I’ve been struggling along with my practice, and I have a question about ornamentation.
In Great Highland Bagpipe playing, many embellishments seem to have fairly established functions and conventions regarding where and how they are used. For example, a G gracenote is often played on the beat, and certain gracenote combinations tend to follow particular patterns.
Is there anything similar in uilleann piping? In other words, are there any generally accepted rules or conventions about which ornaments are normally used in particular situations?
What I am really trying to find out is whether there is a reasonably systematic way to learn ornamentation from the basic skeleton of a tune—for example, from the relatively plain versions of tunes found on TheSession.org—and then work out where rolls, cuts, pats, crans, etc. would naturally be added.
Of course, I understand that one of the fundamental principles of traditional music is to listen carefully and learn by ear, and I am not looking for a substitute for that. I am simply curious whether there are any useful general rules or patterns that a beginner can study as a starting point.
I would be very grateful for any advice or insight.
Not really. There are no proscriptive rules, although there are the bounds of style and good taste but within those it’s very much up to the individual player.
I’m the sort of person who likes things to be fairly systematic and structured, not only in music but in almost everything I do, so I think this aspect of uilleann piping may be quite challenging for me.
It sounds as though I’ll need to spend a lot of time simply listening, developing my ear, and gradually learning what sounds natural and appropriate within the style. I suspect that will be a very long process, but probably an important part of learning the instrument properly.
Do you have a teacher? It’s best to work with a teacher, who will be able to show you how and when to play (or not to play) ornamentation, and explain what sounds good or bad (completely subjective, i know).
If you are learning on your own, you might be picking up bad habits with realizing it.
I do not have in-person-to-person teacher. There are no known pipers in South Korea. But my pipemaker provide real time online lesson, intermittently. Maybe I should ask him next time!
Plenty of pipers offer online lessons. You should ask around and see who is offering lessons, and try it out. It is a very good investment when you are starting.
Being in Korea, your main problem will be the time difference.
There are plenty of books with detailed notations of the playing if various pipers.
Joe Doyle’s books, for example. They may help getting an idea of what goes on in the tunes. Ideally in combination with the recordings they were taken from.
You know what? I actually bought all six of Joe Doyle’s books already, and they’re on their way!
I have no intention of ignoring the “learn by ear” rule, but I wanted something a bit more formal and reliable as a reference than TheSession.org. I’m hoping the books, together with the recordings, will help me understand what’s really happening in the tunes.