Yeah but we're not talking about jazz here. Stepping into uncharted (for me) waters, jazz improvisation is all about working within chord structures, whereas Northumbrian piping has more to do with melodic sequences, using a drone rather than a chord sequence as the anchor, so mistakes are more noticeable.
Mistakes? We all make them - well at least I do! It's a risk of trying to put spontaneity into performance. Informal recordings of Billy Pigg were full of (somewhat consistent) mistakes yet teach us a lot about using vibrato, subtle pressure changes, and expression. As for choyting etc, it's the gold standard to learn to play without it, then choose to include it later if you wish to. I'm not aware of anyone who's succeeded the other way round. Tom Clough IV was of the opinion that choyters were those who were unable to master closed fingering - I'm inclined to agree! That's not to say it's banned, but rather that there are more effective ways of showing the superlatives of Northumberland small pipes. Chris -----Original Message----- From: Paul Rhodes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 30 September 2008 22:01 To: Dartmouth NSP Subject: [NSP] John's Miles Davis Quote Hi All, Just to add another couple of comments from a jazz musician friend of mine, which build nicely on John's Miles Davis quote: 'You are never more than a semitone away from the right note.' and, 'There is no such thing as wrong notes, just poor choices.' These two statements have given me comfort many times on stage as I have scrabbled around the fretboard, or attempted to uncover the holes in the right order (with, of course, brief closure in between). All the best, Paul __________________________________________________________________ Win -L-3000 to spend on whatever you want at Uni! [1]Click here to WIN! -- References 1. http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/111354032/direct/01/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
