From Jason Burke’s “Tionol St. Louis Report” thread:
His approach to cutting was very unique (he cuts, not with the note like most books teach, but instead with the note above, so a cut on G is done with A and the G finger stays in place)
Somewhere in my notes I had written that this is how you do cuts, and when I started practicing them that was how I did it. Then I found the “real” way and thought I was wrong
A cut like this (using the note above) makes a really lovely melodic roll, especially for slow airs where I use it about “half-speed,” almost like an arpeggio. I’m sure this isn’t trad, but it works
Cutting with a finger above the note you’re playing definitely seems like a good choice to me. I think there’s a tendency to want to play the cut as an actual grace note if you cut, for example, a G with the G finger.
I personally use the G finger to cut D, E, and F#, either the G or B finger for G, and use the B finger for A and B. It seems to be working well for me.
I’ve been experimenting with doing cuts based on the key of the tune.
For example, a cut for the E and D, I would use the F# finger if the tune is in D and G finger if the tunes in G. Like wise cuting f#, I’d use the A finger if the tune is in D and the G finger if the tune is in G. I’m thinking that in the long run this is going to keep my ornaments more in line with the available accompanyment and might be less distracting from the melody being voiced by other instruments. For A tune that is modal, by that I mean that the tune changes key temporarily, (maybe a D tune that has a phrase with a C natural), I would use the cuts that apply to the current key. So an E might be cut with the f# in one part and the G in another phrase depending on the current key of the phrase.
Does this make any musical sense to some of our long time whistlers? Is it worth pursuing? Or is the pitch of the grace note relatively trivialized but its short duration?
Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
P.S.
Steve (in following post), by F# finger I mean the finger that, when lifted, plays the F#. It sounds to me that ease of play might be the more important reason to pursue the alternates in that easier usually means faster, and I’ve always thought of grace notes as being an order of magnitude faster than the melody note being graced. I just wandered if there were any harmonic reasons to prefer one over the other? If not maybe I’ll just stick with ease and feel.
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2002-04-16 15:00 ]
On 2002-04-16 13:46, LeeMarsh wrote:
Does this make any musical sense to some of our long time whistlers? Is it worth pursuing? Or is the pitch of the grace note relatively trivialized but its short duration?
A nice touch Lee but actually I don’t think it is worth pursuing. The pitch of cut isn’t really perceptible. If it is, maybe you’re not doing it fast enough!
One reason for experimenting with different fingers, apart from ease of execution, is that each will give you a slightly different effect. You might like some better than others, but I doubt it would be for harmonic reasons.
As far as pitch goes, what do you mean by F# finger? I call the first finger of my bottom hand the “F# finger” but actually it sits on the “G hole”. If you cut with this finger, then the pitch of your cut would be close to G, not F#, and so for your idea to work you’d have to lift the middle finger.
