Dear Stuart,
Thank you so so much again. Here's the video recording if that might be of interest to you - https://drive.google.com/
You share a lot of wisdom in your teaching ... and 'It's a long road to the top' you just said (wisely - and per your "The Ascension of Inveraray & District Pipe Band - 2004-2013" -
https://youtu.be/wbikiMAjhDM) - so Congratulations! - ... and you're the best piper in the world, and I appreciate your cordiality too ... And I'm also learning about your Scottish-ness - re being of service thinking, which is wonderful, and I'd like to reciprocate somehow in this too. How might I be of service to you?
Thanks for inquiring about riffing ... (and please keep the inquiring about any piping explorations that I kind of experiment with and put in writing idea-wise that interest you) ... Am curious further where you'd head with riffing, improvising, playing with some 'happening' rock and roll, jamming ... and more (all with the nine notes) ...
Here are the Allman Bros from 1973 - re AC/DC (and Gordon Duncan) too ...
"The Allman Brothers Band Featuring Jerry Garcia – Live at the Cow Palace, 1973"
Might you riff - or improvise in 9 notes - with these, and the tunes preceding and following - and how further, almost as if one of the Allman Bros. band, and taking leads and solos sometimes esp:)?
Maybe next lesson, can I share with you where I went with this a few weeks ago? (Am seeking for when we might explore this in real, real time together over the internet ... )
And here's PM Donald MacLeod teaching
The Little Spree
What do you think of his teaching of the third line of the Urlar - or how would you teach it differently? - and what do you think of his teaching of the Crunluath Fosgailte in this piece ? (I'll learn further from how you taught it too).
Am hoping to apply what I learned from you teaching "The Cameronian Rant" (strathspey) today ... to learning it anew or further ... and for if and when I record the second version of my album, and for all the Strathspeys on it (of which there are 5 - https://
Is 108-120 bpm a good tempo for strathspeys (for practicing with a metronome) ... and also per all these tempo suggestions from Bruce Wright here - https://scott-macleod.
Thank you, sir! Appreciating your inspiration too especially. Appreciating the conversation and sociality of the lesson process (even regarding your extraordinary ability as a solo piper, and my learning in some ways to be further a solo Scottish Small Piper). Thank you, Stuart.
Sincerely yours,
Scott
http://scottmacleod.com/
Th. May 13, 2021 lesson blog post
W. June 2, 2021 lesson blog post to come (and there are others in a related vein regarding your wonderful piping, Stuart:)
--
- Scott GK MacLeod
Founder, President, CEO & Professor
World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516
1) non-profit World University and School - http://
2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://
(o) 415 480 4577 - sgkmacleod@
(m) 412 478 0116 - sgkmacleod@gmail.com
World Univ & Sch Innovation Research - scottmacleod.com
- CC World University and School - like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization.
*
Sunday, May 30, 2021
https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/05/chimpanzee-scottish-small-piping.html
* *
Taylor,
Stuart plays the Crunluath Fosgailte fingering movement in the "The Little Spree," I think, in three different ways here in my 2nd lesson with him, one of which would be how professional competition pipers play it - https://drive.google.com/
Cheers, Scott
https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Scottish_smallpipes_and_borderpipes
* * *
Friday, May 14, 2021
Hibiscus trionum (modesty): First bagpiping lesson with PM Stuart Liddell in Scotland, Th May 13 2021 ~ Scottish small pipes with singing * Any pipers here who might be interested in Stuart's Topical (group) Lessons beginning toward the end of the month (which I hope to participate in with private lessons as well)? Know of any pipers who might be interested? Stuart is the best ! :) * Regarding riffing with Yo-yo Ma's and Wynton Marsalis's 'Guidelines for Practicing a Musical Instrument':) ~ "Guidelines for practicing a musical instrument" ... http://scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingMusicalInstrument.htm (And, now for something completely different, - and how to explore with bagpiping, and Stuart's extraordinary piping in particular - "Guidelines for practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis practicing a musical instrument" ... http://scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingLovingBlissvavMusicalInstrument.htm ?) * * * Stuart Liddell Piping :) ... Topical (group) Lessons? ~ Inspiring too * Found the 4 beautiful Piobaireachd you mentioned, as either most lyrical or melodic among Piobaireachd pieces, - and enjoyed listening to them * * * * Tuesday, June 1, 20201 Transcription of most of my 'Scott MacLeod's first bagpiping lesson with PM Stuart Liddell in Scotland, Thursday May 13, 2021' ~
https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/05/hibiscus-trionum-modesty-first-lesson.html
* * *
W, September 1, 2021
Transcription of lesson's video recording ...
