East Coast Tionol

Uilleann Pipes
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Many thanks to Pat Sky, Suzanne Ward and all the other countless folks, including the stellar instructors, who worked diligently to make the tionol and related activities a success this weekend.

I sat in class with Patrick Hutchinson. The experience made the trip quite worthwhile. His demonstrations and tutelage were, as usual, rather exceptional.

Best part of the tionol for me, as usual, was in meeting up with friends and having tunes together once again. I particularly enjoyed the session with Tom Quinn, Nick Whitmer, and Bernard Grigsby. It was a treat to see many of your familiar faces there and also to meet some new folks that I had only known thru cyberspace. I really enjoyed seeing Pat Sky play Bouzouki in concert. Also, I enjoyed concert duets by Benedict Koehler and Willie Kelley as well as by Patrick Hutchinson and Debbie Quigley.

I only have two criticisms of the tionol experience. First, too many folks are inclined to overestimate their piping abilities…me included at times…it’s natural. Be honest with yourselves and get into a class where you feel that you will get the most out of it. Otherwise, you’ll cheat yourself out of an appropriate educational experience and also drag down the rest of the class with your chronophagic ways. Second, a master class where the master teacher takes a few students and the rest of us sit and observe the teaching in progress is/was a MAJOR waste of time for a most of the attendees. I’m not saying the teaching was poor, in fact, it was exceptional, it’s just that learning about playing tunes on the pipes is largely an active process of learning for most of us not a passive one. Think of it, if 25 people stayed for 2 hours (I bailed at 45 min) then 50 hrs of human time was expended…that’s 50 hrs that could have been put to the advancement of uilleann piping in some other way. I strongly urge refraining from this type of arrangement at future tionols. I, as well as others, would have preferred the opportunity of another group lesson, hearing a mini-concert or even a lecture or a more formal demo by the master.

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Wow! I sure had a blast and being in class with Debbie Quigly was awesome. I was really impressed with the nice yelps she gets on the concert chanter. I just wish this poor old brain wasn’t so leaky and would retain all the neat stuff she showed us (I still think her e-g-e tight triplet is not physically possible, therefore I didn’t really hear her do it), but I haven’t found a brain donor for a transplant yet. I probably need new fingers as well. She made everything look so effortless. She is the only piper I have seen that doesn’t turn the head to the left or right.

As for the master class, I enjoyed it, but after I saw the ornaments he was teaching (the double cut G roll is interesting, but I haven’t decided if I like it or not yet), I got bored and went next door and hung out there and on the porch where there was a small jam and talked to folks.

My suggestion for the Sunday thing would be to have the instructors (and brave students) to play a tune in turn, then answer any questions on it until the time runs out.

So many tunes, so few brain cells…

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My suggestion for the Sunday thing would be to have the instructors (and brave students) to play a tune in turn, then answer any questions on it until the time runs out.

Of course this is exactly what they did in the master class after glands and fancypiper left! It was a great learning experience for those of us who perservered until the last.
I will agree that additional classes on Sunday would have been welcome; hard to keep over 40 pipers at every level of expertise happy and occupied for the entire weekend . . . perhaps opportunities for individual paid lessons would have been a way to go.
Still want to say kudos and huzzah! to Pat Sky and company for putting on an exceptional event. Thanks!!