joe smith,you are a stand up guy!! thanks!! the chiff has been a great resource for my playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gn65MzmtrY
The period at the end messes up the URL 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gn65MzmtrY
yes,your right,i mess up while editing,oh well 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU8NKLPKjgA ,here is corrected link.
Thanks for sharing that Dan. It was nice to hear the chanter, drones and regs didn’t suffer too badly from the heat or the humidity. It sounded like the crowd was behind you.
If I were to offer a critique (Mother knows I am hardly qualified to), it would be advice along the lines of slowing the tunes down, and try playing the “space between the notes” more (… thanks P.H. 
). I understand, and am also guilty of ignoring them thar spaces, speeding/slowing down, especially when there’s an audience behind me and the heart gets to influencing my tempo. That is actually the best time to exercise the “space between the notes” thing. Take control, lead the audience and not the other way around… You da’ boss, when it comes to how you play. They da’ boss when it comes being entertained.
Hope that makes sense and provides you with some perspective.
Great stuff.
All the best!
Moi
i do play too fast when i get excited,your right about being in control,opening up,and slowing down.will keep working on this. thanks!
**Tip 1.**The Gold Ring or Fainne Or is a Double Jig and has lots going on in it.In order to bring the best out of the tune play it at the correct tempo so that the various techniques can be used to good effect.Set your metronome at 127(126) which is the correct tempo for Double Jigs.Let the tune breathe.
**Tip 2.**Change your Cheerleader..(the guy to the right of ye) 
someone a tad prettier and with better timing and not such a negative T-Shirt 
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
I was thinking that too, but just didn’t have the cajones to say it.
I’m not sure I’d agree 100% with you. I’ve played double jigs at 112 and they’ve felt too fast. Strayaway Child for instance. I’ve attempted it faster but I end up just playing notes and having no time for ornamentation.
PJ I am not asking ye to agree with me or no Take a gander at this..reference Breandán Breathnach
Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1… page ix
Just click on the link and it will bring part o the page up for ye Note..“To play at a quicker tempo detracts from the melody:to play it somewhat slower can do no harm.It was customary for many of the older musicians when playing for themselves to adopt a slower pace than that demanded by the dancers.”
So ye can play it as slow as ye like on your own but, and here is the rub, if ye want to do it for the dance then ye will have to get used to the dance tempo.And for Double Jigs that is 127.And never never ever play it too fast at the expense of the melody which many o the numpties seem to do these days.Time and again ye hear at sessions Jigs way to fast and Reels at Jig Speed or else aff the friggin scale… 
Don’t blame me take it up with Breandan.
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
ps ye wrote" I’ve attempted it faster but I end up just playing notes and having no time for ornamentation."
It is OK to just play the notes that is what they are there for after all.It is the over use of ornamentation that can wreck a tune.A tune well played simply is far far better than a tune tripping over itself with ornaments that do nothing to enhance the musicality of the piece
Playing a tune with no ornamentation is very unsatisfying, both for the piper and the listener but I agree that over-doing the ornamentation kills a tune. I know a whistle player who is incapable of playing any note longer than a quaver without rolling it. It’s impressive the first time you hear it but it gets annoying very quickly.
…or interupting the melody in order to put an ornament in! How can ye say that it is very unsatisfying for the piper or the listener to hear a tune well played simply ?? and it is very disengenous to take it out of context of the original sentence,which included…" than a tune tripping over itself etc…"as an aside some of the finest slow airs have no ornaments,just simple melody and correct phrasing.The simplest ornament of all a momentary stop is enough to carry ye on and prick up the ears.No,give me melody 1st and primarily,that after all is the purpose of the tune and as long as the ornaments do not distract then add them by all means.Ye are not a better piper by putting in tons of them,ye are a better piper perhaps, for knowing when not to put them in
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
This has been my mantra for playing music for many, many, many years. As of late, I have been referring to it as the space between the notes, but I feel it is every bit as important as any note played, or any wiggly movement of one’s fingers… not that wiggling is bad, mind you.
In reference to what Joseph said, that to is my mantra also. I end up listening to Todd Denman alot. For some reason it seems that he is able place ornaments perfectly. I don’t particularly love his style but he knows where to put a roll or a triplet. Here is one that i think is a pretty good.
its after the air
http://www.aniar.net/mistes.mp3
The Gull
… ever see me hammered?
Hasn’t everyone?
djm
I’m not trying to take you out of context. What I am trying to say is that if you take a tune as it has been transcribed (in most collections it will be transcribed without or with very little ornamentation), you get a melody which, I personally, find unsatisfying to play or listen to.
I have some software which I use to help me learn new tunes (as I prefer to learn by ear). It plays the melodies as they are transcribed. The software can’t play a cran or a roll (unless I re-write the tune with dotted-demi-semi-quavers, etc). Listening to tunes played that way - unornamented - is instructive but not particularly pleasant. I learn the tune and then I can start adding a roll, cran, triplet, or even a stop, where I think it would work.
