The Damson Tree

The Damson Tree - A
Dots in A

Hello!
Here is another pipe tune for you. I'm sorry it's been a few weeks! This has been for a couple of reasons. Part of it was trying to think about doing a tune with extra notes in it, I wanted to do a tune from our repertoire, but they all have high Bs in them. If you'd like to see some of our tunes, the dots for all of them are on our website. I've included one track on this podcast for you from Scatter Pipes to listen to.

Finally I hope I haven't compressed this podcast too much. I suspect I was a little heavy handed on the compression, sorry about that! I hope it's ok and please, all feedback is gratefully received!
:-)
Vicki

Pushbike - part 1

Pushbike in A
Dots in A

Hello!
The next tune is here! This is a jig written by Jonny with some accompaniment by him. (I still added bass and flute though.) I played it quite slowly, I hope it's not too slow! This is the shortest podcast I've done so far, only weighing in at a little over 9Mb. Not sure what happened there! I hope that it's ok. This is actually a two part tune, a jig and then a reel. I only did the jig this week, but if you like I'll complete the tune with the reel next time. Just let me know!

Feedback as always is gratefully received! As I have mentioned before (but not recently) this is part of my masters research and I'm going to start writing it up very soon. So if you have any comments or observations about podcasting as a tune teaching tool, please let me know!

Thanks so very much for listening! Catch you laters!
:-)
Vicki

Lament for the Lone Piper

No. 6 The Lament for the Lone Piper in A
Dots in A

Hello!
Here is the next smallpiper podcast tune! I hope that it's ok! I was really chuffed with the reaction of the ensemble of the last tune so I thought I'd try it again. I wrote this tune a few years ago and wrote a part for string quartet. I thought it would be nice to record those parts, however, it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, it was really hard to do. I'm not really sure that I should put up this tune, but I did do it and I don't think I could face re-doing the parts again, so here it is anyway! Please be gentle with me! I think I need to dust of the bass a bit more and practise the parts a bit instead of just sightreading it straight away. Doh! I think I was too tired really and should have left it until after the weekend, but it's ok! I also wanted to try to record a tune that is from our new album (not released yet, but pretty close). It's hard to do some of our tunes because I have three extra notes to most pipes, so I have to avoid those tunes, which is most of them! I think though I'll arrange some so that they can be played and then cast them!

I mention in the podcast about the festival podcast that I'm going to make at the weekend. There's a link on the side of this podcast leading to it, it'll show up when I've posted the cast, hopefully early next week.

Thanks again for listening and reading all of this waffle!
laters
:)
Vicki

The Race to Home

No. 5 The Race for Home in A
Dots in A

Hello!
At last here is the next podcast. (I've been away on holiday, so sorry for the delay in getting this one out!) I improvised a flute part and bass part and it was getting late. Thanks for the heads up about the drum beat, not sure what came over me there! You're right, it didn't fit the melodic structure at all! Hey ho! So no loops at all this week, just me, me, me, me and me. (tee hee). I hope it's ok!
I look forward to hearing from you!
:)
Vicki

Lullaby for the Sleepy

No.3 - Lullaby for the Sleepy in A
The dots in A!
Hi!

This is the third Smallpiper Folk Podcast. Thank you so much for all the wonderful feedback that I've had so far! It's been great! I've not used the repeat the two bar thing this time, so I hope it's still ok! As in the last tune I used GarageBand to create a veeeeeery simple backing, the chords don't really fit, but it makes it slightly more interesting to listen to. I've recorded it as a duet, and the dots have got both parts, but I've split them into apart and not directly on top of each other. I hope this helps a bit. Again the cast weighs in at 16Mb, so not for dial up really.
I mention in the podcast that I've already taught tunes using a normal website, you can see this here. If you fancy giving me feedback here with a comparison of what you've found easier, then that'd be really great!

