A couple takeaways from a bagpipe workshop.
Last weekend, Wake and District held a weekend workshop for our two competition groups. On the morning before our end of year celebration, we were very grateful to have such an experienced visitor come and work with us. As the grade 4 circle of pipers and drummers, we got feedback on our current competition music: advice to simplify or enhance in various places. From a piping perspective, we also learned a great many useful tips; I’ll elaborate on a couple takeaways that stood out to me.
Rhythmic reference points
If you have trouble with a passage, find another section with the same rhythm and play them back to back on repeat.
This came up first when addressing runs in our strathspey. The runs down from F-E-D were nicely in time, but at the end of the tune, the run up from D-E-F was sluggish and open. The solution was to practice these two pieces back to back, on repeat, as a group. The same pattern came up again when looking at a jig. There was a bar in the second part with some tricky finger work that was not clean. However, it had the exact same rhythm pattern as a bar in the first part, which was going well!
The key is to find the “reference point” that your fingers, or brain, is comfortable with, and transfer that confidence to the less familiar string of notes. This can be useful for whole phrases, measures, or as short as a single gracenote movement.
Two bar phrases: always!
Two bar phrasing is not a new concept to us. It is very familiar in certain idioms, such as the marches. But in fact almost all of piping music is subject to the two bar phrases! Specifically, this came up with respect to strathspey playing, where it is often forgotten.
Consider the basic strong-weak-medium-weak pattern of a strathspey bar.
Focusing on this for every bar can make the tune feel slow, or bogged down without energy. Essentially reducing the tune to having only one bar phrases, where the question-answer of the piece is lost.
Instead, apply two bar phrasing, such that the first bar is as expected, and the following one “bounces to the third” beat.
Something like strong-weak-medium-weak | weak-weak-STRONG-weak. This pattern would repeat every other bar: on the second, fourth, sixth and eighth.
In those bars, all the emphasis is shifted to that third beat, to bring out the answers to the first bar’s questions.
Additionally, when arranging a strathspey, avoid large movements on the weak pulses. Consider replacing any doublings that might be there with a single gracenote. Or, choose light strikes over heavy. This will help you work to express the pulses that you want to.