I’ve been listening to a lot of different pipers’ CDs lately and they are all top quality. I’ve been developing a lot more discernment re things like intonation, harmonics and all that - like now being able to hear individual harmonics on chanter notes, particularly on the flat chanters. But one thing that struck me just today…
after Listening to Tommy Reck’s ‘The Stone in the Field’ CD, I was hit by how refreshing his sound was.
Was it his rather closed style of playing? Nooooo…don’t think so.
Was it the minimal variation in each tune as opposed to some of the over-the-top variation sometimes heard? Nooooo…
what was it???
It was the refreshingly total lack of one iota of a tiny hint of a regulator!!!
Over the entire umpteen tracks!!
I have to admit that I am fond of a “less is more” approach to regulator playing. At the risk of getting flamed, I really dislike the stabbing, honking accompaniment used by some. Makes the pipes sound like a carousel organ.
For an example of the style of regulator playing I do like, take a listen to Eliot Grasso’s rendition of the “Silver Slipper” on his “Standing Room Only” CD.
Pat Sky told me the only reason there are no regulators on that recording is because he hadn’t time to make reeds for the set - which had fallen into disrepair after being neglected.
I don’t remember who told me this, they had a conversation with Tommy once, and mentioned that the ivories on Tommy’s set looked very old and cracked. Tommy recounted how he had come into the house to find that the wife had iust put the pipes on the fire.
Justifiable homicide anyone? Methinks I would soon have been single…