Yesterday I went out with my fan to see Breabach: a great band, a good night out and some serious piping inspiration. I had a small wobble, listening to GHB, wondering whether I had really done the right thing in moving to smallpipes. Smallpipes, it seems to me, have more scope for interpretation. There are many pipers I admire and I know that I don’t want to play in quite the way they do. What I want to do is find my own voice, my own style, and that's not something that's going to happen in a competition pipe band. I am not sure how to develop my own style, but at the moment it's about listening a lot and playing as much as I can, picking tunes I really enjoy and want to listen to and play.
One style of music that really attracts me is pibroch. Breabach play three pieces: The Waterhorse’s Lament, The Desperate Battle of the Birds, and Park Piobaireachd. Playing the Birds last night they had us singing canntaireachd (in this and the step dancing I see the influence of Mr MacCrimmon’s time with Seudan). I’d like to learn about this – its history and how to use it.
Pibroch dots seem hard to come by online. The tunes tend to sound very simple, but like pieces of Bach they circle about, never quite revisiting the same notes in the same way. I love that formalism and intricacy. I also love slow tunes, but it takes a good steady pressure to get the notes to sing. This isn’t music for beginners, but surely something I can aspire to.
The tune I've recorded today is another of Vicki's (she kindly puts all her dots on her website). It's a pibroch-style tune called The Lone Piper. I had no issues with pegs or connector tube today. I got a good strong sound, but I am still relying too much on my pumping arm. My fan says that knowing what I am doing wrong is half the battle, but I just get frustrated that I do something that I know to be wrong, and which I don’t think I used to do. I've tried to concentrate on shifting across to my bag arm, and, judging by how sore it feels now, I must have had some success.
I've tried two different methods with recording today. The first is to wait until I play something really very badly indeed, and then hit record on the grounds that things can only get better. You'll be pleased to know this is not the one I'm posting. The other method I've stumbled on is to quit while I'm ahead. This means I've recorded the first part of the tune only, and I've just played it the once through.
Recording: The Lone Piper.
The Lone Piper on Chirbit
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