File: mcpheehugh06-oh-contests_M.mp3
Speakers:
HM – Hughie McPhee
HM: The last one I was at – The three judges talkin', and one says to the other "The first fellow that plays a tune on the flats gets first prize." But nobody played anything on the flats (laughs). I knew this, I played. So anyway the fellow that got first prize, he didn't play – He played The High Level Hornpipe on the key of C, which isn't a flat, but it sounded like it. And they made a mistake and they gave him first prize. And in order to play High Level Hornpipe in C, you can't play it properly. He cut the corners and everything, but they gave it to him anyway. So anyway, I was workin' on the bridge up here and the fellow [one of the judges] came along here in the car. He didn't know that I had been listening to this. And he was talkin', "What do you I think of the…" And. I said, "I didn't think your choice of first prize was very good." "Well he played on the flats." I said, "No, he didn't play on the flats. He played The High Level Hornpipe, yes, but he didn't play it on the flats. He played it on C and he made a mess of it." In order to play it on C you had to cut all the corners out of it. And the fellow looked at me for about five minutes and he drove off. He caught on, I bet he went home and got the fiddle and tried it.