What is a Hard D?

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CraigMc
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Post by CraigMc »

I was reading the following excerpt from an interview with Matt Molloy and he was talking about how he would try to play tunes of other instruments on the flute like Pipes. He mentioned the Hard D. Anyone know what that is...is it a Cran on D?


Q: On the first album, you pioneered some techniques in flute playing.

A: The hard D, that's hit and miss too. It's never going to sound like the pipes. You're talking about a reed instrument, as opposed to blowing across an embouchure. So you're never going to crack it as good as you would like.

Q: It [the hard D] in the embouchure or the fingers?

A: Well, it's both. It sort of has become an ornament that can be done on flutes, and some players are doing it quite effectively now. It's no big deal really.






<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CraigMc on 2001-11-13 00:15 ]</font>
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ChrisLaughlin
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Post by ChrisLaughlin »

He's just talking about a really loud, solid low D with sort of a cut before the note to accent it and make it sound... mmm... harder. A hard D is harsher and louder than the rest of the notes, like the low D on the uilleann pipes. Not a very good description, but that's it. And yeah, Molloy often crans on his hard D.

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Pat Cannady
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Post by Pat Cannady »

As someone who plays the pipes, perhaps I can shed a little light on the hard D. On pipes, it's produced by cutting the bottom D with an A and pinching the bag a little to increase the air pressure hitting the reed. This helps helps to hit the hard D cleanly without overblowing the reed. Sometimes the piper lifts the chanter off the thigh while cutting, other times the note is initiated with the chanter already off the thigh; in either case, the chanter has to be off the the leg to play a low D.

The resultant note is slightly sharp and rich in harmonics.

It is NOT a cran, but is an integral part of a D cran, which can be fingered many ways; most pipers try to end a D cran on a hard D, but this last hard D usually does not require the benefit of an A cut, although there are crans that use the A cut at the end to make sure the hard D sounds.

A cran is a series of cuts played on low D or low E in a rhythmic fashion so that it sounds like a triplet or quadruplet. The main thing is to make sure all the cuts have definite beginnings and endings and don't smear together.

Start by playing a D and then play a series of cuts using one of the common patterns below:

4 - beat or quadruplet-type crans, usually played in slower tunes: AGF#G GF#GA AGF#A

3-beat crans for any tempo: GF#G GF#A F#GA AGA

Keep in mind that these cuts have definite beginnings and endings-you should be able to hear a tiny bit of D between each cut.

To mimic a hard D on flute, I suggest trying to cut the D with an A and do whatever you have to with your breath support and embouchure to produce a harsher-sounding low D without overblowing the flute and winding up in the second octave. It won't match exactly, but it will still sound cool, especially in piping tunes.
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RudallRose
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Post by RudallRose »

to be clear, when you notate "G" you mean the G hole finger is lifted, which would be RH1 (not LH3 as some might misinterpret).
Just being sure we're on the same page.
Some folks have difficulty remembering that the G tone hole is that hole which, when uncovered, produces the note "G", ergo, it is RH1, not LH3 (which is covering the tone hole for "A")
:smile:
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ChrisLaughlin
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Post by ChrisLaughlin »

Thanks Pat and David for a much clearer explanation than mine. Just what we needed.
Chris
Eldarion
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Post by Eldarion »

So a hard D is the harsh "bark" we hear in Laurence Nugent's and Fintan Vallely's playing?
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RudallRose
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Post by RudallRose »

yep, that would be one of them
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ErikT
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Post by ErikT »

On 2001-11-21 21:57, David Migoya wrote:
to be clear, when you notate "G" you mean the G hole finger is lifted, which would be RH1 (not LH3 as some might misinterpret).
Just being sure we're on the same page.
Some folks have difficulty remembering that the G tone hole is that hole which, when uncovered, produces the note "G", ergo, it is RH1, not LH3 (which is covering the tone hole for "A")
:smile:
Actually, I've always been taught that the name is derived from the last finger down (which establishes the sounding length), which would make the LH3 the G. If we talk about a roll on G, it gets confusing to call it by the first finger that is not down.

I could be wrong though :smile:

Erik

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2001-11-26 02:13 ]</font>
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RudallRose
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Post by RudallRose »

Somewhere down the line it did get confused, so you're right.
Technically, however, the tone holes are named thusly: 1=C# 2=B 3=A 4=G 5=F# 6=E
Funny, however, is that the keys of the flute are called by the note they produce when lifted, which does fit in with the explanation: Bb, G#, F-nat (long and short) and Eb....and the high E for the German models that started with them.
Where it got weird was the two foot keys (C# and C) which got their name for the tone they produced when CLOSED. Otherwise they'd be called the D and C# keys for the tones produced open.
I think the lexicon started to change a bit and we started to use LH1-3 RH1-3 to be pricisely clear to overcome whatever confusion is had from the two schools.
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