tradpipes

Amendment

2009-10-02T22:56:00.002+01:00

The last post has been edited to remove reference to "The Rodonnettes", after some confusion ensued, following the post.

Irish Language Group and the "craic"

2009-09-26T17:11:00.008+01:00

Last night I went down to the Manchester Town Hall to take part in a group photo shoot with some of the Manchester Irish Language Group, which inevitably was a great excuse for a get-together with lovers of the “craic” in a nearby pub, The Briton's Protection shown opposite.

After the photo, my piping buddy, Julia Ní Chonchobhair and I headed down to the “Briton's Protection”, a lovely old city centre pub, where the team had booked an upstairs room and some local Irish musicians, as an opportunity for the group to practise their Irish language skills. It was another opportunity for Jules and I to get our pipes out. Also with us was Frances O’Rourke, a very well known accordian and fiddle player on the local scene. After a couple of pints of Guinness everyone was in the mood and we started up the playing.

Jules and I still have quite limited repetoires but Frances seems to have a huge one, as did the two other musicians that soon arrived, Adele Farrell and Steve Prosol. So the line up was as follows:

Adele Farrell – box accordian
Steve Prosol – bazouki
Frances O’Rourke - fiddle
Julia Ní Choncobhair - Uilleann Pipes
And myself (Terry Kliszcz) – Uilleann Pipes and English Concertina

I’ve seen Adele play before at our NWUP Tionols, with fiddle player Emma Sweeney, and I love her playing which is characterised by much rhythm and syncopation. Since Julia was playing the pipes I took the opportunity to play my newly acquired concertina as much as possible.

The concertina turned out to be the subject of much interest with the other musicians, who all had a go at it. The reason is of course that the Anglo Concertina is the favoured instrument of Traditional Irish musicians, so it’s rare to see the English concertina used. However, I hope I’ve convinced them that you can actual play Irish music on the English concertina, to good effect.

I much admire Adele’s playing - it’s very rhythmic and full-bodied and, to my delight, I found myself blending in with the way she plays and inadvertently playing like she does, or trying to. I was metamorphosising, slowly adopting an “Adele mode” of playing, and I must admit I enjoyed it. I would go so far as to say I learned a lot from just playing along with her. It’s to do with chords, emphasis, accentuating either the first beat of the bar or the second, when one instinctively feels that some syncopation is called for. She’s just a great player.

Steve Prosol showed an amusing aptitude for the concertina, having never touched one before, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he didn’t buy one before the next time we meet. Jules very quickly showed the others how to start playing an instrument she’s never played. She would definitely make a concertina player. Adele and Steve seem to play very well together and they just seem to know every tune one comes up with. Frances’ talents are very well known around Manchester and I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to play along with her in an intimate little session. I’ve recently become well-accustomed to playing along with fellow piper Jules now and I always love it. I’ve also met a lot of friends through Jules (who I love to bits) and the rest of the Irish Language Group.

The night was very enjoyable and I even seemed to have attracted a little fan club, at least one would think so upon hearing Miranda, one of the Irish Language students, chanting “Terry!, Terry!” from the ranks of the listeners, on a plurality of occasions. All this did wonders for my confidence and I had a terrific time. Many thanks to all these musicians and, of course, Eamonn, Patrick, Tom and the other organisers of the group for an all-round, jolly good time.

Manchester Irish Language Festival

2009-09-24T11:21:00.005+01:00

Film Morning 10.30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Cornerhouse

I was honoured to be asked to play the pipes and concertina in the foyer of the Cornerhouse Theatre, on Saturday 19 September, as guests were arriving for the showing of the Irish Language Film "Cré na Cille" followed by post-film discussion and social gathering.

The Manchester Irish Language Group have been very busy of late and their activities have persuaded me to take up Irish Language lesssons once a week. The language itself is intriguing and, to be honest, I quite fancy the idea of introducing myself and the tunes I play at gigs in both Irish and English, much like Paddy Maloney used to do at Cheiftains' concerts. I guess I secretly always wanted to be a Eurovision Song Contest presenter, you know, saying everything in 2 or 3 languages - great fun!

I turned up with the instruments and I was warmly welcomed by Eamonn Coleman and other members of the group and a nice lady called Rachel Hayward, a manager at the Cornerhouse. After a cup of coffee and much hospitality I got the pipes out, quickly tuned up and played a couple of jigs and, to my delight, my efforts were much appreciate by the gathering audience, which included the Lord Mayor Of Manchester, Councillor Alison Firth. She was interested to know a little about the pipes so I had the opportunity, in a photo opp', of telling her what an extraordinary instrument this was and of course that one has to be quite mad to take up the playing as an endeavour.

A good friend of mine, and a language teacher with the Machester Irish Language Group, Julia Ní Choncobhair, also arrived with pipes in hand so we played a few tunes together, and we also, quite ceremoniously it seemed, "piped" the Mayor in and out of the building.

The morning was very enjoyable and I made many new friends, as is commonplace when one is involved with this most hospitable group of Celtic derivatives, the Manchester Irish Crowd.

How's the language going? - well, I've attended three classes so far, so ask me again in about 12 months! In the meantime,

Slán, agus tóg go bog é. (take it easy).

South Wales Tionol

2009-09-14T11:01:00.005+01:00

Well, I've been a bit busy recently, so I've not had much opportunity to post recently. It didn't help having my laptop infected with a virus that did a lot of damage and I had to reinstall windows and all my programs last week. Anyway, it's fixed now so I thought I'd take the opportunity to report on how the SWUP Tionol went.

In short, it was nothing short of great. It was again very well organised and it turned into a veritably joyous weekend of celtic sessions, piping workshops and a terrific concert, in which I was honoured to have the chance to play a couple of tunes with Tiarnan O'Duichinn on stage. Tiarnan was the Tionol's guest piper. I attended his intermediate piping workshop, along with other pipers I have come to know well in Tylorstown. I really enjoy these masterclass sessions with Tiarnan, who has a habit of stimulating one's interest in new tunes and new techniques. My piping enthusiam is always rekindled after meeting up with Tiarnan again. He's also a great bloke. I'm pictured on the far right of the group photo above.

During the day I was tickling around on a Yamaha keyboard, much like my own (the venue was a lovely little village church and the Yamaha is the modern day equivalent of a church organ. Tiarnan heard me playing and seemed to like what I was doing. He came over and invited me to play with him at the evening concert. We chose two tunes, "Si Beag Si Mor" and "Lord Inchiquin". I had played the first one before on the pipes at home but had only ever played the other tune once before on the keyboard. Anyway, I didn't let that stop me. After all I had been invited to play with one of my piping heroes.

We hummed through the tune together a coupple of times and, to be honest, that was the sum total of our rehearsal. Later, as I sat in the audience listening to this great virtuoso piper, it struck me that perhaps I must be mad. Nevertheless the time came for Tiarnan to invite me onto the stage and I sat at the keyboard. He firstly introduced me and then tunes and away we went. I set the Yamaha to its best piano voice and we both improvised our way through the playing. All in all it went very well at least it seemed so judging by the rewarding level of applause we got. I have a suspicion that most of that came from the Manchester gang who accompanied me to South Wales, namely the very talented Emma Sweeney, who played masterfully at the concert, as usual, Emma's mum Maura and Julia, a fellow piper and mate from the NWUP in Manchester. I really enjoyed the experience and I was pleased with our unrehearse gig.

The organiser, Meirion Williams, was kind enough to book me to do a spot with my concertina at next year's event. Incidentally I purchased a new (well better) concertina last week. It's a Lachanal, 48 button English. It's far better in tone, speed and response that the old one and makes for far better playing for me.

The concert was excellent, featuring: Nathan Treadgold, a brilliant solo guitarist, John and Elizabeth Baxter on Scottish pipes and Bodhran, Emma Sweeney on fiddle and piper Tiarnan O'Duichinn (and my good self). The acoustics in the church negated the need for any sound system and the audience were quiet, attentive and appreciative - perfect!

In Tylorstown, there was a session at the local rugby club on the Friday night, more or less as soon as we arrived, led by Tiarnan and another at the local pub on the Saturday night after the concert. The celebrated, local, male voice choir was in attendance to delight us with their lovely, deep harmonic tones, and I even had the chance to informally accompany a choir member on his Balalaika, whilst the choir sang a Russian folk song.

Meirion and his better half, Chris, we very welcoming hosts, as were everyone we met and, although it's a long way to go for a Tionol, it's well worth it. Emma has also said she will go again next year. Emma is one of my favourite Irish Musicians, by the way. She has a great depth of playing and a very deep and mature understanding of the music. All credit is also to student piper, Julia, who simply cannot pass up any opportunity to get her pipes out. She started off many a tune at the sessions and, along with the other girls, was great company for me thoroughout the event. Her piping is really coming on and I think Julia rocks!

Alan Burton was also teaching pipes and I attended his very interesting lesson as well. Alan Moller took the reed-making classes.

This Tionol has become an important annual event in my and many others' piping calendar. Despite the travelling distance and the expense of a full weekend venture outside familiar counties, it's one worth doing. Well done to Mei, Chris and all the others who played a part in its organisation. For more information about the SWUP group and this Tionol go to their website at: http://www.swalespipers.com/

The Blackbird Hornpipe

2009-06-20T15:32:00.004+01:00

This is a version best represented by Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh on their CD entitled "Kitty Lie Over". Here I'm playing it on one track on concertina, having recorded it on another track on accordian and a pipes drone.

