Royce, you couldn’t have said it better -_-
Sounds a nice idea but fingering a straw is a bit different. I think nearly everyone could always do it right on a straw. But isn’t it a bit like a flight simulator on your pc: not quite like the real thing? Once you’re there in the heat of the moment, pumping and squeezing and wrestling with the tune and the fingering patterns - that’s when you get 
the grip of death Bwahahahaha!
I never squeeze a flute or a whistle too hard but maybe I would if I was having to pump bellows etc at the same time. I remember my keyboard technique went out the window when I tried to play an old foot powered harmonium. And I think that trying to get a good seal without using the finger pad is part of it too.
That’s why it gets cured with time and practice, isn’t it? Only I’m not completely there yet. I’m having more trouble stopping curling my left index finger round - the other fingers are fine.
j.i.
JI, the drinking straw exercise is a conceptual one. Hold your chanter as if holding a drinking straw. Practise just that one aspect for a while to turn the idea of doing it into the practise of doing it. Learn the feel of holding the chanter lightly, and spend sufficient time for your body to learn this, not just your head.
Each aspect of playing needs to be worked on on its own. I don’t know anyone who can concentrate on every aspect of learning all at once. And you may well have to come back to the drinking straw practise from time to time, whenever you find your grip tightening up again. Practise to get the light feeling back into your playing, and then move on to whatever your next learning is.
Hope that’s clearer,
djm
It is, and you’re giving good advice, I think.
j.i.
Hmmm, I do think that’s a good idea! I’ll assume this applies to whistle and flute as well? I should try that since my plan for getting a practice set kind of backfired hahaha..
Cheers and free period,
Armand
Have an experienced player try your chanter to make certain your reed is set up properly. If it’s too open this can make a chanter harder to play and compound your death grip issues.
And don’t forget to check for leaks! Your chanter top, tenon/neck stock connection, blowpipe, blowpipe valve, bellows, and bellows valve should all be 100% airtight. If you’re not airtight, you’re making things harder than they have to be.
Patrick D’Arcy taught me a good exercise for easing the grip and relaxing the fingers. Play a slow descending scale starting on the back D, but every time a finger is lowered onto the chanter to cover a hole, let it bounce once before it comes to a rest. Start by playing a back D, then as you drop your thumb while lifting the upper index finger for the C natural, let the thumb bounce once. It won’t happen if there is too much tension in your hand, so try it few times until you get it, then move on the the next note in the scale, bouncing the index finger as it’s lowered to play B, and so on down the scale.
Another excercise that I’ve found helpful is playing without allowing the thumb of the lower hand touch the chanter. It may seem impossible at first, but it’s quite surprising to find that you can actually play a tune cleanly without using that thumb. I don’t recommend doing this one for too long, as it can encourage a little extra tension in the upper hand to hold the chanter in place, but it really helped me understand that getting my fingers in the right place is what stops leaks, not tightening my grip.
Chadd, for your first exercise, so you mean that every note would have a stutter? e.g. d-do, t-ti, l-la, s-so, etc. ?
A corrollary for your second exercise - learn to hold the chanter with the bottom hand when playing on the top hand. Learn to hold the chanter with the top hand when playing on the bottom hand.
There’s lots of good learning techniques. Its good to hear about them here.
djm
y-yes.
Hi,
Jarleth Henderson uses his lower hand thumb to play the regs whilst still holding the tune together on the chanter.
Think I’ll leave that one until next year (or the next).
David
I’ve put up ten out-of-copyright mp3s of Richard O’Mealy at
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/music/index.html
There’s nothing to beat this for staccato playing - and for sheer
exuberance.
These tracks were recorded in Belfast during the war, and would
have been put online next year anyway by the BBC as part of its
Creative Archive program. Thanks to Chris Bayley we can jump
the gun by a few months.
Enjoy!
Ross
By the sound of it, Mr. O’Mealy was fond of tea…lots and lots of tea. 
