Its just a suggestions but we should start a column where we would break a given tune down and anyone can make a suggestions of ornamentaion to use in it. We could start with the most common tunes like the “the wind that shakes the barley” for example. I think it could become a good practice tool. it would be neat to have a chiffandfipple tune book. Any taker’s?
A2AB AFED|B2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed BcdB|
A2AB AFED|B2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed Bcde|
|f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2fd g2fg|afed Bcde|
f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2ae g2be|afed BcdB|
I like this idea, hence it has been stickied. I, personally, do not read ABC quick enough to use for practicing stuff… but theres always http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html to convert ABC tunes into standard notation.
This’ll be a nice resource page. Thanks stlcurtain6n5!
I copied the ABC formatt and then pasted it on the conversion site, but it said there was an error?? Some help?
Andreas
The tune converter requires several fields in order to render an abc file correctly. Only the body of the tune was posted and this is insufficient informatation for the task at hand.
Try copying and pasting this and see if your results are better.
X:1
T:Wind That Shakes The Barley
R:reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
A2AB AFED|B2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed BcdB|
A2AB AFED|B2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed Bcde|
|f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2fd g2fg|afed Bcde|
f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2ae g2be|afed BcdB|
This should be the notes posted above and it may or may not help. 
David
X:1
T:Wind That Shakes The Barley
R:reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
A2AB AFED|AB2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed BcdB|
A2AB AFED|AB2BA BcdB|A2AB AFED|gfed Bcde|
|f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2fd g2fg|afed Bcde|
f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|defg afbf|gfed BcdB|
OOOps! How do you get it onto the forum in the actuall music form?
It’s not much, but I have another variation I got from the Chieftains that I will put in later.
Slan agus beannacht leat
Andreas
You need to left click the image, save it to your files, then upload it to a photo hosting site. I use http://photobucket.com/ . From there it is a simple matter of copy/paste to this forum.
This tune was recorded by Seamus Ennis on one of the lps, he takes it round all the corners he could think of, I always get a great rush from listening to that. That recording just may give more inspiration than this thread 
… perhaps more inspiration than the entire forum, a good recording it is. But as none of us are Seamus Ennis, this thread could go a long way toward helping those without access to an instructor or Ennis recordings. I see good potential here for the sharing of ideas, tunes and their execution ( 
).
Peter, could you talk us through one of those corners?
David
I could, if only I had the time. But would just a good listen to how he treats the tune melodically and changes it each time go a long way? He’s really playing his heart out on that one.
Any word on the Ennis transcriptions from NPU? I think that would resolve a lot of concerns. If you can learn to play like Ennis, you can probably play anything any way you want to.
djm
But having Ennis notes will hardly let you even begin to sound like him, you will still need to go to the recordings to appreciate his use of the tonal possibilities of the chanter.
Agreed, but what is being asked for in this thread is notation of ornamentation and variation as a learning tool. Obviously, the best way to capture this is to listen to the same tune by as many different artists as possible, and on more than one instrument, but if you can’t afford to buy every CD on the market, and don’t have a personal library of recordings made in situ with the original players, then notation is a place to start.
djm
I’d like to see this page become a place for folks to swap ideas in phrasing, notation, embellishment, transposition, etc… etc… whether using ABC, standard notation or recorded references. There is good potential here for great discussions.
I agree, and I’ll stop being contrary after this but the version posted at the start of the discussion doesn’t represent a version most pipers would choose, simply listening to anyone playing the tune would have revealed that I think.
Before discussing a tune I think it would be essential to suss out a few recorded versions, that would have led (hopefully) to a different starting point: the posted version seems to have been taken straight from a Scottish fiddle book. There are plenty recordings of the tune with a particular Irish flavour to it: Planxty, Ennis, Mary Bergin, Noel Hill, Tommy Peoples etc etc
It’s fine discussing this sort of stuff but it seems lazy just to pull any old notation off the web and let others do the discussing and tell you how to play it on the pipes.
But ornamentation wise here’s an opening gambit: most pipers would take long f and g rolls in the second part : ~f3 d ~g3 e ~f3 d Bcd consider .f.f {a}fd .g.g{a}ge .f.f{a}f d Bcd
replacing the roll by two tipped, pipped, staccato or whatever you want to call it notes followed by the note open and cut. Nice rhythmic effect, and a pretty standard one too.
If you prefer not to use the long roll you can go for the short one and do the ~f2 df ~g2 eg ~f3 d Bcd or replace the rolls by tips .f.fdf .g.geg .f.f{a}fd Bcd or triplets (g) (3.f.g.f dg (3.g.f.g bg (3.f.g.f {a}fd Bcd or fill the same phrase in (a device used very often by both Ennis and Tommy Reck for the lower hand notes in the second octave, especially arpeggios on D and A chords if you like is what they both used very effectively, although the latter ofcourse not in this tune) .f.A.d.f .g.gbg .f.A.d.f Bcd or vary that again as g (3fgA df ~g3 e (or g (3fgA Df ~g3 e for a bottom D in there) etc etc
Or take Ennis’ openings of the tune FAAF AFEF DBBA Bcd or AFAB AFEF DBBA Bcd which are nicely playing with the rhtyhms and the melodic line of the tune.
Plenty there to talk about but you need to get at the recorded material to listen and take it in before you can discuss it.
(edited to add and correct a few things)
Agreed, and you have given us some good stuff to consider. Thanks.
Thanks Peter,
The staccato Gs and F#s are nice, I’ve been introducing these to my playing as a variation for long rolls, yes, it’s nice to hear Ennis straight in with them.
On the recording I have (he plays Flags of Dublin first) he uses some long unornamented As and Bs.
When I say unornamented I assume there is a mixture of open fingering, vibrato and lifting the chanter going on.
Would that be reasonable guess?
David
It would
The notation given is a fine and good place to start it conveys the general structure of the tune well. Be wary of people that have insufficient imagination to ornament a tune without reference to several “Iconic” recordings.
Does any one really believe that SE made an in depth study of all the available resources before he went down the garden path to trucklyhow.
Your contribution to the music is your arrangement of it, the important thing is to feel and respond musically.
PP