In one of his very first lessons, Sean Cunningham is demonstrating cuts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJYa_jYk4ug
He uses the G finger for D, E, F#, which is fine, though not the only way to do it, as he mentions.
He uses the B finger for B and A, ditto.
But …
He uses the G finger for G itself! Is that at all usual? I though cuts were always done with a finger higher than the lowest one.
I though cuts were always done with a finger higher than the lowest one.
There aren’t really any hard and fast rules. It depends on the effect you want to achieve.
Arguably you’re not really playing a ‘cut’ but, if you like, a ‘grace note’ : {GA} G but then again, the terminology isn’t set in stone either.
The Bill Ochs tutorial has it the same way.
Watch his tutorial on rolls–going up, he cuts the G roll with the G finger, but coming down, he cuts the G roll with his index (B) finger.
Personally, I don’t like the sound of using the G finger for all of the cuts below. It is audibly “too high” for my ear, even when the cut is just a blip. It also strikes me as odd to have only one roll in the whole scale that is cut with the finger of the note you’re rolling. Sometimes. Again, it doesn’t sound “right” to my ear when he does it on the G roll.
Bottom line: if these sort of quirks don’t bother you, go ahead and learn that way. If they do bother you, consider finding another source for tutorials. Myself, I would look for an approach to fingering that’s more logically consistent and produces the musical sounds I want to hear. Just my two cents.
For these sorts of discussions it would be more clear to use unambiguous naming for the fingers, such as U1, U2, U3, L1, L2, L3 (Upper and Lower) which sadly isn’t very common. I often see L1 L2 L3 R1 R2 R3 (Left and Right) but this assumes the left hand is on top (not always the case).
Because for some people the “G finger” would be the finger lifted to sound G, for others the finger placed down to sound G.
In any case I use the upperhand ring finger to cut all the lowerhand notes, use either of the available fingers to cut A, and with B there’s only one finger left!
I’m not much for theories, generally, but when I started out on the whistle a couple old hands told me they believed there was advantage in “dividing up the work between the two hands” as their reason to use upperhand cuts on the lowerhand notes, their rolls having thus an upperhand cut and a lowerhand pat. Obviously this doesn’t happen for A and B rolls, which we can do just fine… so much for theory.
I just did a short simple demo of how I do cuts, pats, and rolls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfu_fDUyNHs
About “going up” and “going down” of course when using a cut to change notes you often have to use a different cut than you would if parked on a note, thus:
Going from B to any lower note with a cut:
xoo ooo
ooo ooo
xxo ooo
xoo ooo
ooo ooo
xxx ooo
xoo ooo
ooo ooo
xxx xoo
xoo ooo
ooo ooo
xxx xxo
though a C# cut would not be the one I would ordinarily use for F# or E. In other words the cut used is determined by the note you’re starting from, not the note you’re going to, when going down.
When going up the cut used is determined by the note you’re finishing on, and usually would be the same cut used when parked on that note:
xxx xxo
ooo ooo
xoo ooo
On pipes using distant cuts is the norm. There’s something about the difference in physics between the way a flute or whistle works, and the way a chanter works, that allows very distant cuts to oftentimes not destabilise a note. More distant cuts appeal to pipers, who often feel that using the neighbourtone lacks the proper ‘cutting’ sound.
So, oftentimes old uilleann pipers could be heard using the thumb to cut practically any note of the scale, at least in the low octave, the cuts thus being six or more notes distant.
On the Highland pipes the upperhand index finger is the default cutting finger for all the notes below that finger, so that cuts an octave distant are common.
So, when a piper picks up a whistle, using more distant cuts feels right.
Of course the cuts are so quick as to not be heard as ‘notes’ per se.
…but we are talking whistles on this thread, not pipes.
As for fingering nomenclature, I prefer the T1, T2,…and B1, B2… for Top and Bottom hands. As is widely used, including in Grey Larsen’s book.
So, oftentimes old uilleann pipers could be heard using the thumb to cut practically any note of the scale, at least in the low octave, the cuts thus being six or more notes distant.
While some self taught pipers could be heard doing that sort of thing, it was never considered good piping. I think we must bear that in mind when discussing this. And I don’t think generalising this in support of an argument for distant cutting is weakened by pipers who commonly use cuts placed just above the note cut eg cutting e’ with g’, A with B etc.
I think good musicians are in general pragmatic about the choice of cut. They make their choices based on the effect they want to achieve, the impact the chosen cut has in a particular context. And that’s be fore we look at the exact placement of the cut in relation to the note, which is a hugely important factor as well.
Paddy Moloney, hardly self-taught (he studied under Leo Rowesome) does it all the time, when he wants that effect.
As to piping having nothing to do with whistling, I’ll have to disagree. The pipes, flute, and whistle are part of a shared tradition and influences have always flowed back and forth. Usually the pipes get most of the credit, with a fluteplayer like Matt Molloy coming along and being widely considered innovative in bringing a number of piping techniques to the flute.
So a person who only looks at the whistle, and doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on in piping and fluting, will be missing out on much of what whistling is about, in my opinion.
Paddy Moloney, hardly self-taught (he studied under Leo Rowesome) does it all the time, when he wants that effect.
First of all, PM went to Leo Rowsome for lessons when quite young. He uses a lot things you would never hear Leo doing. It is obvious from his playing he moved on and branched out once his formative years were over and he ploughed his own furrow. As one would I suppose.
I am not quite sure what point you want to make with that statement. It’s also something quite different from the statement I was responding to:
oftentimes old uilleann pipers could be heard using the thumb to cut practically any note of the scale, at least in the low octave
which I read as referring to a generation of pipers playing during the middle part of the 20th century, pipers often driven by a great enthusiasm and love for piping but not necessarily players au fait with all the finer points of piping technique.
I’d go into this further but, for the day that’s in it, there are jobs to do, trifles to be made and all that sort of thing.