Passion is what keeps us alive. It is the driving force that not only serves artists but also everyone who has what we call humanity. I think where ever you are or whatever status you may have in life, passion is something that you can always seek shelter to. It is what keeps you young and ambitious.
I know that I am passionate about any type of music. That is why I will always have something to write about and I will have someone to talk to about music almost every day. I like to read what other people write about music they like. I also love reading about thoughts of musicians and what they are going through or how they’re inspired to write a wonderful song.
I think all of us have an artist inside. As children we don’t really know yet about our true calling that is why we tend to mimic anything . But as we grow older and once our habits and preferences are set, we become discriminating. We develop certain tastes-whiter it’ musical, visual or culinary.
I like the idea that we add layers to our personalities as we grow older. And also our tastes evolve with time. And in the midst of all these are the artists who inspire us to discover what we are called upon to do- the purpose of our existence.
Let me introduce to what’s new….
Traditional music as well as original songs and tunes from this dynamic young 5-piece led by singer Paul McKenna.
Their exciting sound is created through outstanding vocals, driving guitar and bouzouki, intense fiddle playing, a warm pairing of flute and whistles, and dynamic bodhrán and percussion. Their first album (self-titled) won them Best Up And Coming Artist Of The Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2009, and received critical acclaim.
If you don’t know how exciting Glasgow based band Deoch n Dorus are, then don’t miss on the train. They are young, vibrant and passionate about the kind of music they play. This s a good addition t those who love Scottish music.
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Lovers of the music of Early America, Ireland and Scotland should know Connie Dover. I really think her albums are awesome and there’s never been a moment that’s not magical. Her clear , pure and magical voice delivers that Celtic American sentiment found in no other artist.
It is nice to sit down with someone and talk about creativity. After all, we are creative beings. We like to build things and see where or what happens next. It is the idea that creation is part of our every cell is such a fascinating thought!
My fascination with traditional materials arose from Archeological fascination. Join it with the love for sounds and creativity..then it becomes a marriage that has stayed for almost two decades-though it is safe to say that I am not married to someone(and I don’t intend to be).
It’s always an honor to be able to get responses musicians and have their thoughts compiled so that others will be inspired. We affect the universe in our actions. And a little goes a long long way.
And so for the news….
Clannad @ Leo's Tavern
Clannad as mentioned earlier are making n amazing comeback. Al the members are excited to come up with new materials and their performances are sold out. Well it’s been more than a decade and I think it is only right that we hear them again and bask in their magical glory . See complete story here: http://www.clannad.nl/2011/01/clannad-in-late-late-show.html
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Seth Lakeman
1500 artists, 300 events, 18 days, 14 venues!From January 14-31, Celtic Connections will feature artists with the intensity of torrential rains. There is no stopping the passion as it hits the stage. Secure your seats now. Featured artists are : Seth Lakeman, Shifting Sands, A Night of Celtronika and a lot more…
If you are going to Count Clare, don’t miss out TradFest 2011 which will take off in February. Ronan O’Snodaigh(Kila), Ciorras, Martin Hayes and many others http://www.ucctradsoc.com/#/tradfest-2011/4547251256…
Hi folks. I have nothing much to say today so I will let the musicians and music do the talking. First stop is Loreena McKennitt’s press talk about the new album The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Nicely done and the questions focus more on the music and the production which are lacking today on interviews.
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I also stumbled upon this interesting documentary involving Kila’s lead vocalist Ronan O’Snodaigh.
I owe this great link to my friend Loic Rathscheck whom you might remember in my earlier interview. He’s a Frenchman so there flows the Celtic blood in his veins. He doesn’t play Celtic music , rather his style is electronic but he shares my passion for almost all types of music. He is a memorable contact because he is the first person I attempted to interview. Anyway, this important link he sent to me is Andrew Lenz’s Bagpipe Tips: Learning Bagpipes without an Instructor. I think the winner in this article is not just his answers but the way he delivered them-with honesty, candour and humor.
“Anyone learning an instrument on their own can be their own worst enemy, with bad posture, poor fingering techniques, bad tuning, etc.”
What exactly does it take to learn the bagpipes on your own? This article lets you know the ins and outs of self-instruction, offers some advice and suggests some resources to help you.
Is it possible to teach yourself bagpipes?
Yes—to a point—but it is a road fraught with peril, unfortunately.
What’s going for you.
The bagpipe chanter—the bagpipe part with which you play notes with your fingers—only sounds one note at a time, so there are no chords to worry about. There are only 9 possible notes to sound (not counting a few special somewhat rarely played notes). This means that reading bagpipe music is relatively easy. And learning the basic fingering is simple.
What’s going against you and why you should get an instructor.