:)
Vix

Dusty Pipes

No. 2 - The Dusty Pipes
Hello!
I've decided to refresh my older podcasts, mostly because my other webspace finally went down and it was easier to refresh the podcasts that I wanted than to edit the links on the oldest ones. So here is my first smallpipe podcast that I did back in 2005:

Hi!
This week I've taught a smallpipe tune, in the key of A. Non-bagpipers can still give the tune a go.

This tune is called "The Dusty Pipes" It's dedicated to all those people who have ever had to leave a much loved musical instrument behind at home. Again I've taught it 2 bars by 2 bars, 4 bars by 4 bars etc. If you think this doesn't work here then let me know and I'll have a re-think how to do this! Included is a very cheesy version of the tune with a backing made in a Mac program called GarageBand. I know the chords don't really fit, but it sort of does the job for this podcast.

If you'd like the dots, right click and download from here.

:-)
Vix

Scottish Smallpiper Tutor

I forgot to mention earlier...
I've been working really hard on getting it ready and final duplication.
I've built it into a browser based tutor with the original podcast audio lessons,supplemented with movies and a printable pdf. The pdf will be available on it's own with a paypal button and then e-mail/download. The browser based tutor is too large for web distribution, so that's going to be a CD. Planned launch date is 3rd November. I'm working hard on the typing errors. (I'll never get rid of them all though!) The pdf will definitely be ready in time but the CD will make it only by the skin of it's teeth. So watch this space! It could be ready in two weeks time!
:))
Vicki
PS Click here for the website built to show it off.

The Willows - a live video

Hello!
I'm sorry I've not posted anything in a while. Once I finished writing all the masters assignment, I got into learning the Swedish Nyckelharpa. I wanted to learn an instrument remotely, just like everyone who has been learning from my podcasts. It's been a really interesting learning experience. I should probably write it up properly, or at least document it in some way so that I can return to it later. Anyway, that's a conversation for another time. If you'd like to see how I'm getting on with the nyckelharpa you can see me with it here! Back to the Willows anyway. This was recorded live last week, it's two tunes. The Willows and the Three Ashes. You can get the dots from here. We love these two tunes, you need to watch though, they have to have a high G sharp and a high B to really make them work. So enjoy the movie, let me know if you play them. I'd love to hear it!
More soon I promise! Would you prefer podcast or video? I think I'd prefer to podcast, it's easier! I have a feeling that some links might be dead now, so let me know if I've missed any and I'll fix them!
:)
Vx

Apples and Chairs a videocast

Hello!
I've finished the videoing for the tutor book CDrom and I thought it was a shame to waste having set up the camera and curtain. It's a tune from the tutor and I've podcast it before, but I had an accompaniment file and I wanted to try to synch up my audio with the accompaniment. I think I managed ok!
Anyway, back to editing the CDrom.
Hope you're all well!
:)
Vx

Another movie - Round the World

Hello!
Another video cast this week. I don't think it's going through onto iTunes, er, I guess that's a minus point for Youtubing. I am in the process of setting up a superdooper server at home. Well, I say sooperdooper, it'll be slow and flakey, but it'll be mine, woo hoo! As soon as I have that better sorted I'll re-publish the movies but as proper vodcasts. In the meantime, here is the tune Round the World (from the album ThumbTwiddling). The dots for the tune are Here!



Hope you enjoyed the movie! Let me know what you thought. The soundtrack and pictures went slightly out of synch and I didn't discover that until this morning as I uploaded it. Sigh, I'll try harder next time. It was adding the titles that through them out, but I thought I'd fixed it! Anyway, thanks for watching!
:)
Vx

An experiment with YouTube ...

Hello!
I've handed in my dissertation and fingers crossed it passes, hurrah! So tonight (after two weeks of solid writing) here is a video of the tune I've been using as my 'signature tune'. It's Jock's Magic Box by Jonny and you can find the dots here!
I'm not so good with editing videos yet, but I'm sure I'll get better. Let me know how you get on, did you prefer the audio podcasts, or is this a bit of fun!

I've included the YouTube version and as it didn't show up in iTunes I've video-cast it too. My webspace seems to have stayed up with the University, so fingers crossed it stays. I'll use it as long as possible!

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!
:)
Vx