I’m wondering how the fingering for these triplets are usually taught. If we take a bar from a jig to start:
| dBG GBd |
If I play a Bcd triplet for the last two notes, I close off the chanter after the 2nd G to begin the triplet. My real question is: When playing the stacatto B, are people taught to lift only the middle finger of the top hand, or middle and ring finger? I’ve always just done it with the middle finger, but wonder if that’s the usual way or not.
I suppose this question applies equally to the first B of a staccato BdB, or BcB triplet too.
I learned the stacatto roll to use only the one finger to play the B. When playing at speed, you’re not likely to hear the difference, and would probably have trouble hitting the B cleanly if you tried using two fingers.
I always use the two fingers. I used to get away with the one finger on one of my first concert pitch chanters but was told in class during a Willie Clancy week not ever to do that again. i think you do hear the difference and on my present chanter two fingers works better certainly for the BcB.
Just to be awkward I play the Bcd triplet with 1 finger and the BcB with two. (That may be to do with my chanter).
I don’t play a BdB triplet.
You can often tell how people are fingering the B in triplets as the B often sounds slightly more staccato and flat in pitch when played with one finger.
I wasn’t actually quite sure about playing two fingered B in the Bcd one. Most things in piping are not really set in stone, as long as it works and sounds well on th chanter you’re playing it should be OK.
i had started doing that triplet by lifting 1 finger on the b. then i had a lesson with benedict at north hero. he feels strongly that 2 fingers should be lifted. his explanation is that on many if not most concert chanters, the B is slightly flat. we usually learn to compensate by blowing slightly harder on that note. after a while we do not even notice.
however, if you lift just one finger it will be even more flat. and in that triplet, b is not just one of the notes, it is the first note, and therefore very likely to be heard.
so i have learned to lift both. it was not a hard transition.
that being said. if you are playing a passage VERY fast, and it sounds ok to you with 1 finger lifted, it probalby is okay. also, others have pointed out that the quality of the b note being flat is chanter specific. so if it is not true on your chanter, again, you can get away with one finger off vs 2.
also, benedict pointed out that in “less traditional” tight triplets, like the c#-b-d, the b is in the middle and not emphasized, so it doe not matter as much.
When talking about notes what does a capital B represent and what does a small b represent? Or C , c. etc etc
I assume it’s to distinguish between octaves. But which is which?
I think most of the C’s in this thread should be capitalized; it’s a BCd triplet (low B to low C# to back d), it would be hell trying to do a lower B to upper c# to back d triplet.
As I understand it, this business of using upper and lowercase letters did not originate with UPs, and is based on the scale of C, so yes, it would be B to c in the lower UP octave. The C in the upper octave on the UPs would then be c’ and then c". The C below bottom D on the UPs would be C, and the one below that would be C, then C, etc.
I noticed I do the triplet two ways depending on whether I’ve closed off the chanter before the B or not. If I close it, then I sound the B with one finger. If I approach the B as open, I use two.
BdB or BcB triplet, I use two. cBA triplet, I always use one.
Mostly though, I was wondering if there was a collective wisdom passed on to those who were taught by someone who was taught, who was taught… and wondering if I was making it harder on myself by doing it a particular way.
benedict … feels strongly that 2 fingers should be lifted.
Thx, piperdoc. I did notice the difference when I was playing them side by side. Guess I’ll have to see if I can notice in the middle of a tune.
Teflon wrote:
When talking about notes what does a capital B represent
Mssr. D’Arcy has it right. Seems like a lot of the online community interested in Irish music knows ABC format, so I use it. If you’re not interested in learning to read music, ABC can be helpful since tons of tunes are now transcribed in ABC-- from there, an ABC player can play the tune so you can learn it. Regardless, there is still no substitute to learning a tune from an actual performance by an accomplished musician.
I saw Gay McKeon use one finger on the B in that triplet soo.., since it is on an instruction video i guess it’s ok to do..
I also saw Gay McKeon throw a cat cage 15 feet into a full room of people at a party one night, The cage landed at the feet of Sean Potts to which Mr. McKeon exclaimed,“There ya are Potty, thats the only pussy you’ll get tonight”…
FWIW, if you find you can’t operate the middle and ring fingers in tandem well enough to play a staccato triplet, you may have a problem that might affect your B rolls as well. So while it is true that you can choose between 1 or 2 fingers, depending on the chanter, you may help your overall fingering development by using two fingers. Later on, you can always try one finger if you find a reason for it.