The interesting thing I find about these hornpipes is the rhythm. It's always a quandry, do you play it straight, like a reel, perhaps with a feeling of the odd dotted quaver and semiquaver, which many do, or do you play it more rhythmically, as a hornpipe is really meant to be played and would be played in other disciplines, ie so you could actually dance the hornpipe to it. I play it both ways depending on who I'm playing it with. I'm playing quite slowly here until I've learnt to play it properly on the pipes and then I'll record that version as well.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/blackbird.mp3

Anji

2009-05-30T10:32:00.005+01:00

Just digressing from Pipes and concertina for a while, here's a clip of me playing "Anji", the jazz/blues classic from Davy Graham, on my folk guitar.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/anji.mp3

bfn

New Tune

2009-05-23T13:52:00.002+01:00

I was in a jolly mood today and ended up composing a little tune (hornpipe-ish). I didn't know what to call it but since I had in mind that Brian McNamara and his wife recently welcomed a new daughter into their family I thought I'd name it after her, in his honour. So here is "Róisín".

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/roisin.mp3

It's on accordian and concertina.

Recordings

2009-05-17T09:21:00.018+01:00

Now that I have all this amplifying equipment it’s time I got down to doing a few recordings of me actually playing (might be commercial suicide, but what the hell!). So here are 4 mp3 files:

"Crucan na bpaiste"

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/Cruchan%20Na%20Bpaiste_2.mp3

“Crucan na bpaiste” means burial place of the children. The piece is taken from a song written by Brendan Graham for a character is his novel “The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night” and can be heard in the Transatlantic sessions in which Karen Mattheson sings the song version and Ronan Browne plays the pipes towards the end. It’s a very inspiring piece of playing. In my MP3 clip, I play the main part on my Uilleann Pipes and all the other accompanying parts are arranged and played by me on the Yamaha keyboard. These include piano, flute and harp.

"As Time Goes By"

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/as%20time%20goes%20by.mp3

OK, so it’s not Irish Trad, but it serves to demonstrate my keyboard skills and yet another facet to my extensive character, lol, (jack of all trades and master of none, I hear you say!)

The clip of “As Time Goes By" is my arrangement of the pop standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It has been recorded by many great names including Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. I play a piano voice on the Yamaha Keyboard with some appropriate chords, arranged by me, to allow the Yamaha to generate a suitable, jazz-backing track.

"The Pipers' Picnic"

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/pipers%20picnic.mp3

“The Pipers' Picnic” is a very old Irish jig which I learnt from the playing of Brian McNamara, a great piper with a unique style. In my clip I play the lead on the pipes, along with a harp accompaniment, which I played on the Yamaha keyboard.

"Mrs Crotty's" & "The Humours of Tullycrine" Hornpipes

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/19/2447726/Mrs_Crottys.mp3

These are tunes I learnt from Brian McNamara's CD, "Fort of the Jewels". They're played here on the concertina and accordian.

Bye for now.

New Equipment

2009-05-02T11:04:00.008+01:00

I’ve gone out and bought some amplification gear for doing gigs now, with the emphasis on ease of transportation, simplicity of set-up and general effectiveness for different instruments. Here’s what I have:

Amplifier

Freshman AC60R acoustic amplifier (60w) with 2 x 8” built in speakers, , 2 channels + microphone inputs chorus and reverb effects, line out and some effects inputs outputs. The box is very portable.

Microphone

AKG C 1000S condenser microphone, battery or phantom powered, wide range pick-up.

Ancilliaries

In addition I have all the necessary cables and a microphone stand, etc plus a Fishman acoustic pickup for my folk guitar.

Now the great thing about this set-up is that I can do all the things I want to do with just the one amp and microphone. For singing with the guitar I use the mic and guitar pickup. For the keyboard I take a jack cable directly from the keyboard to channel 1 input on the amp and, of course, I could still use the mic if I thought I could sing and play the keboard at the same time. For the pipes, the one microphone works very well in terms of picking up both the drones and the chanter and I don’t have to be very near to the mic or worry about moving around a little.

The amplifier has two internal anti-feedback devices and so feedback doesn’t seem to be any sort of a real problem, thankfully.

I also can take the output signal from the amp directly into my PC or laptop and record stuff as MP3 files. It works a treat. There are adapters available to plug in a mono standard jack and the other end is a stereo 3.5 mm jack for the microphone input socket in the PC and similarly on the other side, ie output from the PC to the amp. So at long last I should be able to do some decent recordings once I’ve got use to the volume and tone balancing and all that.

I also have a new web site for the music which will be published on the web any day now to http://www.janglesmusic.co.uk/. I’ll put a link to it on the opening blog page as well.

That’s all for now.

Spring bindings

2009-04-04T11:15:00.005+01:00

As the seasons change the pipes necessitate some maintenance work. When I brought my Robert’s set back from Spain, where is was made, the changes in temperature and humidity here in the UK meant that virtually every binding had to be redone. The pipes were literally falling apart at the joints. Now, after the harshest winter for a few years and the ravages of my central heating system, a little more work has to be done. Of course, as we all know, this is par for the course with Uilleann Pipes.

The reeds themselves are OK. The chanter reed is pretty stable and the synthetic drone reeds from Ezeedrone never seem to change once set up. I'm glad to see many of the pipers at NWUP using them now. The regulator reeds need renewing, to be frank, but I’m not too bothered about them yet. I’m still working on my timing and trying to improve my bag control when playing with the drones.

Speaking of timing, I don’t know what other student pipers find but I have not found it easy to tap my foot whilst playing. It’s something I’ve had to actually work on. Others might find this a strange affliction. However, the leg has an uncanny knack of being able to subconsciously keep good time, even when ther hands, elbows and occasionally gurning mouth are all over the place, so it’s worth doing. All the good pipers I’ve seen tap their foot as they play, in order to help them keep time. At first, as soon as I started to tap my foot my playing went to pieces. This is all to do with concentration. I was having to concentrate so much on playing, I mean actually fingering and controlling the supply of air to the contraption, that yet another concentration task, ie tapping my foot, seemed a multi-task too far. Now, after a lot of perseverance, I can do it, and that’s because I am more relaxed in actually playing. Of course, once you’ve started this foot-tapping thing, you can’t stop, and I’ve been accused of making far too much noise with my foot on wooden floors. To those who accuse, (non-pipers, I mean), I say “You ought to try it”.

The pipes and the concertina, and indeed tin whilst, continue to go hand in hand. Very often, when learning a new tune, I learn it on the concertina first and once I know the ‘doh-rey-mee’s’ it’s quite easy to translate that to the pipes and, afterwards, work on ornamentation.
One thing’s for sure, this pursuit (piping) has no foreseeable conclusion. I know I’m going to still be learning until either I, or my bag, runs out of breath, for the final time. I hope the pipes are on my knee when I go and I hope it’s a long way off! This is good fun.

The pic, by the way, is of Elly May, from 'The Clampetts', I think I need to teach her how to hold the pipes, don't you, although that wouldn't do much for my concentration. I just included that to brighten up my post a little.

That's all for now.

The Morning Thrush - reel

2009-03-19T20:17:00.004Z

At the moment I’m working on this reel. I learnt it a little while ago, after watching one of my heros, Mick O’Brien, playing it on a C set. I found it inspiring, its pace and energy and, of course, it’s perfection in terms of timing. If you can listen to this and not tap your foot there’s something wrong with you. I reckoned that one could play this tune anywhere and impress an audience. This time around, I’m trying to improve how I play it, and comparing how another great piper, Brian McNamara treats it.

The Morning Thrush is a great example of how Irish music is not static, not fixed, not over-disciplined and not unnecessarily rigid. Having been written by Tom Ennis (father of the famous Seamus), it’s become something of a standard but, as you might expect, everyone plays it slightly differently, as indeed they are entitled to do in this ‘genre’ (don’t you just hate that word? Please let me know it there is another suitable one).

I’ve also listened to David Lim playing it and Steve Turner, both very accomplished pipers and recently I listened to myself, having recorded it on my laptop with my cheap microphone and decided it needed work.

I found the notation for this tune on http://www.thesession.org/ but it seemed a bit different (simpler) from the ones played by MO’B and BMcN. Belfast piper, Cormac O’Briain, once told me that two pipers (Mick O’Brien and Liam O’Flynn) had perfect timing and when you listen to Mick O’Brien’s version of The Morning Thrush, you sort of know what he means. I can watch it over and over again and each time it encourages me to pick up the pipes. It’s accurate, fast and interesting, containing many points at which Mick stops off the chanter to great effect and plays 'on-the-button' D crans, which are the envy of pipers like myself.

Brian McNamara plays it a little slower, but not much, and in typical McNamara style, it's more ornamented, with lots of triplets, cuts, pops and clicks – quite different from Mick’s version. Brian’s playing often sounds like the chanter reed is almost on the edge of breaking down, but not quite, and this gives it a bright, harmonic quality, as if certain notes briefly go off to visit a higher octave and then come back before you’ve barely realised it. I find that fascinating. So I always end up with the usual quandary. Which style of playing should I adopt? I think I always settle on something in between.

Incidentally, Brian provides notation for his version which is featured on his CD “A Piper’s Dream”, here: http://cranfordpub.com/tunes/Irish/MorningThrush.htm and there is an MP3 clip from the recording.

Mick O’Brien can be seen on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&v=6n9VVZS6TLY&gl=GB

Seamus Ennis plays his father’s composition here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLe9etQ0iwQ

Notice the subtle difference in rhythm in Ennis’ version.

For up and coming student pipers, these clips are must-be-listened-to examples of inspiration. depending on circumstances, some of the youtube clips featuring this reel may appear in my youtube bar at the bottom right of the page.

Boys on the Blue Hill Hornpipe

2009-02-18T10:42:00.003Z

Here's a well known hornpipe I play on the pipes. I've done a quick recording of it on my D whistle. I think I might defer recording it on the pipes until I get a better microphone.

http://freefilehosting.net/download/458c3

I tend to do these things very quickly. I'm not one for having multiple attempts at it, trying to get a really good recording. I just tend to switch on the recorder, pick up the instrument and do it in one take. When I get better set up for recording (and when I get better at playing), I might devote a bit more attention to the quality of the recording itself.

