Thank you Dave for posting these. I was planning on asking my friend to teach me to play. Unfortunately, he passed away, so now I have to learn on my own. My heart is finally letting me learn.
*Tip: I've played the spoons since I was a kid. I play them mostly with Irish Traditional Music..of which The Reel, The Jig, and The Hornpipe are the most common tempos. The trick to learning the spoons (from my experience) is to start small..i.e. use teaspoons to start with and then progress to the larger variety. I find the soup spoon gives off a better sound and are easier to play with...it also helps if you use (insulating electrical) tape around the end of the spoons (where you hold them between your fingers). This prevents the spoons from slipping. Sorry for being so long winded...(At the end of the day if you have no rhythm ..you'll find them difficult to master).*
Thanks for these tips! I'm a singer in a folk band and we were wondering if there was an instrument I could play so I looked up how to play the spoons and I'm going to try all these tips !
I am the owner of "sliotharball channel"...this is my example which relates to the above comment. I may put a video up of playing the jig and hornpipe with the spoons at a later date......ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-irBMDmUtuoA.html
You should be a teacher at school...you’d be amazing. So clear, so patient and not patronising at all. New subscriber...and I will try this ! I’m quite excited now. Have a great week 🤗
Ha! Thanks Anja. I do travel around to schools all throughout the school year doing programs for kids, so I have a fair amount of experience in that area. And yes, Abby is amazing!
Dave Ruch ...that’s really wonderful. I am on my second day getting to know my spoons. I find it hard, but I am patient enough to not give in within the first week ! Nothing can be achieved over night. I truly like your video and how you bring it to your audience. Have a great week, Dave.
I have been watching the show on netflix, the Midnight Gospel, and in episode 5 there is some brief spoon playing and it both looked and sounded like a blast! Can't wait to get started when I have some spoons!
Oh my gosh!!! This video is so old but I just recently wanted to start trying to play spoons! My dad was a spoon player/ guitar player and so much more! I have always had a thing with hitting my girly thighs when music is on and everyone says I’m not doing drum effects- I recently realized I’m doing my dads spoons 🥄 lol I was 7, 8, 9 and 10 when he was musically doing all that- he actually practiced with well known musicians like the band AMERICA he was amazing! Thank you!!!🙏 I’m still trying to work on my spoon grip - but thank you 🙏 Dad hit his head and walls and you name it he was amazing with every instrument!
When I was little in the early 60's I saw a spoon player and was fascinated! I ran and got 2 spoons from the kitchen and tried for the life of me to play them. All I did was bang the spoons together and make noise. Later, a toy company, I'm thinking, Hasbro, came out with toy spoons that were attached together with spring action! My Daddy, bless his heart, went out and bought them for me and we would play spoons together! I thought I was really good, but once again I was probably just making noise. As I grew older my facination faded. I sure wish I would have kept up with it! It is a dying art form and I admire you. Thank you! Terry \
Thank you so much, I heard a Lady playing the spoons in an Irish concert when I was a teen and I always wanted to learn that myself...I have been practising for half an hour, And the rhythm is already recognizable. I will keep it up! Many greetings from Germany:-)
I’m hoping to add the spoons to my harmonica’ and guitar playing. If I can’t dazzle them with talent maybe I can baffle them another way. Thanks for posting thr lesson.
i love how patient u seem. i do not do well with rhythm so this is good practice for me. ive been wanting to really learn a percussive instrument. im practicing with plastic spoons first cuz my metal ones are really heavy and hurt my eczema fingers.
Thank you very much for this video!! I work in kindergarten - i am going to learn to play , can't wait, the kids will love it, no doubt!! Greetings from Slovenia:)) Maja
I watched a man play the spoons when I went on a field trip to a ghost town here in Colorado in 3rd grade. I’m now 40 and just learned everything you showed in 30 min and having the time of my life 😆 Thank you for this!!
Wonderful tutorial, sir!! Thank you! I will continue to teach my students, and anyone who wants to learn. It is obvious you love to share the joy of music. God bless you! Mom told me once they sound like tap dancing. Keep on spreading the joy!
