John McSherry and his Regs

[ausdag]

@Darran

@ausdag

Therein lies the difference between those whose chanter work alone is what makes a piper, and those whose lack of the same on their fully-outfitted sets can do little to vanquish the mono-tonous qualities of their playing and render their regulator work no better than a car’s horn.

if that was a dig at me well ive only been playing since october last so my playing can be monotonous if it wants

No, it’s not a dig at you. I don’t know you or how well you play the pipes, so I can’t possibly be referring to you. I’m simply refering to the ‘general’, ie, those more experienced pipers whose playing is monotonous because of poor usage of their instrument.

[simonknight]

@The Whistle Collector

@KevinCorkery

http://youtube.com/watch?v=k0KQTv8qvkE
I think that if you watch John handle his chanter on “Dionna” you won’t be asking what kind of piper he could be. He has full command of what he is doing and it doesn’t suffer at all from the lack of reg accompaniment. Ahh, its just my opinion. Everyone has seen the youtube video. I think he’s pretty good anyhow.

i love that peice, i have it under my favorites.

I’m obviously out of step with the fans on this board, but his piping doesn’t do that much for me. I have listened to a number of his tracks and I never get the urge to go back to them. There doesn’t seem to be the musical depth there of the contemporary players I consider really great like O’Flynn, Power, McNamara to name a few. Its very nice and smooth, but I find his phrasing one dimensional.

That Dionna tune is a case in point. Sounds nice but goes nowhere, plus he’s got a bunch of effects added to the sound - that delay is really corny to my ear. Celtic smooth jazz.

YMMV

[stain]

Dung

[Steampacket]

"I’m obviously out of step with the fans on this board, but his piping doesn’t do that much for me. I have listened to a number of his tracks and I never get the urge to go back to them. There doesn’t seem to be the musical depth there of the contemporary players I consider really great like O’Flynn, Power, McNamara to name a few. Its very nice and smooth, but I find his phrasing one dimensional. " Simon K.

I fully agree with you Simon. Also speed doesn’t impress me as much as musicality. But as has been mentioned before “different strokes … etc.” But as to the use of regulators or not, that’s entirely John McSherry’s business. He’s a professional musician making a living, nothing wrong with that.

Lexxicos why not write and ask him if you need to know. He certainly knows his way around the chanter so I’d assume that he’d be as technically brilliant on the regulators and drones also. There are pipers who hardly ever use their regs, pipers that use them sparingly and a few that use their regs a lot. It’s probably always been so. It’s not a matter of life or death.

Myself I’ve also very been impressed by the regulator playing of Johnny Doran, Paddy Keenan, Mick Coyne. Mickey Smyth, Peter Laban, Geoff Wooff to name but six