I would suggest that the Dennis Brooks tutor is more comprehensive.
I have yet to peruse that one… somebody else was recently telling me about it.
The Brooks Tutor is definitely worth getting, but it is more of a textbook touching on all aspects of UPs. Like the Ennis book The Master’s Touch, it is something to add to your library, but the Clarke tutor is still the one to start learning on. Get the others when you’re ready to branch out.
djm
As someone who does a bit of pipe teaching myself, I’d have to say I think the Clarke tutor moves too fast for most total beginners; I agree with Kevin regarding the quantum leaps.
That said, it’s still the best I’ve seen and if approached with a good attitude, should yield good results.
Cheers,
Calum
I agree with Kevin. I like to refer to this as the Garrett Barry’s Barrier ™. Everything is nice and deedle deedle dum dum and suddenly it’s Zoooom and no turning back. Slow down software really helps when working through tunes beyond the Barrier.
I guess one criticism would be that working with the tutor means most likely relying on notation to learn tunes. I’ve starting playing tunes to which the notation is either just different or non-existant which I’ve found has helped me quite a bit.
I also love the dominatrix aspect of H.C. “Now play high g, dog!”
-Patrick
By the way, gold ring… have you found out..?:twisted:
I’ve said this a few years ago…
It goes from too simple to too hard too quickly and the CD is extremely over rushed.
Reminds me of the game ‘Simple Simon’
Chanter down… you’re out. Simon didn’t say chanter down.
My experience of it is that it goes for the hard core piping tunes throughout which, clearly helps someone develop a close finger style however, I’d agree with everyone that it really just takes off at some point and chooses some hard tunes for beginners too early on. Also, some of the tunes at the back of the book are more like things to aspire to. Take Spike Island Lasses, one of the harder tunes around let alone for someone to try out just after they’ve finished lesson 23! I haven’t learnt it yet despite having learnt a lot of other hard tunes around I keep going back to it thinking, nah, I’ll do that one when I can devote enough serious time to it…
But, given that nearly every piper learns from this book these days along with traditional learning, it means you can walk into any pipers club in the world or any session with a fellow piper, play these tunes and chances are, they’ll join in! This is the Globalisation effect I suppose.
In a way, it has united us in a common repertoire. We are free to explore loads of other tunes outside of this book, yet it does really work well for having a unique set of piping tunes that we all can know across the globe.
For this reason alone, it’s worth getting!
Cheers!
Andy
ChristianRo…found out what?
Oh, c’mon, don’t pretend you wouldn’t remember… http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=29086&start=0
Oh yeah…good one…I actually had forgotten…Haven’t found out yet. Love to know. Hot piper girlies are a rare thing!!!
Good tutor. I think a good tutor ought to take a couple years to work through (unless you’re even more obsessive than average for pipers). It’s thorough in the beginning, where it counts most.
heather clarke probably is hot. i can tell from the voice. but that should not matter. there are millions of attractive women in the world and it doesn’t take much talent to be one. there is only one tutor like hers, though.
i use it exclusively.
what i suggest is to use the book as a warmup. meaning:
until you have passed lesson #12: start every practice by playing the book from the begining. it only takes a few minutes and you will rapidly have it memorized.
once you have done enough of the book so that there is not time to play it all each day. warm up occasionally with the first 12 lessons, then play other tunes.
after lesson 12, the tunes are certainly not arranged in the exact order of difficulty that i would have chosen, experienceing it as a beginner.
for example, frahers is much easier than kittys rambles yet comes after it. and harvest home is introduced too early. and ask my father is introduced too late.
so after lesson 12, jump around with what suits you, playing tunes freely without ormaments you are not ready for.
meir
I doubt Dr. Clarke would like to be referred to as a ‘hot piper girlie’.
I think Brian Howard has/had a picture of Heather Clarke on his website. Must have been the only one in circulation. Perhaps someone can forward the link to Gold Ring..?
Found the photos on BH’s site, but none of them are labelled. Which one?
djm
This may have come up before, but is Heather C even playing the pipes anymore? I heard something to the effect that she isn’t, or at least that she’s not playing them very much.
I agree with the assessment that her tutorial starts out very well for beginners but suddenly takes a leap that beginners may have a difficult time keeping up with. I have used her tutorial in conjunction with the NPU tapes and found they each fill in gaps that the other doesn’t cover.
Ailin
Good man yerself, Joe. I don’t know any ladies who would appreciate an epithet like this. If it is not sufficient for some to simply call her Dr. Clarke, a more truly sensitive and politically correct term would likely be rockin’ piper babe.
djm
Hot hot hot…it’s Sat night and goldy thinks of hot piper chicks!!!
I simply thought I would express my opinion that a little well deserved respect for Dr. Clarke was in order… she has more than earned it, don’t you think?