Category Archives: Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Uilleann Pipe recordings

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Best Uilleann recordings I own or listen to.

Do you know any other good recordings? Let me know.

Uilleann CDs (no order)

  • Liam O’Flynn – The Pipers Call
  • Davy Spillane – Atlantic Bridge, Pipedreams, Out of the Air
  • Paddy Keenan – The Long Grazing Acre
  • Sean McKeon – The Dusty Miller ( Multiple players playing harmony)

Calum Stewart (I know him from his Flute playing)
I play “Am Monadh Ruadh” from this CD, also Randolph’s Leap is awesome.
Look up “Randolph’s Leap”. I’ve been there, beautiful.
(A better name should be Cummings Leap)

Brian McNamara

He plays a ‘flat’ set pitched in ‘C’ made by Geoff Wooff in 1997 and a ‘concert-pitched’ set of pipes made by Peter Maguire, I was lucky enough to have him as my teacher in Drumshanbo.

Single tracks I like

High energy playing of Blackie O’Connoll. He was my tutor when I attended Tionol 2011

Fred Morrison‘s Kansas City Hornpipe

Paddy Keenan – Harvest Home & Boys of blue hill
(Check The Pipering Of Willie Clancy Vol II)

Doinna by John McSherry (I play this one also, but it is nothing compared to his pipe-sound, melodic virtuosity and feeling he puts in this relatively easy piece of music)

Another often played CD with Uileann, Borderpipes and Low Whistles is:

Partners in Crime by Jarlath Henderson and Ross Ainslie.
A very nice combination of two different pipes together.
Coline and I try to have at least one set with both instruments.

Some others:

  • Some tracks of Bad Shepherds
  • Some tracks of Afro Celt Sound System
  • Some tracks of Enya (See Sun in the stream post)

List of Artist i’ve got recordings from:

Cillian Vallely, Finbar Furey, Ronan Browne, Willie Clancy, Seamus Ennis, Johnny Doran, Leo Rowsome, Liam O’Flynn,Davy Spillane, Paddy Keenan, Finbar Furey, Brian McNamara, Paddy Moloney, Jerry O’Sullivan, Gay Conor, Sean McKeon, Declan Masterson, Michael McGoldrick I probably missed several

Female pipers

Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

In the middle of recording Mhairi Bhan Og

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Also known as Mary Young and Fair – this Gaelic air was published in Capt Simon Fraser’s “Knockie” Collection of 1816.

I made an arrangement using Musescore, Ardour and Bagpipe Music Writer.

Hardware used: Tascam 2488, Behringer B-1 studio microphone, Yamaha QY-100 sequencer, ESI MidiMate eX USB 2.0 MIDI-interface and Shepherd Smallpipes.

Musescore
Ardour remixing, using QY-100 via midi and Sound Fonts

(I tried Qtractor and some other tools but liked Ardour more)

Recording online soon, I have to re-record the harmony part.
Maybe I’m going to add a Flute part also.

PDF

Computer, IOT / Domoticz, Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Today some lasercutting for Home Assistant Spotify RFID

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see:

Revisiting the Spotify Cube

Lasercutting a case and the playlist selectors.

Close-up RFID stickers I’m using.

Below is a test with different methods.
I like reading the booklets, so a CD i cool, and I don’t need a CD player.
(The RFID tag is in the case)
The little cards are for bought audio files I don’t have a physical CD for.

Wooden case with RFID reader being powered by external powerbank

What am I gonna do?
Cube as I had? Wooden playlist selectors as in above movies?
The cards I’ve printed?
Maybe a small record player with an RFID reader inside?

3D printed like this? https://makerworld.com/en/models/66671
UPDATE: 20240327 – Little Record I 3D printed with little groves.

