I just stumbled on this triplet. Never had cause to use such a thing, but I do now (in an Amix-ish Yellow Tinker). The move requires an A cut to initiate the triplet (A, A-B-A), made more difficult by the fact that the upper/weaker left hand ring finger has to do all the heavy lifting on this maneuver.
questions:
Since there is nothing new under the sun, perhaps you know where this triplet is used elsewhere?
Would you use a two-finger B?
This is one of those moves that is requiring me to rewire parts of my brain! It builds up so much tension in my gut that I end up needing to pop a whole sheet of bubble wrap just to bring me back down .
The first approach that comes to my mind, and I’m not sure how it would sound, would be to seperate the two first A’s with a tap. The rest to me follows naturally, but by coincidence the subsequent movements are identical to a piobaireachd embellishment on the GHB, so take it with a grain of salt.
i use this, lifting only one finger at a time for A, B, and return to A.. It takes a while, but once its in, it will find its place.
My PROBLEM is…i seem to be only able to play F# after it !! thinking of going to any other note after it, , just gums the entire thing up. n
now for the , C#- B- A, descending triplet…now theres a challenge. i suspect i will also only be able to play f# after that as well!
Tom, you have stumbled on a treasure trove…
I don’t use that triplet, per se, but I do use a tight A. B. A, and as the way i teach all tight triplets is to to find a tune that uses those notes as full-time melody notes, that’s where I’ll point you.
So play the first bar of the Humours of Ballyloughlin A.B.A AGE. Make the first A long. Close the A. Blip the B (single finger). Off and let ring for the second A, then cut for the next. So the B is totally tight. Practise, practise, practise. Try and find other places to use this, in reels too.
Then for the triplet, the sequence of movements you have learned is identical, only the rhythm is slightly different.
In general in that tune, if you hear a triplet on the A, chances are it’ll be an A.C#.A triplet, as that has been taught as the standard for a long time. The use of those fingers ties into the whole backstitching system (and incidentally into a whole system of double cutting that Chris Langan used extensively), so it’s a useful entry into that system.
An A.B.A triplet is pretty rare.
ABA is what almost all other instruments will play if they put a triplet in that spot, too. C#/D box would play AdA - d is the next highest note on the D row which is also available with the bellows being pushed in, which is also the direction you use for A. Although someone with the C#/D could also play AC#A, going to the C# row for the middle note…can’t recall ever hearing that, although I haven’t really paid attention. Can’t imagine a box player wanting to bother, either, it’s very unlikely they know about the piping ornament unless they play a lot with pipers. B/C box players play ABA, those notes you get on the pull. When I play AC#A on instruments other than the pipes it sounds quite weird.
As Calum pointed out, this is a standard ornament in Scottish Highland piping. Played on the GHB chanter, you can only lift one finger at a time to get the correct effect, which is deliberately intended to give the illusion of staccato. I tried messing with this as a tight triplet a while back, and I must confess that while certain bits of GHB technique sound attractive on uilleann pipes, I’m not fond of the sound of this on the UP chanter. I haven’t tried it in that particular tune, though. Maybe I’ll give it another chance…
I had always thought that this was another technique difference between uilleann pipes and Highland pipes, because the Highland ornament (called edre) goes ring-middle-ring while the uilleann ornament goes ring-index-ring.
BTW oftentimes on Highland chanters the middle gracenote is a flat 6th above the drone (on Highland chanters an F natural, the note that would be B flat on an uilleann chanter). The ornament happens so fast that this usually isn’t noticed.
Anyhow I’ve always kept these two fingerings sorted, and never thought about doing the Highland-style one on the uilleann pipes, though it would be easy enough to do.
Here’s the edre on the Highland pipes, on the second tune, John MacKenzie’s Fancy, which starts at 2:26. Bar 1 of the tune starts A e e A edre as you can hear. Note that it’s played so fast that the specific gracenotes can’t really be heard.
The added bonus is the darodo or “bubbly note” as Highland pipers call it, in bar 3, at 3:29, which goes G B B G darodo. The darodo happens to have exactly the same fingering as the g-f#-e staccato triplet on the uilleann pipes, a rare shared bit of technique.
Thanks for the interesting GHB perspectives here. I don’t know how you guys do half the stuff you do, but then I don’t have a forensic ear for GHB music.
The A-B-A triplet does in fact give a flattish (one-finger) B…which is seldom ever desirable. But I find that the only two ornaments that sound “good” to me in this version of the tune are a closed A roll and this A-B-A triplet. Other triplets (A-C#-A and B-C#-A) voice too high on the scale and steal the thunder from the rising melodic line that shortly thereafter passes through the same territory on the chanter.
So I continue to train for the A-B-A triplet…leaving clumps of hair on the floor around my chair. Takes me back to the many years of struggling through this stuff. This instrument never fails to humble.
Oh, thats an easy answer Tom - shame, intimidation, & blackmail. And at Gr 2 & up: obligatory divorce. You really should spend more time hanging out with your local pipeband
Really comrades, that B in the A-B-A goes so goshdarn fast I challenge any acute listener to conclusively prove if its a 2-finger B or a 1-finger B.
Really comrades, that B in the A-B-A goes so goshdarn fast I challenge any acute listener to conclusively prove if its a 2-finger B or a 1-finger B.
I think it will vary a lot from one chanter to the next. Some will yield a half decent B in the triplet when played single fingered, some others are more happy when the B is played with two fingers. It’s not a big deal, two fingers is only more difficult when you’re not used to playing it that way.
Wow that would mean lifting the A finger three times in extremely quick succession.
Seems to me that these sorts of ornaments (which are staccato or ‘tight’ on the uilleann pipes, and have Low A and/or Low G burbling out in between the gracenotes on the Highland pipes, the uilleann cran being Highland-like in that way) are designed around lifting fingers in sequence, not repeatedly.
I do use a two-finger B in the B-C#-B triplet, but neither of the two fingers used to make B are repeating their action in succession. It would be inconceivable to a Highland piper to play an edre with a two-finger F#, even though, due to the way Highland chanters work, that F usually comes out F natural, that is, a half-step flat.
On the uilleann pipes, why not just stick to the standard A-C-A triplet? It’s worked fine for generations of pipers.
Agreed. I can just about get away with one finger Bs on my concert pitch chanter. On the other hand my C chanter gives me a nearly exact Bb with that fingering which stands out a long way no matter how tight I play it. I’ve switched to two fingers and I find it just as easy for BC#B and BC#D triplets. Still working on the C#BA but it’s coming good. And I have a comfortable extra fingering for Bb as a bonus…
Yes, I find that pretty unfriendly too. But I notice I can play three staccato As much quicker than I can play a staccato ABA (not that I’ve ever practised the latter) which makes me think the problem is more one of confusion than a physical limitation of the A finger. That being said I haven’t yet come across a situation where I’d definitively want an ABA rather than an AC#A triplet.
I can just about get away with one finger Bs on my concert pitch chanter. On the other hand my C chanter gives me a nearly exact Bb with that fingering which stands out a long way no matter how tight I play it
Pretty much what I found when I got my first C set late 1984. While it was probably annoying enough for a few weeks to re-learn the triplets, I do find two finger B sounds better in any case (rather than a 'can get away with’) so I haven’t really looked back since.
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thinking of going to any other note after it, , just gums the entire thing up. n