This tune was learnt from this video on youtube, featuring Matt Malloy and James Galway playing the hornpipe in two different styles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbM-RQeP_4Y. This is highly recommended watching.

Audio of me playing

2009-02-11T18:42:00.005Z

Well I guess it's about time. Here is an mp3 file of me playing a slow air called "The Bright Lady", on my Robert's set and the Lim chanter. The recording was made with a very cheap microphone (£6 from PC world). I keep threatening to set up the spare bedroom as a little studio/music room for these purposes - one day.

In the meantime I hope it doesn't sound too bad

http://freefilehosting.net/download/4548a

I might be persuaded to do some more of these if I get a positive feedback.

Tunes & Videos

2009-01-27T23:22:00.002Z

I came across this whilst browsing today and thought I would like to share it. It's great collection of tunes and videos from the Tionols of the Great Northern Irish Pipers Club of Minnesota. Some well known, celebrated pipers are featured:

http://gnipc.org/tunes/tunes.html

Have fun.

January's NWUP meeting

2009-01-23T17:10:00.005Z

Wednesday 21 January saw the monthly meeting of the North West Uilleann Pipers (NWUP) in Manchester.

The meeting was well attended this month and David Lim was there as usual to give the beginners’ lessons. Jim Horan was there to general demonstrate how it should be done (great piper is Jim). Most of the regulars turned up and this time we gathered in a smaller and more intimate room upstairs in the club, only because the room was actually double booked. At our meetings, everyone gets the chance to play for the others, regardless of their personal level of achievement. Brand new starters played their starter tunes and entertained a very appreciative group of more experienced players. This always makes the beginners very enthusiastic and they generally go away feeling quite chuffed with their progress.

Spencer, Terry and Aimy are welcome as the newest recruits. We also have Mike McGoldrick's young cousin now and I'm embarrassed to say I still don't know her name but as soon as I learn it, I will make a further mention of her. She's a great whistle player so she should have a good start. Certainly the repertoire will be there and she will have been in great company with Mike MGoldrick.

Jonathan has his Robert's set playing well and generally speaking everyone seems to be playing decent chanters now. Isabel, I think our youngest player, is flying - developing her repertoire and technique with some speed.

I always try to have a new tune or two ready for each meeting. This time I played “O’Donnell’s return” (now that I’ve learned it properly) and the “Fermoy Lassies”, which isn't perfect yet. Next time, I will have ready the “Killvil Jig” and “Have a drink with me”, both of which are straightforward but nonetheless lovely tunes which I got off a Mary McNamara CD, played on concertina.

Here's The Killavil Jig on D whistle: http://freefilehosting.net/download/44b5k

I was glad to see that I influence players in my own little way. I seem to have infected everyone with “The Pipers Picnic”, a tune I introduced last month and people seem to have picked it up.

For more information about the NWUP, go to: http://www.nwup.org/. All Uilleann pipers are welcome and we have a loan scheme for beginners who want to learn the pipes.

That's all for now folks.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T21:32:00.003Z

Well it's Christmas Eve 2008 and I'd like to wish a very merry Christmas to everyone who has followed this blog and not been bored to death by it. It's been great fun and I fully intend to provide followers with more, similarly boring content about Irish piping in months and years to come.

Also I'd like to take the opportunity of wishing a Merry Christmas also to all those who have influenced my piping one way or the other, especially the NWUP beginners who agreed to let me co-ordinate their attendances at the monthly meetings; Jules, Isabel, Sean, Jonathan, Jessica, Richard, Jayne and Paul. Many have gone on to make great progress with their piping.

Special greetings also to Jim Horan, David Lim and Mike Spillane, organisers of NWUP, Cameron Edgar, one of my teachers early on and my mate Meirion Williams from South Wales, and all the great pipers I've met; Mike McGoldrick, Brian McNamara, David Power, Gay McKeon, Mick Coyne, Tiarnan O'Duinnchin and Mick O'Brien to name a few.

Seasons greetings also to Chris Bayley, Alan Burton, Charles Roberts and Allan Moller,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all and a happy Ukrainian Xmas on 7 January.

If I've missed anyone, perhaps due to excess libation this merry night, just give us a shout and I'll sort it.

NWUP December 2008 Tionól

2008-12-17T17:02:00.003Z

The December 2008 Tionól of the NWUP was a success. The event was held at its usual duo of venues, the Manchester Town Hall for the workshops and gatherings during the day, and St Catherine’s Social Club in South Manchester for the evening concert. Attendees came from far and wide to take part, especially Meirion Williams, the now-famous organiser of the South Wales Uilleann Pipers Tionol held this year. Mei has only been playing for about a year and his rate of progress is very admirable.

Guest piper Tiarnán O’Duinnchinn (shown left) held piping workshops for both beginners and intermediate/advanced piping student and Eamonn Curran held a fine all-day reed-making workshop, which was particularly well attended. Many commented on his reed-making techniques being somewhat different from others and all found it very interesting. After the workshops, Tiarnán treated us to a recital, in the late afternoon.

Tiarnán, who by profession is an Irish language teacher and a hero of the Armagh Pipers’ Club, visited us about two years ago, when I attended his beginner’s workshop. This time I took part in the intermediate session. Some very good pipers joined me in an interesting lesson, during which we learnt the 7 part hornpipe “Johnny Cope”. I’ve heard this tune played by both Tiarnán and Brian McNamara and, although not particularly difficult in terms of technique, it is lengthy and there’s a lot of melody to remember. However it is a great piping tune and a must for my repertoire. I’ve been practising it hard since the Tionól. Tiarnán also taught us “The Lady’s Cup of Tea”.

The Town Hall itself is a magnificent piece of architecture and these days we always seem to be allocated the massive Council Chamber itself and the adjoining and huge anteroom. It is definitely overkill, and we only occupy small corners of the vast rooms, but the acoustics are terrific and the building offers a warm and welcoming shelter from the awful December weather..

The evening concert was particularly good. Performers included, that fine celebrated young fiddle player Emma Sweeney, whose music I absolutely love, accompanied by friends Adele Farrell, on box, and Paul Callick, on Guitar. There was also Matt Fahey, a well known local artist, singing and playing guitar and, of course, Tiarnán as the main event. Tiarnán also invited Eamonn Curran to join him in a couple of excellent pipe duets on stage towards the end. I particularly liked the final ensemble of all the artists, including Grace Kelly, on whistle, all playing a stomping set together in perfect time.

A good time was had by all, evidenced by the fact that no-one seemed to want to go home. There were congratulations and handshakes all round and much of the ‘craic’ to be enjoyed. All in all, a very good Tionól. Congratulations to all involved in organising the event, particularly David Lim, Mike Spillane, and Jim and Joan Horan, and a special thank you to all the artists.

NWUP 2008 Tionól

2008-12-07T14:06:00.002Z

It’s time to look forward to our NWUP Manchester 2008 Tionól, with guest piper Tiarnán O’Duinnchinn, on 13th December.

Tiarnán has visited us before and ran excellent workshops and treated us to a fine performance of his unique virtuoso style. I remember all of us were astonished at how he easy he makes piping look. We’ve also got reed- making workshops with Eamonn Curran. It’s going to be a real treat.

I’m looking forward to showing off my new David Lim chanter, which is performing extremely well. I’ve been getting back to proper practice, after bit of a relapse, and I’ve learn a couple of new tunes recently:

“The Piper’s Picnic”, courtesy of Brian McNamara and Gráinne Hambley, which can be seen and heard here: http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_225_4_brian_mcnamara_pipes_and_grainne_hambly_harp/

and

“O Donnell’s Return” here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BZhRrTg5Ywg

Excellent tunes, not too difficult, and they sound good on the pipes.

I’ve also learned to play them both on tin whistle and concertina

I’m thinking on selling my Chris Bailey set now, so if there are any blog-readers interested, you can have first crack – email me if you want details.
That’s all for now

The 1st South Wales Tionól

2008-10-26T20:46:00.004Z

We’ll I’m back from my weekend visit to the 1st Tionól of the South Wales Uilleann Pipers, and what a success. Multitudinous congratulations are due to Meirion Williams and friends for a truly well-organised event. It was a fair trek for me down to Tylorstown (not far from Pontypridd), but it was well worth well.

The venue was the Holy Trinity Church, in Tylorstown, which is celebrating its 120th birthday and the Tionól served very much to augment the occasion. Reed making workshops, run by the famous Alan Burton, and general gatherings at the back of the church coincided with piping workshops given by Alan Moller and Cormác Ó Bríaín. One can imagine the acoustics in such a great room. I must admit I’ve always wanted to play in a church. It seemed that everyone had a good time and agreed it was a great day.

Mei organised everything to great effect: the venue, the guest pipers and reed makers, the supporting performers, the food, the great session at the local pub in the evening and even transport for those who needed it here and there. This was indeed a first Tionól to be proud of. The evening concert featured, of course, guest piper Cormác Ó Bríaín, supported by other musicians, singers and pipers, all treating us to a wide range of celtic music.

For my part I met many a good piper, and made some new friends. I learned a great deal from playing tunes with them and of course by attending Cormac’s advanced piping workshop. Cormac inspired me to squeeze much more out of my F and G rolls, off the knee, and the quintessential C natural note, whilst working on two tunes with us, The Road to Lisdoonvarna and The Girl With The Big House. Cormac (or Buzz, as he likes to be called) is a very dynamic and exciting player from Belfast who, frankly, just loves the job and greatly relishes the session and the ‘craic’. He and his talented piping mate, Steve, led the Irish music components of the session, which also heavily featured the local male voice choir, who never failed to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with their skilful and gorgeous harmonies.

