Dunaber music

Practice Chanters: Size Matters (Thanks Ben Johnson)

mike — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:59:35 +0000

With competitions and general busyness most Saturdays I’ve come to be a chronic Sunday reader of Canada’s Saturday Globe & Mail - a favourite newspaper. Out on the back deck this afternoon, as the setting sun of the last day of summer sort of warmed (a 19 degree day today), I came across an article of interest: one that made me immediately think of a bagpiping parallel (not an entirely uncommon thing to happen - I’m slightly embarrassed to admit).
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Joints

mike — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:48:24 +0000

It’s summer, the pipes and drums are in high gear, and the games are afoot. It’s also the time of year we put our instruments (and ourselves) under their biggest tests - under stressful and, usually, trying conditions. Wind, rain, sleet, cold, hot, “gloom of night“ - we perform under the full gamut of weather conditions. We’re the “postpeople” of the music world. Rarely do we get that perfect, cloudless 21 degree performance day. But we always aim to deliver.
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A Jig, “Jenny Hazzard”: Score & Sound File

mike — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:05:07 +0000

I’ve had a couple of notes from people looking for “more jigs”. So for the jig hounds here is a 4-parted 6/8 jig, “Jenny Hazzard”, from “Old & New Tunes“, published 1995. I’ve played this in solo jig competitions with success and I’m pretty sure Peel Police Pipe Band played a couple of parts in a competition medley when I was PM in the mid 90s.
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A Competition Strathspey: “The Blue Heron” (Score & Sound File)

mike — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:30:13 +0000

This tune comes from my third collection of tunes, “Old & New Tunes” (1995). The Blue Heron is a competition-style strathspey. (more…)

A New Hornpipe: “Sliding into Colintraive” (Score & Sound File)

mike — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:32:47 +0000

Yet another tune from the fifth book, “Music for Everybody”; this time, “Sliding into Colintraive“. This hornpipe is the kind of tune my great teacher, the Aberdonian, George Walker, would call, “hillbilly music”. To George, anything uptempo and easily played on the fiddle would usually fall under the hillbilly category. I remember playing what I could at one Toronto Knock-out final: lots of Cape Breton reels to finish - lots of sweat. George was there and came by as I was putting the pipes away, “Ach, metty, fine playin’ but all that hillbilly music!”
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A New March: “The Valley Train” (Score & Sound File)

mike — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:23:45 +0000

Here’s a very simple 3/4 march you may find interesting, “The Valley Train”, another tune from my fifth book. I should really have called it “The Dundas Valley Train”. That might’ve made the title a little more specific, a little more accurate, a little more meaningful - you know, the markers of good composition!
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Overcoming Real Challenges (John Wilson)

mike — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:49:40 +0000

One of my prized “piping possessions” is a signed copy of John Wilson’s autobiography, “A Professional Piper in Peace and War“: the front page, inscribed in broad strokes, “With all good wishes, Michael, from the author, John Wilson, 13th, January, 1979″. Sweet.
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Old Judging Tips Still Fresh

mike — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:11:07 +0000

Pipers are some of the most competitive-minded people on the planet. Gather a few pipers, throw a shoe box up for grabs (a functional, if not stylish, trophy), find a judge and, voila, you’ve got the makings of a grand solo piping event.

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A New Jig: “Well Away” (Score & Sound File)

mike — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:23:17 +0000

I knew I’d been away too long from these pages when it took me 20 minutes to track down the once-memorized dunaber login and password. Thanks to the notes on my trusty Blackberry: found. (more…)

Technical Style

mike — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:30:41 +0000

When it comes to technique there’s no one single, absolute and correct way to make things happen. By “things“, I mean the effective movement of fingers. ”Technique”, simply stated, is the way we move our fingers to allow just the right amount of air to flow out of our melody-making chanter, the right amount of air to make gracenotes sound and appropriately place rhythmic flourishes (also known as embellishments). To me, that’s technique. Dead simple.
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