The Flow is a personal appreciation of some traditional Irish flute playing styles and takes its name from a description once given to the style of the late Paddy Carty, the renowned East Galway flute player.
Originally published in the 1990s, there were then very few resources like it and many people found it helpful. This archive is a new home for The Flow, an updated, revised and distilled edition that I hope will remain of interest and use to others.
This project came about after the realisation that many of the flute players I had come across outside Ireland appeared to be unaware of the many different options and styles of playing which exist within Irish traditional music. It occured to me that an awareness of these and other styles had the potential to be useful in developing a traditional flute player’s own musical voice.
Developed in the mid 1990s, The Flow stood as a website that grew many arms and legs and eventually got left behind as my own personal commitments grew. Other projects also emerged and developed, such as my own teaching and FluteFling, which focuses on the ongoing revival of the flute in Scottish traditional music.