Slow airs? I agree with what you wrote but weren’t we talking about double jigs? Talk about going off-topic …
I liked the clip where can I get more Seagull
Cheers
Ged
PJ why do ye want to base an argument around your choice to play double jigs at a lot less than the recognised tempo?Ye say ye are playing Duoble Jigs at less than 112 so what is your comfortable tempo?108 104?That is fine for practice purposes but I think that if ye are playing it that slow to get the ornaments in then the tune is suffering.By definition it must be as ye are well below the 126 Tempo.
It is also considered quite normal to learn a tune thoroughly and then put in the ornaments as desired,ye say so yourself,so it seems that something is missing!That something being the Tempo.
Ye have to feel comfortable with the piece before" ye make it your own" ,otherwise the ornamentation will sound like mere affectation by the player.
As for going aff topic,so whats new..Slow Airs are considered extremely difficult to play well is my point.The fact that they are played in the main simply does not mean that they are easy to play.A double Jig or any type of ITM for that matter has a Tempo for a reason.To play otherwise so someone who doesnae know any better can sit and applaud the players "dexterity"is conning them and the player.
(NB I am not referring to yersel here but it is a general statement 
)
In order to help ye and anyone else out there here is a bit more inf on Timing or Tempo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for “time”) is the speed or pace of a given piece. It is an extremely crucial element of sound, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.
The plural of tempo in Italian is tempi. Some writers employ this plural when writing in English. Others use the native English plural tempos. Standard dictionaries reflect both usages.
Contents [hide]
1 Measuring tempo
2 Musical vocabulary for tempo
3 Understood tempos
4 Italian tempo markings
4.1 Basic tempo markings
4.2 Common Qualifiers
4.3 Mood markings with a tempo connotation
4.4 Terms for change in tempo
5 Tempo markings in other languages
5.1 French tempo markings
5.2 German tempo markings
5.3 Tempo markings in English
6 Rushing and dragging
7 Can tempo terms be defined with the metronome?
8 Tempo markings as movement names and compositions with a tempo indicator name
9 External links
[edit]
Measuring tempo
The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and in modern music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and the marking indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute.
Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented, although early metronomes were somewhat unreliable. Beethoven’s metronome markings, in particular, are notoriously unreliable. MIDI files today also use the BPM system to denote tempo.
Some 20th century composers (such as Béla Bartók and John Cage) would alternatively give the total execution time of a piece, from which the proper tempo can be roughly derived.
[edit]
Musical vocabulary for tempo
Whether a music piece has a mathematical time indication or not, in classical music it is customary to describe the tempo of a piece by one or more words. Most of these words are Italian, a result of the fact that many of the most important composers of the 17th century were Italian, and this period was when tempo indications were used extensively for the first time.
Before the metronome, words were the only way to describe the tempo of a composition. Yet after the metronome’s invention, these words continued to be used, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece, thus blurring the traditional distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, presto and allegro both indicate a speedy execution (presto being faster), but allegro also connotes joy (from its original meaning in Italian). Presto, on the other hand, indicates speed as such (while possibly connoting virtuosity, a connotation it did not acquire until the late 18th century).
Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood. For example, the “agitato” in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwin’s piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication (undoubtedly faster than a usual Allegro) and a mood indication (“agitated”).
[edit]
Understood tempos
In some cases (quite often up to the end of the Baroque period), conventions governing musical composition were so strong that no tempo had to be indicated. For example, the first movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for instance marking the Brandenburg movement “Allegro”, “(Allegro)”, “(Without indication)”, and so on.
In Renaissance music most music was understood to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus, roughly the rate of the human heartbeat. Which note value corresponded to the tactus was indicated by the mensural time signature.
Often a particular musical form or genre implies its own tempo, so no further explanation is placed in the score. Thus musicians expect a minuet to be performed as a fairly stately tempo, slower than a Viennese waltz; a Perpetuum Mobile to be quite fast, and so on. The association of tempo with genre means that genres can be used to imply tempos; thus Ludwig van Beethoven wrote “In tempo d’un Menuetto” over the first movement of his Piano Sonata Op. 54, although that movement is not a minuet. Popular music charts use terms such as “bossa nova”, “ballad”, and “latin rock” in much the same way.
[edit]
Italian tempo markings
See also Italian musical terms.
[edit]
Basic tempo markings
The most common tempo markings in Italian are:
Grave - very slowly and almost solemn
Largo - slowly and broadly
Lento - “slow” but usually only moderately so
Adagio - slowly
Andante - at a walking pace
Moderato - at a moderate tempo, neither fast nor slow
Allegretto - “a little allegro”, understood to be not quite as fast as allegro
Allegro - quickly
Vivace - very fast, lively and brisk
Presto - fast
Prestissimo - very, very fast.
