Can anyone tell me how Paddy Keenan performs the ‘bluesy’ bit during 'Kitty ‘O Neil’s’ on ‘The Long Grazing Acre’. Just bending the f# with the middle finger doesn’t quite work. Also how does he do a similar thang in the ‘B’ part of ‘Patsy Geary’s’ on the first ‘Bothy Band’ album?
Probably just lifting the chanter off the knee. I was thinking about the same tune the other day and tried it by lifting my own chanter off the knee. It works for the most part. There may be a little more to it though. You gotta have a good reed to get it to work right off the knee, almost getting an Fnat. The F# finger could also be partially closed by sliding 1/2 way on or off. I think it’s the combination, but mostly off the knee.
I can get the same results on an upper A, bending the note by lifting off the knee
I don’t have the referred to tunes close to hand, but a lot of these slides up to a note work better by having the hole just below the note you want to bend already open. If the hole below isn’t already open (depending where you are in the tune) you may have to start to open them both at the same time. In the case of F# start to open the E (third finger) at the same time as you start to open the slide on the F#. Open the E all the way as you continue to gradually slide open on the F#. Practice this slowly at first. It sounds more complicated than it actually is to do.
djm