that I can never quite figure out or describe right…
I’ve heard it mostly in slow airs, but in plenty of dance tunes too..
It sounds like the note just kind of slowly comes in… if I could think of a better way to describe it…
On a video of Seamus Ennis playing a slow air on youtube, he does it on an F# going from an A, I think, while doing some other stuff with the regulators, and Jerry O’Sullivan playing Colonel Fraser’s on the third time through for some examples… if someone could point out what this is and describe it a little better, that would be great…
I don’t think it’s a slur. It’s just like slowly pushing the note… I think it’s kind of like doing a slide but maybe lowering the pressure and pushing harder? I don’t play the pipes yet so I wouldn’t know. I’ve done it a few times on whistle by breathing less as I slide into a note and then blowing harder.
That distinctive glide up to C natural is often tough for beginners to get right. You can see the finger action that’s required: the top finger “uncurls” rather than lifting off the hole.
I wish Seamus had tuned his drones before performing! They’re pretty awful. His regs are going nicely though, great tone from them.
The drones aren’t quite in tune here. Could be leaks/other problems with the set (which I strongly suspect was a problem in Seamus’ later years), could be that Seamus just didn’t care at that particular moment or the film was already rolling before he could get all tuned up, we’ll never know. In any case, it’s not so bad as to be really bothersome.
The B to C slur is trickier to do than it sounds/looks. I thought I knew how to do it until David Power showed me how to really do it at a workshop a couple of years ago. Essentially you start out on B (or another note; doesn’t have to be B), then close the chanter for a split second, then VERY SLOWLY begin to slide your G finger, C finger and F finger (in that order) off the holes near-simultaneously. Don’t open either the G or C holes more than halfway. Bollix it up and your chanter will likely give a most unpleasant sounding squawk. However, when you nail it, you’ll get a fantastic, dark, swelling slur from G up to C natural. Willie Clancy could do this exceptionally well.
Unfortunately, it only really works on uilleann pipes…
His drones aren’t in tune with each other and the drones are somewhat flat of the chanter: note how sharp the opening notes of the air are to the drones.
Anyone with a decent ear should be able to hear this- it’s not subtle.
Another interesting thing is the old video of Willie Clancy where his regs are horrendeously out of tune.
There’s no denying that the drones are out of tune. However, TV studio lights can be very hot. It might be that SE tuned up his pipes, then spend some time in the studio, under the lights, before playing this air, by which time the heat had affected his drone reeds.
Apparently after John Brogan died, Ennis had difficulty getting reeds for his pipes. Willie Clancy made some for him.
Yeah, I’ve played under lights and had my drones go out of tune. But it takes all of 10 seconds to retune them. So I’d say he just probably didn’t feel like (re)tuning them. He’s allowed to do that.