You’re going to get a lot of commentary in this section!
I have to say that the idea of a person teaching themselves bagpiping sets off warning bells in my head as it does most pipers. While sometimes it is a necessity due to a very remote location or poverty, in others it’s a case of people thinking that somehow the bagpipes are a “teach yourself” kind of instrument.
It’s not.
If you are even half-way serious about learning the pipes, I strongly recommend that you find yourself an instructor.
The bagpipes come with about as much in the way of instructions as a piano comes with instructions on tuning it, or a guitar on how to play chords. Next to uilleann pipes, the Great Highland Bagpipes are the most complex wind instrument on the planet—four reeds!—this is a real instrument requiring real lessons. Bagpipes are exceedingly easy to play incredibly poorly and can be quite temperamental at an inexperienced hand. Maintenance is complex compared to most instruments. Tuning the instrument proves be quite a challenge to most new pipers—heck, even many experienced ones! That’s one of the reasons the pipes get such little respect sometimes. Too many people try to teach themselves bagpipes, fail, and now here we are with a slice of the general public with a strong dislike for the pipes, oblivious to the fact that they were exposed to very poor piping.
The following may sound harsh. If you want to just doodle with them, in my opinion, you should avoid playing public as you will be representing all the truly dedicated bagpipers that have gone before you, world-class and otherwise. Friends and family fine—tell them you are a beginner—but not the general public. If you think you’re getting good enough to play in public, play in front of an experienced piper or better yet, compete at a highland games to get a truly objective appraisal of your piping skills.
There are no world level pipers that I ‘m aware of who were self-taught. Not that competing at that level is your goal necessarily, but it goes to prove a point. I’ve heard of one Grade I piper (the highest amateur grade) who was self-taught—David Daye, a link to his site is below—so it’s possible to do well on your own if you have a disciplined perfectionist personality with a very good ear for picking out minute sound problems and figuring out how to correct them…it’s very rare.
Anyone learning an instrument on their own can be their own worst enemy, with bad posture, poor fingering techniques, bad tuning, etc. If you are self-taught, try as you might, there’s a good chance you won’t know any better. You might get used to playing a chanter that’s out of tune and think nothing of it. Having an instructor set up the tuning on your practice chanter as well as your bagpipe chanter will have you developing a sense for a true bagpiping scale while you are practicing.
Another thing is self-taught pipers tend to be impatient, as are probably most learners, so without an instructor to hold you back from techniques that you are not ready for, you may press ahead anyway. For example, you could try to learn complex embellishments (series of notes) without even having basic grace notes down correctly. It’s much harder to unlearn a technique then relearn it correctly than to simply learn correctly the first time. To quote one formerly self-taught piper: “Like others, I found what I was doing was a misinterpretation of what I thought I was seeing and hearing.”
If you decide to learn piobaireachd—prounced “pee-brock” and is called the “classical music of the pipes”—you’ll discover that relatively huge departures are taken from existing sheet music. As an example, you may find three notes to be shown to be played even, when in fact the last should be played 2-3 times the length of the others. Granted, you can pick up a lot of this timing from recordings, but an instructor can help you pull every last bit of expression out a tune. This also applies to “light music” (marches, jigs, reels, etc.) though those are played much closer to the printed page. Commenting on his early unsuccessful competition experiences, PM Jim Harrington had this to say: “The problem was simply not knowing how to express the music—but that’s a problem with just about every tune when you’re a beginner with no instructor.”
Having had a bagpipes teacher for years, I can testify to their value. I’m not alone in having an instructor tell me that a bad habit has snuck in, such as my wrists are in the wrong position or an embellishment has a subtle fingering error. Even with an instructor showing you in-person how to do something, you can often go home and practice an embellishment incorrectly. It may sound right to your untrained ear, but at least it’ll be caught and corrected by your instructor as soon as your next lesson.
“No matter how many times you say it… No matter how much you may try to drill it into folks’ heads… A person learning on their own is not going to realize they need an instructor, until after they find an instructor… A slurred D-Throw sounds perfectly fine to someone who has never had it played slowly and correctly for him.”
Andrew MacTao, after 18 months of learning, having starting on his own.
These’s a saying that goes “Seven generations and seven years to make a piper.” Your instructor will be your link to those past seven generations. The seven years is up to you.
“I already play a wind instrument, I don’t think I really need an instructor.”
I’m going to let someone’s quote answer this one.
