Gerry Strong's Web Page

Welcome to Gerry Strong's Home Page

Panoramic view of Little Bay Islands Photo by me

Since I've got a bit of web space allocated by Persona Internet I figured I might as well use it so here it is.

It all started in February 1954 in Little Bay Islands, Newfoundland , with a smile on my parents' face. Nine months later, I was born at the hospital in Springdale, just up the bay. Once I was washed off, they shipped me back to Little Bay Islands with my mother so the rest of the family could see the new arrival. I won't bore you with any more foolishness about me, but for the family I have a page of pictures that might be of interest to them. You don't have to be family to look, but it's bound to be boring if you're not, so consider yourself warned. Here's the link to the Family Page.

I'm now a whistle / wooden flute player / x-ray technologist living in Carbonear, Newfoundland. For 25 years I played with the band Tickle Harbour and had a ball. Our guitar player Don Walsh has set up a home page that pretty well covers anything I'd want to say about the Newfoundland music scene . He has loads of links to many things musical and otherwise, so to save myself a lot of trouble I figure I'll take the easy way out - click here to go there (Don Walsh's Home Page) . One link you will find there is a link to Sing Song Inc. Record Label . I'll save you a bit of navigating so have a look there to see a fine collection of Newfoundland artists. As Don says, this label has more active Newfoundland titles available than any other in the province. Tickle Harbour is on a hiatus at the moment with some of our members moved out of the province to get married. Ahhhhh, love.

Presently I'm playing with A Crowd of Bold Sharemen , formed to play at the Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival in July 2000, and still at it. We're Fergus O’Byrne (Bodhran, Banjo, Concertina, Vocal), Jim Payne (Guitar, 4-Stop Accordions, Mandolin, Vocal), Daniel Payne (Fiddle, Vocals), and myself (Whistles, Flute, Vocal). For a poster, click here .

MY FLUTE
I play a Rudall & Rose Patent Head flute made around 1840, a lovely flute restored by Hammy Hamilton. To see a scan of the flute and hear what it sounds like, click here.

A few years ago Paddy Keenan visited Newfoundland and recorded his CD Na Keen Affair . I was honoured to have him record the Kildevil Air, an air I had written about a beautiful region of our province, Gros Morne . Here's a shot of a few of us around the table in our kitchen, having a few tunes. That's Paddy on the left, obviously, then it's Kevin Broderick, a fine fiddler from Bay de Verde, Don Walsh, Seamus Creagh & myself (well, my left ear anyway). Don't have a clue how all that stuff got on the table :-)

Music links:

A Guide to the Irish Flute
Being a wooden flute player the first link I'll give is this one, written and maintained by Brad Hurley . As the name promises, it's a fabulous guide for people looking for flutes and/or flute makers, wanting to know how to look after them (flutes, that is, I think the makers are able to look after themselves), or who are interested in any way in the instrument.

Modes commonly used in traditional celtic music
If you're like me and have a hard time trying to figure out Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian modes, this will be helpful to you. Ray Carey, a friend of mine did it up for those of us who don't have the theory down pat. It's very easy to use and very useful. (It's a Microsoft Word document).

What is an Irish flute?
Another great page telling about the history of the wooden flute.

Wooden Flute Mailing List
A fabulous resource with well known makers and players as well as rookies, each willing to help in any way. I find it a very helpful list full of very good people.

Sessioneer Web Site
A tin whistle guide, tunes, session listings, and loads more.

Brother Steve's tin whistle pages
As he says, "a space dedicated to the playing of Irish traditional music on the whistle. My aim is to help learners improve their understanding of Irish music and ways of playing it on this humble - but wonderful - little instrument." Very helpful to fledgling whistle players.

ABC home page
ABC is a great way of writing, sharing and learning tunes. Here you'll find all kinds of information about how ABC notation works and various programs that allow you to convert ABC notation to music script (you know, golf clubs) as well as to play ABC tunes through your speakers controlling the tempo without changing pitch. My favourites are ABCMUS and ABC2WIN. You'll find links on the ABC home page to download them and others, both shareware programs.

Henrik Norbeck's Home Page
There are some good transcribers (is that a word?) of ABC notation and one of the best I have found is Henrik Norbek. He also wrote the ABCMUS program mentioned previously, so to get piles of tunes go to his page.

The Session
The exchange of tunes is what keeps traditional Irish music alive. This website is one way of passing on jigs, reels and other dance tunes. Here you can search for tunes, what recordings they’re on, discuss the tunes and add your own tunes. All it takes is free registration.

Tune Data Base (TUNEdb)
A new and very handy spot. It holds the tunes themselves in ABC format, information about any publications in which the tune appears and information about recordings of those tunes though at the moment it is concentrating mainly on the first item, the ABC's of tunes.

JC's ABC tune finder
Let's say you know only part of a title or the first few bars of a tune and want to find the rest. This site will help you find that tune. It might take a bit of work trying to figure it out (there's a bit of technical stuff there) but it's all explained.

Loads of ABC tunes
A huge "collection of collections" (yes, that's what it says on the page) of mostly celtic tunes in ABC format. Piles of tunes from all over, a great resource.

Canadian Folk Festivals Page
If you're in Canada and thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder if there's any folk festivals," this site will give you the answer.

Ceolas
A great spot to find out about traditional Irish music. There you will find the largest online collection of information on Celtic music and links to hundreds of related sites.

Green Linnet
A record label in the States that specializes in Celtic music.

GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador
As the title suggests, a page with links to the lyrics and some midis of over 1000 songs associated with Newfoundland & Labrador, plus a few interesting links. Check them out.

The Rudall & Rose Catalogue
A bit of history about Rudall & Rose flute makers, and a list of some of their flutes. A very nice site.

Atlantic Seabreeze
A site dedicated to Celtic, East Coast and Country Music in Canada.

The Flow
A site by Gordon Turnbull that looks at a number of ways of playing Irish traditional dance music on the flute, what options are available to musicians who wish to play in a traditional manner, some information on flute players and some of his personal thoughts on playing traditional Irish flute.

Fiddler’s Alley
Located in Newfoundland, Canada, about an hour outside the capital city of St. John's, Fiddler’s Alley is dedicated to collecting and restoring old fiddles. On this site you'll find many examples of fine instruments from countries such as France, Germany, and Italy.

Folk Tune Finder
Folk Tune Finder is a search engine for traditional tunes. It brings together many ABC collections into one easy-to-use search. Folk Tune Finder uses an approximate search method that allows you to search for a tune even if you only remember a few notes. Folk Tune Finder locates tunes based on musical similarity, giving you links to ABC files and dots. You don't need to know ABC!

Email me -- gstrong at persona dot ca
(replace "at" & "dot" with @ & . - no spaces)