So I am on these pipes more or less since April 2010…learning in isolation, with just the tutor and some pints…I have been kind of keeping an uilleann pipe diary of sorts on my “progress” or lack of it…would you be so kind as to waste 50 seconds and watch the latest and give me some pointers? thanks pipers…cheers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cbzB816N48
one day I may be good enough to make big davys list…in about 20 more years…one down 20 to go
Hi Johnered66
Well you asked to be taken off it 
I do watch your vids and you seem to be coming along nicely.
Would you do one thing for me please, however, place your mike a little bit further away from you, as it appears to be distorting in the lower octave.
David
Thanks Davy…I wish I could reduce the input on the mic but it’s a factory setting on the camera…it’s a nice enough camera, but has no way to lower that input volumn, drives me mad…it makes everything too saturated…
Hi Johnered66
I might be setting the cat among the pigeons here, but listening to the vid, I thought the next step for you is not more tunes, but adding drones to the mix.
David
Thanks David, I do practice with the drones on, but still working all the fingering movements and trying to get that timing down, much slower then it should be played, but trying for a cleaner sound…man, they aren’t kidding about the uilleanns…I’m thinking of starting a new reality show…I will call it " It’s the Uilleann or My Liver that will Go!" look for it on Discovery channel…
Great start thus far. Try putting a little space between the notes. Not enough to change the timing, just enough to add a little definition, and not quite as legato. Start at those places between the back D and the 2nd octave E, second octave E and second octave F#, C nat and back D, etc… Try a few staccato triplets.
ok, great advice, will give that a go…I think I know what you mean…I am playing open piping more or less…not very tight…thanks…cheers.
First let me say that I would never have the guts to put a video of my playing up for criticism, so good job!
I would try to start sounding a little more piperly. Tightening up a bit would be great, but also think of adding some more cuts, especially on the first note of each measure, and, if you can manage it, on the first note of the second beat of each measure. Next, I would try to add a few rolls. A roll on b instead of b-a-b would be effective. A tight triplet or two would also serve well as you are able to manage them.
The tempo is great. Can’t dance to it, but you can certainly learn to pipe at that tempo.
Great effort!
thanks, thats what I am looking for…now to figure out a way to work that in and not screw up the timing…whew…lots to learn…thanks again…cheers…ps…put a vid up, this should be the safest place, I mean, everyone had to start somewhere…I certainly wasn’t born with a chanter in my hand…I’m an old dog trying to learn a new trick. would love to see vids of Chiff n Fipple posters…regular players that are still working things out…
Well John I would say that fair play to ye for coming up fer air.For a 1 year old ye are doing well.I would suggest that ye get to a tional or a tutor to take ye forward.Maybe not build up your repatoire too much but concentrate on a few tunes that ye have in your head and then work like billy o on them to get good practice in technique.If the tune is in yoor head and in yoor fingers then that is one less problem to deal with.The timing will come as will everything else.Don’t forget a simple stop is an effective ornament and too much ornamentation will kill a tune.The melody and rythm are all important.
I notice also that ye wear firefighters shirts..do ye belong to the brotherhood.If so a warm welcome frae a retired Officer o London Fire Brigade and a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Firefighters (A City of London Livery Company)
Now then, to be my bestest friend ye could if ye want, make a donation to my appeal for leprosy sufferers ..as ye can see I have only 13 friends at the moment (12 really as someone donated twice) 
Uilliam
I see you are playing on a Marc van Daal set
Yes I am a firefighter in Amerikay…thanks for the advice. It’s not the job it use to be.
Yes it’s a set of Marc’s, I bought off a fellow from Denmark. Great set of pipes, and they sound amazing in the right hands…not mine just yet, but in time…cheers.
i’m very impressed - the timing is perfect and the fingering is clean and every note is sounded properly - i think you are ready to learn the techniques that will make you a real piper
I think the advice that I was given once, in 1982 I think, applies here: ‘you have the notes, now try play music’. Or one of Ennis’ standard ones: ‘maybe make it sound a bit more like piping’.
You’re going well but the hard work hasn’t even begun. You’ll have to start thinking less mechanical and more about content. Dress the thing up a bit, make it sound like music. I know that’s more easily said than done but try pop those high Gs in the second part, the tune was made for that, work your c naturals, play the tune by the phrase, not by the yard, the basic stuff.
Best bit of advice I received right at the beginning was, even if you intend to play in a flowing ‘travelling’ style, learn the staccato fingering first. I think it was the old Leo Rowsome tutor that had some nice exercises for staccato fingering. So before I even considered playing tunes, I spent my first couple of weeks at least, playing up and down the scale staccato-fashion. I mean, exercises like, d-d-d-d; e-e-e-e; f#-f#-f#-f#, and so on and so forth in a variety of combinations.
You’re steady, which is good.
Start thinking about ways to get more lift and expression into your playing. You’ll spend the rest of your piping career working on how to do that. 
For a start though, focus on basic ornamentation to help define the phrases, like using a cut or a slur to emphasise the note at the start of the phrase. Just to keep it simple and focusing on one thing in that tune so your brain doesn’t fry, here is one thing to work on: people often sit heavily on the first A, often playing a roll, lifting the chanter and vibrato-ing it, sliding up to it and holding it a second, anything to give it oomph. A lot of players also emphasise the G in the last bar – I’d probably play a slidey roll or something there. Then in the B part, people often hit the D of the first DFA run but then back off a bit on the subsequent Ds when they repeat that run. On the pipes I’d probably play a big hard D and hang onto it as long as possible before going to the F and A.
Listen to recordings of good players (doesn’t have to be pipes) playing the tune and work out when and how they are emphasising some notes and not others. That’s what I did in the above paragraph, as I don’t really play this tune myself (though I’ve probably busked it).
Also, not all notes of a (slip) jig are of equal length. Often (but mind you, not always) the first note in the group of three eighth notes is a fraction longer than the second two.
wow, thanks…cheers.
I gottcha, you are dead on right…this is where the work begins…cheers
hey there John… You’re doing great for where you’re at. I tried posting a reply video, but don’t see it up there, so I’ll post a link here as well
piperhahn