L42B..Good stuff… the lesson with Mykie will stand ye in good stead.
Remember to TAKE IT EASY,there is a lot to learn and ye have plenty of time,refer to your video and get the Heather Clarke Tutor and CD…enjoy,if ye get stuck on anything ye can contact me by PM and i will try to help ye.
Slan Go Foill
Uilliam
In the Dublin reel Seamus, starts on the D, cuts with the A as he taps the F#. As he is tapping the F# he raises the chanter off the knee at the same time, this causes a low D note to appear in between the F# taps and also gives a swelling sound to the technique. Also, as the taps the F# he sort of drags it out a bit longer. The over all effect of this combination of moves is a swelling sound with the “hidden” low D giving it punch and body.
Sounds sort of like "dee daa YAAA da:.
Genius! at work!
All the best,
Pat Sky
I have trying this since Tom described it, and it is not as easy to do at speed as the description implies.
Indeed, genius at work!
djm
Genius indeed. I’m a bit confused by your description though.
Does the ‘dee’ in your example represent the note high D of the tune? If that’s the case then it’s the cut on the A of the roll that would be extended to create the “YAAA” emphasis?
Agreed on the use of low D in the roll… some of the time. I’m hearing some crisper low notes on those rolls in places and ‘quare’ ghost notes in other places.
Regards,
Harry.
I think in Pat’s example it’s:
“dee” = d
“daa” = F#
“YAA-da”=the short roll on F#, starting with the A cut, the F#, and the tap on D or whatever it is, then back to F#.
When I play this (on flute) I cut with the B, not the A, and tap with the D, it feels crisper to me…maximizing the “distance” between cut and tap. Cut high and tap low, as the stock market barons always say.
Did Ennis also invent the EGG roll?
When I listen to the “40 Years” version, it sounds more like dee dah bdrt dah,
dee = d
dah = F#
bdrt = incredibly fast, sharp, clear short roll on F#
dah = F#
From my understanding of the above descriptions, the chanter is lifted with the first F# and held up during the remainder, with the F#, E and Eb open to play the F#.
The F# short roll would then be an A cut on F# followed by a tap on F#, using only the F# and E fingers to do the tap. The Eb stays open throughout. Have I got this right?
djm
To my ear, Ennis has the chanter on the knee for that very first F# (the one after d) and he closes it ever-so-briefly before moving on. If there’s lifting done it’s during the short roll…you would want that first F# to end distinctly before the roll. It’s impossibly brief on the fanatic-fast rendition on Return to Fingal (I think this is the piece that Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh describes as Ennis playing “as if the end of the world were upon him.”), but unless my ears deceive me I do think he’s closing the chanter before moving on to the roll. It would make sense, in any case…whistle and flute players would do the same kind of articulation, it adds lift to the roll.
Harry…another pm!!!
I’m now getting word that the Ennis roll on F# actually used C# [on the knee] as the cut, and two fingers to flap the F# [off the knee].
So the back d theory is now out the window 
Boyd
Hiya Boyd,
Again, I’ve yet to find an instance of that. I can say with a fair deal of certainty that his standard (if not exclusive) practice was to cut the F roll with A. As I said before it is tempting to think of alternative fingerings given the incredible tone that Ennis achieved on this and other rolls, but that seems largely down to his chanter, his reed set up (quite tough blown reeds) and some very clever crisp fingering and toning. Another point is that he seems to have really blown the bottom octave quite hard in places which adds a ‘crispness’ and attack with the way that his chanter was reeded. I look forward to finding some other fingering that I’ve missed up to now.
Regards,
Harry.
I’ve been thinking about this roll a bit while playing.
The off-the-knee fingering I’m using for F in it is:
o
o
*
The nearest I’m getting in tone to what Ennis achieved is by:
-
cutting the above F with the A
-
lifting the chanter off the knee (the ‘swelling’ movement mentioned) while fingering the F again…
-
then tapping out a bottom D on the two open holes and back to the F off the knee.
The lifting of the chanter is accompanied by an increase in bag pressure.
Works for me. I’m playing a Coyne style C sharp chanter with a toughish reed though. I’m not sure that every chanter is set up to be able to withstand a sufficient pressure increase on a note as low as low F sharp.
For an indication of how much such pressure changes factored in Ennis’ playing listen to some of his high G rolls where they nearly break from his ‘swelling’ of them. The tone is throaty, and sometimes strangled sounding in places. He also very effectively swelled into a high G vibrato to good effect in places. It’s an area of piping that you don’t hear much talk about.
Regards,
Harry.
Usually the swelling goes down after a day or two. 
djm
I was on a roll this morning, so I tried it. The E to G doesn’t seem too bad, but the second G I’ve been eggonizing over. I’ll have to try that on my Benedict reed.
As the French would say: “Oeuf!”
I’m glad that you all find ovulation so funny. The chicken wasn’t laughing, her from Mayo, of a narrow bore variety and denied a mate and all.
My heart also goes out to the cock. Two great muscles together at last. :roll:
Regards,
Harry.
The tone is throaty, and sometimes strangled sounding in places.
Are you able to get that with increased pressure on high G? It may come down to individual chanters, but I’m more able to get throatier tones with alternate fingerings off the knee-- more pressure just shuts off my drones before I get a real change in tone. I’m thinking of Ennis’s high G rolls in 3rd part of ‘the wandering minstrel’ as one example. Is that the effect youre thinking of as well?
Works for me anyway. I started thinking about this after being told that Ennis pushed the things quite hard in general by somebody who was there. All part of ‘that Ennis sound’ that would issue from other people’s sets when he strapped then on if we are to believe first hand accounts methinks (was Laim Og one of the ones to say this?).
I had to open up my bass drone reed for it to be able to take the pressure that was required to sound the chanter in ways like this (I gave it ‘the pube’ treatment). The drones have a tendancy to go out of tune quicker when played this way in my experience.
Regards,
Harry.
Are you bragging or complaining?
djm
Neither (I think). It’s a perfectly valid part of uilleann pipe maintainence… an unusual process I’ll grant you. I’ll tip my hat to the first manjack of you who can elaborate on the process. If you haven’t tried it then take my word for it, it sort of grows on you…
Regards,
Harry.