For those who’ve heard John McSherry’s playing of this tune, what do you reckon he’s doing in the 4th part. For a long time I thought I was hearing a reg, but now I’m thinkin that it is actually just a resonant bottom D that punctuates that section so rhythmically.
Maybe someone like Fergus Maunsell will have seen him play this and know what he’s doing?
Note how the band stop for that section to let his wee bit stand out.
[errrm…no pun was intended there]
Boyd
I have him playing on several and can’t remember right off which one it’s on, and I’m too lazy to go look. And I may not have (or have heard of) them all. I want to know which album so I can get it if I don’t already have it.
BTW, thanks for the tune. I haven’t got it all worked out yet, but sounds like a good one! 
Its a track on the Lunasa Live CD.
Boyd
I think I’ve heard that version as well but am likewise to lazy to track down the pirate Mp3 or CD or whatever to check. What you note is a very common GHB trick on low A (bell note/D effect) where the bell note is alternated with some melody note or redundant note and what happens is the bell note and sometimes other notes in the sequence strike out on their own from the buzz of the drones and filler notes, making the featured note sound staccato and louder than the rest. You can get some very regulator-like syncopations this way.
It’s also very nice on the flute with some chiff on low D–there’s a couple of flute feature tracks on the first Bothy Band album that has a set or two of reels doing that. I call it the “phantom melody” effect.
Royce
I’m back to my original reg theory after listening a time or two this evening.
I had thought it was B and G regs then F# and A, but I’m wondering now if he’s only playing the one reg [the big one, if that terminology is allowed 
].
Ah well, my incorrect theory about the bottom D has given me a nice variation for the 4th part.
Boyd
I don’t think John MacSherry actually has regulators, the Colonel Fraser I heard him play was just chanter with brilliant fingerwork.
Yeah, I’d heard that too, [but Sean P. was saying he thought John might have got regs in the recent past]
…[I don’t hear any drones on that recording either]
Right, then…I’m back to the fingerwork theories!!
Boyd
I have that recording and listen to it often. I think Royce pretty much described what is going on. I couldn’t tell you the actual notes as I don’t play Colonel Fraser myself. Maybe B. Ring could describe in more detail if he has the recording. He plays a pretty mean Colonel Fraser himself. 
j.
The problem with Colonel Fraser is that it’s such a piping standard that there’s loads of subtly different versions, and we all have different ones!
My ears are telling me that I’d like to do whatever it is that JMcS does in that 4th part, at least as a variation on the ways that I play the tune currently.
Boyd
This is NOT what JMcS does, but maybe gets somewhere near the mark:
[A] |: BBDB BDBD AADA ADAD BBDB BDBD CADF AGGG
DBBD BBDA AADA AABA GGGA [BCd]eg fdCA GGGA 
xxxA AAxxx
|___|
/
roll the 3 A’s each time they appear
Boyd
Would the players out there like to give those notes [above] a quick blast on their chanters and say what you think 
Boyd
That’s sort of a standard 4th part for the tune and the feature of the melody is bouncing from those B’s down and back to honk the low D and then going to the A and doing the same thing there, and so on. The regulator effect comes from cutting the low D, not holding it. (I don’t mean a gracenote, I mean shortening it as if it were staccato.) It can’t be staccato of course because the chanter keeps sounding but the D seems to come right out of a held A or B or whatever the “anchor” note as I call it may be. It sounds like the B or A is droning a constant note, with a staccato D honking like a regulator. You get the same effect if you just play the D’s and anchor notes dead-even, but it isn’t as pronounced.
Again, you can use a low E or F# as the honk note and any higher note as an anchor, like a back D. I hate to sound so cock-sure of it, it’s so unlike me, but that’s one of the few tricks you have on GHB and I’ve written and played scores of tunes based entirely around the effect. Col. Frazer’s is as we know, a Scottish tune, and even the Scottish fiddlers play a birl (the other big GHB trick on the bell note, often used in a tune like this) and catch the bow on low A (the GHB bell note, which would be UP D) to achieve the same phantom accent notes popping out of a melody.
Royce
This is a technique used in all kinds of bagpiping, a form of pseudo stacatto. The Ds on the chanter swell the drones in a way, creating the impression of a stacatto emphasis. You can employ the opposite technique, holding down a D and popping out notes higher in the chanter’s range. In fact this might be what you’re talking about with McSherry, I don’t have this recording, but most renditions of the Col. I’ve heard have something of this nature in them. Historically it was more prevalent in the “open” piping - Johnny Doran, Leo Rowsome - since you have to keep the chanter off the knee and no self respecting “tight” player - Patsy Touhey, Seamus Ennis - would lower himself in such a manner!
In fact all of the above recorded the Colonel. Hmmm. Seamus Ennis had a little story he’d preface this reel with, I don’t have all of it on tape but it involved how the tune “entered into the bird category,” and something about how they called it “The Colonel was AfraidofHer!” Perhaps the inspiration for the tune was a psychotic parakeet?
You guys are commenting without having heard the track in question!!
The version I’m most familiar with as a “standard” has
BBGB BBGB AAFA AAFA BBGB BBGB …etc
with the regs superimposed [which is how I play it]
Listening closely again last night, I’m back to my reg theory.
I’ll have to get a CD slow downer onto it to see if I can “diagnose” it myself 
Ah well, thanks for the stuff about the bell note etc
Brendan R. or Peter L., if you’re out there…how do you play it??
Boyd
Uh, granted. Just offering an educated (?) guess. I know how McSherry plays, I think I can tell just from these descriptions what he’s doing, which you hear from lots of other pipers.
Don’t forget Jerry O’Sullivan’s solo version of it on his Invasion LP or CD, or the first Paddy Keenan record.
Boyd,
Pop down my house and I’ll show you!! Or if that’s too far, go with your approximation. There are no regs, it’s high speed tapping and rythmical taste and live mic position etc., Your DBBD BBDB DAAD AADA DBBD BBDB etc., etc., is the way to go…
Alan
Alan
You’re a star!
I had the squealers strapped on me in the kitchen tonight and the notes as writ there sounded pretty good…so I’ll maybe stick to them.
By the way, I’ve moved house now, but still same phone number.
Do you know any pipers near Exeter…Joey_Schu is going to be studying there early in 2004 and is looking for contacts.
[PM for you too]
Boyd
There’s a few around Devon and sessions are fairly common, but most remarkably is Nick Scott, a great piper in all senses, and Simon Stowe’s a fine fellow for the craic/crack/fun or what you will (and I bet he lurks here too). Perhaps Joey should post up and see what response he gets. Or mail me, whatever, after all, Im not so far and am down that way fair regular.
Alan
Well, if you can hear that’s what he’s playing then he’s got to use a regulator to hit the D along with all the G’s and F#'s (fnat?) but if it’s the one I heard I think he’s just substituting a low D for the G’s and F#'s at least for variation.
Royce
Well, if you can hear that’s what he’s playing then he’s got to use a regulator to hit the D along with all the G’s and F#'s (fnat?) but if it’s the one I heard I think he’s just substituting a low D for the G’s and F#'s at least for variation.
Thanks.
I’m gonna get my nurse to wash the wax outa me ears today…might help 
Boyd