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We started off saying that the two most important elements of bagpipe music are 1) the sound and 2)
playing the melody on-the-beat. The way the big bands get that super-tight unison is not magic. It's
by understanding the beat and by splitting it is such a way that every note played is placed precisely
where it should be. Of course, this takes hours and hours of practice to perfect. We're going to start
right here!
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Glasgow City Police Pipers is an excellent 6/8 jig written by PM Donald MacLeod. In 6/8 timing, we
know that there are 6 beats per bar and that every eighth note gets a beat. Well guess what? In Glasgow
City Police Pipers every note in every bar is a eighth note except for one quarter note of bar seven
in each part!
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I can tell you're excited. Listen to the sound clip and follow along with the written music. I'm setting
the metronome at 92 but I'm playing the tune beat-for-beat. In other words, each eigth note is getting
one beat. Listen.
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Now to demonstrate the power of working with a metronome, we're going to increase the BPM to 138 and
continue to play this tune beat-to-beat. Listen.
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Here we go again, but this time the metronome is set at 200 BPM.
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Jigs are generally played at about 126 beats per minute, give or take. As I explained earlier, we group
beats together in bagpipe music. In a 6/8 tune, we put one beat on the first three eigth notes, and
a second beat on the next three eigth notes. So rather than the bass drummer hitting the drum six times
per bar, he's hitting it twice per bar. The following clip represents the jig being played at 100 BPM
with the beats being delivered in this fashion.
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I'm going to give you the second part of the tune as well because it changes from bottom hand GDEs to
top hand strikes. Listen to the sound file and practice playing beat-to-beat.
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I should call this one a double-nugget of knowledge! Everyone is always concerned about what is the
correct BPM to play a tune at. STOP! Tempo is secondary to playing it at a steady tempo. Practice
your music at different tempos to develop greater overall discipline and steady playing!
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Now, with every tune you play, set the metronome at various tempos. Triple time 6/8s, 9/8s, and 12/8s
tunes. Double time 2/4s, 3/4s, and 4/4s. Set your speeds both painfully slow and challengingly fast.
Do not allow yourself to break down! If you feel this happening, ease up on the throttle just a bit.
It's all about developing discipline!
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This is such an important lesson! Once you're able to play beat-to-beat through the first two parts
of this tune you're going to want to find the whole tune and finish it off. Please respect copyrights
and buy the book! Now, on to lesson seven!
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