Taking Apart Your Piping I: A Guide to Self-Critique
By Eliot Grasso
Published in Iris na bPíobairí Vol. XXXV No. 2 Spring 2006
Some of my most valuable learning experiences came via the private piano lessons I received from Jeffrey Chappell on my path to completing a BA in music. From these lessons, I was able to glean many useful strategies for improving my keyboard playing and, from teaching many students over time, I have found that the strategies used in piano playing are easily tailored to piping.
Many pipers worldwide are without the benefit of group lessons let alone private ones. Having received private tuition on the pipes and several other instruments since the beginning, my desire is to render suggestions and tips that may have previously gone unconsidered by those lacking such an advantage.
We all have favorite pipers, pipers whose music we enjoy and to some degree wish to emulate. After listening to or watching a stirring performance, many of us are consciously saying to ourselves "I wish I could play like that." What I believe we are saying on a subconscious level is, "I wish I could play however I wanted."
The question one must then pose is "How do I want to play?" Or rather, "What is my favorite piper doing that I wish to emulate?" Chances are that studious pipers really just seek the skills that will allow them the freedom to play however they want and not necessarily to copy someone else exactly. Answering, "How do I want to play?" can only be answer after many hours of exploration and decision-making.
Before answering the question: "What is my favorite piper doing?" with "Playing perfectly," it is important to examine just what they are doing that makes their playing appealing to you. Guidelines for stylistic analysis involve taking apart what you are hearing and seeing in someone's music making. This process involves analyzing their rhythm, the way they choose to vary a tune by altering melodic contour, harmony used in regulator playing or melodic variation, execution of ornamentation, and tempo. All this can be collectively termed "interpretation." By paying attention closely to the rhythm, melody shaping, harmony, and tempo in another piper's playing, you are gradually learning how take apart another's playing and thereby becoming capable of taking apart your own.
When you hear piping that you enjoy, ask yourself a few questions. "Is this a speed at which I would like to play music on the pipes?" If the answer is yes, then you have a tempo goal to reach. Suggestions for achieving your ideal tempo will be addressed later. When hearing this piper play, you may wonder: "Would I like to put into my own playing same amount of ornamentation as this piper is incorporating? Do I prefer simple or complicated sounding music?" Again, answering such a question will set your goal for ornamentation. If you prefer dense ornamentation, then your goals will be different than if you prefer sparse ornamentation.
Two critical questions to ask yourself are "what are my fingers doing on the chanter and why?" You should know to what degree the notes you are playing are carefully thought out or simply automatic. The greater degree of autonomy granted to the muscles in your fingers without prior consideration, the greater likelihood there is of developing and enforcing bad habits. The good news is that it is easier to figure out what your own fingers are doing than what someone else’s fingers are doing. Sill, determining what your fingers are doing is challenging especially without the aid of personal instruction. Personal instruction provides a human monitor to examine your playing from the outside which is a helpful complement to your own self-analysis.
Problem: Uncomfortable when in playing position or little stamina due to discomfort
Suggestion 1: Watch yourself play the pipes in a full-length mirror
The first thing I see as a teacher is a student seated before me holding their instrument either comfortably or not. When sitting in front of a mirror, you can begin to analyze yourself from the exterior. Before playing a single note, ask yourself a few questions:
* Am I comfortable and relaxed the way I'm currently holding the pipes?
* Is it possible that my hand position could in any way be impeding the way I would like to play?
I have run into instances in multiple lessons where slight adjustments to a student's posture or hand position makes playing far easier than it ever was before. Perhaps you have a tendency to clench the chanter so tightly that your ornamentation does not come out the way you would like. Take advantage of the following suggestion.
Suggestion 2:
With the bag fully inflated, the chanter should by able to stand up freely on the knee (the chanter should be on the knee opposite that of the bag.) Fill the bag until this is possible, remove your hands from the chanter, and gently shake any tension from them. With your hands hanging limply at the wrists, place the right hand on the bottom and the left hand on top so that the top hand approaches the chanter at a 45 degree angle with the end pad of the ring finger placed squarely on the third hole down. The hole should touch the middle finger and first finger on the middle pad. The hands should be placed at an angle so that the joints are not bent, but only naturally curved. The wrist of the top hand should be straight while the bottom wrist is mildly curved. Never should the fingers be curved.
Inflate the bag and seal the chanter with your fingers as described in the last paragraph. Observe your hand posture and body position. Are you able to sit comfortably and correctly so that you can easily seal the chanter and reach the drone switch key and regulators (if you have them)?