I don’t think I have ever heard this style of regulator playing being utilized so dominantly. Gets old quick, yet fascinating to listen to.
at a workshop with liam o flynn, he was very keen on playing with the fingers being as relaxed as possible. he mentioned that willie clancy’s fingers barely moved when he played. the other school of thought is to let the fingers flail so long as they’re relaxed. djm’s straw exercise sounds like a good solution. in my fledgling days suffering from horrible death grip cramps, i tried taping a wine cork to the back of the chanter as a thumb rest as to open the hand and also to lighten the grip. the cork would move out of place if it was gripped to tightly. it worked for me. paddy keenan at another workshop pointed out that the neck of the bag should support the chanter on the leg so the fingers are free to move. leather that is heavy enough will do that as well as a double thickness vinyl bag. and to quote seamus ennis “first you must learn the grip…”
Thanks for those clips, Ross.
“Richard O’Mealy recorded ten tracks for the BBC in Belfast in 1943”
More specifically, wasn’t it Seamus Ennis who recorded O’Mealy for the BBC?
O.K. here’s my humble opinion from a prospective from only playing two years. I had been listening to UPs for a few years before and still know very little compared to the rest of you. I have listened to quite a few pipers but again not as many as some of you. here are a few of my Favosrtes
Paddy Keenan
Davy Spillaine
Eamonn Dillon
Kieran O’Hare
John McSherry
to name a few. I have always been sketchy on the tight and open fingerings and traveller style. As for me, I prefer a more legato playing. The tight staccato, excapt for the occaisional triplet, gets annoying after a while.
Although I admire Paddy Maloney as a musician, musical preservationist , and producer of great albums, I don’t like listening to his piping. I know he is extremely talented and will know more on the pipes than anyone could learn in a hundred years, I just don’t like the sound of it.
Is this a fair assessment of tight fingering and closed style?
I heard references to Eamonn’s style, criticisma, etc. I think Eamonn Dillon is an incredible piper. I have known him for about 3 years now and consider him a good friend. My judgement may be clouded by my friendship, but I really enjoy his playin, maybe not the accompanyment on his CD, but I don’t think he was happy with it either.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire P. Maloney, just don’t like the sound of his playing. This is not from a technical standpoint, merely musically.
Your thoughts?
Timmy
BTW those are Eamonn’s arm PhotoShopped onto my tiny frame in my pic at the left. The pic is from when I was 5.
You learned to like uilleann piping in an age when being spot on pitch gained importance. This was bound to happen to ITM eventually, when recording was no longer an archive of a particular performance, but a product unto itself, with multiple takes to get it to sound “perfect”.
Conversely, I can only tolerate about 4 minutes of any slickly produced uilleann piping record. Cut that in half if there’s any noticeable reverb added.
We’re all different, I guess. Personally I love Paddy Moloney’s playing, the sound he gets makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I like listening to John McSherry’s tracks on a cd I’ve got too.
Yeah, I’m a little disappointed in some of the solo piping cd’s I’ve got of masters of yesteryear because they seem to me to be so ‘out of tune’. 4 minutes of that get me twitchy.
I was interested to read that Moloney has in the past recorded the drones separately to achieve a perfect recording.
I guess I’m a sucker for a bit of slick production, eh? :roll:
Bring on the reverb, why not? I’ll happily flute in a stairwell for the extra buzz you get from the accoustics!
I don’t care if that makes me a pleb. IMHO life’s too short to listen to music I don’t like!
j.i.
Ah, I can agree with Paddy Moloney!
I enjoy listening to his playing when he’s in a group, but when I listened to his playing on Seth Gallagher’s site, I wasn’t that impressed for some reason, I guess I’m more for the open style fingering!
One of my current favorite pipers is Tim Britton, I LOVE his style, can anyone tell me what it is? From what I’ve listened to, I’m GUESSING it’s a mix between the two?
tim britton’s style? genius.