Here's a little one-off demo I posted to a different thread, but which may be worthwhile in a thread of its own (or maybe not!).

One of the most common beginner's questions concerns the even timing of rolls (and cuts). Brother Steve's "dah-blah-blah" description and short clips are very helpful. And tune demos sometimes offer slow and fast versions. But I don't think I've heard roll demos that start very slow, then ramp up to allow the ear to adjust to the timing as the speed increases.

So I tried this approach on the A part of The Kesh Jig. In this mp3, I start each section slowly, then repeat it until it's up to speed. First rolls, then cuts, then a complete A part.

Kesh Rolls and Cuts <-- Click for mp3

D|~G3 {A}GAB|~A3 {c}A (3B^cd|ezd {a}gdd|{a}edB d>BA|
~G3 {A}GAB|~A3 {c}A (3B^cd|{a}edd {a}gdB|{c}AGF {b}G3||

Of course this example is not very musical, and there are subtle ways to vary the timing. But this illustrates the sort of "mechanical" timing that beginners can use as the basis for more expressive ornamentation later.

Also, it's interesting to note that these ornaments can be much harder to play slow than fast:

o There's a tendency to want to slow the speed of cuts and taps in proportion to the speed of the tune. But that's a mistake! Cuts and taps should (usually) be equally crisp whether the tune is played slow or fast.

o The bubbly blur of rolls played up to speed can fool the ear into thinking that the timing is OK when it's not. But if they sound wrong when played slow, then they're probably also wrong at any speed.

Thanks, that actually helps clear up some of the awkwardness i was experiencing with my rolls

Thank you, John. Your posting is a huge leap of technique explained for this novice whistler. Now, the practice...and the fun as improvement begins .

Dennis

Hi John,

Thanks for the post. I'll give it a go - I'm working on learning this tune right now.

Best,

Deisman

A very well-known and influencial recording of the Kesh Jig is that by the Bothy Band, where it begins with Paddy Keenan playing it on the pipes.

Paddy's rolls are quite evenly timed, one could say "mechanistic" if his playing were not so utterly musical.

What makes "Kesh" good for a beginner is that in the opening phrases the player, if he is not to tongue, must generate four notes of the same pitch by using the fingers.

The usual way on whistle or flute is to play:

note (cut) note (pat) note (cut) note

which at the beginning of Kesh is:

G (A cut) G (F# pat) G (A cut) G

however Paddy does not begin the tune in this way. Instead he uses what some have called the "piper's roll" which begins with a cut then has two pats in a row:

(cut) note (pat) note (pat) note (cut) note

Go back and listen to that recording if you have it.
As I recall Paddy does the normal roll when the same situation occurs on the note A in bar 2.

Thanks, MT. That clip is very helpful. Please feel free to post more of those!

yes, yes.. A lot of help. Thank you!!

MT, how do you play the {a} cut at the beginning of the fourth full bar when going from d to e. Everything I try seems awkward and hard to get a clean cut.

XXX XXX
XXX OXO
XXX XXO

seems to work the best but the d doesn't sound as good as OXX XXX and, of course, it's a g cut. Suggestions appreciated - thanks.

I cut the e with my T3 finger (G finger), so:

xxx xxx d
xxo xxo cut
xxx xxo e

But your fingering with the B1 finger g cut is perfectly OK, too. I gently tongue the cut to help define it, but that's up to you. Really snap the cut finger down to keep it clean (mine was a little sloppy).

I don't vent the d ... Too much trouble here, and it makes no difference on this whistle (Gen D). A stable, in-tune unvented d is one of the things I look for in my preferred whistles.

Mt,

thanks - that helped a lot I'm not sure if I'm 100% on it but substantially better now. I'll keep workingn on it.

Deisman

Mt,

thanks - that helped a lot I'm not sure if I'm 100% on it but substantially better now. I'll keep workingn on it.

Deisman

MT, thanks for all that. A series of mp3s doing common tunes like that with the ABCs as given in the post above would be an awesome learning tool...hint, hint.

Get June McCormack's flute tutor. It has what you're asking for. Well, it uses dots instead of ABC's, but other than that it's what you want.

I've been working on second octave cuts and pulled this one out to practice. On the high G in the third measure, I get a "yelp" instead of a clean cut. When I play the cut slowly, I hear what sounds like a low A sound then the high A, indicating I'm not increasing the breath pressure as I move from the D up to the G. Does that cut just take practice or is there trick to making it crisper?

Thanks.

So is it bad form to tongue occasionally when you have several notes in a row? (For example, if instead of the second tap you tongued the note.)

I don't mean this sarcastically. And thanks for the nice clip and comments MT.