeses, olives, breads, cakes, and organic fruit and veg.

What Shall We Call The CD?

It’s amazing how long it takes to make a CD, even when it’s purely for fun with a mic at the kitchen session. What takes the time is listening through everything and deciding what you want to keep in, then messing about to take out this n that and get the sound levels right. It’s all a great exercise but you wouldn’t want to be doing it every day. In short, it wasn’t ready for Christmas 2009 but for this year at least  we know to start earlier in the year, like around now! It will be good to have something to compare our progress from year to year. Already we are listening to the tracks with critical ears and thinking how we have progressed and could do much better now just a few months later.

And the title of our first ever CD? We want something that says it’s our first venture, something like ‘First Draft’ or maybe a take on that being ‘First Draught’. To vote please follow the link.

Meeting Our Elders

Yesterday three of us and a friend played some tunes for the residents of our local nursing home. I’d like to think that if I ever end up in one of those places that somebody would come and entertain me for a change of scene. We met quite a few characters in there and they certainly enjoyed the tunes, there was plenty of foot tapping going on and they invited us back next month. We are looking forward to it.

Busking at Leitrim Village Christmas Craft Fair

We will be busking this Saturday at Leitrim Village Christmas Craft Fair which is on 10am til 4pm in the village hall. We will be busking  11am til 1pm. Come and buy your gifts locally and enjoy some tunes while you shop.

Edit : This is us busking at the Christmas fair

Rispraspers Christmas CD

Rispraspers have been working on their first CD … a Christmas CD. Sounds impressive? The ‘studio’ is our kitchen and our kit comprises of one microphone. We’re after quantity, not quality here, the latter will come with time! The idea was just to throw on a recording device during our normal house sessions and put some of the tracks on a CD as a fun homemade Christmas gift for family and friends. Funny though, how it’s impossible to ignore a recording device and carry on as normal! Something good had happened though, and we’ve been practicing all starting on a tune together, as one, although it’s also nice to have some recordings much less formal with chat, false starts and each of us slowly noodling our way into a tune somebody has started. It’s great to hear a few lone notes starting out and then gain ground as everybody joins in. We’ve also started trying out our very first ‘arrangements’ on tunes, be they simple and usually disastrous! Ye gotta start somewhere. The main thing is we are having FUN FUN FUN and doing something creative.

Rispraspers are Born

Rispraspers are a group of six traditional Irish musicians who met on the Traditional Irish Music course in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim, Ireland ; Natalia, Dan, Rebecca, Sian, John and Ian. Some of us are novices, others are seasoned musicians and we play together because it’s fun. Our aim is to continue learning tunes, to improve our musical abilities, to be a living part of the conservation of the tradition of Irish music and to share music with others, particularly those who might not normally get the chance to listen. We don’t claim to be musicians of any great standard, but we can all agree that we share a mighty passion for tunes and the whole culture that surrounds it. We also continue striving to improve our own abilities.

We enjoy plenty of house sessions on a regular basis and over the coming months Rispraspers hope to visit traditional Irish music sessions in the many pubs of the surrounding counties, to listen, learn and play. We want to bring music to a variety of settings which include our local nursing home, playschools and neighbours who express an interest in the tradition. We love busking at farmers markets, craft fairs, tourist destinations and other events.