>If a person ignores this >completely from > the outset then the product may not be wrong but it is certainly > misguided. Let pipers take the music in any direction they >wish but to > have any connection with Northumbrian piping as such they must spend > time studying the starting point thoroughly before setting >off on their > journey.
I wholeheartedly degree with this formulation. I think the problem is that people are using "style" and "technique" interchangeably. The instruments I know most about and have taught a bit are the bowed strings (mainly viola). In teaching I would stress various basic techniques (such as drawing a steady bow and observing the point of content, the pressure and the speed, for example) on-the-string staccato with the bow, off-the-string staccato, "correct shifting" (left thumb and forearm à la trombone - the usual modern correct classical technique) as well as "correct" glissando technique (use your left thumb as a reference point by the heel of the neck and slide the fingers up and down - technique advocated by Ruggiero Ricci q.v. and based on his exploration of Paganini, N.B. whose fingering was unconventional. Swarbrick also did it, but i think he only used first and third position) and a whole range of other aspects - irrespective of what kind of music they intended to play. I would also encourage pupils to play different "styles" of music irrespective of what they intended to concentrate on. Bach specialists should also study Paganini and folk fiddling, for example. Of course "staccato technique" is essential for gaining control of the NSP as an instrument but once you've got it I don't think it's a very musical idea to just go around demonstrating one's staccato technique like opera singers their brute power and vibrato. And of course, style and technique inevitably overlap. > If people dont see the point in doing this then chosing to > play an out and out traditional instrument seems a bit daft in the > first place. > This is also very true. On a personal note, I am a very humble musician when it comes to practical skills (mainly a mid-level hard-practicing semi-pro classical hack, but with experience in everything from traditional to progrock) but since I was an adult beginner (a long time ago) and am rather obsessive about music (the nearest thing I have to a religion!), I think I tend to reflect on and analyse all the various aspects to a possibly unusual (or excessive) degree. I also flatter myself by thinking that some of my conclusions may have a certain validity. So... Apologies to anyone to whom my assertiveness - born of enthusiam - may ever have come over as bumptiousness. c To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
