BeA Better Piper
this device relentlessly to keep the Before we go on let’s sum up:
dancers on the right track.The off • Wehaveoursteadytempo–usea
beats are given so much prominence metronome if you have to. Set a
that the music becomes difficult to levelwhichallowsfortheaccurate
listen to from the piper’s perspective. playing of all necessary technique.
We are much more tasteful in our • Wehavetherequiredtwobeatsin
approach – acknowledging the off the bar.Tap them out with your
beatinthepassingandneverlettingit feet as you play. Pivoting on the
supersede the main left and right heel, lift both together – much
beats. better than left and right
One advantage the accordion separately.
player does have over us however is • We can recognise our off beats
dynamic control.He can use volume (toe at its highest point is where
to push the main left foot beat to this occurs).
achieve point three, our Now all that is needed is some
strong/medium pulse.Pipers have no attention to our phrasing. Each
such luxury and here the quality of melodic line in music is made up of
our musicianship is called upon.We phrases. For good expression you
need to use what is called ‘agogic need to show them. Given that we
stress’ to achieve the same effect. have so many other things to think
Weird though the name sounds all it about, we are lucky in that our
means is the lengthening the time competition 2/4 marches usually
valueofanotetogiveitstress.Butin conform to the two-bar phrase
doingso,andthisistheimportantbit, pattern. By adopting a ‘question and
we mustn’t interfere with the overall answer’ approach we can make a
steady tempo of the piece.Extremely pretty good job of bringing out the
difficult to do well and too often do beauty in the melody. On the radio
we hear the extremes – overpointed show I mentioned Capt John
beats or a humdrum lack. Getting it MacLellan’s first book‘Music for the
just right is the difficulty so don’t let HighlandBagpipe’(nowoutofprint)
anyonegotellingyouthatplayingthe which has a good couple of pages on
box is as difficult as the pipes. As this and I would recommend you
regards finger control there is no have a read at it if you can.
contest.SeeFig.2belowforthesame To quote John: ‘It is most
passage above marked out with important . . . to show off these
strong, medium and off beats. phrases and to give the last notes of
Figure 2:The main left and right beats in‘Willie Gray’.The left is the strong beat,
emphasised by giving it fractionally more time,but never,repeat never,interrupting the
flow and tempo of the tune.
25
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