Hibiscus genevii: Scottish Small Piping lesson with Pipe Major Stuart Liddell in Scotland

Hi Scott,

Thank you very much for signing up for the topical lesson 'Intro to Piobaireachd'.

Kick off is 8pm (BST) Sunday 26th Sep. Zoom room is 768 362 8527, password is IDPB

Look forward to seeing you there.

Stuart

Thank you, Stuart, looking forward to it! I just booked 2 lessons when I booked this Topical - "Thank you for your order. Your order reference is #9588-345702" ... and will seek to book a Lesson with you in the near future.

See you in just under 1 1/2 hours.

Thank you, and see you soon,

Scott

Thanks so much, and nice to meet your other pupils (somehow affirmative to hear everyone play Glengarry's Lament - socially ... with your excellent feedback too) ... apologies for the time zone mix up ... hoping to do better next time ... and if the Zoom recording comes through, to hear the rest of the lesson. I've begun to transcribe for my own processing our August 18 lesson, and will add to my blog post, with still the Sept 1 lesson to transcribe.

Best regards,

Scott

- 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://worlduniversityandschool.org

2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

(o) 415 480 4577 - sgkmacleod@worlduniversiryandschool.org

(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.

stuart@stuartliddell.com

Attachments

1:52 PM (35 minutes ago)

to me

Nice to see you there Scott and sorry that didn't quite work out! Will pencil you in for the next session! Attached PowerPoint from today.

All the best,

Stu

Hi again Stuart,

Am enjoying your playing of Glengarry's Lament as I write (but the recording file stopped twice in GDocs a little over half way through, and am not sure why ... good to be in GDocs though, and possibly for machine learning in the future even) ... and you already have made up your mind (so no worries about the service charge) ... interesting too to learn the group teaching model you teach so well with.

Glengarry's Lament is played here with sheet music time signature of '3/4' (and light non-mensurality - I'll call this:) ... (whereas in the CoP Yellow Piobaireachd tutor, Vol 4, there's no time signature).

Might you do a Topical (group seminar, on all 200-300 Piobaireachd), perhaps on Google Meet for video recording, to add a feedback loop into a series of Piobaireachd Tutorials (coming into conversation with PM Donald MacLeod's great recordings, and perhaps PS Jack Lee's recent recordings of most Piobaireachds, but not as Tutorials) ... and as a first project for the piping schools at World University and School as its first faculty member even? ... The student learning aspect and your interactive instruction would be amazing (thanks to these new information technologies) contribution to bagpiping and Piobaireachd!

Scott

Further seeking to explore 'Piobaireachding the Blues' - and Piobaireachd Singing the Blues' out of the box with you - and regarding, too, your extraordinary light music (Ceol Beag) playing with its energy ... and regarding these other questions and ideas I've inquired about in previous recent emails -https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/09/hibiscus-genevii-scottish-small-piping.html .

PPS

What's countercultural-Piobaireachd ?:) - and even regarding these 4 examples of a kind of real 'religious experience' I explore here - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/09/black-footed-ferret-mustela-nigripes_0885055734.html - and also referring to Harvard's William James' lectures at the University of Edinburgh around 1902 on 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'? Would you say there's a kind of Scottish 'religious experience' associated with Piobaireachd for a group of pipers and listeners? At its most profound, what are some of the characteristics, in words, of such transcendent 'religious experiences' if you'll call them this even? And can we get "there" online, both for extraordinary Piobaireachd 'religious experience' - differently than on the ground (say in Blair Atholl castle) ... and, compared newly with the creation of countercultural-Piobaireachd ?:) ? Cheers, Scott

All here too -

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/09/hibiscus-genevii-scottish-small-piping.html

Best regards, Scott

http://scottmacleod.com/piping.htm

* * *

Sunday, September 18, 2021

Stuart, Great to hear from you. Do you think you could even create a jam for pipers, for example, with this Grateful Dead show from 1993 -

https://youtu.be/Nxm__ldA4Uw - and starting with the song beginning around 11 minutes. This seems to work in the key of A SSP in part, and you have explored (and shown me) a number of new notes recently ... leading me to think that one could pipe with this in more than just 4 or 5 of the notes in the 9 note SSP A chanter. And, furthur, do you think you could even create a "Piobaireachding the Blues" jam with a machine learning informed tracks ... for example online ...

- and teach this too, more than suggestively of what might work piping-wise for you, or what you'd do listening first? Could you Stuart teach "Piobaireachding the Blues" drawing on some of the ~200-300+ pieces of Piobaireachd ... and as an innovation exploration, and possibly interesting jamming 'challenge'? I don't think I'm up to teaching "Piobaireachding the Blues" yet, let alone playing it, although I was noodling around with the above GD ... and it was working just a bit :)

And Congratulations! - just found this when searching on 'Stuart Liddell News' the other day ...

