What do uilleann pipes sound like

Of course, after a little while we demanded from him some of his native music, and we were treated to a lovely recital, both instrumentals and a ballad. We also have some fine mandolin players out this way, who get pretty good respect in sessions Down in Louisville there is John Woodward on a nice Heiden F5 and at least a couple others, and in the Cincinnati area, I've heard some fine mandolin, including from Doug Mast who plays a gorgeous five-course Sobell mando and teaches at the Riley School of Irish Music, too.

In Indianapolis both Jenny Thompson on a splendid, custom-made Lawrence Washington mandolin and Johnandrew Bellner are both very well-respected mando and multi-instrumentalists, too sessioneers. One of the nicest times in a session is when a mandolinist and one or two others start a tune and folks sit back and let it build a while before or, even better, instead of all jumping in.

Mandolin and flute! I hope to see you at the Tionol, Johnny! All the best, stv. Kevin Carr plays uileann pipes, fiddle, and whistle with Wake The Dead, and he's a master at blending in with the group and playing tastefully.

If you have the chance to work with John Carty, take it! That guy is the real deal. Definitely, John Carty is the man. Amazing fiddler too. He's the king of melody and phrasing. I haven't heard him play mandolin yet. Carty is very high on my list these days. I would love to have an opportunity to study with him. Maybe he can show me how he tunes his tenor guitar and what he does on the De Dannan set on this latest CD.

Just beautiful! Hey sliabhstv, Not to get too off topic, but what else can you tell us about the St. Louis Tionol? I'll probably be going this year for the first time. It looks like one day of workshops, a few recitals, and some sessions? Thanks, Keith. Speaking of Pipes I took fiddle and banjo with him I took Carty's workshop at the Tionol two years ago.

He is great, just amazing, but maybe too good for a workshop. I felt like I was "drinking from a firehose. Heck, if I could learn tunes that fast, I would be teaching the darn workshop! At the end of the day, my head was spinning and I'm not sure I could play any of the tunes the next day.

By contrast, I took the same length bluegrass workshop with Mike Compton the same year. He showed us eight tunes and I could play half of them at the end of the day and could get the others up to speed pretty well in the weeks after.

Also, compared to the many bluegrass and old-time jams I have been in, the sessions at the Tionol were not very welcoming of beginners. Even in the so-called "slow sessions," if you weren't a hot Irish player, they shut you out immediately.

The link to the St. Louis Tionol site is below. It is March 31st - April 2nd this year. They don't have much in the way of details yet. I will probably see you there. I want try it again and hope to do better this time.

The pipes are terribly difficult to play. I think that some learners, having got a few tunes under their belts with considerable effort, might be tempted into session playing before they're really ready, so that could be part of what you're hearing. Some folks think that this is a mistake as it can lead to some bad habits that are hard to break later on. The great uilleann piper Seamus Ennis said that the practice chanter was one of the worst things to happen to uilleann piping because students don't learn tunes on the complete instrument.

I know it was hard for me when I added drones to my practice set. It is generally agreed that the uilleann pipes are the font from which Irish dance music originates. Every instrument that has been incorporated into the tradition since them has been influenced to a great degree by the pipes, in fact, yu could say that their DNA has been imbedded in the music.

I always urge my students to keep in mind that one of the things that makes Irish music "Irish" is its origin on wind instruments, and that that kind of phrasing is essential to understanding it.

If pipe tunes sound atonal to you, they shouldn't. It's hard to be much more tonal than with drones a-blazing, so maybe the piper you heard was having a bad day, or his chanter was simpley out of tune. Or you might be hearing the really tense sounding cross-finger C natural against the D drones in a mixolydian tune. That untempered flat seven is one of the reasons to play the things but it might be an acquired taste.

I'm not sure how you got this from MandoJohnny's post, Dan, but I know what you are getting at. I think that many players here in the States are so taken up by the music, and wanting to get it "right" that they often forget that a session is a social setting and that it is all about conversation - music and verbal.

I can remember hundreds of sessions I was at in the 80s where everyone was competing to play every tune they knew in the shortest time. It always surprises me when some folks behave musically in ways they never would verbally Kieran O'Hare likes to say that his mother refers to his instrument as a cross between an oboe, a whopee cushion, and a brassiere.

Guid New Year to you all, and Dan. HI Keithd, I'm going to go ahead and reply, and beg forgiveness for hijacking the thread You wrote: "Not to get too off topic, but what else can you tell us about the St.

