Practice Set No Longer Available to Anyone But Me!

PJ · Post by PJ » Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:36 am

Kieth,

You've no need to tread lightly about not wanting to pursue the uilleann pipes. You've made your decision and good for you.

Best of luck with the sale of the UPs and the purchase of the NSPs.

Reepicheep · Post by **Reepicheep** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 10:22 am

KDMARTINKY wrote:I agree that the sound produced by the Northumbrians seems to be basic compared to the u-pipes respectfully, but for me its a sound that suits me.

Don't sell your preference short. The NSP is not a less-serious instrument by any means. Just listen to some of Billy Pigg's recordings or Becky Taylor for that matter. They are proof that the NSP has just as much range of expression as the UP.

One reason for my moving from NSP to UP has much more to do with the type of music I want to play (i.e. ITM) I did not decide to switch because I felt the UP was superiour in any way.

Another reason why I switched is that I never could hold the NSP chanter comfortably due to having long-spider-like fingers. My fingers would cramp from being bunched up so close to one another and holding the chanter with my fingertips. The span of the toneholes on the UP chanter and using the flats of my fingers is much more comfortable.

YMMV, but remember NS pipers are pipers nonetheless.

Peace!
Reepicheep

KDMARTINKY · Post by **KDMARTINKY** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:30 pm

Thread has been Edited......

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:13 am

Hi KDMARTINKY

Glad to hear that you are staying in this band of lunatics.

Now save for your NSPs and enjoy both.

David

myrddinemrys · Post by **myrddinemrys** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:01 am

Don't give up. I'm confident if you take the advice of your tutor, and the excellent pipers in this forum, you will succeed. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Day by day, you will see progress.

MarkS · Post by **MarkS** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:18 am

Reepicheep wrote:Another reason why I switched is that I never could hold the NSP chanter comfortably due to having long-spider-like fingers. My fingers would cramp from being bunched up so close to one another and holding the chanter with my fingertips.

There's a fix for that. Get an NSP set pitched in D!

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:22 am

Glad to hear you are sticking with it Kieth. Now, time to get down to the business of practicing.

Reepicheep · Post by **Reepicheep** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:57 am

MarkS wrote:
Reepicheep wrote:Another reason why I switched is that I never could hold the NSP chanter comfortably due to having long-spider-like fingers. My fingers would cramp from being bunched up so close to one another and holding the chanter with my fingertips.
There's a fix for that. Get an NSP set pitched in D!

T'is my "long range" plan!

Peace!
Reepicheep

Uilliam · Post by **Uilliam** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 6:22 am

I am well and truly confused with all this....

Posting at 0820 our time saying he is selling " So I would really appreciate someone purchasing my practice set so I can move on...... "
7 minutes later he is definately not selling

Oiche Mhaith :roll:

Uilliam

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:49 am

Well, this thread started on Thursday. There have been two epiphanies. The first was that the Northumbrian pipes were calling out to him so he was going to sell his practice set to buy those. The second was that the UP's starting calling to him again through the spirit of Seamus Ennis so now he is keeping them. So the very first post is actually the last one---because it's been edited. So it is a happy ending.

Finally something I can answer. Pub closing is boring.

Edited to say that I'm sure the less spiritual, but perhaps more practical, help of glands was undoubtedly a critical factor.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:37 am

Cynth wrote:Finally something I can answer. Pub closing is boring.

Gee, Cynth, don't you think its time to stop dipping your toes in the water and find out what its really all about? You don't need to spend a fortune. Just a practise set is all you need to try your hand. Who knows? Maybe you too will find the magic that everyone here is raving on about. Go on, its just a little practise set. Totally harmless. Just the one little pipe to get you started; to see if you like it. Aw, go on. Give it a try. Go on, go on, go on. Sure, you will, you will, you will.

djm

KDMARTINKY · Post by **KDMARTINKY** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:52 am

late last night I opened up my book "Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland" by Tomas O'Canainn that I use for slow airs o the whistle. Put on the set and went down each key about three time holding each note for 2 minutes, kinda of steady and was able to pipe out a rough version of "Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor".

It is just amazing what one can absorb by just watching and listening to another play. This is the most progress I have made in three weeks.....

but also its the longest that I have really concentrated and utilized what I had observed.

Donald E Baltus · Post by **Donald E Baltus** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:38 am

I would never discourage anyone from quitting the NSP. Compared to UP they are not in fact equals but sound like thin, cheezy Casio synthesisers. When performing Northumberland style HP's and so forth they're quite enjoyable in their own right, but they are not an "expressive" instrument by any stretch of the imagination with their inherent, "boop boop boopy boop" attack transients and raspy by comparison tonality that bends, when forced to bend at all, like electronic pitch modulation and so forth.

I only know one guy who plays in D, IT tunes and has made a good job of pulling off cuts and rolls in IT style approximation, and of course, in the same keys as IT standards, but he's considered a hack rebel of sorts by NSP players of note, and isn't really looked on as an NSP player in their sense of the tradition at all. NSP is generally a half-arsed stopgap or dead-end move for Highland pipers who think their technique and fingering is close enough to start faking it right away because UP are so foreign that they give up before they start because it's all unfathomable to them.

Theoretically of course you can play both, but essentially that's a decision that you really aren't a player in the tradition of, or will ever fit in with "real" pipers in either school. If, by definition, you can tolerate to suffer the peculiaritys and repertoir or either long enough to get any good at it, it's just proof that you aren't deeply committed to or don't prefer one or the other or both strongly enough to be a fellow, hale and hardy in either school.

There are UP nuts and there are NSP nuts, and only the most superficial mechanical or musical connections exist there at all, and almost no philosophical or traditional or fellowshippinal or tribal connection will ever be present. In fact, those who get any good at both are almost invariably just gifted dabblers who also play sixteen other instruments quite well and everyone hates people like that anyway.

So, I'd just learn to play one or the other or give both of them up and save time and money for beer or cars or women or something less frustrating and easier to get good at.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:53 am

djm wrote:Aw, go on. Give it a try. Go on, go on, go on. Sure, you will, you will, you will.

tansy · Post by **tansy** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:16 am

Cynth wrote:
djm wrote:Aw, go on. Give it a try. Go on, go on, go on. Sure, you will, you will, you will.

cynth, you are such a lovely nut! i really enjoy your posts.
it is probably nearing the time for you to get some pipes

best, tansy

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Practice Set No Longer Available to Anyone But Me!

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