notes from 6/2/21 lesson video
Begin -
Stuart
You've got lots of information here
:23
35
:48
Tuning is the first seminar
Tuning is the first seminar (topcial) at the end of the month
I finally got organized ... that's me
1:05
Scott -
Well, sir
I have a number of questions
meditative approach
easing and releasing
1:55
you said it is a meditation
stillness
mentioned the intactness of the piece in the playing
2:24
Did I mention this book ?
The inner game of tennis
A friend recommended this - he's a guide for fly fishing
it delves into an inner game
psychological view of how
we learn things
Self 1
Self 2
Self 1
constant chatter box
pain in the ass thing on your shoulder that prevents learning
that thinks it can take over the learning
that's Self 1
Self
basically it's our inner learning system that we're all born with
ride bikes
but as adults
we form all these inhibitive things
that prevents this natural learning
4:38
so we end up thinking too much
once you have get into Piobaireachd
it is meditative ...
5:08
I know that
in teaching
tap into this aspect of people's learning
listen to the music
amount of attention you're giving the sheet
5:30
what your fingers are doing
and the sounds you're producing
when they're honest about
most of it's on the sheet music
it's amazing when they turn that around
they're much ... and more connected to what they're thinking
it's more of a natural thing
that we all have
it's like a language almost
it's the way you speak
I'm not really a psychologist
Scott
Thank you, brilliant, and I greatly appreciate the wisdom you just shared
6:35
The question of um
listening and feeling which you raised beautifully
last lesson
and playing daily
and even with regards to the guidelines for practicing a musical instrument (Ma & Marsalis) that I find helpful
6:55
where I have feelings about practicing
which are different from yours I think
7:00
And I think it's practicing that can help create maybe the tennis game
riding a bike habits
non-thinking habits
I work around me feelings about practicing
maybe through the Guidelines partly
How to chart goals, and retain that meditative aspect
for an hour of playing a day might be a build on question
with too much thinking
Stuart
It is ...
Scott
Your thoughts about that?
7:44
Stuart
but thinking gets in the way
For example, if you try to control every muscle movement via thinking
You're not able to play ...
You're not able to let it go
8:--
to play
I'm not very good at explaining this ...
Let me get my chanter for a sec
I'll demonstrate a couple of wee things
Hopefully this is going to help, Scott, I'm not sure
8:23
Chanter, yea, here we go, right ...
Scott
8;24
How could I play the Cameronian Rant differently?
And how could I play The Little Spree differently from what I do?
8:30
Stuart
Yea ...
When you play the Cameronian Rant at full tempo, you will not be thinking about the components that make up the tune?
You won't be doing the
Here comes a D throw, here come the triplets ...
