Have I heard somethng about a piping ornemant called Backstitching?
If so, what is it, andhow does one execute it properly:)
Back-stitching is described in the book The Piping of Patsy Tuohey from NPU. Since you are in Dublin it will be no effort for you at all to obtain this book.
djm
Cheers Djm.
What exactly is in this book? Is it like the piping of Séamus Ennis?
You can hear Patsey Touhy backstitching in this link.
Apart from Patsey Touhy, you will hear Jerry O’Sullivan play this particular ornamentation quite frequently. Listen to his version of Colonel Fraser, for example.
At one of the intermediate classes in the Pipers Gathering last year, Jerry explained his version of backstitching which is influenced by Patsey Touhy’s playing.
Firstly the rhythm: LONG-short-short-LONG.
Secondly, he used two techniques - upper hand and lower hand.
When playing a note with the upper hand (the LONG notes in the rhythm) - for instance back d, C#, B or A - the stitch notes were G and F#.
When playing a lower hand note (G, F# or E), the stitch notes were C# and A.
Putting it all together and using the LONG-short-short-LONG rhythm this gave a tidy little exercise descending the scale from back d to E :
(Upper hand)
d-G-F#-d
C#-G-F#-C#
B-G-F#-B
A-G-F#-A
(Lower hand)
G-C#-A-G
F#-C#-A-F#
E-C#-A-E
Jerry finished with a cran on hard bottom D but also using the back-stitch notes:
D-C#-D-A-D
Fantastic thanks PJ.
I forgot to mention that all the notes should be played staccato - tight, not open.
On the basis that more than one explanation can be helpful in solving a problem - see Mick Coyne’s www.uilleannpipestutor.com where backstitching is explained and demonstrated. You will have to register as a user, which is free, as is the use of the site thereafter, and with lots of useful stuff in addition.
Note that one can also move from one note to another with this effect, not just on one note. vis. gcAf, as well as gcAg, for example.
As PJ explains, the first and last notes of a group are emphasised slightly, the last a bit more than the first, and the two inside notes are played tight staccato. A quadruplet perhaps rather than a triplet.
It’s also explained on Patrick Darcy’s site
Have fun.
edited to put the notes right in para 3 (whoops)
Yeah Iwas looking for that particular part of uilleannobsession as I came across it a while ago but can’t find it. Can soeone give me the link?
Look in the F.A.Q section and scroll down and you will see it