Exercises for grace notes??

Whistle
21

GHB = Great Highland Bagpipes. The ubiquitous Scottish Piob Mhor, or “Great Pipes”. The instrument that leaps to most peoples’ minds at the mention of the word “bagpipes”.

OK, glad that tension isn’t a problem.

Another common problem is lifting one’s fingers too high off of the instrument. Try keeping them as close as possible to the body of the instrument.

And do try Bustapipah’s instructions, too, he knows what he’s talking about. I’ve used similar methods to get a handle on whistle and uilleann pipe ornaments, it’s just repetition and muscle memory. The results you seek will come with consistent application to such a practice.

22

Ah, that’s another thing. I could probably keep my fingers lower so I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for clearing that GHB up.

23

Some time ago I found a set of flute exercises in the IrTrad archives from
Henrik Norbeck. Since these can be looked up online I see no harm in
posting them here too. The idividual abcs could be converted at the tune o
tron since some of them are hard to read off the abc, but probably better
to play them out loud in the abc player at a slow speed. - Lesl

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Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 01:45:01 +0100
Reply-To: From: Henrik Norbeck
Subject: Re: Questions on learning a new instrument.

Speaking of excercises, here are a few good ones for whistle and
flute. I’ve just started teaching flute and whistle courses here in
Stockholm on a regular basis today (though I’ve taught weekend
courses before), and here are some of the things I make my students
play, apart from simple tunes. Of course I teach everything by ear
(and tapes where I play the tunes full speed and half speed). The
ABCs here are only written out for the list.

X:1
T:Scale of D without tonguing
K:D
D E F G A B c d e f g a | g f e d c B A G F E D ||

X:2
T:Scale of G without tonguing
K:G
G A B c d e f g a b | a g f e d c B A G | F E D E F G ||

X:5
T:Cuts between two notes of the same pitch
K:D
D2{A}D2 E2{A}E2 F2{A}F2 G2{A}G2 A2{c}A2 B2{c}B2 |
d2{a}d2 e2{a}e2 f2{a}f2 g2{a}g2 a2{c’}a2 b2{c’}b2 ||

X:6
T:Cuts on all the notes
K:D
{A}D4 {A}E4 {A}F4 {A}G4 {c}A4 {c}B4 |
{a}d4 {a}e4 {a}f4 {a}g4 {c’}a4 {c’}b4 ||

X:7
T:Cut figures going up the scale
K:D
DE{A}FD EF{A}GE FG{c}AF GA{c}BG |
de{a}fd ef{a}ge fg{c’}af ga{c’}bg |

X:8
T:Cut figures going down the scale
K:D
{c’}bg {c’}af {a}ge {a}fd {a}ec d4 |
{c}BG {c}AF {A}GE {A}FD {A}E2 D4 |

X:9
T:Special cut excercise on B, A and G
K:D
ed{c}BA B4 | dB{c}AG A4 | BA{c}GE G4 | z4 {a}gedB | {c}GEDE G4 ||

X:10
T:Rolls on all notes
K:D
E{A}E{D}E F{A}F{E}F G{A}G{F}G A{c}A{G}A B{c}B{A}B |
e{a}e{d}e f{a}f{e}f g{a}g{f}g a{c’}a{g}a b{c’}b{a}b ||

X:11
T:Short rolls on all notes
K:D
{A}E{D}E {A}F{E}F {A}G{F}G {c}A{G}A {c}B{A}B |
{a}e{d}e {a}f{e}f {a}g{f}g {c’}a{g}a {c’}b{a}b ||

X:12
T:Skip steps
M:4/4
K:D
DFEG FAGB AcBd cedf egfa gb | afge fdec dBcA BGAF GEFD |

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