[edit]
Common Qualifiers
assai - very, as in Allegro assai
con brio [Italian : con, with + brio, vigour.]
non troppo - not too much or non tanto - not so much ; e.g. Allegro non troppo (or Allegro ma non troppo) means “Fast, but not too much.”
molto - very, as in Allegro molto
poco - slightly, as in Poco Adagio
più - more, as in Più Allegro
meno - less, as in Meno Presto
Various diminutive suffixes in Italian have been used, in addition to Allegretto: Andantino, Larghetto, Adagietto, as well as superlatives such as Larghissimo, Prestissimo.
[edit]
Mood markings with a tempo connotation
Some markings that primarily mark a mood (or character) also have a tempo connotation:
Vivace - lively (which generally indicates a rather fast movement)
Maestoso - majestic or stately (which generally indicates a solemn, slow movement)
Sostenuto - Sustained, sometimes with a slackening of tempo.
[edit]
Terms for change in tempo
There is also a set of terms that are used to designate a change of tempo:
Accelerando - speeding up (abbreviation: accel.)
Meno Mosso - less movement or slower
Più Mosso - more movement or faster
Rallentando - slowing down (abbreviation: rall.)
Ritardando - slowing down (abbreviation: rit.)
Ritenuto - slightly slower
These generally designate a gradual change in tempo; for immediate tempo shifts, composers normally just provide the designation for the new tempo. There is also:
A tempo - return to the previous tempo after change(s); and
Tempo Primo - often at the beginning of a new section of a piece, denotes a return to the piece’s original tempo.
These terms also indicate an immediate, not a gradual, tempo change. Composers typically use these terms for tempo change even if they have written their initial tempo marking in some other language.
More complex and less precise (though vital in many composers’ music) is:
Rubato - free adjustment of tempo for expressive purposes
[edit]
Tempo markings in other languages
Although Italian has been the prevalent language for tempo markings throughout most of classical music history, many composers have written tempo indications in their own language.
[edit]
French tempo markings
Several French composers have written markings in French, among them baroque composers François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Common tempo markings in French are:
Grave - slowly and solemnly
Lent - slowly
Modéré - at a moderate tempo
Vif - lively
Vite - fast
Très - very, as in Très vif (very lively)
Moins - less, as in Moins vite (less fast)
[edit]
German tempo markings
Many composers have used German tempo markings. Typical German tempo markings are:
Langsam - slowly
Mäßig - moderately
Lebhaft - lively (mood)
Rasch - quickly
Schnell - fast
One of the first German composers to use tempo markings in his native language was Ludwig van Beethoven. The one using the most elaborate combined tempo and mood markings was probably Gustav Mahler. For example, the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 is marked Im tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers, etwas täppisch und sehr derb, indicating a folk-dance–like movement, with some vulgarity in the execution. Mahler would also sometimes combine German tempo markings with traditional Italian markings.
[edit]
Tempo markings in English
English indications, for example quickly, have also been used, by Benjamin Britten, amongst many others. In jazz and popular music charts, terms like “fast”, “laid back”, “steady rock”, “medium”, “medium-up”, “ballad”, and similar style indications may appear.
[edit]
Rushing and dragging
“Wittner” model
“Seth Thomas” modelWhen performers unintentionally speed up, they are said to rush. The similar term for unintentionally slowing down is drag. Both of these actions are undesirable; dragging can often indicate a hesitance in the performer due to lack of practice; rushing can likewise destroy the pulse of the music. Because of their negative connotation, neither rush nor drag (nor their equivalents in other languages) are often used as tempo indications in scores, Mahler being a notable exception: as part of a tempo indication he used schleppend (“dragging”) in the first movement of his Symphony No. 1, for example.
[edit]
Can tempo terms be defined with the metronome?
Most musicians would agree that it is not possible to give beats per minute (BPM) equivalents for these terms; the actual number of beats per minute in a piece marked allegro, for example, will depend on the music itself. A piece consisting mainly of minims (half notes) can be played much more quickly in terms of BPM than a piece consisting mainly of semi-quavers (sixteenth notes) but still be described with the same word.
Metronome manufacturers usually do assign BPM values to the traditional terms, but these values are by no means correct for every piece.
[edit]
Tempo markings as movement names and compositions with a tempo indicator name
Generally, composers (or music publishers) will name movements of classical compositions after their tempo (and/or mood) marking. For instance the second movement of Samuel Barber’s first String Quartet is an “Adagio”.
Some such movements may start to lead a life of their own, and become known with the tempo/mood marker name, for instance the string orchestra version of the second movement of Barber’s first string quartet became known as Adagio for Strings. A similar example is Mahler’s most famous work - the Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5. Another is Mozart’s Alla Turca (here indicating the Janissary music type of mood of the final movement of Mozart’s 11th Piano Sonata, K. 331)
Sometimes the link between a musical composition with a “tempo” name and a separate movement of a composition is less clear. For instance Albinoni’s Adagio, a 20th century creative “reconstruction” based on an incomplete manuscript.
Some composers chose to include tempo indicators in the name of a separate composition, for instance Bartók in Allegro barbaro (“barbaric Allegro”), a single movement composition.
So there ye go
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
… well… Dan hasn’t… 
Uilliam, I am happy to see someone else has studied their basic music theory. 
