Tunes that helped your technique.

[eric]

> I have been learning Harvest Home for six months now and am just gotten up to speed

Don't get down on yourself on that account: speed is learned by playing slow, relaxed, and accurate. I'm of the opinion that you don't "go" to dance music-- it comes to you. Meaning, if my experiences are representative, trying to play too fast before you're ready only locks in muscle tension, which is a huge barrier to progress.

Ausdag, I understand what you're saying about techniques being available to any tune. The point might be though, that in the beginning stages, I know ~I~ didn't have enough grasp on the music to hear where most opportunities existed. I needed to have a tune where they were built in, like Fraher's for cranning.

I agree with practicing technique in isolation to focus on relaxed and accurate control (this includes finger independence). Practice a technique over and over very slowly, and then practice it slowly in tunes. Back and forth. Increase speed in small increments while maintaining that hard-won relaxed and accurate control. Of course we all need to go nuts occassionally and play much faster than our skills allow, but we need to be careful that we don't forgo correct practice in the learning stages.

DJM brings up another good point. I don't know what to call it...interchange between notes? There's always a spot where you stumble because of an uncommon or difficult interchange. IMO, practice them in isolation, concentrating on relaxed, accurate control. Even going from A to B can be practiced to gain finger independence: IMO, lifting the middle finger shouldn't cause the pointer finger to tense up. Even a simple technique like cutting the B shouldn't affect other fingers.

The most difficult interchanges for me involve C nats, especially if varying whether you color the C and/or close the chanter to emphasize rhythm. The 2nd part of the Curragh Races would be an example.

As for another tune that helps a lot: I've taken to a slow (very slow) reel called The Humors of Scale.
Go here: http://www.metronomeonline.com/
Start with the ticker at 50 beats per minute.
Now, play the D major scale up and down, each note 4 times in a row, with two notes per tick: DD DD EE EE FF FF GG GG etc, as high as you can manage using lead notes (as short as possible) for top hand 2nd octave notes.

Points of the tune:

Close the chanter between every note, although you can use cuts on bottom D if you like.
*Relax* your hands and forearms as much as possible when you play. Feel the buzz on the tone holes.
Fingers should move from the big knuckle.
Every finger should move independently, for example, opening the middle finger (or middle and ring) for F# should not cause other fingers to tense up or move. Opening the top hand ring finger for A should not cause any other finger to tense up or move, with the little finger as an exception.
Hands/fingers shouldn't tense up in reaction to operating the bellows.
Hands/fingers shouldn't tense up in reaction to squeezing the bag, especially in the 2nd octave.

Vary the exercise as you wish (such as same note twice, then once, etc), keeping it at 50 bpm. When you can play it relaxed, try upping the metronome.

The idea is to learn what "relaxed" actually feels like, and commit it to muscle memory. Then slowly increase speed with the point of keeping that relaxed control. When you play this exercise, never play it faster than at which you have relaxed control. Sure, test yourself and go nuts with the speed on occassion, but always return to relaxed accuracy.

To get finger idependency, you may want to put down the pipes, rest your hand on something and slowly lift each finger, concentrating again on relaxation and eliminating sympathetic movement. Be aware that moving a finger doesn't involve the bicep or shoulder, though you'll likely notice, as I did, the tough fingers cause those areas to "sympathetically" tense up. Eliminate sympathetic tension.

These are the kinds of exercises that I've found Most Effective in eliminating years of bad habits that prevented me from playing better. I hope they'd help people avoid the same pitfalls.

[PJ]

One of the reasons I like Brian McNamara's style of playing is that he takes his time and concentrates on the ornamentation (without overdoing it). This allows me to play along (when he's playing a concert chanter).

It's pointless trying to do this with Paddy Keenan, who, I'm convinced, doesn't use drones but benefits from the prolongued sonic boom caused by the speed of his fingers when he plays reels.

[Uilliam]

This could go on for ever with individuals favourites!! In London we had a standard wee book that was useful but its probably out o print now.Why don't ye use Heather Clarkes Book or the Armagh Pipers Book which will give ye uniformity of tunes plus a natural progression of techniques.simple really.
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam

[Joseph E. Smith]

Why don't ye use Heather Clarkes Book or the Armagh Pipers Book which will give ye uniformity of tunes plus a natural progression of techniques.simple really.
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam

...aahhh, that's the thing... if it is simple, then I have a rough time getting my head around it.

[PJ]

Why don't ye use Heather Clarkes Book or the Armagh Pipers Book

Clarke's tutor is excellent, but the Armagh Pipers Club tutor is really only a collection of tunes. There are no real lessons or exercises in it and it is quite poor on explaining piping technique.

[David Lim]

Fantastic!!

Thanks for all the suggestions, tunes, techniques and other stuff.

It has definitely brought out some new idea and awoken some forgotten ones. I will be collating a list of tunes (titles only at this stage) and the more obvious technical opportunities they offer, mainly for discussion amongst teachers here in Manchester. But if anyone would like a copy when it's done pm me, it could be a few weeks off being finished.

Suggestions from here will be put together with those from Manchester students and also from our 5 excellent and committed teachers.

