Hi all. I am pathetic in doing crans and would like to ask for some help from you guys.
I know the theoretical bit about doing crans (which really isn’t much use), gracing a D note 3 times and etc. But how do you do and practise them nice and crisply? And how do you squeeze them into one nice beat?
When I do (my best rendition of) a cran, I always end up throwing the rhythm away, and having a weird note that sounds awful to top it off. I have trouble visualising squeezing 4 audible notes into a beat and I have no idea how those pipers and power whistlers do it. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks to the contributors in advance!
P.S. Stevie, are there any tricks like the dah-blah-dah (rolling) for doing this?
Hi Eldarion. If you already know the theory, then the only suggestion I can make is - Practice. It took me a long time to master cranning and I only did it by spending hours and hours doing nothing but cranning.
Try playing crans one grace note per beat to a metronome, making the cuts as clear and clean as you can. Then slowly increase the tempo. Remember that these grace notes are really more like finger tapping techniques than actual notes. Just move your fingers so as to tap on the holes, not to play actual notes.
Eld, Nick’s advice sounds good to me. I suppose you could try conceiving of the sequence as “dah-blah-blah” to help you play it slowly and evenly. Although for what you might call a “long cran”, one that is followed by a cut, it’d be “dah-blah-blah-Blah”.
I find the feel of the cran is rather like drumming your fingers lightly but rapidly on a tabletop. (I play the first two graces with fingers 1 and 2 of the bottom hand, and then cut with finger 3 of the top hand.)
Lots of good players don’t use crans very often. I asked Mary Bergin about cranning at East Durham and she said she didn’t really bother much, even though you can hear the odd cran on her records.
I find Blarney Pilgrim a great tune for working on crans because it starts on a cran and it’s usually played at a moderate pace. If you try the opening phrase a few times 'til it sounds right you can normally get it to sound right each time the phrase comes around again.
Now, if I can just get them to spurt out cleanly in those fast reels …