Grace note recordings?

[bobkeenan]

Att he NW Tionol in Seattle i bought a book "The Tutor" by Denis Brooks. A great investment on my part. There is a really good section on ornamentation with lot of technique, some of which i have never heard of. Cuts, pats, rolls, clipping, long rolls, broken long rolls, close rolls, shakes, quivers, doublets, half roll ( lower mordent), half shake, cranning, long cran, middle d splits, ghost d, triplets, runs, trills, slurring, swelling, popping, and tipping.

A bit overwhelming. I think i know how to do about 4 of these. Most i would not recognize if it came up and bit me!

Has anyone ever done a demo recording of each of these ornaments?

[an seanduine]

Find a rendition you like and are not sure about what 'gracings' are being used. Reverse engineer it. S-l-o-o-w it down. Some use The Amazing Slow Downer. Free for PC is BEST PRACTICE. Free for Mac and Linux is Play It Slowly.
A theoretical understanding of all the ornaments is sterile, in my opinion. What you want is to know how and when to use them. . .and of course, when not to use them.

My twa' pence worth.
Bob

[meuritt]

That book is great, glad to hear it is still in print. When I was getting started with my first practice set Ted told me to get a copy, it was the only tutor I'd ever need, I looked at it, read it, but w/o a chanter that played well, it got buried and forgotten, More than a decade later with two good working chanters and lots of tunes I thought I was playing well, something came up that fascinated me as I was learning Curragh Races. A high F# or G cut leading into the high E. Wow, says I, this was Hannan playing so maybe mere mortals don't use that. I certainly couldn't do it. A chance meeting of a respected local piper, I took the opportunity to ask him about it. At first he seemed to not understand my question, it was like I was asking something so obvious, but he politely informed me that yes it was common and I should learn to do it.

On the drive back home Ted's words of wisdom about that book came back to me, I dug down the pile and found the book, looked through it, found it did indeed have every possible ornament in it. I practiced them all, refer to that page often and find places in tunes I all ready play to use these new found options.

Yes, just working through the page of ornaments w/o tunes is dull practice, but then you do have an easier time to hear what they sound like and have them ready to add to a tune.

But you asked for a sound sample, not a testimonial. Our own Richard C Cook put this out there, it's very insightful and should help you. Thanks Richard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6fmINqse5Y

[highland-piper]

An excellent, free cross platform slow down program is sonic visualizer.

http://www.sonicvisualiser.org/


You might search youtube for demonstrations. I have found a number of videos that demonstrate various things like that for whistle.

[MichaelLoos]

Where can I obtain the book by Denis Brooks?

[bobkeenan]

Where can I obtain the book by Denis Brooks?

since i got mine at the Seattle tionol i suspect that if you get in contact with someone at the pipers club there that they can help you.

[MichaelLoos]

I'd love to do that, but I can't find a contact address on their site - I guess this is the right one? http://irishpipersclub.org/
Has anyone got their contact data?

[pancelticpiper]

I explain to beginning pipers, when I haul out that book, that it's not so much of a 'tutor' (despite the title) so much as it is an encyclopaedia of every ornament ever played by anybody at any time in history.

For that, it's excellent! For a newbie trying to learn the pipes, it's overwhelmingly complicated.

For example he gives three entire fingering charts:

legato & staccato closed fingering on the knee
legato open fingering on the knee
legato open fingering off the knee

where in many cases many of the notes are the same. My own fingering chart that I give to beginners gives the usual fingering for each note with the off-the-knee fingerings for low E and F# only (because as you go up the scale other notes such as G, A, and B can be played with a variety of fingerings).

Yes he gives a table of obscure complex Highland pipe-like ornaments that I've never heard anybody play (his 'doublets' which are very much like Highland pipe 'doublings'.)

He has a table of 'shakes' (pralltrillers) on every note from Bottom D to High B (including done with the thumb on Cnat and C#) but in practice most pipers do these only with the G finger on F# and sometimes E, and some pipers do them also with the B finger on A.

To me a far more pragmatic tutor is Learn to play Uilleann Pipes with the Armagh Pipers Club. The authors introduce various expressive devices one at a time, each device followed by a tune (often on a widely available album) which uses that feature.

[MichaelLoos]

I explain to beginning pipers, when I haul out that book, that it's not so much of a 'tutor' (despite the title) so much as it is an encyclopaedia of every ornament ever played by anybody at any time in history.

That's exactly what I want it for!

[An Draighean]

To me a far more pragmatic tutor is Learn to play Uilleann Pipes with the Armagh Pipers Club. The authors introduce various expressive devices one at a time, each device followed by a tune (often on a widely available album) which uses that feature.

I agree; it's my favorite tutor book by far and I have most of them. The transcriptions are very close to the referenced recorded version in most cases too. Besides all that, it's full of great tunes to boot.

[MichaelLoos]

Just to clarify, I am not looking for a usable tutor book in order to learn - although I wouldn't dare to say that after 33 years of playing the pipes, my learning process is finished...
I want this for its encycolpaedic qualities.
I know the Armagh Pipers' Club tutor very well, this and the Leo Rowsome tutor were the only ones available when I started playing.

[pancelticpiper]

I know the Armagh Pipers' Club tutor very well, this and the Leo Rowsome tutor were the only ones available when I started playing.

Yes we were in the same boat, back then!

I was in a place where nobody played, and I was completely on my own. Recordings and these books were all there was.

The best thing that happened for my playing was The Dance Music Of Willie Clancy, which happily I got early on, when I was just beginning the pipes. It's clear transcriptions and detailed analysis were how I learned.

[An Draighean]

I know the Armagh Pipers' Club tutor very well, this and the Leo Rowsome tutor were the only ones available when I started playing.

Yes we were in the same boat, back then!

I bought mine from the Hart and Churchill music shop on Queen Street in Belfast in 1975. It was a wonder to me then, and still is.