Maybe its just the way my mind sets after playing clarinet for 30 years, GHB for a few years, and uilleann pipes for less than a year, but the way some terms have been recently used have got this failing mind even more muddled. If I haven’t completely lost it, I believe that “tight” playing implies using the fingerings where a minimum number of fingers are lifted, whereas “open” fingering implies a minimum number of fingers are closing holes (as with a whistle). Legato is smooth and connected, where (at was drummed into my head by more than one teacher) staccato is light and detached. I can play just as legato using “tight” fingering as I can using open fingering (it just takes a bit more concentration). Playing staccato using open fingering would seem possible, but I don’t think my fingers were ever that fast (or coordinated). Playing staccato using “tight” fingering is coming along (I’ve actually stopped a couple of times just because I suprised myself that I actually pulled off a staccato triplet). The main difference I see (at this early stage) between tight and open fingering, other than the articulation differences, is the sound differences that can be acheived using combinations of tight/open fingering, and on/off the knee. Does this sound close to correct, or have I completely lost touch?
Also, as an aside, is vibrato ever applied to bottom D, and if so do you accomplish it by varying the height of the chanter off the knee?
Dave-that is pretty much the way I know it. I learned closed or tight fingering first but played mostly legato. I never tried staccato with open fingering, and don’t see a need for it. The use of open fingering and off the knee is for dynamics and adding colour. I have seen some pipers going through some odd gyrations to add vibrato to a bottom D in a slow air. Tom Standeven (RIP) was famous for this.
Yep, with you both on nearly everything, but the idea of vibrato on a bottom D sounds a bit cruel and unusual. There’s no law against it, but it ain’t traditional. Most pipers just get their rocks off getting a bang out of the D, and the clearer it is the better.
I just loved to watch and listen to Tom Standeven play. I met him at my very first tionol 5.5 years ago when I started playing with a good reed, finally. I indeed use one of his demonstrated techniques for playing “vibrato” on the bottom D. I was a rank beginner and it stuck with me. Beginners definitely need to learn by as much as possible by watching at tionols…perhaps all of us do! It pains me to think of all the times that I, as a beginner would go off all alone at a tionol to find a private area to practice while the likes of Benedict Koehler, Jimmy O’Brien-Moran, Mick O’Brien and others were playing away and demonstrating impeccable techinque and surreal musicality. The current plans for the SF tionol should provide ample opportunity for beginners to not only take lessons but also to observe more experienced musicians. Go for it!
Vibrato on the bottom D. The only way to get it is to play with someone hilarious. My brother throw’s in wrong notes on purpose to get a rise out of my mom (guitar) and dad (piano). I laugh so hard that the vibration of my stomach actually simulates a vibrato on bottom D.