I always here this talk about crans, I can do cuts rolls taps, etc etc. Hell maybe i even play crans too but just dont know what they are by name? Could anyone give me a brief definition?
cheers
-chris
Cranns are a piping ornament. They work on flute or whistle, too. Basically, they ornament the D like a roll. Think of using to cuts instead of a cut and a tap/strike.
The simplest form of whistle cran might be
xxx xxx D
xxx oxx cut 1
xxx xxx D
xxx xox cut 2
xxx xxx D
But: If you listen to piping you will find that pipers often put in three (rather than two) cuts, that there is a distinct tripletty-rhythm in there, and that cranns are played differently depending on what not precedes them (and probably depending on other factors I don’t understand). You’ll here cranns on the E rather than the D (think Kid on the Mountain), and on the hi d (on flute, anyway). Get a pipe version of Fraher’s or Blarney Pilgrim or a tune like that to hear lots of cranns.
If you want more information, run a search for “crans”.
Crans do tend to have quite a few more notes in them than in Bloomfield’s example, as he explains. In order to get the bouncy feel of piping crans, the first cut is usually to the A, rather than the G, and crans will usually end on the A, leaving a total of at least 7 notes, eg:
XXX XXX D
XXO XXX Cut 1
XXX XXX D
XXX OXX Cut 2
XXX XXX D
XXO XXX Cut 3
XXX XXX D
For a more bouncy cran, add more cuts (each of these is both pre- and anteceded by D):
XXO XXX Cut 1
XXX OXX Cut 2
XXX XOX Cut 3
XXX XXO Cut 4
XXO XXX Cut 5
Start on cut 1, end on cut 5, and add as many of the internal cuts (in the order written) as you can in the time allowed. Everyone clear? You have 35 minutes to complete this exam… 
Seriously, though, once you get the hang of the finger order you can do 9-, 11- or even 13- note crans (you can cut to the B rather than the A, if you’re feeling extra ambitious). You can also cran other notes - E works quite well (same technique, starting on E rather than D), or, on a flute with a Cnat key, G can be very effective (cut 1 is to Cnat, using the key, then B, then A, then Cnat again, with G in between all of the above).
So there. More info on crans than you ever really wanted. Enjoy! (*Laughs evilly: has now started a spate of cran-practising that may well end up in a string of murders by close relatives and nearby neighbours of the cranners… “Police are baffled by the presence of badly mutilated 6-hole recorder-things at all of the crime scenes; there seem to be no other connections between the homicides.” 
*)
Deirdre
Gotcha…
So if I play:
XXO XXX Cut 1
D
XXX OXX Cut 2
D
XXX XOX Cut 3
D
XXX XXO Cut 4
D
XXO XXX Cut 5
D
XXX OXX Cut 6
D
XXX XOX Cut 7
D
XXX XXO Cut 8
D
XXO XXX Cut 9
D
(… ad lib)
… I.e. skipping the first D, does it make it a “short cran” ? 
As I’ve been given to understand, the ideal crann (and there are many ways to finger it) is characterised by a sort of “stuttering” quality, at least in pipering; the D after the first cut is a bit drawn out comparative to the others to get an asymmetrical character to the timing of the whole ornament. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I like the “stutter”, myself.
A piper I’ve been practicing with, just to get my goat one day, made the offhand comment that he thought “cranns on the flute sound silly”. I replied with, “Bite me.”
We’re getting on well.
You’re getting love bites from a piper? 
…I’m workin’ on it. 
Don’t tell his wife, tho.
I’m confused here. The crans posted in this thread… should all of those lines be done for one note? How on earth do you get to play quick enough to do this? I have a problem trying to play xxxooo xoxooo xxxooo xxxxoo xxxooo which I believe is a long G roll. :roll: 
Selkie, the crann is basically a substitute for a roll, and so the time it takes to do it ought to allow for the fingerings with practice. It helps to be able to listen to U-pipers or recordings of them to get the gist of it. If you hear it on the bottom D or E, it’s a distinctive bubbly effect. That’s probably not a good description, but I hope it helps.
Not should. Can. Over time, and with much practice. The hardest part is hitting the D (or other base note) between each cut - that requires that your fingers move very quickly, but also very accurately. A 5-note (2-cut) cran is relatively easy once you get it in the right order; once you have that much, adding more cuts is pretty straightforward. Either way, don’t worry! It’s not compulsory! (I was just kidding… 
)
Deirdre
On the uilleann pipes I always do crans on D (off the knee of course, duh) like this:
xXXO XXXX - cut 1
xXXX XXXX
xXXX OXXX - cut 2
xXXX XXXX
xXXX XOXX - cut 3
low D crans on whistle like this:
XXO XXX - cut 1
XXX XXX
XXX OXX - cut 2
XXX XXX
XXX XOX - cut 3
high D crans liike this:
OXO XXX - cut 1
OXX XXX
OXX OXX - cut 2
OXX XXX
OXX XOX - cut 3
However, I detest the sound of crans on E on both pipes and whistle. Instead of crans I use another ornament for E:
OXX XXO - cut 1
XXX XXO
XXO XXO - cut 2
XXX XXO
XXX XXX - tap
This has commonly been used by Seamus Egan on the flute, I am not sure what it is called but I have heard people call it a double cut, even though it really is more of a double cut followed by a tap.
