Command Your Bagpipe # 14: Gracenotes are NOT Actual Notes! - Bagpipe Lessons

[@mattmiller5014]

Thanks Matt. I have found during this Pandemic that if I want to find Peace I go to your videos and you are focusing on the Real Important things of Life. The Bagpipes. I have been Playing since 1996 and find they are the extension of my Soul. I am So Greatful for your tutoring. 😊😊😊

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

I started in 1996 as well! I appreciate you leaving this note. Plenty more videos to come! Cheers!

[@mikenesbitt3500]

Thanks for this, helps a lot for me as a novice. I enjoyed the last part with you singing the rhythm while snapping the beat. It went a long way to answering "where does the beat occur?". Looking forward to that future video.

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

You're very welcome!

[@arichbourg69]

Brilliant! One of my favorite of your videos.

[@cindyjarvis8863]

Bringing your embellishment goals and execution into focus!

[@lesliethomson2441]

Fantastic, yet again What's probably the main virtue of what you're proposing is that, even when one already "knows" the tune, to stop and restudy it in its most profound details. Yet another addendum to your karate chop, I've used the same example and I stress that the Karate chop, if I remember rightly, was taught that you aimed just slightly beyond your target, and the quickly retracted , this way you made sure that that the full impact arrived and withdrew. (wonder if I'm clear?)

[@dennisglorie9503]

I have just spent the last two weeks thinking about grace notes and their percussive purpose and working it into my playing, and them BAM!!! you make a video on what I thought was my own epiphany (or the missing connection between the old formal instruction and actually playing). I quite like that style of notation using the percussive notation on the gracenotes.

[@karifox-newby26]

Thanks for this instruction on grace notes. It really reinforced and clarified what I had noticed in my own practice sessions. When I play embellishments “staccato” with nice snappy fingers (I was a piano player first) they sound crisp and clear rather than muddied and mumbled and the tunes sound much more like they’re supposed to. Your video explains it clearly and I’ll be sharing it with my band mates.

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

Thank you for sharing! This video isn't quite getting the traction I'd hoped, so all the shares are especially appreciated.

[@michaelsmith957]

thanks for the observation. It is important to understand a key point in the instrument.. I glad someone took notice and stood up about it. But I also think there is more than meets the eye or ear.

[@billaugsburger927]

Excellent reminder! Love the new way to write the movements...would have helped me years ago...well, it still helps😀

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

Please share this video with any other pipers you think this could help!

[@kimberlygrundvig1093]

Thanks Matt. I wish I'd had this video when I first started playing. Your notation system makes it so much easier to understand. Also your grips are really pretty and I'm jealous.

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

Glad it was helpful! And we'll get your grips there. :)

[@julianpayne5306]

Very interesting way to look at gracements & embellishments

[@jackhawkpiper97]

I kind of dig the different notational ideas here to better distinguish between the various gracenote-length sounds. It's getting closer to an almost Int'l Phonetic Alphabet kind of thing, where the notes on the page are more specific. However, I don't know that I agree on the High A doubling "pronunciation." I was taught to play a thumb gracenote to High G, and then move up to high A. So, to translate it, it would be a carrot high A, round head high G, and then full high A. Similarly, I would "pronounce" a light D throw with a round head low G, carrot D gracenote, round head C, and then on to a normal D. Even with these differences, this is a powerful first step toward a better visual articulation of, well, gracenote articulation.

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

Those are certainly viable ways to play those embellishments, but they would sound markedly different than how I perform them in my tunes (not in any way saying wrong, just different). Glad this new system got you thinking!

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

Bloopy. ;) Brilliant!! Nice map by the way, is that the day job?

[@MattWillisBagpiper]

Piping is the day job! Been teaching and performing on the pipes since 2001 and it’s been my full-time employment since April 2004. Map is from Muir Way: Muir Way. My review here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3awk4KMob54nNE

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

@@MattWillisBagpiper Ah very cool!! Lucky man! I'll take a look at the other link, do love a good map!

[@ttbo12]

Thinking of grace notes as percussive rather than tonal really helps explain the concept.

[@michaelsmith957]

one inch punch is from Bruce Lee

[@genevievegauthier7834]

Hello Matt, I love your vidéos. I'm a lonesome beginner for 3 months... Grâce notes are so difficult to play ! Thanks you so much 🤗