Did a simple recording on one of our practice sessions.
Two tunes by Fred Morrison.
Fred Morrison was born and raised near Glasgow, but it’s the celebrated Gaelic piping tradition of his father’s native South Uist, in the outer Hebrides, that forms the bedrock of his intensely expressive, uniquely adventurous style.
We’ve been to South Uist in 2022, there are many passing places in the North and on the Isles. But the tune Passing Places was writting because Fred was commisioned to produce a soundtrack for a film/documentary about the Hebrides. The tune “The Road East” was written on a car journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
This is my low D whistle, I also want to play this on our Irish Flute.
I only know a few songs on this, but i needed to learn at least one to play in our band. This is in honour of my mother who alway encouraged us to play musical instruments.
This accordeon was het one she and her sisters learned to play on when they where young.
We all love streaming our music, I didn’t at start.
First some history.
My parents had a record player, but they were not that into music. (Toon Hermans, Fons Janssen, Cliff Richard, and because of my little brother pan music from Costa Rica, but almost never have these been played) Pre-1984 I got some LPs: Michael Jackson Thriller, Normaal and some Classical LP I found on a fleamarket. (I didn´t know what I liked apparently) Well maybe I did, whatever the music was, it had to have something technical good. Then i started playing Bagpipes. Around 1984 I got some cassette tapes from the PipeMajor who taught me the pipes.
Silly Wizard
Battlefield Band
Tannahill Weavers
And several PipeBand cassettes
And I got a cool Japanese music tape from my Martial Arts teacher.
Oh my … the stuff I’ve got on my fileserver
I’ve played the heck out of these tapes in my room. I seldom listed to the Radio
I had something like this, the speakers on the side could be dissattached and connected with a longer cable) I think it was a dual tape.
1992 – Started buying CD’s 1996 – Studied data compression/codecs etc. became interested in mp3 (See other page) 1997 – Converted all my CDs to MP3
All LP’s and Cassettes have been converted over the years.
After a few years I wanted to have non-lossy files. Made ogg and Flac files.
2009 – Bought a Logitech Media Duet (still have it in 2023)
This allowed me to stream my MP3’s from my fileserver. I’ve bought many other logitech squeezebox devices.
Many web streamers and managers have i tested in the years: Ampache, Jellyfin, Funkwhale, Mpd, kplaylist and more Made a MP3 server for work (Badly Designed Sound Machine) (see other page) A webgui for our shoutcast server (Icecrew)
2013 – Started using Spotify, but not a lot of Folk/Pipes, luckily that changed. But I still like to own the music. Made a (now defunct) spotify ripper a while ago. There is still a lot of music not available on spotify, but you can add local files to your Spotify interface.
I started playing the pipes for the Highland Dancers a long time ago.
I wanted to know at least the Highland Fling, so i could understand what it is for the dancers. I learned the Fling from Monique and Yvonne. Yvonne tried to learn me to walz. But that was it for a loong time.
Then in 2008, 2009 we joined a Country Dance group. (Monique, Coline and I)
So I bought some size 45 (11.5) dance shoes.
At least the “little green book” with dance diagrams looks cool.
I’ve been playing a long time for Highland Dancers. And here are my tips for you. If you have additions or corrections let me know.
Practice
Practice, with and without the dancers.
Get to know the tempo the dancers would like. (Have them practice the tempo mentioned in the piping books)
Start in time with practicing (see below)
I wanted to know what it takes to be a highland dancer, to understand what they are doing, so I learned to dance the Highland Fling myself.
Before starting
Alway sing/hum a few bars. So your on the same line with the dancers, and setting the tempo. (If they can’t hear you, use your hand for the tempo) Some dancers are prepared for the dance they have to perform in advance, a change in order can make them nervous. (Check lead dancer for a okay sign, with Anke I had a almost invisible nod, and I could see when she was not sure about the Tempo)
Are the Dancers distracted? Then I would hit the bag of my pipes to get attention.
Face your Dancers if possible. Playing with multiple pipers? Let them face you, ideal would be if they see the dancers also.
Are they doing the sworddance? Hit your bag to make a little drone sound to time their movements to place the sword on the ground. (I’ll post a movie about this when i find it again)
While playing
Watch the group, and look for signs when they are stuggling. When you play too slow, you see them wanting to have more time in the air. (Hangtime) When playing too fast, you will see them making little hops, instead of the higher jumps. (You get angry eyes from the lead dancer 🙂 ) Adjust your speed (but slowly)
Always keep you eye on the lead dancer.
Stopping
Always step forward when planning to stop playing. Sometimes we have to stop when a sign has been given, because of something happening or planned events. Then you will have to end at the end of a part or when playing a set, at the end of the tune. (Practice this!)
Sometimes you or the dancers can be mistaken with the number of repeats. When you or the dancers are messing up. Get a clean ending. When the crowd is unaware, keep it that way. Keep a straight face! When they notice, tell or make I sign that you are sorry. on some occasions you can start again. (Take away any blame from the dancers, they are also nervous, it helps them for the next dance)
Nervous?
Focus on the dancers, not the public. Don’t play tunes you haven´t practiced enough. (This is a common mistake, because the dancers want to perform them before you are ready. When they start practicing a new dance, let them have you informed if possible, so you can practice at the same time)
Tunes I play are in: (links to pipetunesearch, my search engine for tunebooks)
We went to the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on 15 August 2008. The Red hot chilli pipers gave a concert here. Wooo!
It was a superb show, great memories. There where camera’s placed all over the place. Apparently they where filming for a DVD.
When we bought the DVD several months later, we where pleasantly surprised! .. When looking at the end credits .. There we where, totally oblivious of the fact that we where filmed.
14seconds in : Coline, Monique and Me
"If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
