In search of an efficient practice routine

[Squeeky Elf]

In an attempt to make a long story short let me just say that I am pulled in too many different directions to really make a really serious go at the Uilleann pipes at the moment. My main musical priority for the foreseeable future will be to transition from mandolin to fiddle as my main instrument.

As it is I play my pipes sporadically and tend to just mess around butchering tunes in an attempt to get something out of them in the general shape of music. I can find the notes of a tune fairly easy by adapting whistle fingerings, but I’m mostly guessing at the ornamentation (I get confused between whistle, flute and pipes). I don’t think it’s a very efficient or satisfying way to go about it. What I would like to do is get my technique down, including ‘proper’ ornamentation, and plug the tunes in later.

What I’m hoping to get are suggestions for some exercises to put into a short practice routine. Something I could do two or three times in a row or two or three times a day.

Some examples would be to play the notes comprising proper rolls up and down the scale until they actually sounded like rolls, or another would be to play triplets on each note of the scale with the proper cuts and taps, until getting them up to triplet speed, etc.

Or to put it another way, If you were starting over again knowing what you know now, what fundamental building blocks would you start on if you were going to work on technique and not worry about playing tunes for the first six months or so?

[geoff wooff]

Probably ,knowing what I know now, I would not start from here!

In other words don't put the cart before the horse... learn to play tunes, learn and use a nice internal rhythm, which should then donate a good external rhythm to your music, which should then give you the space to employ the decorative elements in a rhythmic fashion.

[Calum]

I agree. Technique is the least difficult thing to sort out if you are a good musician. I would suggest that if you get your fiddle playing where you want it then transitioning onto the pipes will be more straightforward.

[fiddlerwill]

The basic routine I use to learn any instrument is scales and arpeggios. I recomend not playing dance music untill the mechanics; blowing and bowing steady, open and closed fingering , typical phrases and triplets etc. I also might drag out of a tune and isolate difficult phrases, also rolls up and down as you suggest , all of this sort of thing;the basic building blocks. Once this is accomplished I play simple tunes with no ornaments, and solid rhythm, slowly. After A dozen or 50 tunes are learnt like this still simple I take them to a good dance pace, no ornaments, but single grace notes wherever essential .
At this point you should be able to play for dancers, once all this is accomplished I go back to the tunes and see where rolls doubling etc etc etc feel comfortable at a slower pace but i always retain the abilities gained from the ground work at pace.

Dance music plays a social role , it has to be played at the right pace with the right feel and lift . This is the fundamentals of the whole game. Beyond this come the fine detail that can take years to develop and be incorporated. If you just rote learn tunes from a book, despite having all the touches and trills your music does not well up from inside, the spontaneity and abandon exhibited by top players is a result of a functional approach that prizes the music as a whole over mere finger speed and technique. also if you just learn tunes slowly with all the trills then it can be harder to bring it up to pace and it can lose the functional aspect for dance as a result.
This approach works very well for me.. .Some instruments, such as drum kit for example I will never add much detail but the functional aspect is fine. Some instruments dont even have much in the way or ornaments ,ie Banjo.
cheers
To summarise; primary approach is melodic and rhythmic,
secondary approach is ornamental ,
3rd approach is to develop and mature and combine in a natural expression.
Enjoy

[Squeeky Elf]

Ok then, I guess I'll keep hammering away at the poor defenseless tunes. I'm sure it hurts me more than it hurts them.

But just to add little more context to my opening post - I'm new to the pipes, not to the music. I don't think the tunes or the pulse or the articulations or the when and why of the ornamentation is going to be nearly as much trouble to transfer to the pipes so much as the fact that it's all a big dexterity challenge. So what I was hoping for was more of a dexterity boot camp. I don't know if this changes opinions of how I should proceed, or if someone else sees where I'm coming from, but I just thought I would throw this out there.

[highland-piper]

I'd start with simple tunes you know then, and figure out how to ornament them.

You can learn all the technique in the world and never learn how to make music, but if you learn to make music you will necessarily learn technique along the way.

[learnthegrip]

I'm gonna try to answer your original question about practicing piping technique. I'm not the most qualified to answer, so take that into account....

Since you already play the music and play the whistle you have a good head start. What I would do for now is use the ornaments that the pipes have in common with the whistle, cuts, open rolls, bounces, etc. when playing tunes, but when you want to work on actual technique concentrate on the things that make the pipes different. Learn the fingering adjustments necessary to play a note on the knee, off the knee; to swell, pop, or bark a note; play staccato scales; learn the cran and the hard D. Once you have a handle on these you can start to add some piperly touches to your tunes. The next step would be to learn tight triplets. A tutor like Denis Brooks' or Heather Clarke's would give you an idea of the ornaments available. Sit down with a piper, either in person or via Skype and see how they're done.

I warm up with arpeggios, staccato scales, popping, barking, and tight triplets, then work on ornaments that occur in specific tunes I'm learning, and then on the tunes themselves.

One more thing, listen to a recording of a whistler playing a tune and compare it with one of a piper playing the same tune so you can get an idea of where the differences lie.

Hope that helps some.

Ken

[uillmann]

Keep in mind that it is quite difficult to unlearn poor technique. If, at first, you do things wrong just a few times in a row, it takes many more times to relearn. Make sure you are getting the timing of the ornaments right before repetitively reinforcing bad habits.