“I was classically trained in both trumpet and clarinet in college. Learning bagpipes has been a dream of mine since I was little, and there’s no instrument comparable to pipes in a technical or musical sense. If you want to learn bagpipes at a high level, you need high quality instruction from someone who has learned from a high quality teacher. If I used my classical training on bagpipe music, none of the gracenotes, or even the beats, would be in the right place. Even bagpipe tuning is radically different. I could go on for pages about the differences, but I can’t do anything right without my instructor. Each time I think I understand a new piece, nope, it’s different than I thought.” B. Hunter, band director in Houston, Texas.
“I can’t afford an instructor.”
Trust me, you can’t afford to not have an instructor. Some bands even give instruction for free. But even if you can’t find lessons at no charge, you are talking about an investment in your future. There are numerous cases where a self-taught “piper” cannot discard bad habits and learn the proper way to play and a frustrated instructor simply gives up on that individual. Often not the case, but it does happen. Get as much personalized instruction as you can afford as early in your piping career as you can manage.
“I don’t live near an instructor.”
Gregg Heath of Belgrade, Montana had this to say after a year and a half of learning: “I realized early on that self teaching was a non-starter. I did it long enough to pick up some bad habits that my instructor is gently helping me correct. I now travel 200 miles round trip once a week for instruction and band practice and it’s well worth it. If you want to play the pipes bad enough you’ll find away to get to an instructor.”
Gregg isn’t that unsual. I’ve heard of numerous students driving over three to four hours to get personal interaction with an instructor, it was so desired. Some cities have several piping teachers. Some counties have none. Maybe not “fair” but that’s the way life is.
“The nearest instructor is really far away!”
Assuming that you’ve looked correctly and there truly isn’t a piper around to instruct you face-to-face, then consider any personalized instruction very valuable. There are ways around not having an instructor within a reasonable distance. And you don’t have to meet with an instructor in-person to get individualized attention.
A tried and true method of remote but individualized instruction is sending audio cassette tapes of your playing to a teacher who then records comments and lessons for your playing. Improvements in technology has lead to newer methods such as swapping video tapes, e-mailing sound files, interactive Internet video conferencing. Another method is to simply use the telephone to engage in a live two-way lesson. One of the first websites attempting to capitalize on the need for remote instruction is LivePiper.com. What’s important is to get feedback specific to you so that you can concentrate your practice on your weaknesses.
Other opportunities for instruction are various piping seminars, workshops, summer schools, and the like which may be within your means to attend.
“I’m moving near a teacher soon, what can I do to get a head start?”
Probably the best thing to do is to simply wait and spend your free time listening to lots of bagpiping recordings. This will help develop your ear.
But if you know who your teacher is going to be, then ask him/her as to what practice chanter he/she prefers and with his/her permission, puchase that brand—but be careful, he/she may want you working on nothing! (Or if you have a practice chanter already, ask if him/her if it will suffice.)
If you don’t know your instructor, purchase a good quality practice chanter made in an industrialized nation (Scotland, USA, Canada, etc.). Buy a rank beginner’s tutorial book—check with your bagpipe supply shop. Learn the basic finger positions then learn to read bagpipe music and correlate the two. (Avoid learning combinations of notes, i.e. embellishments.) Avoid playing tunes, but if you can’t control yourself, please ignore the gracenotes for the time being. Playing tunes can introduce the possibility of changing notes incorrectly resulting in “crossing noises”—most common are in changes from a lower hand note to a higher hand note or vice versa—which an instructor will then have to go back and spend time correcting!
Remember: the more you push ahead wihout a teacher, the more risk that you’ll learn something that you’ll have to undo later.
Things to do to accelerate your learning
Listen to a lot of professional solo bagpipe recordings. Get as many CDs as you can get your hands on and listen closely and critically.
Go to highland games and piping performances/competitions. Given the choice, listen to the more advanced pipers. Though it may be inspirational to hear lower grade pipers competing also—”I can do that!”
For bagpipe maintenance and tuning, Jim McGillivray’s “Pipes Ready” and “Pipes Up”
videos and for detailed excersizes for embellishments, there’s his “Rhythmic Fingerwork“: http://www.piping.on.ca
Pipe Major Bill Robertson’s Bagpipe Tutorials (Light music and piobaireachd): www.bagpipe-tutorials.com
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Here’s another link to a video he sent me. Wow! Red Hot Chilli Pipers having a Scottish time at The Ferry in Glasgow
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I voted for Dom Duff’sRoc’h in the Grand Prix du Disque . Dom is an amazing musician from Brittany who continues to bring the Celtic Breton tradition to the fore by collaborating with only the best musicians and writing primarily in Breton. I wish he wins because I think Roc’h is an album of eloquent achievement. You can also vote for him through this link:
Giving you the joyful gift of this beautiful song by Wolf Tones. Look at all these nations bonded together by a common culture.
