a tutor ook e this pdf is a sample from the tutor book please visit www.smallpiper.co.uk ed for more information y Vicki Swan
The Scottish Smallpipes Help uide Introduction Index to the Tunes i i Lesson One Starting Up! 1 Lesson Two Notes -,,, 5 rotchets, minims 4/4, 2/4 3/4 Lesson Three Notes - D. E, F,, 10 Lesson Four Quavers, dotted crotchet 14 repeat marks, upbeats Lesson Five race Notes -, D, E 18 Lesson Six Strikes 24 Lesson Seven 6/8, Jig time 28 ir, Reel, Jig 31 Lesson Eight Semi-quaver 32 9/8, Slip Jig time 34 Dotted semi-quaver 35 Lesson Nine Doublings 39 Repeated note exercises 41 Lesson Ten Written Notation and pitch 44
Introduction This tutor is primarily aimed at Scottish Smallpipes, but some of the information and exercises will be useful to the other sorts of bellows pipers as well. Step by step exercises and explanations have been used to guide the learner on the path of reading music and learning the Smallpipes. There is an accompanying audio D, the extract numbers relate to the tracks numbers. This tutor can be used for any key. The written notation should be played with the same fingering on any chanter, so if a D or any other key chanter is being used, the notes should be read with the same fingering. The pitch won t be the same but as there are only nine notes on the chanter this is not important in the learning of the pipes. chart is included at the end to show you what notes are being played. There are many different styles of piping around and this help guide shows but one. Some performers use strict Highland gracenotes, some use none at all. This tutor tries to find a middle ground and give the facility to use gracenotes to add texture and colour in whatever way is best suited to the style of music played. ood luck! INDEX TO TUNES V!"#! S%& pples and hairs 33 The roomfield 23 The lackberry ush 27 artmel Fell 27 The heckered Kilt 43 hevy hase 23 olin s attle 26 ommunity rawl 20 orn Riggs are onny 34 The Damson Tree 17 The Dornoch Links 32 Drops of randy 35 Dusty Pipes 16 Elderflower Hunt 42 The Fancy Fool 19 Farewell to the stra 39 Fionualla s Little Finger 17 Follow Her O er the order 35 oing ommando 43 The olden irch 16 PRS lues 41 Headphones and dmins 42 High Road to Linton 26 Highland Pibroch 30 Hogmog 43 In the Kitchen 34 Jenny s Fain but Jocky s Fu 34 John nderson My Jo 26 Kiwi Flyer 32 Lovely Stornoway 31 Max s March 36 Metamorphosis 40 The Mill Mill O 17 Money Musk 37 The Partridge 19 The Pipers Wedding 30 Road To opdock 37 Rocking the aby 29 Sandy Duff 23 Scotty s Last Munro 38 Seeking the alloway 31 Shew s The Way To Wallington 35 Sine han 29 Speed the Plough 27 Stornoway astle 24 Tail Toddle 31 Terribus 36 Theid Mi Dhachaigh 22 The Trickling Stream 29 Vintage Puget 38 The Water oatman 26 Where shall our uidman Ly 22
Lesson One Drones (taken apart hanter ellows onnecting Tube ag oming out from the box the pipes will be exploded into bits: the bag, the bellows, the end of the bass drone and possibly a connecting tube for the joining the bag and the bellows together. ently push the end of the drone onto the end of the drone attached to the bag. Join the connecting tube up (if there is one). Next strap the bellows around your waist, try to keep them as high up as possible, the optimum placing is for the strap to lie underneath your right upper arm then strap the bellows onto your upper arm. The bellows should be strapped quite tightly, but not cutting off your blood supply. Some people tend to have the bellows very low down on the waist, but higher up is much better for posture and technique. 1 wetfoot music 2005
Lesson Two Most people find the thought of reading music really scary. So the first job is to take away the mystery of written music and make it user friendly! The easiest way is to think of it as a time value graph. The Scottish Smallpipe scale is nine notes from bottom to top. D E F The lines and spaces go up step by step. It looks tricky but we're going to take it apart little by little. " # #! D E F F E D To start with here is an explanation of some of the symbols used in music. " wrapped around the line. efore the 16th entury music was written on a grand stave of many lines with a symbol to show where the middle was. (The note middle is found roughly in the middle of the piano keyboard). This was hard to read, so it was cut down to five lines, it then became vey important to show where the pitch those five lines were. Depending on whether an instrument was higher or lower, the "clef" as it is called was moved around these five lines. The clef that has been adopted by most melody playing instruments is the one that we use. # # t the start of every line there is a squiggly symbol (it's on the left here). This is dates back to the late 16th century when music was first starting to be written down. It is called a treble clef and shows how high or low the music is. It is also called the lef as the curly bit in the middle is Next on the stave you can see two other signs, these are called sharps. In traditional Highland agpipe music they are left out, mainly because as the pipes only play a set nine notes that can't generally be altered there is little point in leaving them in. large majority of Scottish Smallpipers use a chanter in, so the player reads the same notes as written and the same note is heard. (lthough sounding an octave lower than written). The benefit of this is that when playing with other players the notes are at pitch and no transposing need be done. Lastly there are two numbers, one above the other. This shows how many beats and of what kind there are in the music. These numbers change depending on the speed and type of tune being played. Scottish pipe tuning has changed over the years. The notes were originally tuned 'perfectly' to the drones so that each note 'perfectly' harmonized. Through time the notes are now tuned more in keeping with the well tempered classical instruments. The penultimate note in particular has gradually been lowered to the point that it is now much flatter. This has brought about much discussion about whether or not a sharp or a natural should be played in some tunes. Enough history, onto the playing... 5 wetfootmusic 2005
These are the first three notes,, and. Thumb 1st Finger 2nd Finger 3rd Finger Left Hand 1st Finger 2nd Finger 3rd Finger Right Hand Little Finger - the little finger is optional " # # 201! Practise playing these notes very slowly changing from one note to the next without making any extra or blips. If the notes squeal it means that not all the holes are covered properly. et a feel for the chanter and moving the fingers fluidly. The first note is, this is the home note, the note that is the same as the top and bottom drones. When these three notes are comfortable, have a go at the exercises below. Written notation uses alphabetical order, so the first three notes are. good reason to put the little finger down on the right hand when playing is that this is an anchor point. In fast tunes it can be tricky to find the holes, so by putting the little finger down the right hand always has a point of reference to find the other holes. 202 " # #! " # # 203 ll the notes in the exercises on this page have been coloured in blobs with sticks. These are one count notes, (or crotchets). Hold each note for the same length. 204 " # # 205 " # # 206 " # # wetfootmusic 2005 6