There are three floors, so there are sometimes folks playing in corners, hallways Then a concert downtown with the instructors, then back to the Brewpub for sessions until. Big night, great fun. Sunday, all day session in John D. McGurk's pub. Great place, great food, nice places to play outside, too. There is still being bags of trouble with folks getting visas, god nose why the U. I have the idea that Carty may show up yet, but I really don't know any inside about it.

They've done it a coupla years running now. I see that Dennis Cahill is teaching guitar and Ged Foley is teaching intro to fiddle instead of guitar. It's great just to be around guys like Kevin Henry!

I love the Tionol, wouldn't miss it. My wife Min take pix for the organizers, and I get to play sessions with folks like Kevin Henry and Ged Foley and see friends from Nebraska our once-a-year session!

It's pretty easy to learn from the other players as well as from the instructors! Thanks, stv. Keithd writes: " I hope you let him know about that when it happened, and that it won't keep you away. I always hear the various piper crowds complaining about one another, but that's just One thing to be aware of, if you want to play Irish music, you have to develop a thick skin.

People are likely to abuse you savagely if they like you. Conversely, if they don't like you, they may be very polite. Go figure. He's from the St. Louis area, and I think plays just about every kind of banjo and guitar style there is.

I heard him play Foxhunter's reel on frailed 5-string banjo at a gig at the Castletown with Michael Cooney and Pat Egan a year or two ago.

I didn't even know you could do that. He played rythmn steel guitar the rest of the show. I think he played accompaniment for one of the performers at the tionol concert within the last few years too. He plays some old-time and blues as well. I've gone for the last three or so years and have gotten almost the exact opposite impression. The sessions are very large, and they might seen not very welcoming because of that, but people seem pretty friendly for the most part.

You can always find another spare person or two and an empty corner or hallway no shortage of those at Schlafly's and start your own. Tom Hall is arguably one of the best fingerstyle blues guitarists anywhere. He is also one of my favorite old-time clawhammer banjo players, even though he considers clawhammer a sidelight. He seems to be one of those guys who can play any style of music on anything with frets. He is a really nice guy, sort of a homespun, grizzled sort of character, a man of few words and a very experienced fretted instrument instructor.

I was surprised to see him in that slot at the Tionol, but I think he will do a great job and I will probably take the workshop. I think he will be better for coaching novices along. I remember Tom now! He's been there a couple of years past. Foley yelled chords to him til it became clear that he was a little too far gone, so they did a tune in Bb or some such and just tossed him off.

Everyone had some great laughs with that, not least fo all, Tom himself. Hey Withak, thanks for your take on the sessioning there, it concurs with mine. We want Johnny to feel good! Thanks all for the replies and info. I'll keep an eye on the new thread as well. Louis, so it's an added incentive to get back and visit family. The multi-session venue sounds like fun - a bit like Lark Camp. I've been to McGurk's once or twice; never to Schlafly's.

And to keep things on topic, it sounds like there'll be plenty of piping to hear Since we're talking about pipes and pipers Click at the link to buy. If you like Irish traditional music, especially Clare music, you need this CD. It's just beautiful, unhurried, authentic, wonderfully played.

No commercial interest here; although i've known Peter for a few years. Here's another example of how beautiful this stuff can sound when done properly.

Every note is in tune with the drone, beautiful expression. Thanks for posting this! She's a lovely, funny lady and a tremendous player. This is different from the highland pipes, where the end hole is always open and the large difference in tone colour doesn't occur.

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Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 2 years, 6 months ago. Active 1 year, 7 months ago. Viewed times. Improve this question. Walter Walter 1, 7 7 silver badges 14 14 bronze badges. It's a guess but I wonder if the player is using the chanter for most of the melody but a drone to reach the low D. One of the reasons I have for believing this is that the D doesn't stop immediately but continues to play underneath the following notes.

Have a look at this link for an explanation of drones and chanters en. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. The volume and tone of uilleann bottom D is certainly a function of being played "off the knee," but perhaps more significantly, it is a function of which bottom D technique the piper chooses to play: Soft bottom D Hard bottom D Both are played with the chanter lifted, as the sound passes through the bottom hole. Improve this answer. I should also add, there's a "hard E" too!

It's fingered slightly differently from a regular E, and has the same pressure jump, and it produces a louder, more "aggressive" E! Steve Mansfield Steve Mansfield 2, 7 7 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges. Thanks for the answer! The Irish bagpipes, or uilleann pipes, are pretty different from what most people think of as bagpipes.

The uilleann pipes are much quieter, too, very expressive, and almost always played sitting down. And no kilts! Playing Irish pipes, sitting down, with a kilt is considered unladylike. How often is seen a real piper with uilleann? The piper squeezes the bag to push air through the pipes, which have several reeds that produce the sound — a little like oboes and clarinets tied to the bag.