Don't forget that old favorite - Scotland the Brave. It can easily be played
on a D-G Hurdy-gurdy and despite the fact that the very mention of the song
makes experienced pipers run away shrieking, the general public seems to like
it anyway. I call it the "bagpipe mating song" because whenever I'm playing it
on the HG at a faire, a hitherto unseen amateur bagpiper emerges from the
crowd and immediately starts to play along with me - he, usually in the key of
E or F (I of course am in D) -but since I am now unable to hear anything other
than the blatting of the pipes, it hardly matters.
----- Original Message -----
From: Roy Trotter
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: [HG] RE: Welcome to hg
Oooh, oooh, let me try!
There are a lot of people in the South Central US that are descended from
Scots, but the only real cultural lnk is the affinity for fried food. Most of
us only hear bagpipe watching "Brigadoon" on TV. That would be the "uneducated"
folks. You get a lot of those . Then there are varying degrees of "educated".
The more familiar they are with the pipes, the less like it is going to sound
"just like" the pipes.
Still, I only play some of the mixolydian songs. I don't even try to imitate
the cuts, grips, taorluaths, leumluath, cranns etc, that are used to articulate
the melody in the tune. (We all follow that tounging the melody into the bag
(airtank) is a useless exercize?)
That being said an awareness that the melody can be articulated on the HG
with the Left Hand can be useful.
...but trying to play pipe marches note for note doesn't seem feasible...I
don't have enouogh fingers and all 4 that I have grow out too close together.
What's that Alden sez?... "Your mileage may vary?"
Anyway a lot of us would like to play pipe tunes, but I can't manage anything
but "Atholl Highlanders" yet. So Good luck and keep us posted.
Later, Roy
On 2/18/07, Jon Redpath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thank goodness, in this case, there are far more uneducated listeners,
and
> this is mostly my audience. You can be successful, if you can
accurately
> judge what the gurdy can bring to the music, and don't try to exceed
that
> limit - being 'over the top' which a gurdy usually is doesn't work as
well
> in Scotts / Irish as it does in say, Romany, Slavic, French, or English
> music.
>
> Chris Nogy
Would you like to explain this in English please? . It does sound a bit
insulting. JON
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