My new Roberts set attracted a lot of attention, with its eye-catching Rosewood and brass combination. Alan Moller made a good reed for the Roberts chanter on the day and turned out to be a great session companion in the pub. He also ran an good informal discussion and playing workshop with advanced players, which gave participants the chance to show off how they tackle various bits of ornamentation. Many reported having solved their reed problems thanks to both Alan Burton and Alan Moller.

The star of the show for me was my Lim chanter. Many commented on the quality of the sound it produced and Cormac seemed particularly impressed. I must admit it is playing very well. It is crisp and responsive and has a good level of volume, very much noticeable in the evening session, where I managed to join in, and often start, many a good tune. Cormac also congratulated me on my own playing, which naturally did wonders for my ego.

I’m going to try and get hold of a copy of the group photo and add it to this post in due course. So well done again to the SWUP group and thanks to Meirion for being an excellent host. Thanks also to the girl who kissed me goodnight (whoever she was).

Session at Gawsworth

2008-10-11T12:43:00.003+01:00

Last night, Friday, I went for the first time to a session at the Harrington Arms, Gawsworth, near Macclesfield. A most enjoyable evening.

This is one of those sessions that feature a variety of music types. Most strongly represented are traditional Irish and English music. There are some seriously good musicians there and attendance seems to vary between half a dozen and over 20. I'd been invited to go by a couple of fellow pipers so Uilleann piping was well represented last night. I was in very good company - guitarists, mandolinists, concertina players, bodrhans, box players, tin whistle players. Irish traditional music was very well lead by a trio of a flute player a fiddler and a bodhran player.

As usual, there many tunes I didn't know, but also many I did, and I was able to join in regularly both on the pipes and on the concertina. The room was small and things were a little cramped but that gave it a friendly feel and the atmosphere was absolutely great. It takes me over an hour to get there, but it's well worth well. A very good session.

The pub itself is charming, the landlord is welcoming and the locals are very friendly. This, along with the music, reminds us of what a proper English pub should be like. Oh, and the Guinness was very good. I haven't tried the food yet, but it certainly looked good. I don't want to sound like a professional pub reviewer, but I have to say that I liked this place.

I think frequenting this session will help me tremendously in my Uilleann journey, both in terms of expanding my repertoire and generally learning to play well with other musicians.

For anyone wishing to look it up, you'll find much about the pub on Google, postcode SK11 9RR.

South Wales Tionol

2008-10-07T12:30:00.006+01:00

Just a reminder that the 1st South Wales Tionol is imminent. This relatively new band of piping enthusiasts is suffering from Obsessive Piping Syndrome, just as much as the rest of us, and as such, they need our support. So if you can get down there, I'll see you there. Here are the details in brief:

The first ever Tionól will be held on 0ctober 25th at Holy Trinity Church , Tylorstown. Cormác Ó Bríaín from West Belfast will be instructing the piping classes along with Alan Moller. Alan Burton will be taking the reed making class. The tionól will start at 10am and finish at approx 4pm. There will also be a concert of celtic music at the same location starting at 7.30pm.

Contact meirion99uk@yahoo.co.uk for full details.

Progress with the Lim chanter

2008-10-07T12:09:00.004+01:00

Recently I've had plenty of time to play in the reed in this chanter and I've gingerly sanded it down a little. This is what I did with the Burton reed in my Bayley chanter and it worked out quite well. Of course I've got to be very careful not to over do it. I expect this "playing-in" and "sanding" process to happen over 3 months.

I've started to learn a couple of slow airs and this is an indication of how confident I am about getting a good sound out of this chanter. The airs are:

Fort of the jewels ( Dun Na Sead) and
The Bright Lady

both taken from the playing of Brian McNamara.

I'm also getting used to the different hole spacings, which I always find a problem. Maybe it's a function of the age of my fingers!

I'm looking forward to the next NWUP meeting in manchester on 29 October when we should learn details of the next planned Manchester Tionol.

That's all for now.

New David Lim Chanter

2008-09-18T11:18:00.005+01:00

Last night (Wednesday 17 Sep 2008) we held our NWUP monthly meeting and I was very glad to take delivery of my new chanter. I now have three D chanters and I have to say this is the best of them all. Made of ebony and brass with artificial ivory mounts and two keys, it is roughly based on a Williams design. It is a dream to play and sounds very nice indeed. The cost was £585. Having played quite a few chanters now I would have to say that this is a very good result.

It's always the case the David pays great attention to detail in all his instrument making and it shows in this case in that the chanter is perfectly in tune, well reeded by Alan Burton, and is an absolute pleasure to play. It "feels" right as soon as you pick it up and I particularly like it's voicing characteristics. It is very easy to apply vibrato and voicing effects via alternative fingering and off-the-knee playing and overall it is responsive and lively. It also has great volume but the tone is not piercing or shrill. In fact I would say it is a very pleasing uilleann pipe sound. Many of the group tried out the chanter last night and all the comments were very positive. I paid particular attention to listening to the tone whilst others were playing it, because I find that chanters always sound a little different when they are on someone elses knee. It also seemed to sound very nice with my Robert's drones.

The interesting thing about this particular issue of the Lim chanters is that Alan Burton, having reeded many of David's instruments now, changed the reed design this time in order for the reeds to better suit David's work. I think it has a slightly reduced overall staple volume. Considering that this is a brand new reed it is extremely easy to blow and won't need much in the way of adjustment as time goes on.

The only difficulty I have at the moment, and this is a very personal thing, is that the hole spacings are slightly different from my Bayley chanter and it's a bit more of a stretch for my little finger to reach the bottom hole but I'll soon get used to that.

If anyone is wondering if a Lim chanter is a good investment I would have to join the now-numerous people, who either own or have played one, in a chorus of "definitely yes".

I'll post a pic as soon as I've charged up my camera battery. Many thanks to David Lim for this splendid piece instrument making.

Reeded Roberts chanter back

2008-07-28T08:52:00.003+01:00

Well the Roberts’ chanter has come back from Alan Burton, who reported that he had some difficulties reeding it up. He apparently had to make a special staple for the reed, slightly shorter and with a different taper, in order to get the thing in tune. He said that this was fairly typical of what he found previously with Roberts’ chanters. Anyway I tried it out and I found that it was much improved but still didn’t have the responsiveness of my other chanter. It sort of plays OK though and, at the NWUP meeting last week, many experienced pipers had the opportunity to try it out. Everyone said it just lacked a bit of zip. The C and C# are way too sharp, according to both my ear and my Korg CA-30 tuning meter, so I’ll see to that myself and then play the reed in over a period of time and see how it goes. If my other Burton reed is anything to go by, it’ll take weeks to settle down. The chanter plays OK but truthfully it doesn’t set me on fire and it won’t be my preferred chanter. So I guess I’m slightly disappointed but I don’t think I’m going to get much further with it.

I also will soon take delivery of my David Lim chanter. That's the one pictured above. At the last NWUP meeting David brought it in to show me before it was reeded. It looks superb. I tried it out with David’s own reed and immediately found it to be lively, responsive, of good tone and perfectly in tune. You can tell instinctively when something is right, can’t you? I’m contemplating asking David to make me a chanter of the same rose wood as my new set. I think then I would have a very special set of pipes. Of course, I’d have to wait a few months.

My new reed - Burton style

2008-07-07T13:54:00.009+01:00

Well, what have I been doing since Saturday, having attended Alan's reed-making workshop? Well, adjusting the reed I made (shown here) and playing it in - that's what.

The workshop was attended by a few of our members at NWUP. The object was to go through the whole process of making a D chanter reed from start to finish. I found it very interesting. By the time we got as far as trying to get a sound of the reeds I was actually a bit dissapointed with mine. It wasn't so much "crowing" as "croaking", as though gasping through Asphyxiation. However, I left the thing until this morning and then had a fresh look at it. It seemed to have settle down and I began patiently sorting it out. I made a new bridle for it first. The one I made on Saturday was pathetic (I've seen a few like that). The new one fitted well and seemed stable, not too loose and not to tight.

I then remembered what Alan had said about patience being a virtue when reed making. Of course this is the reason why many don't make their own reeds - it's a question of dedicating time and patience to the whole process and sometimes it's hard to justify the time when we all have such busy lives. I began to play and sand, play and sand, very gingerly and patiently and slowly the thing began to "crow" properly. I inserted the alien looking beast into my chanter and, gadzooks, it sounded OK. A little more adjustment here and there and I soon began to think this might actually play well. After about an hour it sounded quite well, in tune, generally, and toneful. It's now at the stage where I need to improve a slightly unstable back D and make it a little easier to blow. I tell you what though, this is going to be a good reed after all and I'm dead chuffed!

I do now think it's worth me having another go and, provided I stick to Alan's methodology, which makes a lot of sense, I think my reeds could be good. The important things I picked up on were accuracy and uniformity in the reed and, of course, patience. The trickiest part was making and shaping the tails, and the shoulders a little further up, so that, when binding the reed to the staple, the shoulders and edges properly closed up. At my first attempt they did not and the reed was leaky. Alan suggested I waited 10 minutes, then untied the reed and tied it again. It worked.

I would take this opportunity to thank Alan very much. There's something to be said for a reed-maker who is so prepared to teach people how to make reeds as well as he can. In my book the star maker of the day was young teenager, Jessica, who seemed to get the best initial result. Everyone had an enjoyable experience, both beginners and the experienced alike - it was well worthwhile. David Lim provided the ideal location, his kitchen table - perfect. He has instruments all over the place at home. It's like being in the best music shop you know.

Alan will still have my Roberts Chanter for a few days more but he's reeded a lot of Robert's stuff in the past and, having tried a few reeds in it, reports that he sees no particular problems.

