True…I’ve been listening to The Stone in the Field over and over and over and each time I get something new out of it (a bit like the hidden mastery behind The Simpsons - but not the later rubbish ). AT first it sounds simple, uninspiring and some may even dare to suggest that Reck obviously couldn’t play too well if compared to the acrobatics of other pipers. But it’s all there and more, between the notes, in the closures, and in all that has been mentioned by Peter and Kevin and it’s this that shows just how interesting and fruitful the whole album is, without even a skerrick of a regulator.
To appreciate Tommy Reck you need to hear the private recording that was made when he was much younger, recorded by Peter O’Loughlin in 1960; it’s brilliant piping and there’s plenty of regulator work on there. The Stone in the Field is good, but doesn’t hold a candle to the earlier recording in my opinion.
It has seemed to me for a long time that concert pitch pipes are suited to play in a staccato style. Tight runs, tight crans and tight triplets sound well on the D pipes. This was the road that I took.
In late August I got my hands on a good C set and found that I could do a lot of the stuff on the C chanter that I could not do on the D chanter. The stuff that Clancy, Ennis and Reck played, which I thought was beyond me, suddenly came into view. My technical repertoire (sp?) has grown and my approach to music has changed. I only take the D set out now to help my son practice.
Peter Laban was kind enough to show me some of the subtler technique that worked on the C pipes (mile buíchos) and that is what I am enjoying at present.
My approach to tunes is still much the same (letting the tunes play themselves, as Brad described, in a type of Zen way) but now I have a lot more tools at my disposal; more aids to express myself.
It seems the weight off opinion on this thread has moved away from the initial proposal but I still can see some merit in it.
Of course the ability to play musically, which I tend to thinks of as being expressive in your playing (and using phrasing is a big part of that) is the ultimate aim. (Once timing and tuning are covered).
But it took me a long time before I could put notes to one side and think in phrases. Even then the notes on the chanter are still one of the crucial building blocks of phrases. Picking the key notes in a phrase and giving them extra “expression” is one way into making your phrases work. Looking at an individual notes in depth is like exploring sounds prior to talking. (And yes, there are pipers who don’t get past the babbling stage )
Why not try “Note of the Week” as a trial run. Maybe make it “Sticky” for one week only. People can say what they like about that note, personal to them (and their instrument) or not.
There is not one ornament that you could describe on this forum that at least a dozen others would say you were wrong, or that you didn’t describe it accurately enough, or that that’s not the way x played it, etc. One of the good things about written tutors is that its just you and the tutor with no arguments over trivia to deal with. Even going to tionóli, I have been in one class, told the way I was doing something was wrong by the first instructor, but that I was doing it right by the instructor in the next class.
The only thing that is constant in UP playing is that there are many ways to get to the same place, many different styles, tastes and opinions. Its good to get as wide a range of input as possible, but no-one here seems able to accept that there may be more ways than the ones they know. Keep your ears and options open to all possibilities seems to me to be the best way to follow.
I was just looking at The Dance Music of Willie Clancy and I noticed Pat Mitchell has used a “Note by Note” format to document the triplet and quaduplets used.
). AT first it sounds simple, uninspiring and some may even dare to suggest that Reck obviously couldn’t play too well if compared to the acrobatics of other pipers. But it’s all there and more, between the notes, in the closures, and in all that has been mentioned by Peter and Kevin and it’s this that shows just how interesting and fruitful the whole album is, without even a skerrick of a regulator.
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