I hear some players play this “pippety-pip” ornamentation that I really like. It is a quick, sharp, f#-g-f#-g, or maybe f#-g-f#-g-g, or maybe just a f#-g-f# triplet with a following g. Am I hearing this correctly and is there a trick to nailing it? I hear it in reels and hornpipes. Maire Ni Ghrada (sorry, too lazy to type the fadas) taught it in Maine a few years ago, but I didn’t get the complete hang of it.
t
tk, this style is called “tight playing”. The ornaments are triplets, and they are often referred to as “staccato triplets”. Try doing a search on this forum for any of these terms.
As a method of practise, the way one piper showed me was to choose a triplet like gf#e, play each note making it very short and sharp, with a definite pause between each note, then try to play the triplet in exactly the same way, but as fast as you can, then slow, then fast again, etc. The idea is that the slow round teaches your fingers the movements, then the fast way lets them practise to speed. Since this is body learning, it must be repeated over and over again to make it stick.
Have fun,
djm
I would learn the tight stuff in your weak hand first. If you are right handed, the A-c-A triplet is a nice one to learn and I have almost gotten this one down (my strong hand is my left).
My first tight stuff was the g-f-e on my right or bottom (my weaker) hand and I can do it now without thinking about it (unless I start re-working an already learned tune to use it).
It is a one-finger one except for the e, octave g (fore finger pops up and down), then the octave f# (middle finger pops up and down), then finger the e.
If you want a really tough one that Debbie Quigley taught at the 2003 tionól, try the two fingered one g-e-g. Spock, live long and prosper indeed!
Instead of long rolls in reels or hornpipes on f and g in the octave may either play two ‘tipped’ or tight gs of fs followed by same open and separated from the previous by an a cut. Alternatively you could turn the tight fellows into triplets by playing the gfg or fgf respectively, and again followed by the ornamented noted cut with a. For short rolls use either two tight notes or the triplet.
One thing about staccato playing is that it really begins to sound good when you’re blowing a bit harder on the bag. This is a big part of how Robbie Hannon or Paddy Keenan (yes) get that really explosive sound to their tight playing, I think; and for me, it really only happens when I’m playing a nice, light reed, which is a bit of a paradox since the above two play strong reeds; but this is what works for me, nonetheless.
Brian McNamara does a “pippety-pip” on the D pipes that I seldom hear on recordings, or at least can detect. It’s on his solo album A Pipers Dream esp. clear on cut 4, Jigs. This little nuance is quite cute and seems to follow a low D immediately (mostly). I keep thinking it’s done on ghost D, but the trill sound higher in pitch, like a harmonic of some sort…at least I was able to get something close there.
Any explanations?
Am looking it up now, hadn’t heard that one since it was new.
In Sean Bui he follows some of his bottom D’s by the standard FGA triplet so you get D (3FGA AFA BGB A etc instaed of it starting off on the D cran. Is that what you mean?
I hear the triplets clearly when he plays them, but isn’t there another squirrely nuance, like lifting the chanter off the knee at the end of low D? It seems he finishes the note with another unusual split-second ornament.
Also in cut 6, The Beauties of Ireland. Sounds like a bird call of some sort…kind of a brief little squawk.
It seems to me that tommyk’s original query was about a particular figure that Ennis especially uses: instead of a simple f (add the sharp signs yourself!) as in the Bucks of Oranmore.
Or that followed by a graced f instead of a short f-roll.
Yes, I believe what I’m hearing is more of a pippety-pip, pip. That would be a F#/G triplet tipped (pipped) with an A. And yes, for me these kind of triplets really only come out with the pressure full-up and with a very responsive reed. Oh, and I have to be really relaxed too.
The fga triplet in the lower octave does often have birdlike/whistley overtones…depending on the reed/chanter/player.
In looking through what transcripts I have, I see the f#gf# triplet is used by Clancy in The Virginia (fourth bar from the end of B part) and by Touhy..but only after a preceeding high G. I find this triplet to be the most vexing following an F# or E.
If I can get a better webhost I will repost the Billy McCormick videos from last year’s Great Northern Irishpipers’ Club Tionol. Billy throws in these pippety-pips at leasure. You can see/hear what I’m talking about when you see the vids. I’ll let you know when I have the vids back up.
t
Brian does a short roll off the knee in the space of one “PIP”. In this case (pippety-pip, pip) probably the last PIP maybe this is what yez are hearing?
PD.
Sounds right. Lifting off the knee must give it the haromic effect. Like Tommy says, that probably does take an especially good reed to get it right. I had to pull out AlanB’s reed for a try at it. 