Well that's all for now. Onwards and upwards

Reed Making with Burton

2008-07-04T22:48:00.004+01:00

I've said a lot in the past about not bothering with reed making, prefering instead to use the time to practice. However, I'm taking the plunge and attending one of Alan Burton's workshops in Manchester tomorrow, Saturday 5th July. After all, I've now got a full set with a total of 8 pipes and reeds have suddenly become a significant issue.

I'm certainly happy with my drone reeds and, as previously said, my chanter is now in the hands of Alan Burton, who is presently making a good reed for it (I hope). I'm under no illusions that I'm unlikely to make a successful chanter reed on the first attempt tomorrow. I do already know quite a bit about adjusting a reed though - having had a degree of success in this endeavour with my Bayley chanter and I'm assuming that the regulator reeds are like chanter reeds but with less exacting requirements. I hope to gain a lot from the workshop tomorrow. What I really want to learn about is why is Alan so good at this? What exactly distinguishes him from most of us? What is his strategy, when it comes to reed-making. It is going to be interesting.

Anything I learn tomorrow will reported here the day after but don't be surprised if I get 99% of the way to making a great reed and then scrape the little rascal just that little bit too much and screw it up completely. Pipes eh, who'd bother with them?

South Wales Uilleann Pipers & Tionól

2008-07-04T19:29:00.004+01:00

I'm very keen to see new piping groups popping up and one that I have some connection to now is the newly formed South Wales Uilleann pipers group. Now I know this is quite a distance from Rochdale, centre of the universe, where I live, but I'm going to go down to South Wales in October to have a look at them when they plan to hold their first Tionól. They seem to be a very enthusiastic bunch and, having inaugurated themselves now, they are hoping to meet monthly, very much as we do at NWUP in Manchester. The best of luck to them. So if you're within reach of them, pop along and play a few celebratory tunes with them.

Here are the details of their first Pipers' Gathering, sent to me by Meirion Williams, one of the organisers.

Ist Annual Tionól
on
October 25th at Holy Trinity Church tylorstown

We are proud to be holding our first ever tionól on 0ctober 25th at holy trinity church , tylorstown. Cormác Ó Bríaín from West Belfast will be instructing the piping classes along with Alan Moller. Alan Burton will be taking the reed making class. The tionól will start at 10am and finish at approx 4pm. There will also be a concert of celtic music at the same location starting at 7.30pm.

For further info ring 07809423527 or email meirion99uk@yahoo.co.uk

NWUP June Meeting

2008-06-27T16:29:00.002+01:00

This wednesday's meeting was really enjoyable. As you can imagine, I spent a fair amount of time showing people the new Roberts set. All seemed suitably impressed with it, albeit it wasn't possible to properly demonstrate the chanter. Jim Horan and Mike Spillane had a good play on the new chanter, using their own reeds. They certainly make it sound better than I do. Tomorrow, the Robert's chanter is off to Alan Burton for a new reed.

I would like to commend all the beginners in the group for the tremendous progress they've made. Their repetoires are increasing and they are all sounding very musical indeed. I was especially impressed this time. We have a quite a few female newbie pipers now and I must say they are tremendously dedicated. We had a couple of new attendees who seemed to bring a new perspective to the tune list usually played. Thanks to Simon and his mate (sorry, never got his name, but I'll make a point of finding out).

Many thanks to Jonathan for having my fiddle sorted out for me (not that I'm going to have much time to devote to it, now I have my new pipes. The reedmaking session with Alan Burton is coming up and that should be interesting. We're then off, the day after, to see the fabulous Eliot Grasso playing a local gig. He plays a tune called "Bonnie Annie" - a great reel which can be found on the NPU website under the video downloads section.

That's all for now.

Synthetic Drone Reeds

2008-06-21T18:52:00.006+01:00

Well, the Pipedreams Drone reeds are in and I must say they are working wonderfully, as predicted. This is the second set I've had. In the Bayley set, the tenor drone reed wasn't altogether happy, which is to do with the diameter of the housing in which the reed itself sits in the stock. Apparently if there isn't enough room around the reed for air flow then some instability and pitch variation can result. In the new Robert's set there seems to be no such problem. It took about 30 minutes to fit and setup the 3 reeds and they are as sweet sounding and as stable as you could possibly be happy with. I ordered then on Tuesday and received them on Wednesday. That's pretty good service.

As far as the chanter's concerned, the reed supplied did not survive the move from hot dry Spain to temperate, humid Rochdale (centre of the universe). So it's definitely a Burton reed for me. In the meantime, Cameron Edgar kindly brought his own Roberts D set to Mi Casa and successfully played my Roberts chanter using his reed. I know the guys at NWUP in Manchester are anxious to see and hear the new set, but until I get a Burton reed, they won't be able to hear the new chanter. However, if they're not thrilled by the rest of the set, next Wednesday at the June meeting, I'll eat my popping strap.

My New Roberts Set

2008-06-16T16:42:00.007+01:00

Well, I'm back from Spain with my new set and a few pictures of the beauty are on this page. Cameron Edgar and I spent part of the week-end working on some minor mods with Charles Roberts in his finca in a nice little village in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I must say that the conditions there (hot and dry) were quite unkind to the reeds and it was difficult to properly assess the playing potential of the pipes. The workmanship is undoubtedly superb and, from an engineering point of view, it's difficult to fault the set at all. In terms of playing I'm convinced that I'm only going to be satisfied once I have an Alan Burton chanter reed and synthetic drone reeds from Pipedreamsreeds.com.

The reeds supplied are not performing well at the moment and I don't want to waste any time, so out they come. I should be newly reeded up fairly soon so I'll post the results then. In the meantime, Cameron and I have tested everything in Spain and the chanter has been tuned up, with the odd bit of hole undercutting and some hole reducing at the leading edge- it's just a question of having good reeds now before I delight my neigbours with a little recital, after considerable practice, I suspect. If I can organise some sort of recording facility at home, I'll post some mp3s in future posts.

The set is made with Tulip Rosewood, which is a beautiful and unsual wood and brass which goes well with the colour of the wood. It has 4 drones, the standard 3 plus an 'A' drone, which is tuneable down to G, I hope. I've not had a chance to experiment with this yet so it remains to be seen just how much use it will get. The chanter has the usual 4 keys and a chanter-top stop key.

Interestingly, and rather pleasingly, Charles has done a great deal of careful work making the set as light as possible. This is not something I particularly asked him to do but I recall mentioning at some point that I had found other full sets rather heavy. So he's obviously taken it upon himself to get the weight down for me. So the stock is reduced in size, as far as possible, and other measures have been taken to reduce weight. Even the base drone bend does not have the usual bar joining the two parallel pipes, but there have been no adverse effects on strength or robustness. I'm very pleased with this. The pipes sit very comfortably with me, even though I've never played a full set before and I don't need a shoulder strap. I don't even have to break and reset my right wrist to avoid catching the regulator keys when playing the chanter, a bit of orthopaedic adjustment I was not looking forward to. The bellows are big and of more than adequate capacity, although I've had to reset the non-return valve in position to get it to work properly now I'm home. The feed pipe between bag and bellows is just the right length. The drone switch moves easily and is long enough to make it very easy to operate. All the keys have been hand made and really do look nice. The chanter has 4 keys, a wooden reed cap and a stop key.

I guess I will have my work cut out, over the coming weeks, getting the regulators in tune. After a day or two in this climate, tuning seems to have gone haywire. I assumed I would have to do this anyway. Setting up the drone reeds won't be a 5-minute job either.

Overall, am I pleased? - you bet!

I'll post more on progress, as I learn to deal with the monster. Feel free to posts comments on the set on seeing the pics. Btw, we had a terrific time in Spain, good food, good wine, good company, good weather and our own little session at the B&B.

I would like to publicly thank Charles Roberts and his son Jonathan for their kind hospitality during our visit and a big mention for our hoteliers, Peter and Maureen in Rio Frio, in recognition of a very comfortable and welcoming stay. If anyone wants to know how to book accomodation there email me.

Multitudinous thanks to Cameron Edgar and Co. ("Co" wishes to remain anonymous, but I call her Bonita) for a phenominal amount of help and for being most agreeable travelling companions.

My Concertina

2008-06-09T11:53:00.004+01:00

How does this fit in with piping?

Well, the concertina is now my second instrument. I took it up because once I had started getting into Irish Traditional Music, and once I had visited County Clare (the centre of the concertina world), I was much taken with the sound of the instrument and I was particularly fascinated by the rhythmical aspect of it. It seemed an easy instrument to play, compared with the pipes. It seemed like it was just a matter of pressing the right buttons, to put it in its simplest terms, and I thought it might help with my sense of timing on the pipes. The more I play it now the more I like it. It is relatively easy to learn, although I guess it is difficult to master, as with any instrument.

I remember concertina playing from my youth when, at the weekly Bury Folk Club, the best folk club in the world btw, I heard two talented young men playing concertinas and singing English and Irish folk songs. They were know as Dave and Bernard. The Dave when on to to become well know as an actor in Emmerdale, incidentally. These days I’m taken with the playing of Tim Collins. So you can imagine how much I like the new CD by Brian McNamara (pipes) and Tim Collins (concertina), “Reed Only”. I find myself playing many of the tunes from the recording on both the pipes and the concertina. I also really like the playing of Mary McNamara and Lorraine O'Brien of County Clare.

Now here’s the sacrilegious bit! I play an English Concertina, as opposed to an Anglo, which is the usual choice for Irish musicians. This is because I particularly wanted a concertina that’s easy to play. The business of getting different notes, depending on whether the player is pushing or pulling seemed to be just a bit too much to take on, whilst I was learning the pipes. Recently I’ve been gratified to come across a couple of musicians who do in fact play Irish tunes on English concertinas in sessions and have found them to be absolutely fine and indeed well accepted by Anglo players. It’s just a different technique that’s required. So now I’m glad I bought it. Everyone should play a concertina – it’s just the most simple and satisfying instrument to transport, pick and spontaneous play. It sort of goes with my rocking chair and my real fire!