From all this, Manchester teachers will try to create a gap free progression route through piping technique, allowing time for repertoire to increase, finger strength and coordination to improve, synapses to form and musicianship to happen.

This we hope will be better than any book, video or DVD.

Of course it will take years But we have to start somewhere.

I hope more suggestions will come in.

Thanks again

David

[Joseph E. Smith]

You're welcome.... ermm, where's my pint? You tryin' to 'stiff' us? Eh?

[David Lim]

You're welcome.... ermm, where's my pint? You tryin' to 'stiff' us? Eh?

Sorry Joseph, no pint but I have offered any forum member who might want one, a copy of what result from this.

David

[David Lim]

Sorry Joseph, no pint..........

Of course if you happen to visit Manchester, now that would be another thing altogether.

David

[Joseph E. Smith]

Sorry Joseph, no pint..........

Of course if you happen to visit Manchester, now that would be another thing altogether.

David

I'll gladly take you up on it, and return the favor, if ever I should find myself Manchester way... Perhaps we'll have to buy a few for Mr. Walker too. Ben? You up for a few pints?

[Uilliam]

PJ..ye have missed the point completely...the Armagh Pipers Club Book was produced for...yep The Armagh Pipers Club and was used as an aid by the tutors for the pupils at the club.Much Like we had our own in London and presumably what Manchester is looking for A mere collection o tunes is of no use unless there is something to learn from them.
Slán Agat
Uilliam

[beckitybek]

I was once at a session and a fiddle/mandolin player was asked by another less proficient fiddler "how do you practice to improve your technique?...his answer was simple "I play tunes", not meaning he has any particular tunes he concentrates on feeling that they aid his technique more than others, but just that playing any tune is his way of developing his technique..


DavidG

Got to disagree with you here David (or your fiddle/mandolin player to be precise)- IMHO this is where a lot of people have trouble - they take a tune and practise it over and over again which doesn't really improve technique specifically. I have found it a lot more useful to pick out sections of the tunes (no more than 1 or 2 bars) that you want to concentrate on (either because they are hard and are tripping you up or because you are working on 'technique' at that point) and practise just those 1 or 2 bars over and over and over again until you are satisfied that you can play them well before putting them back into the tune and picking the next 1 or 2 bars that you want to work on and doing it all over again.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Some tunes are also better suited for certain kinds of embellishment than others.

[ausdag]

I was once at a session and a fiddle/mandolin player was asked by another less proficient fiddler "how do you practice to improve your technique?...his answer was simple "I play tunes", not meaning he has any particular tunes he concentrates on feeling that they aid his technique more than others, but just that playing any tune is his way of developing his technique..


DavidG

Got to disagree with you here David (or your fiddle/mandolin player to be precise)- IMHO this is where a lot of people have trouble - they take a tune and practise it over and over again which doesn't really improve technique specifically. I have found it a lot more useful to pick out sections of the tunes (no more than 1 or 2 bars) that you want to concentrate on (either because they are hard and are tripping you up or because you are working on 'technique' at that point) and practise just those 1 or 2 bars over and over and over again until you are satisfied that you can play them well before putting them back into the tune and picking the next 1 or 2 bars that you want to work on and doing it all over again.

Hi Becky,

Yes...I was actually intending to kind of disagree with him myself, which I think I expressed to some degree in the rest of my post. Hence my concern that pipers who focus on learning tunes and more tunes and then go to tionol or summer school to learn more tunes are in danger of stagnating. They may have an impressive repertoir, but their technique is less so.

Then I think we need to define technique as something more than just an ability to play the 2nd octave of hold a hard D.

My point is that you can ask people's opinions of what tune is good for a technique and eventually, if enough people respond, you'll find that every tune in the Irish Music world has been offered as a good tune for something.

That's why it's important to learn a technique, not necessarily in isolation from a tune, and you obviously have a particular tune for a particular technique, just like I use(d) Lark in the Morning to practice rolls - but at the same time, why not use Lark in the Morning to practice staccatto - just make all your notes staccatto?

It's all relative.

No tune is any more better suited for certain types of technique (to offer my opinion to Joseph's question) than any other tune. Do with a tune what you like, but to do so, you need the technique first. That will determine whether what you like to do with a tune will render it sounding like a rusty car horn, or skilled, well-executed music.

I think much of what tells us that a particular tune is suited to a particular technique is that someone has recorded it previously using well-executed bippity-bips or whatever, and so we think - 'that's a good tune for practicing bippity-bips'. Nothing wrong with that, but as I say - it all relative.

And I agree with you on the idea of taking a small section and practicing it first. It's basically an essential habit to get into.

Cheers,

DavidG

[Cayden]

I think it can be very useful to approach a tune from different angles, let different styles loose at it. for example play the fermoy lasses the Tommy Reck way, the Liam Flynn way and then shred it open playing it the Doran way with off the knee stuff multiple rolling etc. Some tunes are very versatile and can stand very different treatments which adds greatly to your insight in both the tune and the variety of sounds and techniques available to you, which in turn enables you to carry that over to other tunes putting you on the road towards developing your own style.