Just a quick question, whilst doing a cran say on D for instance is the trick so sound the D for the slighest second inbetween each cut?
Slainte…
yes
Yes again. The alternative (not sounding the Ds between) will serve, but it’s been called a “false crann”. Sounds OK, but not the same.
Bringing this back just to say: if you have access to a chanter for pipes, try a cran on it and it will make sense what they are supposed to be. I have a delrin chanter. The pressure of the air coming out of the holes makes the cran plunky and lovable. We are imitating it on the whistle, that is for sure and trying to make up in articulation what the pipes do naturally. Never played UP so I dunno if its the same deal.
Also, while fooling around with it, I realized that some reels have what are basically crans in eighth note time as a feature of the melody. Think of the beginning of Music for a Found Harmonium for example (I think thats the title of the tune). The way it starts sounds like a metric cran going from the third to the fourth back to the third for cuts.
Also, Hellbounds cran starts with a cut. Is that a special version or is the D assumed?
woo hoo, i figured it out! hooray for me, and yes Weekenders, i do have a chanter, thats how i figured it out 
i can do up to 4 cuts on one without making it sound like uber-trash. thanks guys
Thank goodness for occasional technical victories to keep us goin!! Congrats!
I’ve just edited this because apparently I signed in automatically as “Baglady,” my wife, who isn’t supposed to be using my computer to screw up my email or browsing applications after having totally rebuilt two computers from the hellish swarm of viri she downloaded all over them, requiring a clean reinstallation of Windows etc.
I think what I said was “Cranning sounds like crap” on a flute and even worse on a whistle. That’s because you don’t get the honking D or the snapping cuts and the net effect on a flute or whistle, particularly low whistle, is like a “fluf-a-bup.” This, rather than “Snap-ity-gronk,” on the pipes.
Anyway, cranning is usually a double-cut note, breaking it into two sixteenths or two eights etc, from a note twice that length, or very often a tripling of a note as in a jig. Whatever note you’re cutting is actually quite longer than the cuts or gracenotes dividing them. You can think of a so-called “cran” as just two or three gracenotes (which can be A, F#, G in that order or any other, or any other convenient two or three the individual piper gets to like) played in time with the tune, breaking the long continuous note into melody notes in time with the meter.
I think what I said was “Cranning sounds like crap” on a flute and even worse on a whistle. That’s because you don’t get the honking D or the snapping cuts and the net effect on a flute or whistle, particularly low whistle, is like a “fluf-a-bup.” This, rather than “Snap-ity-gronk,” on the pipes.
Silly or crap, it’s all shite. Sheesh. Pipers. :roll: …But I jest.
The saving grace of the trad flute in cranning is its own hard D. Yes, the “alien” pipes are not the only beast to have this capability. The trouble is that a crann will undermine the flute’s low D unless the hard D is held fast, and that takes practice.
That being said, yes, the sound is different from the pipes, but if the flute’s hard D is applied, it sounds very acceptable indeed to my ears; nothing “fluf-a-bup” about it, I think. The reel Na Cheithre Cúirteanna, aka The Four Courts, is a good flute exercise for hard D cranning.
And that being said, the crann on the pipes is indeed the definitive item. The rest of us can only make tepid attempts. 
What really sounds contrived is a crann on the fiddle, if you want examples of what God never intended.
Baglord, how long have you and Baglady been married, now? Your identities are doing that merge thing…unless, like the expedient of usernames, you also think nothing of wearing her clothes if it’s chilly enough and there’s nothing else immediately to hand…
Best,
N
[quote=“Nanohedron”][The saving grace of the trad flute in cranning is its own hard D. Yes, the “alien” pipes are not the only beast to have this capability. The trouble is that a crann will undermine the flute’s low D unless the hard D is held fast, and that takes practice.
There you go. I’ve not heard many fluters actually ever use a hard D, much less cran it hard. There’s a response delay you don’t get on pipes so you have to sort of wait for or time your cuts a little more considerately than on a chanter, where you can snap them out however you want them to snap.
Having said that, what’s up with the “wuuuhhh-wuuuuhhh” sounding diaphragm double-noting Larry Nugent does all the time on low D in place of a cran. Almost any time you come to the end of a part where you’d expect a double or tripple cran breakin up the low D, particularly on jigs, he blows the note into a one eighth note followed by two bound eighths, sounding like, yukity, yukity, yuk…wuh wuh.
I think that applies to Em tunes ending on E as well.
I guess I’ve heard it before but it seems this is almost exclusively the only thing he ever embellishes a low D with and he never tongues it into separate notes, always a chiffish diaphragm movement. Is this something like certain players in certain “schools” do and actually consider superior to cutting or cranning up end-phrase resolving notes, or is it because they agree that cranning is not as clean sounding on flute as what they’re doing instead, or is it because these players just never learned to cran that note and never considered doing it?
Royce