You'd be overloaded with instructions that your brain can't just process in time, so you need to go beyond that
beyond thinking
It starts off slow, so you can get a feeling for what the fingers are doing
You can observe the fingers, and see what they're doing, you can listen to them, to the sounds they're creating
9:12
But as you compress these
these muscle movements into smaller sizes, and faster and faster
you can no longer keep up with what you are processing,
so you have to let it go
9:26
but what you can keep a hold of is the feeling of the fingers
the feeling of them,
Now it takes a bit of practice, the transition from thinking about them to letting go
For example, with the Taorluath, everybody starts off
9:44
AND PLAYS A TAORLUATH
or even slower
PLAYS QUITE SLOWLY
at this point it's thinking
you're executing muscles to move at certain times
and you've got instructions for your fingers
PLAYS
and as you compress it, it gets uncomfortable
10:00
at some point you've got to say dammit
you'd be surprise
and you know this is fantastic
You want to get it up technically so it's natural, it just flows off your fingers,
At that point you may be turning your attention to the tone of your pipe
the resonance of your bagpipe
10:50
Hypnotized by that
while you're along for the ride
while your fingers are just going along
because you practiced that transition
11:01
thinking to non-thinking
Does that make sense?
Scott
11:05
It makes a lot of sense
yea, thank you,
And if I hear you play The Cameronian Rant
and I take it directly from your playing, having played it multiple times
and then don't hear, beyond what you just said, of making it sort of my own
and flow naturally,
How can I make it even
as beautiful as you play it expressively?
11:40
Maybe because I can't hear as sophisticatedly as you pipe
And that gets back into thinking
Ok drop that
and I'll just play it like you play
12:00
Stuart
Listen and parrot fashion
copy back
Listen, and let your inner system
and let your inner ear adjust your fingers so
it sounds and feels the way you want it
That's allowing your system to deal with it,
It's a perfectly good system of learning
It's good for everything
we're all good at it,
we're all built with it
too much interference with thinking
So, is that the version you're talking about?
Is it the hornpipe version?
Or is it the strathspey
12:30
Scott
I have the sheet music,
Donald MacLeod's settings
And it's a strathspey
12;35
Stuart
Yes, ok
Begins to play The Cameronian Rant
12:55
No yes
I guess the input of the knowledge is
through the ear
13
It's your ear training that will give you all the information you need
13:05
Sheet music is another way of doing it, but it's
it's really just a pointer,
it doesn't really communicate the real essence of the music
it only points to it,
The best thing is to have a recording of it
and headphones on,
full volume
well, not full volume, I don't recommend that,
but sit back, and really just absorb yourself in it,
and even just listening to it will start the learning process of it
13:37
And when you get down to learning it, you know,
I would suggest taking small chunks of it
and work out the mechanics
say, maybe the first 4 or 5 notes,
maybe the first bar even,
the first phrase, maybe
it depends on how much you're willing to take in
Take it down slow,
Get the feel for it,
for the muscles moving, so it feels and sounds the way you want it
14
and then slowly compress it, and you transition into the non-thinking
natural state
1410
Scott
Great
You've mentioned a number of times sheet music, and I find the Scottish Small Pipes in some ways helpful because I can use sheet music
and I don't have to bring it to memory
and you have an encyclopedic mind I think
for pipe music,
and amazingly and impressively so
And I hear what you're saying about it being a kind of intermediary that gets in the way
inhibits, or impedes the feelings, or something like that
14:40
Stuart
Right, yea, it's symbols on the page which you
which you have to sort of decipher and translate
into music,
which is a roundabout way of doing exactly what you might do if you were hearing it
If you're hearing it, it's 100% raw, exactly what you it should be
You're hearing it
I mean that's how it was handed down through through generations
it's done through oral singing
Singing is a great thing, it's a fantastic thing in fact, you know,
of really getting into the tune, especially Piobaireachd man
especially Piobaireachd
1523
Scott
Ok - would you sing
a wee bit of the Cameronian Rant
and then maybe play the first parts of it
or all of it
in Strathspey form
1535
Stuart
Brachum bradadee, brachum bradadum ...