Home Assistant code for Playlist and Album automations
(B.t.w. The method is still using an Arduino and MQTT topics, as mentioned before)

# ALBUM PLAYER
alias: SpotifyAlbum
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: spotify/rfid/id
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.payload in playlistkeys.keys() }}"
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.spotify_fashice
    data:
      media_content_type: album
      media_content_id: spotify:album:{{ playlistkeys.get(trigger.payload) }}
mode: single
variables:
  playlistkeys:
    "71719674": 20TANs4iXVeLp387zjgmec
    "71260666": 5325ECcBhnIysoqyENGCYi
    "71457530": 7wyOeD9HcUuMFMO8pTflap

# PLAYLIST PLAYER
alias: SpotifyCube
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: spotify/rfid/id
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.payload in playlistkeys.keys() }}"
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.spotify_fashice
    data:
      media_content_type: playlist
      media_content_id: spotify:user:spotify:playlist:{{ playlistkeys.get(trigger.payload) }}
variables:
  playlistkeys:
    "69229050": 0SOay3RkjojjevrF5lHMON
    "69491194": 5f8w3UHlD9Ozz6Y4VHs6kF
    "69753338": 0bJvpsn0TDZwIDUjz4d75S
    "70015482": 37i9dQZF1DX9HwI3Crikcm
    "70277626": 37i9dQZF1EQmK1rjZuPGDt
    "70539770": 2KeRLMmGMxI5UgzE7m0iCp

In the past, Aloha and I made a simple solution like this using barcodes in < 2000s.
Due to the many obscure recordings I have, I am thinking about creating something like this for Picore player and my local Squeezebox server.

Logitech Squeezebox / Media Server Solution

alias: squeezealbumplay
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: spotify/rfid/id
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.payload in playlistkeys.keys() }}"
action:
  - service: squeezebox.call_method
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.squeezebox
    data:
      command: playlist
      parameters:
        - play
        - "{{ playlistkeys.get(trigger.payload) }}"
mode: single
variables:
  playlistkeys:
    "71719674": /tank/celtic/Celtic/M/Martyn Bennett/Bothy Culture/
    "71719675": /tank/celtic/Celtic/D/Davy Spillane/Atlantic Bridge/
    "2159056458": /tank/celtic/Celtic/M/Michael McGoldrick/Arc/
Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

My google-fu is still strong (and Tunepal ramblings)

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Google-Fu : (informal) Skill in using search engines (especially Google) to quickly find useful information on the Internet.

I was thinking of a famous piece of music, but what was it?

Whistling it, while using Shazam or Tunepal, didn’t work.

So I googled “well known classical part repeats sped up and transposes”

The second link was a Reddit link named : “Need help finding a song that starts very slow and builds to be frantic!”

First YT link in there: In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt) by Edvard Grieg

Epic tune!

“In the Hall of the Mountain King” is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play Peer Gynt. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later extracted as the final piece of Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46.

I’ve used Tunepal many times, it’s great for folkies!

Sometimes it works also on classical pieces, because they were arranged into folk music.

https://tunepal.org/

I bought the Android app, because I liked it so much.

Tunepal is a search-by-playing search engine for traditional Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Breton, American marching band and Canadian tunes.
By playing a 12-second extract from a traditional tune on an instrument such as the flute or fiddle, you can:

  • Retrieve score matches from a database of over 24,000 music scores
  • View and playback, share and download the score
  • Find and play other recordings of the tune from a collection of over 30 million recordings

Tunepal is a search-by-playing search engine for traditional Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Breton, American marching band and Canadian tunes.

On the Record page, click the Tunepal logo or tap the screen if your computer has a touch screen. Start playing straight away. Don’t wait for the countdown to complete. Tunepal works best if there is no silence at the start of the recording.

Tunepal works best with “legato” style instruments such as the tin-whistle, flute, concertina, accordion, pipes and fiddle. It doesn’t work very well with “plucked string” instruments such as the banjo and harp.

To find a tune using Tunepal, first make sure you have a PC microphone connected to your computer or use the phone app

If your instrument uses a different “fundamental note” to the usual D (for example you are playing a C flute) or you are playing a tune in an unusual key, then you can adjust the transcription algorithm by choosing a different “fundamental” from the settings page.

You can filter the search results from the settings page to limit searches to certain tunebooks or time signatures.

Record page
My tunes
Playing page
You can even edit the ABC score!
Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Music top .. dunno

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Warning .. nerd stuff ahead, many many more.
These are the ones I currently can think off.

