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Our next tune dates back to around 1750 and, as with many traditional poems and songs, made its transition
to the bagpipe many years later.
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Robin Adair
by Lady Caroline Keppel
What's this dull town to me?
Robin's not near;
What was't I wished to see,
What whished to hear?
Where's all the joy and mirth
That made this
town a heav'n on earth?
Oh! they're all fled with thee,
Robin Adair.
What made th' assembly
shine?
Robin Adair;
What made the ball so fine?
Rovin Adair;
What, when the play was o'er
What made my heart so sore?
Oh! it was parting with
Robin Adair.
But now thou'rt far from
me,
Robin Adair.
And now thou'rt cold to me, Robin Adair;
Yet him I loved so well
Still in
my heart shall dwell,
Oh! i can ne'er forget
Robin Adair.
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So, we have no new embellishments to learn here but we are going to spend time talking about playing
on the beat and marching!
I want you to think about each bar of music as a mathematic equation.
Note values must add up in each bar of music. In this 4/4 march, we know that there are four beats
per measure and that each quarter note (or equivilant) gets a beat.
When we march to a 4/4 tune,
our left foot comes down on the first beat, our right foot on the second beat, left again on the third
beat, and right again on the fourth beat. This is repeated for each bar of music.
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So looking at this and tapping our feet to the beat....left, right, left, right, the tunes sounds something
like this.
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Let's look at the same piece of music just a tad differently. Now we're going to count out the beats.
You can see how half notes receive two beats and quarter notes receive one beat. You can also see how
a dotted quarter received one and one-half beats and how an eight note received half a beat.
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Here's a major nugget! Remember how we set our metronome at six beats per measure for the 6/8 jig?
Each eighth note received a beat and the quarter note received two beats. We're going to do almost the
same thing here. We're going to "double-time" the metronome to help us put each little note EXACTLY
where it belongs within the context of the tune.
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So now, each half note receives four beats, the quarter notes receive two beats each and the eighth
notes each get a beat. Click on the treble clef to the right to hear how this sounds.
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This is extremely helpful in the second part of Robin Adair, as you'll see next. Let's start out with
the double-time and then look at left, right, left, right.
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Oops! I almost forgot! We need to learn a couple of new embellishments! The first is the double High
A! This is a wonderful embellishment and quite easy to play too.
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You can play it from any note on the chanter (other than from HA itsef) just by opening the chanter
to HA and then dragging your thumb across the HA hole to briefly sound High G. Click on the treble clef
to the right to hear how its played. Refer to the exercise below.
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We also need to learn a "light" D strike. We're going to take this opportunity to learn both the "heavy"
and "light" versions. The "light" D strike is pictured to the left and the "heavy" D strike is pictured
to the right. Study the note sequence.
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The "light" version is played by playing a G gracenote on D followed by a C gracenote (tap your right
index finger on the D note hole) and then opening the chanter to the D melody note. The exercise below
sounds like this.
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The "heavy" D strike is very similar except that instead of tapping your Index finger to make a C gracenote,
you tap all three fingers on the bottom hand to make a Low G gracenote. Again, the exercise below sounds
like this.
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A common mistake is to overlap notes. Remember, each of these embellishments is comprised of gracenotes
played separately, distinctly, and sequentially. Practice the movement slowly at first to master the
technical aspects. Gradually tighten up the movement to make it sound musical.
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So, let's put these two new embellishments to work! Here's the second part of Robin Adair. Again,
we're going to double-time the metronome to make certain we get all the little eighth notes precisely
where they belong! Click on the treble clef to hear the sound file.
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