When I play a Cran on bottom D it’s usually with a F# and E, but occasionally its with a G and F# or even A and F#. I don’t really have a system for choosing which. Is there a rule of thumb or just what sounds best or always play the same or always play different … ?
Have you done a search on this? It has come up many times in the past. Some will say that there is a specific way to do them based on whichever book they prefer. I go with what sounds best to me. But you should try them all. The best players of the past were not consistent, and had several crans that they used as the mood struck them. Try them all. See what you like. (And don’t be surprised if every teacher you run into at tionoli tells you to do it different. 
)
djm
Present day teachers are also inconsistent. They are inconsistent with regard to which finger they use to cut with for the upper hand notes as well.
The D cran I use is the one I got from Benedict Koehler, who got it from Liam O’Flynn (have I dropped enough names yet?). In ABC notation (which would only only be a rythmic approximation) is {A}D2{G}D/2{F}D/2 {A}D3. In mostly normal English it would be an A cut to the bottom D, which is held for about a quarter note’s time, followed by a G cut to another bottom D (~1/8th note time), followed by a F# cut to a bottom D (~1/8th note time), followed by an A cut to the final bottom D. A lot of words to inaccurately describe something that was shown to me in about 5 seconds (which further illustrates the importance of getting tuition from a live person!).
dave boling
the fingers involved are almost always A, G, F#, but the order varies.
I find that different people have different terminology about “the A finger”, “g finger”, etc., but the most common way in piping is to refer to the highest finger lifted to sound a note. That is, for a right handed player, the right index finger would be “the G finger”.
In my playing, it depends on what I’m doing. I don’t cran soft Ds except by mistake, so if the phrase is coming off a relaxed top hand note I’ll often slice up the D (in which case it’s already hard) starting with the bottom forefinger (ie G). So coming off an A roll iin a jig, for instance, I might play D-G-D-F-D-G-D or D-G-D-F-D-A-D. But coming off a bottom hand note, starting a phrase, or perhaps from a tight top hand note, I’ll jump start the D with an A cut. In either case, I may drop the final grace note if the machine-gun effect is too strong for the purpose.
Yes, I look at it not as consistency but as versatility.
Jigs and reels have different crans… there are reversed crans as in the one that Ennis mostly used etc. Some tunes will allow a descending legato triplet F/E/D off the knee which can be nice. Look at my FAQ page in the terminology section for notation on a couple of examples.
Patrick.
All depends on how jarring you want the effect to be. Also people may have trouble getting enough bite with the note above because it’s more difficult to do and their gracing may end up mushy, so they opt for the notes farther away. To my ear, “far away” grace notes stick out too much and become tiresome to hear and I often avoid them. There is a side benefit to ‘close’ grace notes. Practising these enables you to do those tasty little upper mordents cleaner.
This is a really good thread. Gets to the heart of the freedom of expression and versatility (to borrow from Patrick’s post) with UPing. Though I have been told by some tional teachers, to never do this or that, clearly you can try diferent things as the legends in the past have, and pick what you like and for which tune.
Well… you can do anything as long as it’s right
PD.
I would maintain that it is helpful to ones craft to be able to do what the legends have done – in order to appreciate their musical logic – BEFORE getting too caught up in doing things your own way, although it is good to apply the principles you learn in new contexts. Besides, I think it’s hard to appreciate how amazing some of Patsy Tuohey’s work is or Ennis’s rhythmic tricks are until you try them yourself. It really opens up your ears.
If nothing else, trying out all these different methods improves your overall chanter control and technique. When I said the old masters were not consistent, I did not mean it in a negative fashion, but that they played what suited each tune at each juncture. They did not follow some predetermined, cast-in-stone, thou-shalt-do-it-my-way method for any technique or ornament.
On the other hand, just because you are capable of playing something a dozen differnt ways doesn’t mean that each of those different ways is appropriate to the particular tune you are playing. If there is any really difficult goal in all this, I think it is maybe mastering what is appropriate.
djm
What’s a mordent? Do I necessarily want to do it? Is it legal?
Mark
It is a small trill.
Listen to what Joseph says. He is a well known trill seeker. 
djm
… of the worst possible sort.
As long as your crans SOUND like Barbara, or BaBarbara, or BarbaraBa, or even BaBarbaraBa, it’s all good! 
… so… um… who’s Barbara?
The wife of a total idiot!
A lot of you US people voted for said idiot.
You had to ask huh? =p
Praise the lord, $0.50
Praise the lord, $1.00
Praise the lord, $7.50
Yes, we praise the lord more and more
(a bit a dutch comedian did once, prize and praise are the same word in dutch.)