My concertina is quite a cheap but adequate Chinese instrument, which cost only £199 and worth every penny, if you ask me. If my main instrument was ever to be the concertina I would no doubt save up the pennies and by a superior instrument.

All my thinking about the concertina has proved to be justified. After about 6 months now, I do find it much easier to pick up tunes by ear on the concertina, and then I can learn the same tunes on the pipes more easily, because by then I know all the notes. It’s as simple as that. In the event I’ve actually enjoyed playing the concertina almost as much as the pipes, and wouldn’t be without it.

My piping tune list

2008-06-08T16:53:00.006+01:00

I've been playing some of these since I started, whilst others I could do with practising a bit more yet.

Jigs:

Garrett Barry's
Jim Ward's
The Humours of Lisheen
The Humours of Ennistymon
The Mouse in the Cupboard
Neary's
My Darling Asleep
East of Glendart
The Leitrim Fancy
Sean Bui
The Hag with the Money (caileach an airgid)
The Walls of Liscarroll
Snug in the blanket
The Ballinacourty
I buried my wife and danced on her grave
The Rambling Pitchfork
Banish Misfortune
Statia Donnelly
An Sean Duinne
O'Sullivan's March
The Humours of Glynn
The Humours of Kiltyclogher
Julia Clifford's
The Galbally Farmer
plus some I don't know the name of

Slip Jigs

An Phlis Fuich (O'Farrell's Welcome to Limerick)
Na Ceannabhain Bhana
The Kid on the Mountain

Hop Jigs

Top the Candle

Reels:

Earl's chair
The Merry Blacksmith
Bonnie Annie
Kilcooley Wood
Carrigaholt
John Kelly's Concertina Reel
The Morning Thrush
plus some I don't know the name of

Hornpipes

Higgins'
Mrs Crotty's
The Humours of Tullycrine
The Fairy's Hornpipe
plus some I don't know the name of

Set Pieces

The Garden of Daisies

Slow Airs

The May Morning Dew
The Girl with the Long Brown Hair
The Rocks of Bawn

Others

The South Wind
Fanny Power

My Uilleann Journey - Part 8

2008-06-05T20:56:00.004+01:00

My new set is on its way!

I’m about to take delivery of my new full set made by Charles Roberts. I ordered this set about 15 months ago after visiting Charles in Spain, where he now lives. I was accompanying my piping mate Cameron Edgar who, at the time, was collecting a new flat set from Charles. I’ve seen three Roberts sets now so far and all of them have been very well made and sounding nice. Pipers will appreciate that 15 months is not a long time to wait for a full set and Charles has a good reputation.

My new instrument is made out of Tulip Rosewood and brass. I saw a similar set in the making at the Roberts cabin in the Mountains of the Sierra Nevada when I was there last year. It looked absolutely stunning. Now, I know that the choice of a wood other than Ebony or something else black might be a bit controversial to some, but the set will certainly stand out and Rosewood is of equal density to ebony, by all accounts. I can’t wait. I’ve been paying Charles 500 euros a month, or thereabouts for the last few months to keep him in libation whilst making the set for me.

The other unusual thing about the set is that it is to have a forth drone, tuned to A, but down-tunable to G. I quite fancy that. My ear seems to hear an A when the drones are sounding and I think this is to do with harmonics. I know from playing other instruments that sounding the 5th note of the scale, with the D drones can be a very pleasing sound. I guess the purists will be a bit annoyed with me, but if you’ve seen Mikie Smythe, you’ll know that he often uses a G drone, as well as the 3 D drones – so there!

I should be able to report back on the set after 15 June, when I come back from Spain (any excuse eh?) so check back for details. I'll put some photos up then. I’m also due to receive my David Lim chanter, in Ebony and with 2 keys, in the next few weeks. My pipe collection will then consist of a Roberts full D set with a 4th drone, a Chris Bayley half set in D and a David Lim concert pitch chanter. I have a feeling the concertina will take a back sit for a little while, but not for too long. I guess in future posts I will talk a little about the concertina, which is an excellent second instrument to have for playing ITM.

More to follow….

My Uilleann Journey - Part 7

2008-06-03T11:36:00.002+01:00

Solving the learning problems.

Father Emmet posted a comment to Part 6, asking about the hurdles I had to overcome in learning to play the pipes. So this post goes part way to a response.

In general terms, the difficulties I encountered were split into 2 kinds – those associated with the instrument itself, for example the quality of the chanter reed, and those associated with the dexterity and co-ordination I needed to actually play the pipes. It has been said before in other blogs that playing the pipes involves elements where tension and physical strength are required for control, perhaps from muscles unaccustomed to work, whilst at the same time there is a need to be relaxed in the hands and this is quite difficult to do. No-one had explained this in quite these terms before. If nothing else, learning to play the pipes involves discovering these things the hard way.

Firstly, it took quite a while to realise that the reed I had was very hard to blow, compared with others, and the chanter was not entirely in tune across both octaves. This was partly because the reed was not set up correctly and partly because the chanter required some find tuning work, such as undercutting one of the holes slightly and modifying the bottom of the chanter to achieve a hard D, which I did with the assistance of someone experienced. I did waste a few months struggling with the instrument on my own and my pipemaker was not geographically nearby. Incidentally,I ruined a couple of his reeds experimenting with adjustment and scraping and I now have one decent reed from him and a new reed made by Alan Burton which seems to better suit this chanter. Even then I've found it difficult to blow. Alan believes in leaving a lot of wood on a reed until it has been well played, only adjusting it much later on. Eventually I did manage to sand it down a little without running it, so that it became easier to blow and was pretty much in tune. It was then like a revelation. All of a sudden I could hit high notes without gurning, and without tensing up my hands. My chanter has a sweet back D, a good hard D and a good tone. I've read as much as I could on the internet about reed adjustment.

At first, I couldn’t understand why everyone else seemed to be reaching the higher notes with relative ease, whilst I seemed at first to be squeezing the living daylights out of the bag and making it sound like a strangle goose. This was partly because the reed was very hard to blow, partly because the non-return valve between the bellows and the bag was leaky and partly because I had not yet realised that reaching the higher notes required technique, not just squeezing harder. In fact, the harder I squeezed the more difficult it seemed, and the more tense I got. Tension is the enemy and so, after rectifying the mechanical problems with the instrument, I began to teach myself more thoroughly, by designing exercises to make me play the notes without tension. This process is still going on.

For example I try to play scales, slowly, methodically and repetitively. I then stop to examine how much tension was involved in the playing and then I play the same scales again, consciously trying to reduce the tension a little each time, until I can do it without grimacing and without tiring myself out. David Lim gave me a tip which works for me, ie that I should watch my hands, to raise my consciousness about what I was actually doing, rather than staring into space or turning my best ear to the pipes as seems to be common practice. Btw, the learning of new tunes has to wait at this stage. This methodical and disciplined approach is the only way for me to overcome the hurdles.

Another thing I often practice is holding the chanter with my right hand (lower) and playing with the left hand, for it seemed that I was gripping the chanter so tightly with my left hand that I could not move my fingers properly. In fact, most of my problems were with my left hand. I could play cuts and rolls easily with my right hand and hardly at all with my left. My timing was all over the place, simply because I was so tense.

I found a piece of very good advice by Eliot Grasso on his web site, which was to discipline and organise one’s practice sessions. “Practising is different from playing”, Eliot states. When I practise now, I always start with 5 minutes of just playing the scales slowly, both legato and staccato. Apart from “warming up” the reed this also limbers up the fingers and creates a sense of timing. I play everything in practice sessions very slowly, concentrating on rhythm and timing, my two great weaknesses. I’ve still a little way to go but I know I am improving in these areas now. If one just plays tunes, say at normal speed, one is not practising, one is playing. Practice is hard work and I don’t find it particularly enjoyable, whilst playing is good fun, but hard practice has to be done. It seems to me that the better the quality, if you like, of the practice sessions, the better the result. When I do play tunes in practice sessions I generally use a metronome on my PC. It has helped tremendously, for I am one of those people that finds it hard to keep time.

Another important aspect of learning for me is regularly revisiting the playing of master pipers, each time concentrating on how timing is dealt with. For example, the length of notes played in any group of three, say in a jig. Some pipers will play the first of three ever so slightly longer than the other two. Others will play the first two very staccatto and the last legato. If it is going to take me 21 years to learn to play, I reckon 4 of them will be used up learning to play in correct rhythm.

So my tips for learning so far are:

1. Make sure you have a reed that is easy to blow and fix any leaks – playing the pipes is hard enough when everything's right.

2. Make practice sessions short (45 minutes max), disciplined and structured. Play scales. Play slowly. Concentrate on rhythm and timing and accuracy of fingering. It is actually easy to speed up later, once you can play the tune properly.

3. Learn to walk before you can run. Play simple tunes well. Don’t worry about the size of your repertoire and learn only tunes that you like.

4. Play with other musicians whenever possible – it helps to keep you in time.

There is a lot more to say so look out for further posts.

NWUP - Manchester

2008-06-01T13:24:00.000+01:00

About a year ago I appointed myself as co-ordinator of the beginners group at North West Uilleann Pipers (with the kind consent of the organisers, of course). Since then we have developed into a merry band of quite dedicated students of the pipes who turn up each month to play tunes together and to benefit from the lessons offered by David Lim and Jim Horan.

I would like to use this blog as a means of inter-communication amoungst the group, so that we can keep in touch between meetings. Also I want to use the blog to post tune notations, mp3s and videos to do with Uilleann piping. Feel free to take part, even if you are a stranger.

