Well, I’m going to be getting my practice set soon and the then fun starts. But while I’m waiting, I thought I should get some prep work out of the way. If’n any of the wise denizens of the piping forum could spare some thought or insight on a few queries, I’d be muchly obliged.
Before I let rip though, let me just say I live thousands of miles away from the nearest piper and have no chance of getting live 1-on-1 instruction, hence these questions here!
Right… piping fingering styles. I hear there are two - ‘proper’ style and open style. Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains being an exponent of the former, and, say, Cillian wossname from Lunasa a player in the latter.
Could someone explain to me what the differences are? I’m a dab hand at the whistle and wooden flute - will I need to learn a totally new way of playing, would you say?
And then, is it true that playing the uilleann pipes will do what Charles Atlas always promised, but never delivered - turning my upper Torso into a lean, mean muscle machine
For the extremes of tight vs. open styles that I’ve heard (and who’s names I can recall off hand!) I’d say Mick O’Brien is a great flowing and fairly open player. Brian Macnamarra on the other hand has a killer staccatto style. I’m sure there are others out there who may be more fitting to these descriptions as well, but again - these are the two I can think of right off hand.
Mick O’Brien’s playing is wonderful! I have his May Morning Dew album… it was half the reason I decided I wanted to learn the pipes. John McSherry was the other half…
Is that style of playing very different to whistle-fingering?
piping fingering styles. I hear there are two - ‘proper’ style and open style.
I’ve never heard it called proper style, but “closed” or “tight.” A tight piper (for example, Tommy Reck) tends to close off the chanter (all fingers down, so no sound) between more notes than an open style player. It’s easier to close the chanter off if you’re raising a bare minimum of fingers for any note. So, the “closed” style of fingering is based around producing notes with only one or two fingers off the chanter.
“Open” style playing is more legato-- ie, not stopping the chanter between notes. That may lead to more fingers being off the chanter at any given time. Keep in mind that players pigeon holed as “open” pipers (J Doran, P Keenan) often feature very tight passages in their playing.
On a side note, I don’t equate tight piping with stacatto triplets.
Perhaps there should be a FAQ entry for closed vs open playing?
I’m a dab hand at the whistle and wooden flute - will I need to learn a totally new way of playing, would you say?
If you’re looking to sound like a traditional piper, then, yeah, you’ll need to think like a piper rather than a flute or whistle player. Some basics translate between the instruments, but the art of piping is in using the instrument’s particular (and unique) capabilities to achieve certain effects.
turning my upper Torso into a lean, mean muscle machine