I mean this is not real Canntaireachd,
But the way you say these things gives you the real feeling of the tune
And you try to translate it onto your pipes
Your pipes are quite limited because you can't change the volume
but you can still communicate somehow through FEELING, you know
1605
Scott
Beautiful
I can even see your singing that on a theatrical stage
1618
Stuart
Exactly, oh aye, Music's beautiful
it's amazing
1623
Stuart
You were going to play something weren't you
1630
Scott
Well I would love to hear you play Cameronian Rant so I can learn from it
What do you think?
or should I play
1635
Stuart
No, no fine ... whatever you want
Now the version you've got on the page probably won't line up to what I'm doing
And what I'm doing at this point in time, at this moment
probably won't line up with ...
the way I played it 2 years ago, I don't know
I don't have a real attention to the detail
So I don't know
17
Scott
Could I play like the first line, and then you riff with that?
And then you riff with that, teach me back, and maybe play your version of the four lines
of the 4 lines, of the 4 parts or something like that?
So I have a conversation model in learning
which is maybe different from your 'inner tennis game'
of (not)thinking, and letting it (the music) emerge naturally
1735
so I'm grateful for these lessons, even though I'm trying to hear you as well
with your meditation insights,
so thank you
1743
Stuart
sure
Scott plays The Cameronian Rant's first few bars
1800
Stuart
It's very gentle
which is not unpleasant
There's neither
There's no judgement needed,
there's neither right nor wrong about any music
Brachum dubada, brachum dubadee
Now for me, any strathspey is designed for dancing to
Pretty energetic dancing - it's the highland fling - basically.
And if you can imagine any circumstance you might be in
it could be in the pub, after the end of the Highland Games somewhere
and everyone's in really good spirits, and you fire up the drones, and
they're buzzing, booming, right in tune, and you fire into
The Cameronian Rant. Those who know piping, as soon as you start
that signature phrase, people go berserk for it - fist raised - those who know the tune, you know
... just love it, it's a great tune!
1900
such a great piece, so tempo would be up, and it would have more bite, you know,
brachum dabadum, brachum dabadee, brachum dabadum, bree, dde
brachum dabadum, brachum dabadee, brachum dabadum, bree,
Stuart plays a few bars on his chanter,
Of course, the next phrase is mirrored if you like, off that ...
The structure of it is quite simple, double tonic,
is that what you call that? - same phrase and up a key, you know ...
Down in low G, up in low A
19:50
Stuart plays the first part and begins the second part on his chanter
And so on ...
20:00
Scott
Yea, I appreciate your thoughts, and your insights,
and how I might move it with more energy,
or almost bite, or something like that ...
Stuart
Good technique
I mean your timing's solid, consistent, very good, nothing to worry about there,
so it's really just a matter of turning it more into an animal that piece,
brachum dabadum, brachum dabadee,
Yea, a wild horse,
brachum dabadum
brachum dabadum, brachum dabadee, brachum dabadum, bree,
Yea, that's lovely, but everyone
Scott
Everybody's what?
2100
it's been such an iconic piece that people
have made it into jigs and hornpipes
and all kinds of stuff, and it's still a great tune, no matter how ...
what key signature, what time signature it goes in ...
and it's still great ...
Scott
Why is it a good tune?
2125
I find this a beautiful tune of piping tunes, and I find some tunes not beautiful,
why is this tune beautiful
I think you're also saying it's a great tune.
Why is it beautiful from your perspective, as the greatest piper in the world?
What's beauty?
2135
Stuart
How do you describe that? It's a feeling isn't it?
How do you ... ? I don't know, it's a good question
It's hard to document that, I don't know
It's just a feeling. It just the platform that gives you the ability to express musically the emotion that you're feeling
If a tune can do that ... I know
2200
Lochenside (https://youtu.be/WIAvC5bMc6k)
a nice 3/4 March
it's one of the best tunes ever
a beautiful tune,
I mean, ok, it gets overplayed, lots of bands play it
But if you actually look at the tune itself, the structure,
the melody line, it's just beautiful
absolutely,
Amazing, so what makes a great tune? It's hard to know that
it's hard to put down in words, good question
2230
Well, I'll maybe hopefully explore (this) further with you, in writing, if that's too much thinking).
22:40
Stuart
It's all good
22:45
Well the Little Spree, a little bit of the Little Spree?
And is it a crunluath fosgailte tune?
23
Stuart
sings a bit of Little Spree
You can't go past Piobaireachd - it's just amazing
Scott
What is fosgailte?
Stuart -
As far as I'm aware,
It's just the label given to that style of Piobaireachd
sings - hum to habade, ...
24
Like a waltzy feel almost
and the breabach is the label given to the ones that have crunluath with one or two connecting notes between the theme notes
24:25
plays some cruntliath breabachs
And the crunluath normal is
every theme note is decorated with crunluath
These are the three main types. You have extensions of the normal crunluath variation
where you have the crunluath a mach
24:45
I see there's an a mach version of The Little Spree in the Piobaireachd Society book
where they basically play the same thing, but they keep an open edree
24:55
Scott
As I listen to Donald MacLeod's The Little Spree
and almost parrot back but I'm not you, who have an amazing ear
and an extraordinary ability as a piper
so I parrot back Donald MacLeod here
He also says there's no crunluath a mach in The Little Spree
that he knows of, at the end of his audio / video Youtube tutorial
as a further parroting back of his learnedness
24:35
So, The Little Spree, in terms of
So am playing the crunluath fosgailte correctly here, could I ask that?
Stuart:
Yes, absolutely
Scott
And that 3rd line of the urlar
26
And I don't know if it's ok to bring Donald MacLeod in here to my lesson
Stuart
Absolutely ok
26:10
Scott
The 3rd line gets really into heavy non-mensurality
in an interesting way,
to use another non-mensural phrase which gets a little confusing for me at times
26:30
So with the crunluath fosgailte, am I playing the crunluath correctly, I guess is one question I have
26:40
Scott plays crunluath fosgailte
27:00
Stuart
Do you have your chanter handy?
Do you have a practice chanter?
Scott
So because of eustachian tube dysfunction, I don't like to blow out with my mouth, because it sort of puts pressure on my inner R ear
so this (SSP chanter) is my practice chanter (sorry)
Stuart
27:20
so my apologies, Scott, I didn't realize
So, let me sing it to you - this is what you have -
This is what you have -
27:30
Te em hebede - beating rhythm with hands -
no you don't have that
Play it again
Scott
ok - I'll turn off the drones too to get more practice chanter like
28
Stuart
no need - drones are good
Scott plays
28:35
Stuart plays on his practice chanter
what I played
What I'm trying to do is listen to what your playing, take it on board, transform it into my fingers
and I think that's pretty much what you had there ...
Now, again no right or wrong,
but ... in the conventional way that we all play Piobaireachd these days,
let me offer it to you in the way you might here a
29:04
professional competitor playing it
which would be something like
29:10
plays it beautifully
29:25
I don't know if you feel the difference there
sings it
tai he hebede
it's kind of a 6/8 feel almost
like a waltzy thing, I don't know
right
29:43
Nothing wrong with what you're doing ... at all
It's up to you though - it depends what you want to do with it
Do you want to keep it mainstream, do you want to explore, you know?
30:00
Scott -
Donald MacLeod plays it quite briskly - he plays it
Hear how I played it maybe wrongly
30:30
Stuart responds with beautiful and emotive singing of The Little Spree
To de hebede
30:50
a passing note on the edree
but not much time on the edree
although you spend time on the edree
generally people would come off the edree quite quickly
31
Stuart plays on the practice chanter
I think it's kind of to give the longer note more space, because
that's the idea of the theme
Maybe (smiles) I don't know I'm not so sure
31:20
is that helpful for you Scott?
Scott
Great - it's very helpful - thank you
thank you, super, and I thank you so much Stuart
fantastic
31:30
Stuart
Did I see something briefly - my pleasure, pleasure
Did I see something briefly about your talking about riffs of something?
... in your email ... riffs, Gordon Duncan ... riffs ... Thunderstruck
yea, that kind of thing ...
Scott
Yea, absolutely
Stuart -
What were you ?
Do you have a question about that?
Scott
Yea, fantastic, thank you for following up on that ...
So when I've sent you maybe that Allman Bros' at Cow Palace with Jerry Garcia from '73
32
and in the middle of that there are two pieces, one is Bo Diddley is another nice one
which kind of works with A mixolydian chanter
so I was able to, for one time, maybe 4 or 6 or 8 weeks ago, to jam with it a little
I think it was Bs, Ds, Fs, and maybe high As or something like that ...
And that's one idea of riffing that I have where I was almost jamming
on the somehow 9 note scale
but I think that Gordon Duncan in my interpretation riffs with AC DC
and beautifully - and composes Thunderstruck
and you riff with that and take it in a new way ...
So your thoughts about all of this, and riffing and combined ?
32:50
Stuart
Ah yea, just a ..
Gordon Duncan, what a genius
32:55
Scott
Did you know him?
33:00
Stuart
Yes (he says in a Scottish way ) ...
yea, I met him several times
A great character, great
a very cool guy,
other worldly kind of person
always amazed in his presence, you know
Yea, Gordon
the Thunderstruck thing
I guess that's all it is
It's the theme of the AC DC riff, if you like
and he has just expanded on it, and taken it on its own journey
33:40
I am just a copier of that - I just love playing it
And it's just
I was looking for something to play one day in an audience concert situation
And I just thought - to hell, to hell with that - I just thought I'd try it for the first time,
very nervous, but I love playing it, and of course, a good reaction from folk,
34:05
because it's such an amazing piece of music
Gordon's Thunderstuck
but Gordon's riffing on it - it's just
you never stop losing attention - it's such a catchy thing
I mean exercises are built on it
I know that
In the piping school in summer
there's a drummer that likes to do
exercises with riffs
Now I know that
he plays little jigs like this one ...
34:45
Stuart PLAYS JIG exercises (sweet ones)
It's just an arpeggio - it's just an arpeggio sequence
which is REALLY COOL - you know:)
35
Again, just let yourself go with these things
If you feel yourself playing notes
plucking notes out of nowhere and they seem to fit well
that's your inner self coming forward,
your inner ... tapping into it perfectly
And don't ever obstruct that in any way
35:30
Scott
Would you ever turn on AC DC as they played the Thunderstruck version
on your 9 note B flat mixolydian practice chanter
and riff with them
Is that something you would explore, or have
35:50
Stuart
laughs
I haven't explored that - no
no no, but you know they have another track that they - AC DC did
36
early in their band days, called
'It's a long way to the top'
and there's pipes in it, because the original singer used to play pipes
I actually use it for teaching sometimes,
because it's a very simple play along thing
3627
plays with his left hand - almost a theme to Star Wars
and it's pitched, it's pitched in A
and it's good for your practice chanter
and for the small pipes
and you know that's always a good one to use
You know
just to get a bit of fun jamming away with other bands you know
36:55
Scott
Super
I know we're coming to a close now,
maybe we're over,
37
but is your practice chanter pitched in A before we close?
37:05
Stuart
This chanter is slightly higher
No, but I've got an older chanter
my grandfather's chanter, which is actually pitched is in A
which is kicking about somewhere, hopefully
This (the chanter he uses regularly) is between the cracks,
between A and B flat
but you can blow it to suit
37:30
Scott
Before we close, can I send you that Allman Bros from '73
and maybe identify the tunes
Stuart
Yes
37:40
Scott
and see if you were to play with them
that's kind of an out of the box piping thing, but thoughts about that?
37:55
Stuart
Yes, send it along
I always like to listen to new music, so please do
I know sometimes you get bogged down with too many things
so getting to the click button can sometimes feel like a distance away
but send it please, I'm looking forward to it, to exploring new music
I'll give it a shot, see what we come up with
Scott
If you just pulled out your grandfather's chanter (holding my fingers up as if playing chanter), I don't know
Yea, thank you (Namaste)
Stuart
Aye
*
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