I've taught Highland pipes for many years, on that instrument "crossing notes" or "crossing noises" (they're called either) is a big problem with some beginners.
It's odd because some people never do them, some people do them on every note and it takes specific exercises to get rid of them.
Crossing notes, at least the most obvious ones, are the byproduct of two fingerings in sequence that require some fingers to be lifted and some fingers to be put down. Instruments with more "open" fingering systems have less opportunities for crossing notes than instruments with half-open fingering systems like the Highland pipes. Which is why with beginning whistle and flute students the issue of crossing notes is rare.
Add to that the fact that oftentimes crossing notes are regarded as good things! On the uilleann pipes, on Irish flute and whistle, and on woodwinds in some other traditions certain crossing notes are welcome and/or specifically practiced.
Here's one of the few crossing notes I often hear on the flute, whistle, and uilleann pipes, going from B to C natural.
On flute/whistle it might be fingered
xoo ooo oxx ooo
So all three upperhand fingers are crossing, the so-called "scissors motion" as some bagpipe teachers call it.
Now what if you put down U2 and U3 a hair earlier than you lift U1?
xoo ooo xxx ooo oxx ooo
You get a G in between B and C. That's a crossing note.
But many players think that sounds fine. Some do it accidentally, some hear it and like it and do it intentionally.
It's a critical part of Matt Molloy's lovely /B c d/ triplet.
Many whistle and flute players do that triplet open, listen to Mary Bergin to hear her open /B c# d/ triplets
xoo ooo ooo ooo oxx xxx
Matt Molloy does it closed
xoo ooo oxx ooo oxx xxx
with a C natural BUT he also has a G crossing note in between the /B/ and the /c/
xoo ooo xxx ooo oxx ooo oxx xxx
That gives it a lovely popping or rippling sound sort of like an uilleann pipers' "tight" /B c# d/ triplet.
About practice, as they say "practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."
In other words if you're doing something wrong all practice does is ingrain bad habits into your muscle memory.
So the first step is knowing what to practice.
On the Highland pipes how you get rid of ingrained habitual crossing notes, or any other bad habit, is to practice the reverse of what you're doing wrong.
A big crossing noise problem on the GHB is going from D to E, which involves 5 fingers crossing:
x | xxx | ooox (D) x | xxo | xxxo (E)
As you see the entire lower hand switches.
Some beginners get a crossing note low G thus:
x | xxx | ooox (D) x | xxx | xxxx (G) x | xxo | xxxo (E)
The problem is that they're putting down the lower-hand fingers too early.
The solution is having them practice putting down the lower-hand fingers too late:
x | xxx | ooox x | xxo | ooox x | xxo | xxxo
In other words, have them not put down the fingers that need to go down until the finger(s) that need to go up are clear.
Due to the half-open/half-closed nature of GHB fingerings there are crossing note dangers with nearly every note change.
I had a student with the worst crossing-note habit I'd ever heard. With him I had to break down every possible note-change on the GHB chanter, write out each note-change as three separate steps, and have him practice it slowly.
After a couple month practice all his crossing notes, which he had been doing for years, all went away and he's been a clean player ever since. I don't know why his first teacher let him get away with playing all the note-changes sloppy.
_________________ Richard Cook 1978 Quinn uilleann pipes 1945 Starck Highland pipes Goldie Low D whistle
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