Moving forward or holding steady

[MattMads]

I have been getting along for 5 months now on a Daye practice set, H.C. Clark and Na Piobairi Uilleann tutorial videos. I have about 14 tunes in my book, meaning I can sit down and play them from memory. As I am eager to continue to learn more tunes and techniques I am wondering if anyone would advise just holding steady on these 14 tunes and really working them with more attention to melody and ornamentations. Or maybe to continue to learn more tunes with the idea that the more I learn the better off the playing gets overall. What did you all do at this beginning stage?
Thanks
Matt

[PJ]

There's no point learning new tunes if you're playing them badly, so if you think you can improve them, continue to work on your existing tunes before launching into learning new tunes.

However, you don't have to stop learning new tunes. You could still learn, say one new tune each month.

By the way, 14 tunes is a good tally after only 5 months.

[Cathy Wilde]

It doesn't matter what you're playing -- if you're getting better you're moving forward. I agree with PJ -- a combination of the two is good. Me, I choose certain tunes so I can work on certain things.

But if you want some new tunes, check out http://source.pipers.ie/Gallery.aspx?id=36 and see where that takes you.

Have you recorded yourself yet? That might help clarify things, too.

[ausdag]

Some musicians, particularly non-pipers, whose single source of meaning in life is attending sessions, may judge your musicianship on the number of tunes you can recognise and play along to. You may then feel pressured to learn as many tunes as possible as soon as possible. But you'll end up knowing stacks of tunes, but your piping will not have improved much at all.

Recognise early that piping is a very different kettle of fish compared to other instruments, and that a small repertoire played (piped) well is a much grander goal than a head full of tunes that you can belt out in a lifeless manner.

In a nutshell...hold steady

[john]

I think that expanding your repertoire is a good thing because you may learn something new that you can go back and apply to tunes that you already play - a lot of what you discover you can do with a tune feeds into your overall playing - another thing to bear in mind is how similar different tunes can be in what they demand of you in terms of sequences of notes that seem to repeat themselves again and again

[CHasR]

What did you all do at this beginning stage?

Bugged the livin shyte outta my family, neighbors, cane dealers, hardware store clerks, and pipemakers

I think, maybe 13 (?) years on from finally getting my hands around a real uilleann pipe (after numerous orchestral woodwinds, ghb and more)...that many of the finer points, that make a top notch piper, adherance to authenticity, & acute stylistic details I labor over now could have been avoided, had I paid more attention to them at the early stages. HOWEVER, I simultaneously feel that the acquired facility, emotive expression, tradecraft & fluency on the inst may not have grown to full artistic maturity today; had I gotten bogged down in persnickety beginnerish pedantic technique worries.
so theres both sides of the coin as far as i can tell. Truly an Appolonian/ Dyonisian crisis. your choice of it.

[kathaleenypoopa]

I remember when I started out, I listened to ITM all the time. When I got to a point where I just HAD to learn that friggin' tune that kept swimming in my head, I couldn't do anything about it - I just sat down and learned it.

Michael Eskin has a nice website called Tradlessons.com that gives some good demonstrations of tunes... slow and with a good view of what's going on with the chanter.

I think you go with what feels good to you, all the while strengthening your skills, go for it. Get to a Tionol, too... it'll stretch you out and help reinforce those good habits and make sure you're on course.

Hey, wait... there's a Tionol coming up in October in NY! Ya can sign up still!!!

K

[gedpipes]

http://www.scoiltrad.ie/

Try Scoiltrad
and Errant Elbow
http://errantelbows.podbean.com/category/reels/

Nice one Chas - sums it all up for me - me I'll go for the Dionynesian any day
Ged

[MattMads]

Thanks for the comments all, they are most helpful. I listen to so much piping, sometimes I feel compelled to attempt to learn the tune or some part of the tune. I need to work on all aspects of playing and by no means are the tunes I have now perfect, but they are getting better. I think I'll be holding steady.
Cathy I missed you at Tionol in St. Louis. I asked several people to point you out but no luck. I left right after the afternoon workshop to head back to Cincinnati. Michael gave us some great tunes to work on. Are you still gathering the last Saturday of the month?

