Although it is frowned upon in folk circles, I think on the grounds that it is not traditional, and can only give the general impression of a tune, I am pretty much wedded to learning tunes from dots. For those of us without regular first hand access to other musicians the only way to come across new repetoire is recordings, and for those of us who struggle to pick out tunes by ear, dots are a godsend. Dots enable me to play a whole range of tunes that actually I've never heard anyone else play. Dots also keep alive tunes that aren't much played. As long the dots exist an unplayed tune is never dead, only sleeping.
I do find that dots are, of course, very useful for telling you which notes to play and in which order. What I don't find they help with so much is timing. I know they do tell you timing, but for some reason this is something I find difficult to read from dots. As to the feel of a tune, the way it is played, the way it sounds, well, I've found that there are as many ways to play a tune as there are people to play it, so I tend not to worry about that. Eventually a tune will decide whether it wants me to play it fast or slow, with a lilt or a swagger.
One thing I really haven't touched as yet is pibroch. The dots aren't that hard to come by, but in lipin g mythology pibroch is handed down between pipers through canntaireachd. It has itself has a glamour and a mystery to it, somehow, that prevents a casual approach, perhaps like opera. Most people would be happy to warble along to a pop classic come karaoke night at the local, but except for those few tunes that have crossed to the pop side of the floor (Nessun dorma) I expect few people would have a go at a piece of opera. Clearly there is a whole argument here about popular vs elite culture and so on, but in itself opera is considered to be difficult, a voice needs to be trained to attempt it.
So I've steered clear of pibroch. Then when we were looking, the fan and I, at some hypothetical sets for the hypothetical gig, he wanted to know if I hadn't got a slow air to kick a set off with. No, I said, I did not have a slow air. I don't play Irish pipes, these are Scottish pipes and there are reels, jigs, strathspeys, slow marches, quick steps and laments but no slow airs. But after a while it occurred to me that the Scottish piping equivalent of a slow air is pibroch. The one that came to mind was Lament for the Children. Julie has a song that uses it, and Allan MacDonald on the Seudan CD has it as the tune for the dark haired man.
I found the dots easily enough. I wanted to stick to the urlar, or ground - no doublings and variations for me! I tried it out on my chanter. I played it slow: too slow, as it turned out. I coudn't make head nor tale of it. Then I thought of Allan, and then I started to hear him in my head. Not the words, but the rhythm, the shape of the tune.
Fhir a' chinn duibh, thug mi gaol dhuit
Fhir a' chinn duibh, thug mi gradh dhuit
Thug mi gaol 's thug mi gradh dhuit
Thug mi gaol nach d' thug mi chach dhuit
Fir a' chin duibh thug mi gradh duit
It's not quite the same tune, according to the sleeve notes, but it's close enough for me to learn from, to learn as if I were learning pibroch through cannterairachd, learning from Allan.
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