Most forum readers will probably have heard the Seamus Ennis recording where he begins by claiming that the Bucks is "One of the toughest of the reels".
Do you agree? I admit I cannot play it as well as I might like, but it doesn't seem radically different from other quick, multi part reels.
Do members have other pieces that they find especially tricky?
Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
-
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Based in Australia.
Playing union pipes. I'm not very good at this yet.
Ask me about birds and behaviour. - Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Mr.Gumby
- Posts: 6614
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:31 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: the Back of Beyond
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
The notes aren't too hard to put in the right order. Perhaps he meant 'to play well'? Which in Ennis' thinking would be something entirely different. He also, ofcourse, liked to create those little mythologies..
My brain hurts
-
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Based in Australia.
Playing union pipes. I'm not very good at this yet.
Ask me about birds and behaviour. - Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
Yes it sounded a bit like one of his yarns...
- myles
- Posts: 196
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:57 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
I find reels a bit tougher than jigs generally in the sense it seems harder (for me) to get any rhythmic 'lift' into the playing.
I don't know about the Bucks, but I find my attempts to play the Liam Walsh setting of the New Demesne sound really hideous, particularly the B part.Do members have other pieces that they find especially tricky?
- myles
- Posts: 196
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:57 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
Also most airs are hard to play well, despite the slower pace; I feel like I hear airs ruined more often than other types of tune (including by myself). A couple of them seem notably difficult...the Willie Clancy "Dark Lochnagar" springs to mind as it's easy to degenerate into noodling about on the chanter, though JOBM plays it beautifully.
- uillmann
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: between rock and hard place
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
It's great fun in D, and was always one of my favorites. A little tougher in A, but not too hard if you're well practiced.
-
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Based in Australia.
Playing union pipes. I'm not very good at this yet.
Ask me about birds and behaviour. - Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
- MichaelLoos
- Posts: 676
- Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:53 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I'm here because I just wanted to change my location... but it turns out much more complicated than I thought. Do I already have the 100 required characters?
- Location: Klietz, Germany
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
In A would mean you'd need the third octave E for the second part - not many chanters will do that reliably, and even if so it doesn't really sound nice...
- uillmann
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: between rock and hard place
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
I, myself, was never that well practiced!
- pancelticpiper
- Posts: 5312
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format. - Location: WV to the OC
Re: Is the Bucks of Oranmore really that hard?
I was told years ago, by an old highly respected Highland piper
"There are no hard tunes...only hard settings."
It was his philosophy that pipers and Pipe Bands of every level could play the same tunes, just different arrangements.
I think this is also true of the uilleann pipes; you can have a setting with staccato triplets and backstitching and cranns all over the place, or a straightforward setting more akin to how the tune would be played at session, and everything in between.
"There are no hard tunes...only hard settings."
It was his philosophy that pipers and Pipe Bands of every level could play the same tunes, just different arrangements.
I think this is also true of the uilleann pipes; you can have a setting with staccato triplets and backstitching and cranns all over the place, or a straightforward setting more akin to how the tune would be played at session, and everything in between.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle