Saturday, September 7, 2013

Red grouse: Tunes, ideas and plans for bagpiping in the upcoming year


Hi Ian,

(long-ish email below, and a little bit overachieving but good foci ... :)


Tunes, ideas and plansfor bagpiping in the upcoming year:

- play a new PM Donald MacLeod tune / Piobaireachd per day/week for variety and learning's sake and become a leading PM Donald MacLeod expert, player of, and proponent in light music and Piobaireachd

- develop bliss generation with light music especially with Reels, Hornpipes and Jigs - think about this thoroughly and identify variables and learn to play RHJs even for specific qualities of bliss generation ... (e.g. Donald MacLeod, Stuart Liddell, Duncan Johnston, Gordon Duncan, plus, - in big and multifaceted ways)

- start riffing on Piobaireachds and light music to play with composing, in voice and on chanters (was singing with my own 'sunrise' words to the sunrise this morning to "The Desperate Battle" ... there's a lot of potential here :)

- Begin to teach R Piobaireachd 

- become thoroughly familiar with MuseScore - http://musescore.org/ and http://musescore.org/en/node/13001 - for bagpiping and play a little with this software a little, as well as other technologies and WUaS's piping pages themselves  ( http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Pibroch,_Piobaireachd_or_Ce%C3%B2l_M%C3%B3r#World_University_and_School_Links )

- explore generating musical bagpiping connections (per Ma and Marsalis - http://scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingMusicalInstrument.htm - as is much of this )

- bring the electric keyboard (and a few other instruments Scottish Smallpipes and whistles, for two) into bagpiping for learning and making musical connections

- play GHB much more socially ( band, sessions, etc., improvisationallly, top quartet, getting to space - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3y0ueBHmU whereas I enjoy this one a year later less http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXws8zstfPY )

- record tunes when I bring them to completion

- will try to record soon The Company's Lament, Miss Elspeth Campbell, The Mermaid Song, for learning purposes, as well as eventually entertainment ...

- Learn Inveraray and District Pipeband tunes (as well as Prince Charles Pipe Band tunes)

- Piping lessons in Google + Hangouts for recording purposes ... will invite you to this next week September 12, 2013

- Compete in Seaside Ventura Games this autumn, and in about two Games next year

- Develop resources for a top quartet (at GHB WUaS page and here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bagpipe_Tutorials )

- Find and add the great 'JS Bach piece' tunes of bagpiping for me

- Practice learning bliss generation while practicing / playing - focusing process

- Explicitly learn this year to generate kinds of bliss out of our conversation and beginning in my own bodymind :)


Tunes I'm working on and light music I'll develop toward a Grade 2 band level: 

Piobaireachds this autumn 2013

The Desperate Battle
MacKintosh's Banner


Winter 2014

Lament for Alasdair Dearg MacDonnell of Glengarry
one other non CoP Piobaireachd (very beautiful one in what's a taste I'm learning)


Spring 2014

Glengarry's Lament
one other non CoP Piobaireachd (very beautiful one in what's a taste I'm learning)


For competition and learning toward Grade 2 level: 

MSRs

Miss Elspeth Campbell
Susan MacLeod
Mrs MacPherson of Inveran

Argyllshire Gathering
Cabar Feidh
MacAllisters Dirk

Tom MacAllister / Links of Forth
Dora MacLeod
John Morrison of Assynt House


Medley

Eeighdh
The Weird Jig
Scatter the Mud
Rory Gallagher
And So It Goes
Mrs. Donald MacPherson
John Roy Stewart
Muddah Rudh
New Paradigm 


to talk with you about (especially concerning Inveraray and District), but on the personal side


Hornpipes / Jigs

Scotsaire Hornpipe H
Banjo Breakdown J

The Man from Skye H
James MacLellan's Favorite J ?

or The Man from Skye J
or Cutting Bracken J
or what makes a good HJ combination?

(as I looked through all my favorite jigs - the JS Bach pieces of bagpiping for me - in John MacFadyen's Book 1, they were mostly Duncan Johnstone's jigs)


6/8s (nice, different rhythm than most of above)

Seamus MacNeill 6/8
River Creed 6/8
Duncan McGillivray 6/8
Inverarary's or PCPBs ?


Slow Airs

The Mermaids Song


So the above is a big start for tunes and plans I'm exploring for the upcoming year ... more ideas here in the bagpiping category in my blog - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/bagpiping.

Is PM Ian MacLellan of Strathclyde Police related to Angus MacLellan of CoP Piobaireachds?

Your thoughts and guidance? What tunes might you suggest I add/leave out / focus on? Polkas? 

See you online on Thursday (and am planning to update my account with CoP  before then).

New Robert Louis Stevenson page at WUaS ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson.

I may create a WUaS wiki subject page as well for PM Donald MacLeod and learning.

Here are the main, wiki (editable), Piping pages at WUaS presently ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Pibroch,_Piobaireachd_or_Ce%C3%B2l_M%C3%B3r#World_University_and_School_Links.

Thank you!

Cheers,
Scott












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