Hi,
I was wondering if people who played the Northumbrian pipes found that it helped in playing the Uilleann pipes. I know the fingering is different, one finger open plays one note, but would this style of piping help improve the playing of triplets, stacattos, crans and other Uilleann pipe embellishments?
Thanks,
Steve
I played Northumbrians before taking up Uilleann pipes, and it helped me. I think having the basic bellows control under my belt was a big advantage. The traditional Tom Clough-style NSP fingering translated fairly easily to a closed, staccato style on the Uilleann pipes. Conversely, I’ve also found that Uilleann piping has improved my legato technique on the Northumbrians. Ornamentation is different enough between the two pipes that I didn’t find much advantage there.
Because I have big hands, I never could play the normal sized (F to F#)
Northumbrian chanter, with the Clough (pronounced Cluff) fingering.
I.E. with the fingers flat on the chanter. For a full account of this, read “The Clough Family of Newsham”, by Chris Ormston and Julia Say. The book is a Northumbrian Piper’s Society publication (2000).
I started the NUSPs in Feb.1973 and it was my first pipe with a bellows, so I became proficient in working the bag and the bellows together for a steady tone. At that time there was a big emphasis on the player’s fingers being arched up on the tips of the fingers, playing each note VERY stacatto. After many conversations with a multitude of experts, the one informant who stands out in my memory, was Andy Ross at J&R Glen’s shop, Edinburgh. Mr.Ross remembered “the good old days” (and knew W.A.Cocks, very well), he told me that the VERY stacatto style was the Irish way of playing the chanter! Note:There was, and still is, a very large Irish community on Tyneside. The Scots style was with the fingers as flat as possible with Scots gracing (the deplorable “dripping tap” sound).
You could say that the Scots were working toward the modern Scottish Small Pipes(SSPs) through playing the Northumbrian pipes, which Colin Ross put together to make the modern version of SSPs. He had been experimenting with the old, slightly conical, SSP chanters in the Black Gate museum (now at Morpeth). Colin ultimately adapted a keyless chanter with a Mixolydian scale and a NUSP bore and reed, starting with Rob Wallace of the “Whistle Binkies”. Andy Ross also said that the main Northumbrian style, incorporated it’s own “system” of grace notes. This subject was alluded to, in Colin Ross’ liner notes to the “Billy Pigg the Border Minstrel” LP by Leader Records (1972).
As for the NUSPs technique helping me play the UPs, I have to say it was the foundation of my style on the Irish pipes, which I took up in August of 1973.
At that time, I found that it was better to start out practicing the NUSP, BEFORE playing the Irish, as my fingers didn’t Curl into the “proper” GRIP, after an hour on the UPs. Tight tripletts on the UPs came very easy, and closed playing of every kind, it’s that beautiful open rolling style of playing the UPs that eludes me (Leon Rowsome,Dennis Brooks, Paddy Keenan,and Joe McKenna, in the order in which I met those pipers!).
Now that I have the larger “D” NUSP chanter (on a set made by Colin Ross, no less!) , I started practicing the flat fingers technique.
Good Luck with all this! Sean Folsom