sounds of a beginner

[djones]

I am 3 months at UPs and don't have the opportunity for criticism from a teacher hearing me play. When I learned GHB, I had a great teacher who pointed out every little thing.

It's poorly recorded (cheap mic), but if any of you wish to, I could sure use some pointers.

http://www.loweradirondack.net/mp3/beginner.mp3

I'm thinking the crans on D are muddled and bottom D comes out just strangely sometimes. Tune gets better at end.

Thank you-
Dave Jones

[uilleannfinlander]

Up sounds nice , but what's that terrible tapping behind.?
It really spoil your piping.

[djones]

oops... foot tapping... old habit...

[feadogin]

It sounds great! Good ornamentation and not too fast. My only other comment would be that, for some reason, it does sound very highland-pipey...Can't quite put my finger on the reason, though. Is it the rhythm? Or is it that ornament you are playing, I think on the B?

Justine

[maw]

The foot tapping could double up as a bodhran
But hey, if I'd sounded that good after 3 months I'd have been pretty chuffed

[djones]

I played a GHB "E-doubling" (turns out to be an "A-doubling" à la uillean) I think. I'm still confusing the two playng styles. I suspect I will always be influenced by the GHB pipes I learned first.

Thanks for kind compliments.
Dave Jones

[Ross]

For three months, that's pretty good. I also came to UP from GHB and I wasn't that good that fast

Ross

[Joseph E. Smith]

I played a GHB "E-doubling" (turns out to be an "A-doubling" à la uillean) I think. I'm still confusing the two playng styles. I suspect I will always be influenced by the GHB pipes I learned first.

Thanks for kind compliments.
Dave Jones

It is a hard habit to break, I'm still trying to do so. Sounds great David, keep 'er going.

[ausdag]

I am 3 months at UPs and don't have the opportunity for criticism from a teacher hearing me play. When I learned GHB, I had a great teacher who pointed out every little thing.

It's poorly recorded (cheap mic), but if any of you wish to, I could sure use some pointers.

http://www.loweradirondack.net/mp3/beginner.mp3

I'm thinking the crans on D are muddled and bottom D comes out just strangely sometimes. Tune gets better at end.

Thank you-
Dave Jones

Hi Dave,

Now that the pats on the back are over, here's some of that 'criticism' you were aksing for' just kidding....I'm very impressed.


From one isolated piper to another -
This is stuff I've had to work out on my own basically through lots of listening to the pro pipers so I am willing to stand corrected on any points I make here...

on the cranns - there is no order to how you play the grace notes in a crann, so don't worry about it being muddled. It's good to work out what order you're going to play the gracings to try and end with an A cut to enable the crann to end with a hard D. But don't worry about it too much - it's not always as easy to do that as to speak of it. As long as you maintain good timing - that's my weakness at the moment; I tend to speed up through tripletts and cranns so lots of work with a metronome is helping to iron that out.

In the 4th bar when you play the staccatto B, you could, as a variation, not make it staccatto but slide into it from A, followed by a smooth cut with the C# finger to make it two half notes and then into C# and back D.

The back D then ends the 4th bar and is a good place to start practicing vibrato. When you feel confident, try adding vibrato to the D by using either the middle finger of you top hand, or one of your lower hand fingers. Depending on your chanter/reed, you should get a well-pronounced vibrato using the middle finger of the top hand without the pitch changing, or a more subtle one using the bottom hand fingers.

These are just some suggestions for when you gain confidence. Given that you say you're only 3 months into it, you're certainly making great progress - even better when you eliminate the GHB effects (that doubling on A I think it is can be replaced with a single 'bounce' with the A finger - like an A-B-A sort of thing but more rolled than cut then on into the F#-A to end the phrase).

Keep at it. Try not to do what I did and go into a five year lull where I only pulled the pipes out once evrey six months and then only for a brief time. After 12 years, I'm still ironing out flaws that should have been taken care of years ago


Cheers,

DavidG

[texasbagpiper]

Ive also noticed that I use some of the techniques in Highland piping in my Uilleann Playing, Mostly gracenotes..

[Uilliam]

Well stop it at once!!!
Uilliam

[djones]

Thanks so much for all the help! Next best thing to a tutor.

I think getting the highlands out of my playing will be hard. I cannot yet hear what about it is GHB to remove it. Maybe need a few drinks first.

All the best -
Dave Jones

[Brian Lee]

Didn't Jerry O'Sullivan make the switch from GHP to UP as well? I've heard tell that his style is still noteably influenced by GHPing. Having never played, I don't know how much from listening to him....either way, he's brilliant on the chanter!