To get the ball rolling, here is a link to a .pdf file, showing the notation for a tune learnt from the playing of David Power, The Galbally Farmer. http://www.filefactory.com/file/86b329

More to follow...

My Uilleann Journey - Part 6

2008-06-01T13:22:00.000+01:00

Liam O’Flynn’s music

I had the good fortune to see Liam perform with Planxty at the Barbican theatre in London in 2004 and again at the William Kennedy Piping Festival in 2006 in Armagh, with the Piper’s Call Band. For me the study of Liam’s playing has become a matter of addiction. I say “study”, because his music seems to have a great depth that does require study, if all its secrets are to be revealed. I have to keep going back to listen to his playing again and again, at regular intervals. Each time, I seem to discover something new or something I had not understood previously – perhaps just a bit of ornamentation or some especially important rhythmic element. His playing contains, and does great justice to, all the influences of the old piping heroes, like Clancy, Ennis and Rowesome. In fact, I might go as far as to say that a student piper could get away with never listening to these old masters, provided that he/she listens to Liam O’Flynn, for in Liam we have our own, present-day, master piper, who has absorbed all those influences on our behalf.

I missed the Planxty phenomenon the first time around, but made a special effort to see the band, newly reformed, at the Barbican. I sat at the very front of the theatre and I was emotionally moved by Liam’s playing. It seemed that the rest of the theatre was too, for each time he switched on the drones and took the lead in the tune, the audience cheered in raptures of delight. It was this concert that finally made me to want to learn the pipes. Incidentally, I do think that Christy Moore is far better looking now than he was when he played at the Bury Folk Club, all those years ago. I hope he doesn’t mind me saying that.

I have many of Liam O’Flynn’s recordings now. One that I do not have, but I have heard, is a very good 78 LP recording, which includes Liam playing a fabulous tune, “Snug In The Blanket”, which I would recommend to every budding piper. It is just a great piping tune, played by a master of the instrument. It was from Brian McNamara’s and Tim Collin’s recording of the tune (from the CD “Reed only”) that I actually learned it, for it is very similar.

Of Liam’s entire repertoire, I think my favourite tune is still his famous version of “An Phis Fluich” or “O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick”, which, undeniably, he plays at a beautiful pace. It is rich and rhythmic and has a very satisfying musicality, which is, to my mind, the unmistakable characteristic of Liam’s playing. Nothing is overstated. There are no instances of ornamentation, just for ornamentation’s sake. The balance between remaining true to the basic melody and the desire to include the Uilleann Pipes’ full repertoire of ornamentation is demonstrative. It is just masterful.

More to come on pipers I have seen and some I would like to meet…..

Mikie Smythe
Paddy Maloney
Ronan Browne
Sean McKeon
Dave Spillane

Plus my own thoughts on how to learn and more on my own learning experiences.

My Uilleann Journey - Part 5

2008-06-01T13:20:00.000+01:00

Na Piobaire Uilleann in Dublin

Gay McKeon

It was a warm April afternoon in 2007 when a friend and I rattled on the door of Na Piobaire Uilleann at Henrietta Street to enquire if we could visit the centre of the piping world, whilst in Dublin. The door was opened by none other than the wonderful Gay McKeon. He modestly introduced himself, warmly invited us in, made us a brew and then played a few tunes for us. Can you believe it? I was absolutely elated and so honoured that the man was showing us such great hospitality and friendliness.

The sound emanating from this great piper’s playing, echoing around the acoustic chambers of this newly and impressively refurbished building, held me spellbound. I was listening to what seemed to me to be the very essence of mature and masterful piping. It was all there: rhythm, technique, interpretation and emotional content and it was just magnificent! Throughout this impromptu recital, Gay’s eyes were closed in musical contemplation. I watched and listened and was greatly inspired.

I often reflect on just how fortunate I was, to have Gay McKeon making tea for me, playing tunes for me and then saying “Come back tonight, Terry, and I’ll make sure you get a lesson”. Well, I went back for sure, and was honoured to be able to participate in a class in Henrietta Street with a few other students of similar experience, led by the very welcoming, Terry Moylan, a most knowledgeable man with a long history of involvement with NPU. I understand Terry’s piping goes back to 1968 when he had lessons with Leo Rowesome. What distinguished company I was in. In the evening we were able to join Gay, Terry and one or two of the students from Terry’s class at the Cobblestones Pub to see another great piper in concert, Mick Coyne. What a good day that was! Later that week, we bumped into Mick Coyne again, purely by coincidence, playing at the Cuckoo Fleadh in Kinvara, on the west coast. He is just another extraordinary piper and a lovely bloke. I didn’t get the chance to share a curry with him either, but what a fantastic week!

more to come...

My Uilleann Journey - Part 4

2008-06-01T13:14:00.000+01:00

My encounters with master pipers

Thanks to the NWUP Manchester Tionóls, I have had opportunities to take part in workshops with a few expert pipers, notably Tiarnán o’Duinchinn, Mick O’Brien, Brian McNamara and David Power. The influence these very different exponents have had on me is immeasurable and I continue to use their recordings as reference points at regular intervals.

Tiarnán o’ Duinchinn

A hero of the Armagh Pipers Club, I found Tiarnán to be an astonishing virtuoso piper and a great Uilleann Piping teacher. In Manchester, I attended a beginner’s workshop with him. His playing of catchy Polkas and Mazurkas made me desperate to try out the things he was doing, although I was only just beginning to understand the 21-year learning curve. It will indeed be a long time before I can make my chanter “sing” in the way he does. Incidentally, Tiarnán is also an incredibly nice bloke to share a curry with. I also met Tiarnán again at the William Kennedy Festival in Armagh in 2006, and I would strongly recommend all newbies, at some time in their lives, to have a lesson or two with him. I think it’s time that I myself had another lesson with him, now that I can actually play a little.

Mick O’Brien

Mick’s workshop was very interesting, not just in terms of showing us how he plays, but also in terms of his particular insight into the music, which he relayed with charming rhetoric and fascinating commentary. For me, and my piping, this was invigorating stuff. I remember Mick holding up his very skilful hands in emphatic gesture and profoundly stating “You know, we only have these to work with.” Everything he said made me think deeply about how to play the instrument. I found him inspirational. Incidentally, he is another great bloke to share a curry with.

Mick’s playing is always easily recognised for its characteristic clarity, and perfect timing. You can pick out every note, no matter how fast he plays and when you’re learning by ear, this is exactly what you need. In other words, you don’t feel like you are travelling at 90 mph, through beautiful countryside and missing most of it. His music is bountiful with technique and his playing has great depth. If you slow him down, figuratively speaking, say, using Windows Media Player, the rhythm remains just as steady and just as accurate. I think he is just skilful, on a staggering scale. I learned many of the tunes on his CD, “The May Morning Dew”, including the air itself. Mick O’Brien has been a considerable influence on me.

Brian McNamara

Brian is a most fascinating piper, who seems to me to have defined new boundaries of ornamentation. His version of The Humours of Glynn, which can be heard on his CD “The Fort of Jewels”, is a fine example. His style is absolutely unique. I was fortunate enough to join in his beginner’s workshop in Manchester. The man has unbounded patience for teaching and he seems almost to calculate the exact amount of encouragement and attention each individual pupil requires. I also sat in on his more advanced workshop for intermediate pipers, without actually taking part, but he made me feel that I could have quite easily managed that workshop as well, despite being a beginner. After the workshops I couldn’t wait to get hold of his CDs so I could try to learn some of the tunes. Much of my own repertoire, such as it is, is learnt from Brian’s playing. One of my favourites is Neary’s Jig, which can be heard on Brian’s website (www.piperbrian.com). Brian has left a truly permanent impression on me. Needless to say, he is another one who is great company over a curry.

David Power

David held workshops and performed at the 2007 Tionól in Manchester. I hadn’t heard much of David’s piping beforehand but, expecting to have to play something for him, I learnt the jig “ The Galbally Farmer” from one of his recordings. It’s a lovely tune that is reasonably easy to learn and it is probably true to say that much of my understanding of the rhythm of the Irish jig comes from David’s playing of that tune. I am also very much taken with David’s playing of Hornpipes, which, it seems to me, he plays faithfully, in a proper hornpipe rhythm. I would be very pleased to think that I might one day be a piper as good as David Power.

Now I might be talking through my bellows, but David somehow seems to squeeze more power and expression out of a flat set than anyone else I’ve heard. His performance playing is mesmerising. I watched him intensely as he played. I watched his fingers, for sure, but I also watched his face, which revealed the extent to which he was emotionally absorbed in the music. As he played, he seemed to continuously test his own ears’ response to the sounds that bounced off the walls and floors of the hall. He made me think that I should make conscious effort to do the same.

When everyone else at this particular Tionól went off to eat at tea time, David remained, in a corner, so I did not get the chance to take him for a curry. He was seemingly dissatisfied with the performance of his regulator reeds, and so instead of taking time out for food and drink, he quickly made a couple of new reeds in readiness for his evening concert. I could see that David is a piper, who has to be completely in control of his pipes, before all else. David Power left me with many lasting impressions.

more to come...

My Uilleann Journey - Part 3

2008-06-01T13:10:00.000+01:00

First Influences

Chris Bayley advised me to get along to the North West Uilleann Pipers group (NWUP) in Manchester, where I would meet people who could get me started. So I did, and it was good advice. There I had my first brief lesson, with one of the organisers, and a very good piper, Jim Horan.