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Calum Stewart, tullochgorum & varations…
I love the way he breathes life into the wood instrument. Calum has been recording with Welsh bandMabonand has proven that he is one of the ambassadors of Celtic music to the world.
Shaun Davey has once again fused Irish tradition and other styles and brought it to the wonderful Balkan border with Voices from the Merry Cemetery. I listened to the preview and it is indeed intriguing as it fuses these two cultures-the Irish and Romanian. It is no surprise that he is chosen as Composer of the Decade in Live Ireland’s Decades Awards 2000-2010. A Truly influential and hard-working Irish musician who continues to brave new grounds.
I came across this wonderful interview with Mary Jane Lamond by John Gillis. This woman has been one of the striking forces in awakening the interest for the Celtic revival in Nova Scotia. Check this out:
Interview – The Inverness Oran
Mary Jane Lamond wins Portia White Prize by John Gillis
It was a big night for Cape Breton at the fifth Creative Nova Scotia Awards Gala on October 29th at Halifax’s Pier 21.
Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond received the prestigious Portia White prize in recognition of her efforts to preserve Gaelic culture through song.
Lamond told The Oran this week following the win that it still seems “a little unbelievable.”
Lamond had been nominated for the Portia White Prize twice before.
“One never sets out to win awards, and I certainly would have never imagined this when I was a student at St. F.X. (in the Celtic Studies program) and learning Gaelic songs. I think it’s just great for the community,” she said.
Lamond says she credits much of her success to the support from the Gaelic-speaking community and tradition-bearers who have always been an inspiration to her.
As this year’s winner, Ms. Lamond is able to name a protégé to receive a $7,000 prize. She named arts organization Comunn Féis an Eilein of Christmas Island as her protégé. The organization helps to preserve the Gaelic language through a series of summer music performances that draw visitors to the community.
“They’ve certainly always been there for me from the beginning – back to when I was a student and I attended what was probably their second annual Féis event,” said Lamond.
Despite the fact Cape Breton has lost a tremendous number of Gaelic speakers over the last two decades, Lamond says she is encouraged by the resurgence of interest from a younger generation in speaking the language.
Lamond was one of several musicians who participated in a recent Celtic Colours workshop which involved creating new Gaelic songs and performing them in concert.
Lamond says she has been cutting back on her touring in recent years, but she would like to do another CD with some friends and musical collaborators – hopefully within the next year or so.
Despite her most recent success Lamond remains conscious of the continued need here in Cape Breton to develop more Gaelic speakers.
It was in Nova Scotia, visiting her grandparents throughout her youth, that Mary Jane Lamond fell in love with Scottish Gaelic traditions and song.
In another strange twist of fate, Lamond’s aunt, Margaret MacDonald, was one of Nova Scotia singer Portia White’s first accompanists.
“The world has fallen in love with Mary Jane Lamond’s unique singing voice and embraced Gaelic song in the process,” said Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage Percy Paris. “She deserves recognition for her talent and the passion she brings to her art.”
The other two finalists for the Portia White Prize were Neil Forest, a professor and ceramic artist, and John Little, a blacksmith and sculptor.
An independent jury of artists reviewed nominations for the Portia White Prize which promotes excellence, innovation and expression in the arts. The annual gala is hosted by the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council.
Five people received Established Artist Recognition awards worth $5,000:
– cellist Norman Adams of Halifax has contributed to performing arts as a member of Symphony Nova Scotia, creator of chamber ensemble Suddenly Listen and his work with Gwen Noah Dance;
– artist, poet, educator and advocate Rose Adams of Halifax was chosen because of her relentless pursuit of excellence, including her contributions as artist in residence at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center’s memory disability clinic;
– Emmy Alcorn of Guysborough is the artistic director of Mulgrave Road Theatre and has encouraged appreciation for arts and culture through her work in theatre and the development of the Chedabucto Place Performance Center;
– artist Cathy Busby of Halifax is renowned for her representational pieces which are featured in collections across Canada and around the world;
– painter and educator Drew Klassen of Halifax has taught drawing at Dalhousie University’s school of architecture and painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and his work is prized for its depiction of landscapes.
The Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council, in consultation with the arts and culture sector, provides advice and recommendations to guide the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage regarding ongoing investment in Nova Scotia’s artists, cultural industries and cultural activities.
Since the release of Og-mhadainn Shamhraidh (Summer Dawn) in 2006, Scotland’s Kathleen MacInnes have haunted hearts and set them on fire with her singing style and charm. We have to give her credit for choosing the best musicians in the industry to collaborate with. We hope 2011 brings us fresh news from her. Can hardly wait for a new album!
. What’s important is to get feedback specific to you so that you can concentrate your practice on your weaknesses.
Celtic Music Fan 