To dave thank you very much for doing this and making it public.... i don't know how better to say it. I do it on right hand and knock on left knee, what you have there is left hand set i think, i have right hand set, so i am doing phi chi and theta with Z beuing upwards, imagine Continetnal flying into Buffalo, its UP is your Z and then we have three rotational axes. But thank you very much for teaching children during lockdown. Know Buffalo a bit, not too well, been there a couple of times from Toronto,. Nice city. BEcause I speak Hungarian each day and have to speak very clipped English I can't speak in my native Cockney accent.... But thank you so much kosszonem szepen for making this public. Kerten (in my garden) I literally played the spoons, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge kosszonem szepen for doing it so children(gyeremerek in Hungarian) will learn. With lockdown they have no musical education here now, or any execpt home teaching. I am no musician, I can get there withing a note or eight, but don't ask me to do Beethoven's .He was known to like a drink. "Go Easty, Mr Beethoven, That was your fifth"......
great info. your video is very nicely done! thank you!, now for me getting over being afraid to try!. i really want to learn. im nearly 50. hope Im not too old!😊
Thank you albeit late, for posting this tutorial. Just started taking an interest in actually practicing spoons. Do you remember Artis from Seattle? He was known for performing in the Seattle grunge band music-video 'Spoon Man' by Soundgarden, among other notable mentions in the Pacific Northwest. I've always admired playing spoons, but from a distance. Perhaps my practicing will stick. Peace!
Tip: To stop the spoons from slipping off your fingers place electrical insulating tape around each spoon where it sits between your fingers.. After that it's basically learning the different rhythms & making up your own beats to match the tune. By the way don't try to play them in Ireland...Just have a listen to 'The Spoons Murder" here on RU-vid 😆...I also notice that you can now purchase wooden spoons attached together to prevent them slipping from your fingers. However I think the sound from the kitchen spoons sound better and you can get different sounds from them.
Thanks for jumping in here, Michael! I agree about the attached spoons, though for some people, they've made a big difference. I just published Part II if you're interested - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tOrYwNlGziM.html
I have the spoons and I know your accent, I speak several languages incliding American :) Flown into Buffalo many a time, via YYZ and so on. Thank you so much for educating people. Actually because I am right handed i do the spoons on my right hand and knock on my left knee, Thank you so much to teach basic musical education in this time of lockdown. From a Brit who lives in Hungary. I do actually was playing the spoons honestly yesterday but I have to be very quieet because of lockdown, I do on right hand and left knee.
I am playing ghe sppons right now but I have to be very quier cos of lockdowbn Thank you for teaching people vbasic musix, I wukk subg akióóóóóóóó sing along with you very quietly I am doibg 6/8 time
I probably typws rhis a bit wrong as I am on Hungarian keyboars public. Md layout. Literally I have been out this evining in my own garden playing the spoons. Thank you, in hungarian kosszonem szepen that meaans thank you very much, for doing this and making it public. In Hungary we are seven hours ahead of you in Bffalo if I got that correct, but thank you kosszi for making this kossyonem. My keyboard here switches from British English to Hungarian so please excuse my spelling mistakes. Literal, kosszonly I went out in my small garden and played the spoons. I did so quite quietly cos of lockdown etc. Thank you very much kosszonem szepen "szep" in Hungarian means good, "szepen" means "Better" or "The Best". I imagine you know that Freddy Flour, that is Liszt Ference in Hungarian (we do names in reverse order) has a few good tunes.... :)
As I learned along with this video, I heard stop it stop stop it stop stop go outside....in the back ground...once I get going though, I will play spoons to that beat of everyone saying stop it, in my fairly very quiet house...except when I am learning something new. 😁
Iam enjoying learning to play the spoons but am finding the spoons make painful blisters on my fingers, perhaps iam not holding them right any tips ? thanks your videos are great 👍💕
Brought my spoons to Ireland, not in my pocket of course....bought a new bohdran in Galway! Mom says spoons sound like tap dancing! I also teach my elem students with plastic spoons...lots of annoyed parents LOL This was a GREAT tutorial, Dave. Thank you, sir!