Correct and comfortable position is really the first step closer to fluid playing.
Problem: Difficulty executing fluid passagework and maintaining steady pulse
A second, although larger step toward fluid playing is the deliberate placement and execution of every cran, roll, cut, and grace note.
Suggestion 1: Set and obey the metronome
The metronome was not designed to smooth out one's playing. The metronome was designed to keep the musician aware of a constant pulse: the downbeat of the music. Playing with a metronome will only work if you:
* set the click to a pace where you are able to think about what you are playing
* obey the click
Try setting the metronome so that the click is fast enough and you are playing slowly enough whereas every note you play sounds at the same time as a click. Setting this tool to a tempo where it clicks only on your downbeat will only keep the bookends of your phrasing together. You will know one thing and one thing only: you are able to play a tune such that the downbeat, that is the first and third beat of every measure, happens to coincides with a click. Everything in between clicks can be a jumbled mess, but you will easily fool yourself into thinking your playing is fluid. Musicians are not metronomes. The metronome should be used to give the musician a rigid frame of reference so that when liberties in tempo and rhythm are taken, they know from what they are diverging.
Suggestion 2: Speed up the metronome
When you feel like you are conscious enough of your metronome such that each note falls on a click, speed the metronome up so that the click now falls on beats one and three of your tune. Start the metronome off at a slow tempo so you are able to think about the next note of the tune before you play it. This method will reinforce correct fingers only if you think about the next correct fingering before you execute it.
Suggestion 3: Tap your foot
Tap your foot (more specifically the foot opposite the chanter). The more new elements you add, the more you will enforce the elements (i.e. your fingers) that you have mastered previously. I had been playing the piano for several years before I took up the pipe organ. Adding a pedal line to what was previously just ten fingers helped to reinforce the autonomy of the fingers because I had something else to focus on.
Try tapping your foot on beats one and three in time with the metronome. After you feel comfortable doing this with a metronome, turn the metronome off trying tapping. As with the metronome, try this exercise slowly enough so that you can imagine or picture the next fingering before you execute it.
For a reel tapping one foot tap: 1234 5678
For a jig tapping one foot tap: 123 456
When you are able to comfortably tap your foot on beats one and three (for a reel on the first and fifth eighth notes and for a jig on the first and fourth eighth notes), try tapping both feet alternately. Tap the foot opposite the chanter on the downbeat (one and three) and the chanter foot on the offbeat (two and four) so that every other eighth note has a foot tap on it.
For a reel tapping both feet tap: 1234 5678
For a jig tapping both feet tap: 123 456
Productive practicing: Criticism and Playing vs. Practicing
You probably have heard from one source or another that you are your own worst critic. The goal of this guide is to observe yourself critically so that you improve and advance technically. Keep your attitude positive and realistic. Acknowledge the progress you have made and break the path left ahead into manageable bites.
When sitting down to practice, be sure to give careful attention to what you are doing. Sitting down to "play" is not the same as sitting down to "practice." Sitting down to play is something one should do to attempt to put into action the things they have practiced. Practicing is the act of giving complete attention to the minutia of a technical process whether it be perfecting a triplet or cran, or deciding if you'd like to play a C or C# in a tune where either might sound fine.
Pick a tune that you can play by memory very easily and play it:
* Without drones and regulators
* At a tempo where you feel mostly if not completely in control of the chanter
Since complete control takes the most effort to gain, here are some suggestions on how to practice a tune so that you can gain better control over it.
* Practice the tune in a sharp dotted rhythm.
This means that the first note of the tune will be long and the second note will be very quick, almost like a grace note to the third note. The purpose of this practicing technique is to linger on the long notes until you have time to think two notes ahead.
Suppose you are playing three notes in a tune G A B. While playing G, think about playing the B and finger motions that will get your through A to B.
Suggestion: Practice when rested and alert
Avoid practicing if you are very fatigued. Before putting on the pipes, take a nap, eat some food, and rest your mind. Only then will your efforts reach maximum effect. At age 12 and 13, I would practice around 3 hours daily, but only in 20-30 minute increments spread over the course of a six-hour evening. Practice only as long as you can focus and then take a break. Rest your mind again. You will find that small bits of practicing spread out over time will yield greater results than a three-hour practice-a-thon once a week. Occasionally I would find myself in the Haebler Chapel practicing the pipe organ until 1:00am, but I would still take breaks to eat and decompress. It was only then that my practice time was efficient and productive.
Eliot Grasso
Seattle, WA