- 13 lessons teaching how to play 5 very popular Irish tunes.
- Progress at your own pace, pause & repeat videos.
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- PDF sheet music & mp3’s to download & keep for each tune.
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- Library of over 150 popular Irish tunes to practice along with.
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Ireland’s indigenous bagpipes, the Uilleann Pipes, take their name from the Gaelic word for elbow (uilleann), alluding to the air-bag and bellows which the elbows operate. Air is pumped from the bellow into the bag and then from the bag into a reed in the chanter. Piping is considered a very important part of the Irish tradition. The solo playing of the pipes has a special place of its own in the tradition and to a large extent developed separately from the rest of the tradition.
Uilleann Pipes Technique looks into a lot of technical aspects of uilleann pipe playing. If you have a handle on the basics of piping and want to push the boundaries of your ability then this course will be a real treat for you. If you’re new to the pipes, head over to our Uilleann Pipes Basics Course to get you started.
By the end of the course you will have really honed your piping technique, a crucial foundation on which to begin to build a repertoire. The course has 13 lessons.
Course Structure
The course opens with the tune ‘The Hag at the Churn’ which the tutor uses to introduce his teaching methods and discuss piping ornamentation and technique. Over the course of the next twelve lessons, four Irish tunes are examined in detail, with three lessons dedicated to each. The first lesson in each set of three introduces the tune with the basic technique. This is then followed by a lesson looking at tune specific technique and variation. And finally a basic approach to regulator and drone playing is demonstrated; some chanter exercises are included for those without drones and regulators. Lessons are not designed to increase repertoire but rather to focus on technical aspects of piping.
The tunes taught are:
The Hag At The Churn
An Sean Duine
The Fall Of Dunboy
The Braes Of Busby
Higgins
An Sean Duine
The Fall Of Dunboy
The Braes Of Busby
Higgins
Sheet Music and Mp3s available to Download for each Tune
Sample Sheet Music
Download The Hag at the Churn ABC Sheet Music.
Download The Hag at the Churn Standard Notation Sheet Music.
Sample mp3 of The Hag at the Churn
Your Tutor
Mikie Smyth began playing the pipes at the age of nine. His first teachers were Colm De Brun and Andy Conroy in the Pipers’ Club in Henrietta Street, Dublin. As a teacher Mikie has worked for many piping organizations and traditional summer schools, including the Willie Clancy and Joe Mooney summer schools. He is currently the pipes tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick where he teaches on both the Bachelors and Masters˰programmes. Mikie has performed both as a soloist and with shows (Riverdance and Ragus) in over 5 countries. He has recorded a solo album ‘The Wild Keys’֊and has also recorded with Donalˌ Lunny, Maurice Lennon, and Sean Keane to mention a few. Read more.
Detailed questions and discussion on the course can be found in the Community Forum, available to paying members only.