MAtt

[TheSilverSpear]

Play lots of tunes badly. Why stop at 14? That's what I do.

[MattMads]

Ged,
Thanks for the links, some new places to hang out.
Cheers MAtt

[tommykleen]

Some musicians, particularly non-pipers, whose single source of meaning in life is attending sessions, may judge your musicianship on the number of tunes you can recognise and play along to. You may then feel pressured to learn as many tunes as possible as soon as possible. But you'll end up knowing stacks of tunes, but your piping will not have improved much at all.

Recognise early that piping is a very different kettle of fish compared to other instruments, and that a small repertoire played (piped) well is a much grander goal than a head full of tunes that you can belt out in a lifeless manner.

In a nutshell...hold steady

Soooooo well said!

I see a good deal of beginning pipers who are basically running with scissors (confession: that was, and can at times be, me). Often they have come to the pipes from whistle and/or flute and play the chanter like they are playing a whistle or flute (confession: I know I did). And some are just lazy and try to cover their lack of serious study of technique by throwing out the old saw "Well, I'm really more of a traveling-style piper" which tells me they really have not listened very well to the giants of "traveling-style" piping.

I have often said that the session is the death of piping. In most of your sessions you have a group of people playing faster than they are really capable of playing. I have worked (and continue to work) hard every day to gain and retain my piping skills. Sitting in on a (too) fast set of reels in your basic session and you may be forced to simply junk all that technique you worked so hard to gain. I usually sit out those situations. I know it's hard not to get caught up in the session dynamic, but, as has been said (by my biggest piping influence) "every time you play...you are practicing". Which translates freely to "every time you play you are learning". That includes learning and practicing bad piping habits.

(last confession): Looking back, I feel I came to the session scene (as a piper) about 5 years sooner than I should have.
I think I (musically) made a hash of things in those early years and did not represent the pipes in a favorable light. I strive to do better...

One needs to keep at the forefront the Pipocratic Oath: do no harm.

[NicoMoreno]

I feel like pipers talk about piping like it's something special and unique, apart from all the other irish traditional instruments.

Everything Tom says applies equally well to all the other instruments. The best is when you find a session that's at your level and can all progress together.

[tommykleen]

Now Nico, you know full-well about the piper's exceptionalism

The main difference between pipes and the other instruments (in this context) is the binary nature of the beast: it's either full on, or full off. No sneaking in, no noodling. You are bare, exposed, without a net, and totally all-in committed with the pipes.

t

[Cathy Wilde]

Hey, Matt! Oh, I'm sorry I missed you in St. Louis! I was definitely around. I was so around I was all over the place.

Yes, we still get together once a month, on the third Sunday. Our next session will be September 16th. David Copley's been coming down occasionally -- have you met him yet? Maybe you can ride together?

Me, I feel like there's a unique combination of the two approaches for everyone. A lot of it is based on what makes you want to play pipes in the first place, AND on what your goals are. Do you want to be a good piper? Then you have to do the work and that involves a lot of alone time and attention. Do you just want to hang out? Be my guest, but don't be surprised if you hear yourself one day and go "Wow, I suck!" (And worse, when you complain about it to your friends and they go, "Yeah, you do.") But a lot of people are perfectly happy in that space. As long as they don't mess things up for everyone else, it's their journey and I'm OK with that. It's not life or death, after all (though it may feel like it).

I listen to tons of piping and, like Kathleen, just HAVE to learn certain tunes, either because they sound awesome of because I think they'll be an interesting experiment. So I find the journey of learning them very educational in itself, and that whatever I get from them often improves my piping. For example, I may never have sufficient guts/chops/suicidal urge to play Mulhaire's out in public, but working on it is improving my 2nd-octave facility, which could carry over to other tunes one day, or, at a later date, make my next attack on Mulhaire's more rewarding (for now it's merely hilarious -- and that's okay, too).

I think my favorite advice came from Michael Cooney, who said something like "Sure, go to the occasional session, play too fast, play a bunch of tunes you don't really know very badly, drink some beer and have some fun, but don't make that your only source of playing ... and don't let yourself think that makes you a piper. If you want to be a good piper, you have to go home and do the work."