So you can actually start and stop the airflow?
Yes, by placing the chanter on the knee and closing all holes no air escapes, it’s the very core of Uilleann piping.
Thanks. I’m not familiar with the mechanics of playing the pipes, I just know what I hear. So this is possible on a note-by-note basis when playing the same note? And this is the core of Uilleann piping? Can you give me a link with an example of this?
Thanks again,
KAC
I did a little research and reading particularly at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uilleann_pipes
which says that yes you can play “staccato” with uilleann pipes. It seems like to do would require closing all the holes between the same successive notes. Being new to this idea, I’ll listen for it but it’s seems like it would be quite awkward and definitely slow the tempo. So I’m still wondering how much of a core technique this really is??
KAC
Kenny, I guess it’s your choice whether to trust Wikipedia and your beginner’s ear, or an accomplished piper like Peter who knows exactly what he’s talking about.
How about some lovely staccato piping from Brian McNamara:
http://www.box.net/shared/5eftvjpc04
Thinking in terms of legato and finger articulations is, however, a good counteractive to the beginner’s tendency to tongue overly much. And, historically, I suspect there’s something to be said for the influence of open piping style on whistle technique.
And for the record, as stated above I’ve never see, this “repeated over and over on the interweb(sic)” I’ve never even seen it once.
The same nonsense was put forward during the past two weeks on the Session.org in turn quoted from Croabh Murphy-Roach CCE’s webpage. It’s quite a prevalent one, but typically erroneous where Irish music and Irish Pipes are concerned.
Listen to Seamus Ennis, Tommy Reck, look up Mici Cumba or Bernard Delaney’s cylinder recordings, listen to any good piper and you’ll find they all use a mix of non-legato and open playing (although all to different degrees).
As for speed: all depends on what you’re used to, I don’t think ‘tight’ playing slows you down (listen to Willie Clancy playing 'the Sweep’s Hornpipe or anything by Patsy Touhey). That aside, the guys in Northumbria seem to manage fine as well, and they are fully staccato all the time.
Thanks. I appreciate it. As I said I’m new to this. I’ll definitely listen closely and learn.
Best Wishes,
KAC
It was quite a revelation! In fact, I found it difficult not tonguing certain notes. It certainly seems to give good indication of where to start adding ornamentation. I thank-you for that very useful tip.
I was also reminded last night about the thread about using a metronome. I found it very useful for McCullough’s version of “Tabhair…” which uses triplets. With it set to 3/4 and a chime on each lead note, it became much easier to feel how the triplets need to be executed within a single beat. This reminded me of learning triplets in some classical guitar pieces, when simple foot-tapping wouldn’t work. After a couple of minutes with the metronome, the “feel” of the triplets has fallen into place - phew!
Charlie
Thanks!
KAC
P.S. BTW what I said was that Wikipedia supports what Peter said, but neither clarified the method of staccato piping which is what I was trying to understand which I believe I do now given Peter’s response.
Thanks. I appreciate it. As I said I’m new to this. I’ll definitely listen closely and learn.
No problem, staccato triplets aside in good piping you will barely notice ‘tight’ playing (Breandan Breathnach preferred the term ‘non legato’ and it is probably the better one) if you don’t know what to listen for, it’s in the clear, clean articulation of a note, how it ‘pops’ out. You can tighten up though, for effect for example instead of going eA ~A2 in reels I find it very effective to sometimes go eAAA, playing three separate staccato As instead of the A and short roll. Willie Clancy and Johnny Doran used that to great effect as well. Another easily accessible example is Liam O Flynn’s playing of the Wind that Shakes the Barley with Planxty where he replaces long g and f rolls in the seconds part by ff{a}fd gg{a}ge i.e. two staccato notes and an open one separated by a cut instead of the roll, a great punctuating rhythmic effect.
Understood. I listened to the link above and easily heard the technique. I’m definitely not new to music etc. I’ve played clarinet (on and off) from about age 12. (So that’s going on about 5 decades now. 
)
Thanks again for the info and I’ll be sure and pass it on when I find others making the same mistaken assumption.
KAC
I guess that depends upon whether you consider “Celtic Style” to be instrument specific, or alternately, an over-arching sound which is varied by players to suit their specific instruments and their feeling for the music. If you change bow direction on the fiddle to start a short role, or change bellows direction on a box, that seems to me to be equivalent to tonguing the first note of the ornament on a whistle.
If you have a Clare or Sligo fiddler playing a lot of long bows, and they’re playing with a tenor banjo player who alternates pick strokes on almost every note of a tune, are they playing a different style of music from each other? I think not. There’s more than one way to express this music, more than one way to bow a fiddle, more than one way to play a whistle, a box, etc. I’m not suggesting that anything goes, but I generally hear a lot of variety, even amoung fairly traditional players.
Well, yeah, I never intended to mean this was the ONLY thing that defined Irish/Celtic style, but certainly one of the main things that an average listener would notice in many cases.
Certainly grace notes are used in all types of music and bends/slides are used in blues in particular. There are many things that go into “defining” a musical style and many of those are difficult to express in words.
KAC
I would second the Grey Larsen book. He also has pretty much the same book only aimed strictly at whistle. You can order it directly from his web site. I have no connection other than being a happy customer.
Fred
Fred,
Yesterday I placed an order for his Whistle Toolbox book. I expect that it’ll prove very good and useful.
Thanks,
Charlie
Hi there
I’ve been trying some of the tunes i play most, without tonguing at all. It’s then i realize how much i tongue, instead of fingered articulation. Some tunes sound worse than others because i have relied so much on tonguing to emphasize the rhythm or attack on a note.
However the tunes with a variety of rolls or other ornaments sound much the same. This perhaps says to me that i am not cutting notes enough. learning to add cuts to a tune where i have otherwise used tonguing is harder than it sounds. It takes time when you are over 40 
Back on topic, I have done a couple of demonstration video clips on Low D Whistle (for visual clarity) that I have posted to YouTube. One is of a tune I mentioned above as one I have often used with early stage learners, The Leitrim Fancy; the other is a tune Charlie mentioned he was working on, Merrily Kiss the Quaker’s Wife. My clips are not flawless and they are not intended to be “definitive” (no such thing!): they represent a way of approaching these tunes, that is all, but I hope in a way that will be useful to the purpose of this thread. I tried to play completely without tonguing (my low whistle has quite a good clean attack when cleanly fingered, and in places may sound tongued - it was not!) and to show some alternatives when I played through at normal pace,not just the same basic articulations I used in the 1st time through slow versions. Leitrim Fancy is a good starter for a few simple but essential cuts, but can then have some rolls and taps worked into it. Merrily Kiss has rolls and possible taps in it even at a basic level.
I really appreciate the videos that you put on YouTube. They’re a great help. I also received Grey Larson’s whistle toolbox, which spends a lot of time dealing with cuts and taps. With resources like these, I feel confident that I can avoid picking-up bad habits before I begin formal lessons in the Fall.
Sorry for not replying earlier, I spent most of last week in northern New Mexico hunting for and documenting rare cacti as part of my work. I took my whistle, but even though it is supposed to be narrow bore and not very loud, it seemed too loud for playing in my hotel room. However, I expect that if my playing were a little more accomplished, I’d have felt less inhibited!
Charlie