Stuart Liddell wins 2020 Glenfiddich Piping Championship

https://bagpipe.news/2020/10/31/stuart-liddell-wins-2020-glenfiddich-piping-championship/

Might it be possible to begin, please, to learn to play Thunderstruck with your guidance too ...? (And would you be able to share the sheet music for this - initially, that is:)

It occurred to me too to ask you how you might add 'Piobaireachd-playing beauty' to Donald MacLeod's teaching - like the beauty (I think) you uniquely add in playing in Ceol Beag piping? How furthur, beyond what you've already taught me in the four lessons so far (transcriptions of lessons 3 and 4 re my processing still to come)?

As examples, here are some Piobaireachd tunes taught by PM Donald MacLeod as tutorials ... how would you add further 'beauty' to these (beyond what you've already taught me?) ...

The Desperate Battle of the Birds played by PM Donald MacLeod -

https://youtu.be/r1w9J2atyHw

The Company's Lament
https://youtu.be/UOQ1Uvd_Foc

MacKintosh's Banner
https://youtu.be/joCGHsIGVJM

Glengarry's Lament
https://youtu.be/Far56tWUIu0 (chanter begins playing at about 8 minute mark, after helpful canntaireachd)

I haven't gotten back to you yet about questions of what beauty in Piping is .... and explicitly in words ... but I think I even have a blog post or two where I explore this ... more later ... Your piping is beautiful Stuart! Thank you!

Explored in the WUaS Monthly Business Meeting today a little further, brainstorming-wise, and idea-sharing wise, questions of how you might become faculty at World Univ & Sch and regarding our Piping wiki subjects to begin, in English (but even possibly later in Scottish Gaelic and in the Scots' language too .. with machine translation) ... https://drive.google.com/file/d/17PW768z7Z767TXgdr00yyNEbQVSjDRUJ/view ... toward the beginning.

Might we possibly explore a piping lesson this Wednesday or Thursday? Or another day too ?

Best wishes, Scott

A further thought for the next Corrienessan's Salute lesson, if I hadn't found it newly on Spotify (since it didn't seem to exist on Youtube) ... Could we explore your teaching of Piobaireachd, like Donald MacLeod teaches in his Piobaireachd tutorials ... kind of regarding this structured approach, but in your own way? ... As a sound method for teaching Piobaireachd, could you explore perhaps giving it a go, possibly Piobaireachd teaching innovation-wise, since I think you'd teach it very differently from Donald MacLeod ... and beautifully as well :)! ... (and I would be far in the background). Thank you!

Best regards, Scott

* * *

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Dear Stuart,

Thanks again for the help/lessons. Could we possibly please explore a lesson on Wednesday or Thursday this week or the following week? Some further ideas and brainstormings here too ... which you may have excellent ideas to come re my learning conversation. Would like to translate some of these ideas directly into playing pipes too ... but am not also certain how to ... and to record this in moving ways too (and or play socially in performances / events). Just shared the following with a student in the state of Georgia in US (from SF) about Corrienessan's Salute, and am curious what you think (and re teaching Piobaireachd, and we're recording these lessons too, so I teach Piobaireachd in the ways in these recordings too), and this is just kind of a riff (on your listening and feeling thinking too), Stuart) -

Hi Taylor,

Good playing the other day.

Regarding Corienessan's Salute Piobaireachd for ~10 days from now, some further ideas as follows. Explore taking as an 'improvisational' prompt (ie also listening), in different ways, from all 3 of the following -

Corrienessan's Salute

Andrew Bonnar 2010

https://youtu.be/fKzQkPro5hM

2016 Robert Watt Corrienessan's Salute Pibroch FIL Lorient

https://youtu.be/ldsgdfrZn1U

Neil Clark - Falkirk Piping

Corrienessans' Salute, for Lou

https://youtu.be/7Usq2AJOuQ4

https://youtu.be/Gmar-kXvv-E

See you potentially in 2 Thursdays.

Musical cheers, Scott

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Bagpipe_Tutorials

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Scottish_smallpipes_and_borderpipes

Regarding

D chanter on SSP,

Stunning (to my ear), and pipe-able somehow ...

high lonesome bluegrass tenor voices like this

The High Lonesome Sound of Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys [1966]

https://youtu.be/Vl2-At1NBfA ... seem very explorable with a D chanter, and playing with A chanters as other band members, or similar ... What do you think?