Now bearing in mind that I did not know a single tune, and all I could play was the scale of D, Jim set about teaching me my first tune, Jim Ward’s Jig. This was a great choice, not only because it is restricted to the lower octave, which is good for a complete beginner, but it’s also a stomping good tune, with a few bits of piping technique. Incidentally I do believe that you have to like a tune if you’re going to learn it. I followed this up by listening to Gay McKeon tutoring the same tune on an NPU DVD, held in the NWUP’s library, thus discovering an important characteristic of piping, ie that tunes are not set in stone and, whilst they must remain true to the basic melody, variation seemed to be a significant factor in the ongoing development of this great music. Periodically, I still have the odd lesson with Jim Horan and I always come away with much to remember and to rely on. One of the helpful hints I learnt from Jim was to shorten the note immediately before a tight triplet, to give oneself time to articulate the triplet itself. Good stuff!

After my first lesson with Jim, I had one lesson with Becky Taylor, who was another founder member of NWUP. Becky quickly made me realise that, at that stage, I was trying to run before I could walk. Guess, what? She was right, so I stopped worrying about the diminutive size of my repertoire and determined to get to grips with the basics before attempting to learn many tunes. Jim Ward’s jig, along with one or two others, got what can only be described as a repetitive thrashing.

The guys at NWUP offer these brief, 20 minute lessons to budding newbies like myself at each of the monthly meetings. These lessons, although not enough in themselves, do point the way and, in the absence of full tuition, they are invaluable. I had to do much of the rest of the learning on my own, armed with my reasonably good ear for music. Although I read music, I almost invariably learn tunes by ear, only using the notation to help with parts I cannot work out.

Most of my 20 minute lessons at NWUP were with David Lim, an experienced teacher, a notable instrument maker and a piper of some considerable ability and repertoire. David has the knack of making you believe that “What one man can do, another can do” – with lots of practice of course. David taught me basic technique and he has been a major influence on my development. I always pay much attention to watching and listening to his piping, at every opportunity. He is also making me a new D chanter, based on a Dave Williams design, which I am looking forward to receiving soon.

The master pipers of today were all influenced by the greats like Seamus Ennis, Willy Clancy and Leo Rowesome. Nowadays we rely upon the likes of Liam O’Flynn, Gay McKeon and many, many more, to pass on those very same influences. For example, I recently took delivery of a copy of the new DVD released by NPU (The Piper’s Choice Part 1), which is testament to this and itself offers great insight into how these now-departed grandfathers of Uilleann piping actually played.

I also watch and listen to the other piping enthusiasts at the regular NWUP monthly meetings in Manchester. I think it’s true to say that I take a little something from all of them. In particular, I had some very good lessons with a Scottish piper, currently residing in Yorkshire, Cameron Edgar.

Cameron, despite being relatively new to Uilleann pipes himself, was nevertheless accomplished and, as a highly regarded and experienced Scottish Highland Piper, he demonstrated that he had a terrific sense of rhythm, timing and what I can only describe as a seasoned, manual dexterity. I decided that I could learn much from him. Cameron taught me to slow down and made me work on timing. He got me to play simple tunes accurately, in a relaxed manner, so as to concentrate on rhythm. I have much to thank Cameron for, not least of all for teaching me to play without all that gurning that many beginners do. After all, it wouldn’t look good on stage. I have to confess that, before Cameron, I often felt like it was all I could do not to fall off my piping chair in a knot of tension. I’m sure many will know exactly what I’m talking about. Now I am more much more relaxed. Cameron also introduced me to sessions in pubs around Yorkshire so that I could gain valuable experience playing with other musicians.

more to come...

My Uilleann Journey - Part 2

2008-06-01T13:09:00.002+01:00

I once told an Irishman that I was half Irish and, of course he wanted to know “Which half?” The best answer I could give was, “The musical half” (although I might have been brave enough in my youth to respond with a more anatomical answer, certainly to good-looking members of the opposite sex, especially from the fair counties of Ireland. I had always played keyboards, guitars and banjos etc and, as a teenager with my best mate from school, I toured the folk clubs of the North-West of England in the sixties performing a strange mixture of The Clancy Brothers songs and some then-little-known Bluegrass – weird, I know, but great fun. This was about the time when the yet-to-become-famous Christy Moore was making his presence felt around Manchester. I remember well one of his guest appearances at the Bury Folk Club, which was just the best Folk Club in the world.

Now, don’t ask what madness inflicted me to cause me to take up this notoriously confounding instrument. It must have been some chemical reaction one day between the Irish component of my blood and a particularly beautiful glass of Guinness, my favoured beverage since the age of, well better not say! When I finally got around to enquiring about the pipes I was told that they are probably one of the most difficult instruments to learn, in the world, and that it was “practically impossible” to teach oneself. Call me foolish but, me being me, I thought, “Now, there’s a challenge”.

Now, when one knows absolutely nothing about pipes or pipe-makers, the process of buying a set of pipes is fraught with obvious danger and, let’s face it, these things aren’t cheap. However, I decided to spend all the money I avoided giving to the ex-wife on something perhaps more durable. I made a few enquiries before asking Chris Bayley of Redhill in Surrey to make me a practice set. My equipment was ready with speed and I drove down to Surrey to collect it. I encountered a certain amount of adverse reaction, about my choice of pipe-maker, from people who purported to know better than I, you know, a bit of tutting, a lot of ooohing and aaahing and a fair helping of disconcerting grunting noises, accompanied by facial contortions and grimaces, all of which suggested varying degrees of disapproval. Although I did receive a few encouraging noises, these were generally outnumbered by the negative ones. Now, two and a half years later, I still have my Bayley set, upgraded to include drones and it’s playing quite well.

Inevitably, I went through a painfully long period of discovery. I suffered terribly from frustration, because of my seeming inability to make the things sound like Gay McKeon does and sometimes self-doubt overcame me almost completely. I wondered if my pipes were set up wrongly, or I was destined to remain a rubbish piper forever. Both may have been true. However I began to understand that the learning curve has a very gradual gradient indeed and that it is characterised by the three-steps-forward and two-steps-back variety of progress. I learned to deal with the idiosyncrasies of my pipes, and slowly began to make “music”, although as Gay McKeon would say, it wasn’t piping yet. Many times throughout the process I questioned my choice of pipe-maker but now I do feel that I ended up with a reasonably good set at the end of the day, but only after some minor tuning modifications and much experimentation with reeds. It’s worth mentioning here that the best results were achieved with an Alan Burton reed in this particular chanter and Synthetic drones reeds from “Pipedreams” in Scotland. I have attended a couple of reed-making workshops but, frankly, I’ve postponed acquiring this particular skill for the moment in favour of devoting energies to learning to play. No doubt, getting around to making my own reeds will become a necessity.

In terms of selecting a pipe maker, I guess it would have been prudent to have made much more extensive enquiries, but I am quite happy with the instrument I have now and I really don’t regret my choice. I will, no doubt, buy another set at some stage, with the benefit of greater experience. Interestingly, in late 2007, David Power had a go on my chanter, after hearing me play, and he commented that it was a “surprisingly good chanter”. I can only surmise that he thought either that I had played it quite well or that perhaps I should have played it much better. Either way, he made it sound much better than I did.

more to come...

My Uilleann Journey - Part 1

2008-06-01T13:04:00.000+01:00

Mo Thuras Uilleann

These writings describe just some aspects of my personal incursion into the world of Uilleann Piping, including the influences of some very special pipers.

Part 1 – Let me introduce myself.

Although you wouldn’t think so from my surname, I’m actually half-Irish. The other half is Ukrainian and so what had has lain dormant in my 56-year old DNA, for most of my life, is a yearning to discover my strange mix of musical and cultural roots. I was born in England in 1951 and, yes, I guess this is something I should have done much earlier in life, piping I mean, in preference to say, marriage or career chasing, both of which turned out to be enjoyable but nevertheless fruitless, long-term investments in the final analysis. I was reasonably bright but, having been thrown out of school at an important juncture, I missed the opportunity of embarking upon a musical career. I eventually settled down to a non-the-less interesting life working for myself (rescuing companies) with a respectable degree of success. Anyway, enough of all that.

So, after two and a half years of piping, how am I getting on? Well, a few tell me I’m doing well, for the length of time I’ve been playing and I am happy to report that I haven’t yet killed anyone with my piping so, with the bit between my teeth and the bag under my arm it’s onwards and upwards for me. I am on that 21-year journey now and I must admit that I am becoming more obsessed, with every passing parliament.

I was inevitably interested in the folk music of the country of my birth - it is what one often did in the sixties, but my experience of both Irish and Ukrainian music were inadequate. For example, my exposure to Irish music was restricted to Clancy Brothers concerts in the sixties, and, in terms of Ukrainian music, the only thing I can remember is my dad and his Ukrainian friends, perennially bursting into harmonic song in a foreign tongue and dancing strangely in Slavonic fashion. Back in the homeland, they were apparently all members of an all-male voice choir. I learnt in due course that their shenanigans were held to celebrate events like Ukrainian Christmas on the 6th January, each year, whilst under the influence of strong liquor. I look back on these musical influences with due respect for they were as important as any other I was to encounter later on. When I eventually heard the sound of the Uilleann pipes for the first time, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and all my Irish blood cells jumped about like a Riverdance line-up on stimulants and the damage was done - I was infected. I didn’t do much about it until much later in life, after I was divorced and our three offspring were well on their way to manhood. It was then that I began my journey into the world of piping and was stricken with that most notorious of incurable pipers’ disease, Obsessive Piping Syndrome. This was at the grand old age of 53. I’ve been playing now for two and a half years. I should say that I regret that I didn’t take up the pipes in my youth, when fingers were supple, dexterity was at its peak and memory cells were still alive in the majority. However, as someone once said, “You’re never too old”.

more to come...

1st Post

2008-06-01T00:36:00.000+01:00

I've just created this post to get the ball rolling. I'm hoping to use the blog to keep in touch with other exponents of Irish Traditional Music. Catch u later.