[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Christopher.Birch
Nice one John! c >-Original Message- >From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu >[mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Gibbons, John >Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 9:50 PM >To: Anthony Robb; nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu; rob@milecastle27.co.uk >Subject: [NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning > >"Oth

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Anthony Robb
John, please remember I was talking in the context of switching off drones to let the music shine forth, not silly things like playing a semitone above everyone else! Many general music sessions involve key changes from G to D to A. Are you saying that pipes should not be adding th

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Richard York
Hi Mike, You have the right man in Colin Dipper! A very Rolls Royce of concertina tuners, who 25 years ago rescued my lovely anglo from a botch job someone else had done, and has looked after it from time to time ever since. And on the other hand, you probably already know that unless there's

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Richard York
Please can John's advice be etched on metal plates, and nailed to all bodhrans ? ;-) [Cajons too] Richard, (among whose dearest friends was once a superb bodhran player. Just a few are out there.) On 07/01/2011 09:41, christopher.bi...@ec.europa.eu wrote: Nice one John! c -Origin

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Gibbons, John
Not at all - but pipes do sound better with drones, which are a fundamental part of the instrument, and also of what we might call 'proper' pipe music. There are some tunes where drones don't work, and some multi-instrument arrangements where they might get in the way, but - on pipe tunes at le

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Anthony Robb
What you say is true, but still ignores Paddy Maloney's point of adding drones further into (even 'proper') pipes tunes for greater impact. We also have to remember that out of tune drones (and this unfortunately is the norm it seems to me) do little to enhance the music. This is tr

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Christopher.Birch
> out of tune drones (and this > unfortunately is the norm it seems to me) do little to enhance the > music. This is true even in the most surprising quarters i.e. modern > recordings where retakes could be done fairly easily to >correct this. I was starting to wonder whether I was the o

[NSP] Re: Drone Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Gibbons, John
Anthony, Certainly adding drones on the 2nd time through, works well on UP, especially on airs. Irish slow airs, being usually vocal music rather than pipe music, maybe don't require a drone so fundamentally. Musically this idea makes less sense on drone music though - double-tonic tunes etc.

[NSP] Re: Drone Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Anthony Robb
Hello John In reverse order, switching off drones is certainly a cop out if the player is capable of tuning up properly in the first place otherwise it seems fairly sensible to keep them off (in public at least) until that stage is reached. I'm particularly thinking of the 'drones a

[NSP] Doublin' (Keenan & Glackin)

2011-01-07 Thread Anthony Robb
If any UP fans haven't heard this album or others want to know more, it was released 31 years ago but has been redone on CD and is available at Amazon: (for UK readers) [1]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doublin-Paddy-Glackin/dp/B4SCTK/ref=sr_1 _4?ie=UTF8&qid=1294413475&sr=8-4 This

[NSP] Re: Doublin' (Keenan & Glackin)

2011-01-07 Thread Gibbons, John
I'd agree completely about this record. Lovely! I must dig it out again. The precision is what marks it out from a lot of lesser performances, Irish or from wherever. John -Original Message- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Anthony Robb S

[NSP] Re: Concertina Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Mike Dixon
Richard Colin also plays serpent for our morris side and plays concertina in our local sessions ( along with his son John on fiddle - awesome!) as well which helps , and I too have been lucky so far, he turned my English one round and sold it on for me in a matter of a few weeks. I never really

[NSP] Re: Doublin' (Keenan & Glackin)

2011-01-07 Thread Matt Seattle
On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 3:55 PM, Gibbons, John <[1]j.gibb...@imperial.ac.uk> wrote: I'd agree completely about this record. Lovely! I must dig it out again. The precision is what marks it out from a lot of lesser performances, Irish or from wherever. I am so relieved t

[NSP] Re: Drone Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Colin
This talk of drone tuning reminded me of something. Some years ago, someone on this list directed us to a website which had (I hope I can explain this and make sense) a keynote playing and you had to use sliders to tune the drones (using the mouse) and got a score for how near you were (it was

[NSP] Re: Drone Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Francis Wood
Colin, the thing you recall is Rob Say's Northumbrian Smallpipes Simulator: http://www.milecastle27.co.uk/simulator/ I'm sure that Rob might reply himself, omitting to say how absolutely brilliant it is. So I shall do so instead. Francis On 7 Jan 2011, at 18:53, Colin wrote: > This talk of d

[NSP] Re: Drone Tuning

2011-01-07 Thread Paul Scott
I agree, it made sense for me as an isolated complete beginner. Interesting discussion re uillean pipes, as one of the only Northumbrian pipers in Ireland (and can barely call meself that) I found that when I contacted a few uillean pipemakers here, I was surprised how little they knew about t

[NSP] Like never before

2011-01-07 Thread Francis Wood
Two hornpipes as you've never heard them before - The Wordsfail Hornpipe followed by Loudrocks. http://stash.alonetone.com/mp3/13649/Redesdale_Proudlocks_Hesleyside-WyrDGeneS.mp3 I must say, I really like this. To find out more, Google 'Wyrdgenes' Francis To get on or off this list see li

[NSP] Re: Doublin' (Keenan & Glackin)

2011-01-07 Thread Anthony Robb
And I love the Glackin & Keenan record too, I haven't heard it for ages but it used to really fire me up, it has The Juice. (Matt) And at 8.99 GBP surely the best value music CD online this year!! Anthony PS John G is a sharp as a broken pisspot (as we say up/down here) and I

[NSP] Re: Like never before

2011-01-07 Thread Matt Seattle
Clever and funny, Francis, well spotted On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 9:43 PM, Francis Wood <[1]oatenp...@googlemail.com> wrote: Two hornpipes as you've never heard them before - The Wordsfail Hornpipe followed by Loudrocks. [2]http://stash.alonetone.com/mp3/13649/Redesdale_Proud

[NSP] Re: Like never before

2011-01-07 Thread Gibbons, John
Very daft. `It's Northumbrian music cap'n but not as we know it' The track continues with Hesleyside Reel, and finally brings out, wonderfully, the true treacliness of Sweet Hesleyside. Can he please murder Rothbury Hills too for an encore maybe? It needs it. I will be going back to the site for a

[NSP] NSP & concertina

2011-01-07 Thread John Dally
Thanks for the reminder about the Glackin/Keenan CD. It will always be associated with the solace it gave me while holed up in a Manhattan hotel during a week of terrifyingly dull business meetings. As for NSP & concertina, if you haven't yet listened to Rob Say's CD "O'er Lang at the Fair" Vetera