Non-whistle Influences

[Flogging Jason]

When I was a boy(9-10 years old) learning the whistle my dad would be practicing GHBs for competition and pipe band. Since I didn't hang out with too many whistle players at the time I learned to emulate some of the bagpipe ornamentation. I also accompanied my father to historical re-enactments(as participants) from every period in early american history. There were always fife and drum groups and various historical music geeks in camp and I also picked up a lot of influence from them. So that's where a lot of my technique and early repertoire came from.

Stylistic non-whistle influences came mostly from uilleann and highland pipers. I was also very involved with punk rock shows as a teenager and a lot of that "hard and fast" style is a big part of my whistle playing today.

[mwilson]

I learned to emulate some of the bagpipe ornamentation.

Could I ask what some of those ornaments would be? In pipe lessons the things that are taking my attention -- grace notes and doublings and grips and things -- I take to be punctuation rather than melodic ornaments. They often sound pretty bad played out as notes in the tune. Were you making those work, or were there other things you were picking up on?

[pancelticpiper]

Could I ask what some of those ornaments would be? In pipe lessons the things that are taking my attention -- grace notes and doublings and grips and things -- I take to be punctuation rather than melodic ornaments. They often sound pretty bad played out as notes in the tune.

That's the cool thing about the so-called 'ornaments' in Highland pipe music and Irish trad played on uilleann pipes, whistle, or flute: they have simultaneous multiple functions, serving to articulate while at the same time adding rhythm and sounding somewhat decorative.

I've often said that the cuts, pats, and rolls played on Irish whistle and flute aren't 'ornaments' per se, because they're not superfluous to the melody and merely added for decoration. They're the 'nuts and bolts' of the style, simultaneously articulating, adding rhythm, and also decorating.

Many of the Highland-pipe-specific ornaments sound out of place on Irish instruments IMHO; these include leumluaths, taorluaths, and birls. (You don't have the necessary hole for birls anyhow, on the whistle.)

I, and many other players, do things on the whistle and uilleann pipes that are akin to the Highland pipe 'doublings', just not nearly as often as they appear in GHB tunes. I do the exact Highland "E doubling" on whistle and uilleann pipes, but it's on the note A of course. I also do a lower-hand version of that doubling, on E.

I do do a 'grip', a leumluath, on C natural on the whistle sometimes, just because it falls under the fingers well, and it gives another way to ornament C natural (you can't have enough of those).

[Flogging Jason]

I learned to emulate some of the bagpipe ornamentation.

Could I ask what some of those ornaments would be? In pipe lessons the things that are taking my attention -- grace notes and doublings and grips and things -- I take to be punctuation rather than melodic ornaments. They often sound pretty bad played out as notes in the tune. Were you making those work, or were there other things you were picking up on?

It's the crans and doublings I emulate I suppose. The influence was mainly derived from listening and watching Dad's fingers flitting about. The grace notes on the sheet music certainly don't translate well when played as written! They really only make sense on the pipes because it's virtually necessary for them to sound right given the fingerings and the inability to tongue notes.

[pancelticpiper]

When I was a boy(9-10 years old) learning the whistle my dad would be practicing GHBs for competition and pipe band.

It's the crans and doublings I emulate I suppose.

The influence was mainly derived from listening and watching Dad's fingers flitting about.

I should point out, in case this is confusing anybody, that crans are not a part of GHB ornamentation.

[ancientfifer]

I breezed through the previous responses, but don't think I saw any mentioning getting influence from fiddlers. On whistle and flute, I am influenced by the lift and the variations good fiddlers add to the music. For the past 2 weeks I have been intently listening to and studying Frankie Gavin's (fiddler of De Dannan), Up and Away flute/whistle cd. He gets the same lift on the woodwinds as he does on the fiddle. For me it really adds to the dance aspect of the music. Jus' my $.02

[ickabod]

Speaking for myself I have to admit that Influences are encompassed in my entire ecosystem. Everything from the rhythm of the rain, to a dog barking, or an owl hooting. Our enemies, friends, allies, the many voices heard in conversion. All noises feed off of each other to be reprocessed in musical form.

Example a ringtone inspires a composition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPw7dGBS_ZA

Influences.. I have many that are too numerous to count.

[AvienMael]

Beer.

Just kidding. I enjoy many of the same influences previously noted in other posts, but I am also the son of a former jazz drummer and jazz guitarist... as such, I find some of Miles Davis' early interpretations creeping into my playing from time to time. Sometimes, it's just a matter of seeing if I can do that too... I think that the pursuit of perfection can be the easiest road to the plateau, and yet it is that very path of adherence to the traditional which allows one the room and the freedom for self expression and something new, if only in terms of application. Other non-whistle influences include Artie Shaw, Julian Adderly, and even Metallica (some of their solos are very "whistlicious"). Anyone can play a tune; not everyone can make it an experience. Not everyone can reach that experience either.

We talk a lot about math and science when we talk about music and our instruments, but music is neither math nor science. Music can work - even when it doesn't make sense on paper. That is why we are drawn to make it. The only thing which truly separates any of us as players of music is our level of, and understanding of, our own dedications.