On Sunday 07 April 2013, the General Meeting was attended by 12 pipers (and two friends), the most players we’ve in one sitting in years! Members drove in from St. Cloud, Eau Claire, and even Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Club business included updates on the MN Irish Music Weekend and the Fall Tionól. We’re hoping Martin Preshaw can give us a seminar when he’s in town later this month: details to come, as they develop.

We played the following tunes:

• Kerry (Egan’s) Polka / Maggie in the Wood (polkas)
• Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór / Planxty Fanny Power (O’Carolan planxties)
• Rolling Wave / Rambling Pitchfork (jig)
• Coppers & Brass (jig)
• Return From Fingal (march)
• Drops of Brandy / Leitrim Quickstep (slip jigs)
• Dawning of the Day / Eagle’s Whistle (marches)
• Heathery Breeze / Rolling in the Ryegrass (reels)
• Rakish Paddy (reels)

Pat McCormick taught the tune “Return From Fingal,” the sheet music for which is available on our tunebook page.

Upcoming events for the next couple of months:

• April 14th 8:00 pm: Comas (Isaac Alderson’s band) @ The Celtic Junction
• April 25-ish: Martin Preshaw seminar?
• May 4th 7:00 pm Open Mic @ The Celtic Junction
• May 18th 2:00 pm: Brian Boru 50th Anniversary @ Shamrocks

The first GNIPC meeting of Spring 2013 is fast upon us! Here's Sunday's agenda:

3:00 Club Business: Open Mic, Show & Tell, MIM 2013
3:10 Tunes
3:50 Break
4:00 Tune Lesson (TBD) by Patrick McCormick
4:30 Tunes, cont'd
5:00 Nominal ending time, but who am I kidding?

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

The Celtic Junction, 836 Prior Ave. N, St. Paul 55104
A little song, a little dance, a little Celt-zer in your pants! Open mic for singers, players, dancers, story tellers and practitioners of Celtic mime. Whatever that is.

$5. Doors at 7:00/Show at 7:30

As promised, Mick has posted a transcription of Tom Klein’s A-major version of “The Dusty Miller.” You can find it here (or on the Tunebook page).

Deceptively simple, this version of the tune especially lends itself to practicing smooth octave-break transitions, high E’s in general, and as always “The Dusty Miller” is an excellent vehicle for practicing variations and pippety-pop effects. Have fun!

This past-Sunday’s General Meeting was fun and enlightening in equal measure! Here are some notes:

1. Club Business

General Meeting attendance is up sharply over this time last year. And we’ve room for plenty more!

Tom K. has confirmed that GNIPC members receive a 5% discount when registering for the Center for Irish Music’s Minnesota Irish Music Weekend (MIM), June 13-16. This is the same discount CIM members receive! See http://www.centerforirishmusic.org/mim-2013/ for details.

To be eligible for this discount, you need to be current on dues. Although the Month of Dues Righteousness (aka February) has passed, it’s not too late to square up at http://www.gnipc.org/membership/.

2. Tunes

• The Rolling Wave / Garret Barry’s Jig
• Drops of Brandy / Leitrim Quickstep / Kid on the Mountain
• Eagle’s Whistle / O’Sullivan’s March
• Dronies

3. Tom Klein’s Demo: Playing in A and what that does for your piping

Tom performed the following sets in A, explaining technical challenges therein:

• The Spotted Dog / The Flying Wheelchair
• Saddle the Pony (hop jig version)
• The Dusty Miller / Top it Off

For this demo, besides using his regulator-clip trick to make an ersatz tenor A drone, Tom also had baritone & bass drones in B, the latter with an extension, fitted into his concert-set’s mainstock and tuned down to A.

As a bonus Tom also played “Barret Garry’s Jig” which is a clever D major re-working of Garret Barry’s Jig (the latter usually being in G Mixolydian) (If this makes no sense to you whatsoever, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_musical_modes).

Tom spent the remainder of the meeting’s second hour teaching his A version of “The Dusty Miller,” which is especially valuable for improving your octave-break transitions and overall high E kung fu.

Over the next week or so, I’ll upload to our website a tune-transcription PDF or two, and possibly MP3s, from Tom’s demo.

Come to the General Meeting this coming Sunday March 3rd, 3:00 - 5:00 pm at The Celtic Junction! This month Tom Klein will give a Demonstration:

“Playing in A and what that brings to your piping”

This involves shifting well-known non-A tunes into "flute A" (few if any G#s, as apposed to "fiddle A" which can have G# landmines everywhere). So why play in A? I have found that it necessitates a good deal more upper-hand use (and therefore, hopefully breaking the death grip that afflicts that hand in a good many pipers, yours truly included), as well as (due to bouncing back and forth over the octave break) it gives a sound with much more closure. Very pippety-poppity. To go with this key change I have configured a bass A drone. As an exercise in A playing, I will teach either Saddle the Pony, The Dusty Miller, or Top it Off.

The meeting agenda is:

3:00  Club business (Dues, future events)
3:08  Tunes
3:50  Break
4:00  Demonstration: “Playing in A and what that brings to your  piping”
5:00  You needn’t go home but you can’t stay here

Speaking of dues, if you haven’t paid your 2013 dues yet, please do so here:

http://www.gnipc.org/membership/

Hope to see you this Sunday!

Those of us who skipped pre-Super-Bowl parties this past Sunday, Febr. 3 at 3:00 pm enjoyed another tuneful and informative GNIPC General Meeting. After a brief update on club business, we played tunes including  “Eagle’s Whistle,” “Drops of Brandy,” “The Leitrim Quickstep,” and “Saddle the Pony.”

The second half was mostly taken up by learning “Garret Barry’s Mazurka” (see the Tunebook page for sheet music), and a discussion of the vagaries of keeping chanter reeds playing. Judging from how many of us stayed well past 5:00 pm, a good time was had by all.

Hope to see you next time!

Our next general meeting will take place 3:00 pm this Sunday 03 February 2013 at The Celtic Junction. Mick will teach the tune “Garret Barry’s Mazurka,” the sheet music for which is available on the Tunebook page. (Mick transcribed and learned it from Willie Clancy’s recorded version on the RTE CD “The Gold Ring.”)

Agenda:

1. Club business (dues reminder, State of the Club)

2. Tunes!

3. 10-minute break

4. Tune-lesson: “Garret Barry’s Mazurka”

5. More tunes!

Hope to see you there!