score with regulators

[punteru]

anybody knows if there are a web that has scores with regulators chords, or some book of uilleann with these kind of scores. Beside of Leo Rowsome's tutorial.

[djm]

Punteru, there is a chapter in the Seamus Ennis book, "The Master's Touch", about regulators, but no exercises, per se. Ennis' main concern seems to be to warn people off playing the regulators like Leo Rowsome (though not by name, of course). There is a small chapter and one or two simple exercises for regulators in Denis Brooks' book, "The Irish Union Pipes Tutor". There is a short section on regulator playing in NPU's third video with Gay McKeown.

I don't recall seeing anything else off-hand. It seems that regulator playing is something for the rare talented few that achieve such an advanced level, so that there is nothing extensive written about them. If you don't like the Leo Rowsome tutor, your best bet is to sit down and listen to someone who plays them wonderfully, like Ronan Browne. I have only seen him live once, but he was never off the regulators for more than a few minutes, and it was all excellent, always tasteful. If you have any of Ronan's CDs, you could do worse than to study these.

djm

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Crowley's tutor from 1936 has extensive regulator arrangements, of a Leoish nature, four chords to the bar and such.
Trying to play like Leo is definitely good excercise-Paddy Keenan and Liam O'Flynn started out playing like Leo, I have a tape with O'Flynn from 1964 and he was very much in the Rowsome camp at that point.
Something that will help you become acclimatized to regulators is to simply keep your wrist over different banks of keys without actually playing them. Then, when it is time to play the chord, you will be used to playing the chanter in different spots and it will be much more natural to you. Of course, jumping all over the keyboard like Ennis or Ronan B. is a whole other ball of wax.

[djm]

Kevin, is the Crowley tutor still available? Has someone reprinted it somewhere?

djm

[sammyd]

Dicky Deegan would also be good to listen to. He tends to use the regulators execessively. I think his C# set has one of those extended bass regs, with a few extra lower keys.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Dicky Deegan would also be good to listen to. He tends to use the regulators execessively. I think his C# set has one of those extended bass regs, with a few extra lower keys.

Dickie's Woofe set has a bass reg with an extension that gives a low D note. He doesn't use it in dance music except at the end of a piece.
Seamus Ennis was the greatest "arranger" of regulators I've ever heard. Listen to the middle of the Dublin Reel on 40 years of Irish Piping where he plays af#, then just the a note. Brilliant stuff like that. Or in the Pipe on the Hob where he plays af# gb acnat chords against the first four bars of the third part. Little unexpected things, he really made the most of the regulator's limitations and strengths.
I don't know if you can still get Crowley's tutor. I bought mine about 4 years ago from Lark in the AM.

[glands]

"Score with regulators"

Sounds dangerous to me. Put down ywer pipes and go find a real live human mate.

[j.hohl.kennedy]

Dickie's Woofe set has a bass reg with an extension that gives a low D note. He doesn't use it in dance music except at the end of a piece.

Do you know his reasons for not playing it in dance music except at those times? I'm personally very interested in obtaining such an extension for the bass regulator (which is the one I don't have right now, but will when I can afford it.)

*Jonathan*

[Pat Cannady]

Dickie's Woofe set has a bass reg with an extension that gives a low D note. He doesn't use it in dance music except at the end of a piece.

Do you know his reasons for not playing it in dance music except at those times? I'm personally very interested in obtaining such an extension for the bass regulator (which is the one I don't have right now, but will when I can afford it.)

*Jonathan*

These extentions tend to put a lot of stress on the bass regulator tenon and its connection to the mainstock; it's one more potenial source for leaks and they're quite tricky to tune. Some old full sets with this type of appendage on them have cracked mainstocks caused by overzealous use of an extended bass reg. Such extensions involve a lot of expense and compromise for not a lot of benefit. If you're bent on expanding the harmonic range of a typical full set, a fourth regulator might be a better choice, but again it's a cost vs. limited benefit issue.

BTW I like Dickie Deegan's handling of the regulators, he uses them more than most nowadays but is pretty sly about it. It helps that is rig is in excellent tune and produces lovely, scintillating tones. So it can be done, but I'd email Dickie and ask about his experience with the bass reg extension before taking the plunge. You might consider asking Kevin Reitman, too, he has such a beast.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I just finished up an article on extended bass regulators, which have metal tubes to extend the normal bass's range (ala Coyne etc., like Dickey's pipes), and double bass regulators, which are seperate pipes entirely (ala Taylor etc.). I have a D set with an extended bass and a Bb set with a double bass, both by Brad Angus, who is the only pipemaker I know of who will - who can -make the bass extension, which is a big metal tube bent into a curve back towards the mainstock. Bending these without opening up the seam of the tube is very difficult.
I think the extended bass would be very popular if more makers would or could build it, especially with 3 keys - F#, E, D. The F# is easily got at even in dance music, and gives the option of modulating up three notes in the same way the standard bass can in the key of G: say in the third part of the Pipe on the Hob, you could play F#, G, A against the chanter's c, d, e'. Or hold down an F# as a drone when the melody is on an a note. Things like that. The low D is trickier to get at with the wrist, on Dickey's pipes it's too low to be had readily.
These extensions don't add much to the weight of a standard set at all. You could tear one off of a mainstock but that is true of the standard bass as well. Don't forget that the typical piper in the old days was blind! The fact that many full sets with hollow stocks are fully intact after almost 200 years of playing suggests something about their durability. Also - Coyne made at least two sets with extended basses and TWO tuning pins and endcaps, one for tuning the keyed range of the regulator and another for tuning the D and E notes, making adjustment of the rushing much more simple. My D set is built like this, also the Ginsberg Egan C set plans detail a similar extension. I will include pictures of both of my sets on Brad Angus's website, which will be up and running pretty soon.
"Kevin has such a beast." That don't sound good! The double bass regulator is definitely not for everyone, also. They add a lot to the weight and potential leakage of a set; many pipers remove these addenda and just play the usual three regulators, which is trouble enough, you gotta admit. My article will be in an upcoming IPC Pipers' Review, also, I don't know if it's the upcoming one or not. There are lots of photos of deluxe sets online, too.