MTGuru wrote:
jim stone wrote:
It's an e cran (though played on a Bb flute) as described above
No, Jim, actually it's not. What you're playing there is simply not a cran, though you might think it is. That's why it sounds odd.
You're playing: |E2 E/G/A/G/ E2|
First ... Your fingers are not coming back down on the E's before beginning the next cuts. So you're actually missing the cuts entirely. In your figure, and with the R1/L3 there should be 5 E's, not 3: |E2 E/{G}E/{A}E {G}E2|. And since the first E of the bar is repeated, you'd probably want to cut into the first E of the cran as well: |E2 {A}E/{G}E/{A}E {G}E2|.
And now, with all those repeated A and G cuts, it's clear why a 3-finger cran may sound better: |E2 {A}E/{G}E/{F}E {A}E2|.
Second ... You're also trying to start the cran on the off-beat (2nd, weak beat) of the hornpipe. And that just doesn't work here. Crans will generally start on a strong beat. So you could do something like, using your pattern: |E/{G}E/{A}E {G}EF E2|.
But honestly, crans and hornpipes often don't mix very well, and I'd avoid it altogether here.
Third ... Injecting a breath as you do after the first beat of the bar destroys the figure entirely anyway. You never want to breathe like that within the ending cadence of a hornpipe phrase, much less if there's a cran. That you've ended up with a 2 beat breath phrase should be a clue.
Finally ... Grey Larson gives some pretty wacky advice in his book. A 3 finger cran can be tricky on a high D, but it's perfectly unproblematic on the high E. Spreading a cran over two hands tends to be more dexterous, by avoiding quick repetition of the same finger. And it's never advisable to follow rote advice, whatever the source. You need to work out what works on your instrument, and for playing a given specific figure depending on what comes before and after in the melody.
Hope that helps.
P.S. I would say that your playing has improved since the last time I watched one of your vids.
I am in the midst of purging myself for a colonoscopy in the morning, and truly cannot follow most of this.
It may be that, in the particular context in which I played it and the way that I executed it, what I played
was not a cran. Certainly I don't think this is a typical use of a cran. There was, anyhow, a certain effect I was after on my particular instrument, to suit that melody (not an Irish hornpipe),I got it, I think, and I'm glad I did.
Thanks for your kind words and the effort to enlighten me. I may make more sense of it when cognition
returns. Meanwhile perhaps others posting videos of their crans would help the discussion.
Also I meant to illustrate the sort of cran that Grey teaches in lessons, which I had described in the abstract
above the link to my video. If my video doesn't illustrate his cran, nothing particularly follows about his way of doing a cran, which I do think is worth checking out.
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