Bulgarian Gaida

[anima]

Hey Dave, did you ever find that gaida guy here in KC?

[pancelticpiper]

Thanks Michael!

Interesting thing with the drone. If I mouth blow it, it plays fine, once I insert it in the stock though it tends to overblow until I flick the end of it with my finger. Is this common, or is it just becoause I bought a cheapo gaida? I did notice someone having to do the same thing in a you tube video.

Jeff

Yes indeed you don't "strike in" the drone of the gaida, instead you start the beast like this:

1) stick a finger in the end of the drone
2) finger the thumb note on the chanter with your upper hand
3) blow the bag up. As the pressure increases the thumb note will play, at first flat, then it will "scoop" up to pitch. When the thumb note gets to the right pitch level off the bag pressure.
4) go from the thumb note to the tonic (three finger) note with the typical ornament gaidari always do
5) pop the finger out of the drone, thus starting the drone
6) put your lower hand on the chanter and you're ready to go

It's strange to break it down into these steps. It makes it sound harder than it is. You just get used to it. As I mentioned above, they usually don't use the drone at all when playing in bitov ensembles.

Here's the ensemble Sto Gaidi in the process of starting their pipes:

[pancelticpiper]

About gaida learning materials in English, we English speakers are incredibly lucky that an Australian guy went to Bulgaria, became a very fine gaida player, and made an instructional DVD.

About the writing down of the gaida music, they teach courses in gaida playing in some Bulgarian universities and those professors and students all can read music, and they write out everything they play. The old time village musicians didn't read or write music.

About Bulgarian "tunes", yes "tunes" in the Irish sense don't exist. Rather there are a large number of phrases that exist in each dance rythm idiom, for example dozens of phrases in the idiom of the rutchenitsa (7/8).
In the old days when the village gaidar would play for dancing he would keep stringing together phrases from his repertoire and keep playing as long as the dancers needed.

I have a wonderful cassette tape of a female Bulgarian gaida player and on it she plays for a solid 20 minutes or so in one of the dance rythms, pravo I think, just as she would if playing at a wedding. (Pravo by the way sounds like jigs, though oddly enough Bulgarians notate pravos in 2/4 time. I write them out in 6/8 to reflect their actual sound.)

The Bulgarian name for these phrases is kolyano.

[pancelticpiper]

I highly recommend the book May It Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music by Dr Timothy Rice.

It's fantastic for putting Bulgarian music in its historical and social context, as the music evolved from extemporised playing by village musicians to the centralised formalised folk orchestras of the 1950s which changed nearly every aspect of the music and instruments.

On the topic of the structure of the "tunes" (kolena, singular kolyano) Dr Rice says, in talking of Kostadin Varimezov's transition from village gaidar to orchestral player:

With musical notation and the orchestral training that required exact repeats, Kostadin became, as he says, "conscious" of musical form, in contrast to what was formerly "unconscious" and "accidental", "whatever came into my head". If in the old days variation was improvised and forgotten at the instant of performance, notation helped him create and manipulate variation and store the result in notation as well as memory. He conceded that notation created for him the idea of fixed melodic structures to be played identically each time, effectively wiping out the freedom and variation characterstic of village tradition (in which) a dance could last for an hour or more (and) the musicians strung together as many tunes as they knew, beginning with a ritually appropriate or requested tune and continuing with "whatever came into their heads" until the procession or dancers stopped.

Kolena are what in Irish music would be fragments of tunes, two measure bits or four measure bits.

[anima]

Thanks Pancelt, you are a font of information. Good to know about how to start the drones - that was driving me crazy (a short drive). I bought a DVD from Bulgariana.com that Cory Dale made (Boyan Savov hosts) - is this the dvd you are referring to? It is rather short. I have the Rice book and am reading it at present - good accompanying CD but the clips are cut too short. Where are you located?

Jeff

[pancelticpiper]

I'm in the OC, California.

Yes indeed! Cory Dale is the guy.

I never got very good at the gaida, but spent a lot of time in lessons, listening, and practicing. It's far more difficult that it appears, at least for me.

What made it difficult was that my teacher, Georgi Doichev, didn't speak English, and I don't speak Bulgarian.

I think I would have made more progress if I had understood more.

[gajdar]

Anima

Don't know if you're still interested (been 5 years) but a good contact with a lot of other gajda players is the eefc.org mailing list. There are a bunch of us that track it. I track this forum too, don't know how I missed you earlier.

Jim

[anima]

I am still here, it's been very slow - the music is dense, complex, and very different than "western" music. I really need to find someone close to work with me or it may be a no go.

[imaruca]

Hello Guys.
I just bought a jura gaida in RE from bulgariana.com and, of course, the problems begin.
Firstly, i didn`t had time to play it to much because something happened to reeds and the second day, they did not sound anymore.
I tried, what they wrote in the book: i rubbed them with suet (Don't ask me how difficult it was to find suet in a big city!) but that had almost no succes. I am trying now with other reeds and it is very difficult to tune the gaidenitsa. Seems like every reed reacts differentlly. No note is where it should be.
And the flea note is sharping the others notes (when i`m open it) much more that it should.
Can anyone recommend me a link to internet where i could learn to make my one reeds.
Thank you.
Florin

[pancelticpiper]

And the flea note is sharping the others notes (when i`m open it) much more that it should.

The mormorka or "flea hole" is tricky. If you're blowing the chanter at too low a pressure, the fleahole notes will be too sharp.

So I would experiment with blowing first. I'll wager that an experienced gaida player could play your chanter fairly well in tune.

It is possible to flatten the fleahole notes by putting a tiny bit of tuning wax in the mormorka.

I've even removed the tube from the fleahole and replaced it with a tube of a different Inside Diameter and/or a different length, to fine-tune the fleahole notes.

About your chanter reed's instability, all cane reeds play differently when they're dry and when they're moist. I would wager that if you spent a week playing your gaida on a regular schedule, say, one-half hour each day, the reed will stabilise.

[MichaelLoos]

I just wrote about making reeds for kaba gaida: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=79174
This is, of course, very basic and incomplete, but I think it can be helpful to get you started, much of it can be transferred to djura gaida reedmaking.
For djura gaida, the dimensions are much different, the original reeds will give you the right idea.
Also, for djura gaida, you want all the tones in tune, not only the top hand, and the marmorka should work on all notes (although very often, it doesn't work well for the lowest tone).
!!! Rubbing with suet is only for kaba gaida reeds made from elder instead of cane, never apply it to a cane reed, you will ruin it !!!
Apart from that, I'd second every bit of what pancelticpiper wrote.
Is your instrument a gaida in RE (bulgarian denomination): lowest tone of chanter = RE, three-finger note = keynote = drone tone = LA, or does it actually play in RE, which means lowest tone = SOL, three-finger note etc. = RE (this is what a Bulgarian would call a SOL gaida)? And, who made your instrument?

[imaruca]

MichaelLoos and pancelticpiper
Thank you for your answers.
The gaida is in RE (bulgarian denomination. Re=lowest tone of the chanter). It was made by Z. Beshendjiev. The reeds are from elder. At least it looks like. I can not rehears half hour a day because the original reeds do not sound. The chanter reed is sounding just when i am pressing the bag very hard and it is overblowing (It gives me some high shriek notes). Drone reed does not sound at all. I am now "practicing" just with the chanter. I put on it a thin cane reed that goes easily, but not quite in tune (specially the notes that have to be obtained using the fleanote).
I will try to make a reed with plastic body and sax reed (as MichaelLoos explained) for the drone. If i will succed i will then try for the chanter.
Thanks again.