Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Reel: The Doldrum
I haven't practicing nearly enough. Part of it is not being in a routine anymore, and I still haven't got back into it. If last night was any indication - 2 hours on pipes, 2.5 hours on fiddle, half an hour on flute - and I can keep it up, I'll be able to turn it around.
On Scottish fiddle, I'm still working on accenting patterns in Cape Breton and Highland reels. On Irish fiddle, I'm working on alternate bowing patterns in jigs, like slurring the last eighth note in a beat into the first eighth note of the next, twice in a row, at discretion - something similar to what I can do in Scottish Hornpipes. I'm also learning delayed taps, which Philippe calls "double grace notes". I guess from a piper's perspective, the melody note just is, it isn't a grace note as such. So a doubling, to me, is 2 grace notes, not 3. And a delayed tap on fiddle is just one grace note, just taking place in the melody note, rather than in front of it.
On pipes, I'm working on my pointing, in the context of Strathspeys. It's an interesting issue. Say a lightly-pointed pair of notes is ideally split 78-22, a medium 86-14, and a heavy 94-06. But say a newbie (like me) can't cleanly articulate 94-06, or jumps off it too early, playing only 88-12. If I do that, then my medium beats and heavy beats aren't different enough. So if to compensate, I chamge my medium beats to 83-17, then the whole tune comes off as not nearly pointed enough. So I'm concentrating on being able to play 94-06. (Numbers hypothetical. Though I think it would be interesting to measure... maybe with a MIDI output from my Deger). I also want to start on some more Piobaireachds, like Lament for Mary MacLeod, soon.
This weekend would be my last competition of the year, though I think I've decided to skip it and just practice over the weekend. My next competition possibly won't be until the Houston Highland Games, and the 2005 US National Fiddle Championship. I'd really like to place in Nationals this year, though I doubt I'll be able to. But it's worth working for. I probably won't even send in a regrade form for pipes. Grade III will have to wait until 2006 for me. But if I bust my butt, I might be able to only spend one year there before moving up.
I have a low-end tenor banjo coming in soon. That should be fun to play with.
On Scottish fiddle, I'm still working on accenting patterns in Cape Breton and Highland reels. On Irish fiddle, I'm working on alternate bowing patterns in jigs, like slurring the last eighth note in a beat into the first eighth note of the next, twice in a row, at discretion - something similar to what I can do in Scottish Hornpipes. I'm also learning delayed taps, which Philippe calls "double grace notes". I guess from a piper's perspective, the melody note just is, it isn't a grace note as such. So a doubling, to me, is 2 grace notes, not 3. And a delayed tap on fiddle is just one grace note, just taking place in the melody note, rather than in front of it.
On pipes, I'm working on my pointing, in the context of Strathspeys. It's an interesting issue. Say a lightly-pointed pair of notes is ideally split 78-22, a medium 86-14, and a heavy 94-06. But say a newbie (like me) can't cleanly articulate 94-06, or jumps off it too early, playing only 88-12. If I do that, then my medium beats and heavy beats aren't different enough. So if to compensate, I chamge my medium beats to 83-17, then the whole tune comes off as not nearly pointed enough. So I'm concentrating on being able to play 94-06. (Numbers hypothetical. Though I think it would be interesting to measure... maybe with a MIDI output from my Deger). I also want to start on some more Piobaireachds, like Lament for Mary MacLeod, soon.
This weekend would be my last competition of the year, though I think I've decided to skip it and just practice over the weekend. My next competition possibly won't be until the Houston Highland Games, and the 2005 US National Fiddle Championship. I'd really like to place in Nationals this year, though I doubt I'll be able to. But it's worth working for. I probably won't even send in a regrade form for pipes. Grade III will have to wait until 2006 for me. But if I bust my butt, I might be able to only spend one year there before moving up.
I have a low-end tenor banjo coming in soon. That should be fun to play with.
# posted by Peter @ 8:34 AM 
