Learning Scottish Pipes after Uilleann Pipes

[highland-piper]

Thanks. Im familiar with Fred Morrison

I listened to Fred's CD's more than a few time before I understood that he was playing a different instrument.

[gregorygraham]

Paul, Oh, my goodness! What in the world?! Seriously though, good luck with your new quest.

[pancelticpiper]

Oh, I see, you're going from uilleann pipes to Border pipes, not to the Highland pipes. That's a completely different matter, and you can ignore everything I said about learing the Highland pipes.

But it's true that many leading Border pipers were top-level competitive Highland pipers first, and only after being well-established in the Highland competition circuit switched to Border pipes.

You're not going to sound like those guys unless you steep yourself in the style that they grew up with, the Highland style.

[sean an piobaire]

Thanks Leo (Oleo-Resonator) for the Con-Grats on the Birth of my Grand-Daughter on May 12th !
She is so cute, as all babies are....I am in Love !
This should actually be in the concurrent "GHB in Ireland" thread, but here goes:
Back in 1973, I told Dennis Brooks that I wasn't interested in Marching Bands, having been in these organizations
at 2 different High Schools, in wool Uniforms, playing Clarinet, Tenor Sax, and even a Baritone Sax a few times
(Gosssshhh what a Weight !).
I will remember all my life, Marking Time.... squishing "Tennesee Road Apples" behind the Mounted Sheriffs Posse......
I was also un-interested in the pseudo-militaristic mental postures of SOME Pipe Bands.
Dennis suggested that I avoid the problem by opting-out of the proper Scots style of playing, by using
Irish (Uilleann) Pipe gracing and playing Irish tunes. Some of these being within the nine-note range and others
adapted from Irish Tunes using two octaves.
Of course, some of these adaptations can be very Musical, but others less so.
A few months after this conversation, I was in the presence of Patrick Brosnan of Scartaglen, Co. Kerry.
By way of introduction, I played my various Pipes for him, NSP, GHB, etc. Pat then took up my GHB and
proceeded to give me a rendition of his Scartaglen Pipe Band tune medleys, that featured "Uilleann" gracing and
an altogether more streamline contour to the Tunes, notably without Grips and Throws.
When I asked him about this, later, he said that these movements were great when played with Scots Tunes,
but interfered with the "Flow" of Irish Music.
Pat did play Birls frequently in his Irish Tunes, and when he played Scots Tunes,
they were as "Pointed" as any Scots Piper could wish for....Taccums, Doublings, Throws, Grips, Echo Beats, etc.
Nowadays, we can look to the "Kitchen Pipers" in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia playing their "Fiddle Tunes",
for some examples of a kind of "Streamlined Piping" which had it's own Tradition.
A casual look at the Tunes in the 19th Century Ross Collection gives me the idea of a simpler arrangement
of Grace Notes in "Victorian" Scotland.
More Later, I'm sure !
Sean Folsom

[pancelticpiper]

Very good points Sean, as usual!

It's odd how in the oldest written examples of GHB music it goes both ways.

Many have setting more streamlined, perhaps more fiddle-like or uilleann-like, than standard modern GHB settings, such as the pipe tunes in the Simon Fraser collection.

But then there's Joseph MacDonald in the 18th century, explaining how pipers would play a full palette of piobaireachd movements including crunluaths etc etc in reels, playing reels with far more elaborate ornamentation than would be done nowadays.

Back in the 1980s Rab Wallace recorded a reel in that way, going through a variation built around birls, then crunluaths, then crunluath-a-machs.

[sean an piobaire]

Thanks for this Post Richard !
Again, it was so Good to see You at the Pleasanton Games !
I met Rob Wallace many years ago in Glasgow when he was the Piper
with "The Whistle Binkies". One time, I drove him down to a Folk Festival in Irvine, Scotland
(Yeah, the OTHER Irvine...). Rob was also a Piper with the Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band.
He certainly has had a real career in Scots Piping, that's for sure !
Where can You get the recordings of his Reels with the "Bubbly Notes" ?
It should be "Up There" with P.M. Jimmie MacColl's "March" Pibrochs at March Tempo.
Very few Pipers are able to play all the notes at a fast Tempo, but I was present
at Jimmie's "March to the Pibroch" Concert back in 1976, and I heard him play them,
back-to-back..... something like 9 Pibrochs in a row.
OH.....Back to Practicing !!!
Sean Folsom