I'm quite enjoying this debate.
As a total "outsider", it's very interesting to hear what appears to be two
totally opposing sides.
The first are those that play the pipes in the time-honoured tradition -
both in style and technique and the second those that play for enjoyment and
are not afraid to "bend the rules" if they feel that an "unusual" technique
or sound suits them.
The problem seems to come when the two collide.
I really do feel that we should keep the two separate though because they
cannot be discussed in the same area (chalk and cheese).
For competitions and tutoring, we are talking about the "correct" method of
playing (the "no choyting please" group) which, I think, is quite correct.
Compare it to vegetable growing,
I've seen teeny-weeny carrots win first prize because their roots (like a
bit of string) are several feet long. The orange bit would go in one bite -
but that's competition rules.
Most of us would prefer tiny roots and a real whopper of a carrot but that
doesn't win prizes.
That doesn't mean big carrots are no good.
It's a different outcome you see.
Competitions have strict rules (correctly) but that doesn't mean that
nothing else is valid.
Although I do run with the "proper" way of playing, I feel that any
instrument can be played as the player wishes - be that technique or style.
I never personally like Chuck Berry or Jimmi Hendrix playing guitar but many
did.
I'm not a jazz fan but accept that sometimes unusual ways of playing are
valid.
One could have a similar debate about the correct way of playing anything at
all.
Yes, closed fingering is how it was designed and we do have a set of pipes
that can be played either way already over in Ireland.
Maybe some people want the same thing with NSP rather than play them closed
and switch to Scottish small pipes for open?
May sound odd to us but the right to "do our own thing" remains. We don't
have to like it, of course :)
We'll never all agree.
Hopefully the two can co-exist.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: <christopher.bi...@ec.europa.eu>
To: <anth...@robbpipes.com>; <nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 11:47 AM
Subject: [NSP] Re: Style
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
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