Did Bill Monroe with Scots' ancestry also have Dutch ancestry (with the Vandiver name - elided in the Wikipedia article? ... Seems possible re Uncle Pen Pendleton Vandiver and his mother's name too)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Monroe

(And I was thinking very generally about the voices of Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, - https://youtu.be/LcCAZfGD-j4 - and not a mr. Magoo ... is this a Celtic name in cartoon-form :) (somehow humorously transposed to the D chanter playing) possibly comically even with other chanters)

Am finding ambivalence in revisiting the lesson video recordings, and transcribing parts of them, although I DO THIS and will continue to do this for learning (since they're really great, invaluable and of really great value - a kind of 'twofer' regarding what you think, and my learning from this) ... Parallels my ambivalence with practicing although I'm daily playing around 9:50 pm ... how to explore exploratory innovative daily playing practicing BEYOND THIS - http://scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingMusicalInstrument.htm - and regarding, brainstorming-wise (and perhaps even online with you??) -

Playing one's way socially into a great rock and roll bagpipe band MUSIC-MAKING ... How could A chanter players play rhythm chanter to D chanter's solos, I wonder? And on the Scottish small pipes with pipers singing too? (EXAMPLES?) ... PER too the "rock-n-roll standard - 4/4 back-beat rhythm, why is this? Contemporary rock music (amongst other styles) loves a bit of dissonance, angular melody lines, distortion, and generally to dirty things up, but it still hangs on tightly to the 4/4 back-beat.

https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/8188/what-makes-the-4-4-back-beat-rhythm-of-rock-n-roll-so-compelling#:~:text=So%20much%20contemporary%2Fpop%20music,4%2F4%20back%2Dbeat.

TIME SIGNATURE : 4/4

Tabs, riffs, licks and guitar backtracks having a time signature of 4/4

Tabs in 4/4

Whiskey In The Jar (Thin Lizzy)

Ramblin' Man (The Allman Brothers Band)

https://www.tabs4acoustic.com/en/time-signature/4-4.html

(Re further 'method' questions for me, beyond your very great approaches, Stuart, and my learning ...the

Berkeley Scot's fiddler Alasdair Fraser followed me recently on Twitter (I have long followed him, and appreciate his fiddling) and I kind of took this as a prompt ... Innovating, I searched on Piobaireachd and fiddle duets ... Found nothing (let alone profound or creative) but found him playing the 4/4 MacCrimmon's Sweetheart ... And 'took' or 'received' that energy to play Corrienessan's Salute in an enjoyable way (my own listening and feeling-wise too) ... Inspiring (and new way to explore Piobaireachd) possibly dovetailing with what you teach ... Role of an outside teacher ? You - or ME as MY own OUTSIDE TEACHER or critic) gets me thinking ... :) ... perhaps I should come back to "JUST DO IT" IDEA (per my father even) ... but that only happens sometimes ...

Exploring new things every time I play daily, rather than practicing the same things again and again (re your "It's a long road to the top" ... and your very social piping with Inveraray and playing in competitions, and at performances ..., plus practicing ... since you were 9 ... is a different collection of life practicing experiences you've grown with ... into the extraordinary piper that you are)

Open Band on Mondays, when it starts up again, could be an opportunity to riff in some new ways (if I came further into partly a musical director's role ... bringing new arrangements of sheet music, even, beyond the Pink and the Blue Books and related sheet music or three tunes per dance usually ... many playable on the Scottish Small Pipes, and when not I play baselines on the keyboard) ... but we play Scottish Country Dance music for experienced SCD dancers ... and which is not an exploratory bagpipe rock and roll band in a sense, but Patti Cobb lead SCD piano player, does play in a rock and roll band, with her partner Bruce :) .. and here is the Open Band Twitter feed -

https://twitter.com/TheOpenBand/status/1400511671475466240?s=20 - but that band isn't Open Band, rather the Santa Cruz California Scottish Country Dance Band ... and Open Band doesn't play in Santa Cruz very much (what new opportunities will we and others create online ... in a real real time music-making environment I wonder ... say on a Google platform ... re WUaS Music School ... and how can you become faculty at the WUaS Piping subjects ? could Alasdair Henderson help, re getting matriculating Fettes College students at MIT OCW-centric World Univ & Sch for free-to-students' degrees at WUaS - Bachelor, PhD, Law, MD, for which the Scottish Parliament could even reimburse WUaS for ... through a kind of Google Workspace for Education WUaS platform?)

Returning HOME to much thinking (possibly creatively and creating creative piping opportunities), and apologies if there are a miasma of piping ideas here, interfering with the meditative oneness of your extraordinary piping and what you teach, and what I'm learning from your teaching :)

(Ongoing seeking of a life partner here, and with whom to begin to bear children and start a family ... and who could become a muse and even a musical partner, were she to play a musical instrument ... if you hear or know of any women in your circles, age 26,27,28 or similar, possibly Scottish American, possibly MD, warm, pretty and radiant, ... and seeking or might be seeking a life partner, please let me know ... we could become video pals, post pen pals, as a start to becoming friends, Stuart! Thank you!)

Developing my next SSP album, for Piobaireachd, either somewhat traditional on the SSP, and or somewhat innovative (probably not "Piobaireaching the Blues" although I like the title ... don't have an Allman Bros '73 informed band to play with ... even with machine learning:) ... and contingent on what emerges :)

Best musical regards,

Scott

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/bagpiping

http://scottmacleod.com/piping.htm

Again, four blog entries thanks to SSP lessons with you (and to add to World Univ & Sch's SSP wiki 'school' not yet in Scottish Gaelic or in the Scots' language :) - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Scottish_smallpipes_and_borderpipes)