Sid music (commodore C64)

  • Rob Hubbard – Monty on the run
  • Chris Huelsbeck – R-type
  • Chris Heulsbeck – Great Giana Sisters
  • Jeroen Tel – Cybernoid 2

Northumbrian pipes

Concertina

Banjo

Irish Bouzouki

Mandoline

  • Tim Connell Jack Dwyer – The Rakish Paddy
  • Luke Plumb (Plays with Shooglenifty) – Drunken Landlady

Borderpipes

  • Ali Hutton
    Terrortime
  • Ross Ainsley
    (Partner’s in Crime CD)

Great Highland Bagpipe (TO many)

  • Fred Morrison
    Frances Morton’s

Irish Flute / Whistle

  • Michael McGoldrick – Angel Meadow
  • Fraser Shaw – Air Chall

Uilleann Pipes

Other pipes

Callum Armstrong (with Branschke)
https://www.youtube.com/@CallumArmstrongPiping
Angie’s Jig on double chanter, I love that tune
He even has a tripple chanter
https://youtu.be/bGIhFBwItHA

Other instruments

Balalaika – Aleksei Arkhipovsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JqeSU7lSLE

Throat singing:

Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Folk instruments (other)

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I know/play and like Irish/Scottish/Celtic music.

Whenever I come across a musical instrument I want to try it.

Dan Nhi
Dan Bau
Khen
Old dude we met, playing a Khen
Vietnam (2013)

But here are some others I like

Guzheng (Instrument)

Altai – Bai Terek (Band) – Throatsinging and Tovshuur instrument

Alexei Arkhipovskiy – Balalaika

Ney Flute (Egyptian)

Kyiv Ethno Trio – Overtone Flute (no fingerholes)

Largest flute (at the end)

Also cool (Flute with “drone”)

Didgeridoo

Jaw Harp (I’ve got one, but i’m not good at it)
also known as : Jew’s harp, mouth harp, Ozark harp, juice harp, murchunga, guimbarde, mungiga, vargan, trompe

Not an ancient instrument, but cool nevertheless.
I play Misirlou on BorderPipes using accidentals, I’ll upload this soon.

Found a crappy recording of Misirlou on my Borderpipes.
C-sharp, B-flat, F-Natural and G-sharp as accidentals.
Hard to play on Great Highland Bagpipe without using a lot of tape. 🙂

Something I want to make myself : A talharpa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talharpa

A sausage fagott 🙂
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wurstfagott

3dprinting, BBQ / Smoker / Food, Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Busy weekend .. didn´t have time to post

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I’ve got my SDK-85 cassette interface PCB’s in, If you want to have the Kicad files. Message me.

My 3D printer has a worn out hot-end .. so a new one to install.

BBQ time! .. That’s from 1-januari till 31-december .. rain, snow storm whatever.
I’ve made a lot of Rubs/Sauces and marinades.
But a new book i always welcome ..

Also new recipes and tips. Let me know.

Sunday a day of music with our folkband.
Played some old and new tunes.

Did some Vulkan / OpenGL benchmark testing.

Cleaned and fixed our wine cellar.

And tomorrow i’m starting new work.

Music, Pipes / Folk / Instruments

Musescore bagpipe music workaround

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I really like musescore, and mainly I use it for multistaff typesetting.
(In the past i’ve been using Cakewalk for this)

https://www.henriaanstoot.nl/2023/05/04/planxty-irwin-concertina-notation/

https://www.henriaanstoot.nl/2023/02/02/eleanor-plunkett-for-harp/

I still use ABC notation and Bagpipe Music Writer.
In abc multistaff can be done, but not perfect, the latter can’t.

So i was playing with Musescore to import BWW files and make it multistaff.

But Musescore kept messing things up, let me explain.

Part 1 – importing the bww file

Import works, but in the mixer part you don’t see an instrument.

Part 2 – try changing the instrument (fails)

Now i’ve got the instrument, but i’ve got 4 sharps, the notes are messed up.
(Tried transposing and turning on/off concert pitch)

Part 3 – creating empty sheet with two staffs and setting the instrument then copy paste the notes (fails)

Incorrectly pasted the b in the wrong octave.

I could not find anything helpful online. Maybe it can be fixed? But how?

My workaround

  • Import bww file, export as musicXML
  • Import harmony, export also
  • Create new sheet, with two staffs
    (file new, assign instrument, press F7 and add staff)
  • Open exported musicXML in a new file
  • Select all with ctrl-a OR first note and ctrl-end
  • Copy with ctrl-c and past into newly created score.
  • Same with harmony part
Instrument/staff add line

Example of this workaround