Does anyone have experiences or tips to share on learning how to vamp and/or syncopate with the regulators? I’m pretty comfortable moving around on the press-and-hold chords, but the insertion of syncopated bits and a few well-placed bars of upbeat vamping would help to put a little more excitement into some of my favorite tunes, especially jigs. I have my own ideas about how to go about it, but any dirty tricks you have would be mightily appreciated.
Good question! I think the secret is to play the reg notes on the upbeat when vamping and the usual accentuated downbeat when using the typical chord approaches to accent the music. Reportedly, the NPU video #3 talks about this very issue. I’m not yet coordinated enough to do the vamping downbeat stuff.
Pat,
I have a copy of “Getting Started With Regulators” by Geoff Wooff, if you’d like to have a copy of it.
E-mail me at brianc14b@hotmail.com and I’ll send it to you in MS Word format.
All the best,
Thanks, I’ve read and re-read it many times.
The best tips I’ve come across are:
- Shut off the drones
- Pick a tune.
- Practice that tune, with regulators, very slowly. A lot. Like, 8 hours a day for ten years.
Makes me resent the hell out of young virtuosi who learn how to do it by the time they’re 18, the little bastards!
Grazie seignor, grazie tante…
[ This Message was edited by: Pat Cannady on 2002-03-28 17:51 ]
Hi Pat,
I have been thinknig about this for some time now and am starting to get a grip with it, assuming all conditions are perfect and I am feeling confident I can pull it off (no puns please) alrightish… sometimes
What works for me is to play on the upbeat in reels especially. Take a tune in G such as “The Crooked Road” and practice the trousers off it! Once you have that play the upbeat through the tune and three beats, up-down-up on the last phrase of a part. If you have the three regs you can add to that by playing the tenor&bari for the up and the bari&bass together for the down. Adds a ton to the tune!
Basically the same goes for jigs. Downbeats seem to be work well with jigs on their own also.
I also find if you hold a couple of chords in a part of a tune (tunes are normally A and B parts) finish them off on the last phrase with a three beat up-down-up just to emphasise the rhythm and the end of you playing the regs at that point. It can be quite nice
Also, just play the shagging things as Al used to say in jest quoting a certain pipes teacher
All the best for now,
Patrick
PS - Sorry about all the smilies.