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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 0:31:48 GMT
Hi people. Rob MacKilop here. If you have any questions about my books, I'll try to answer them here. Also, if you have any sound files of your playing tunes from these books I'd love to hear them.
I have two books: The Scottish Guitar (Centerstream) and Scottish Traditional Music For Guitar (The Hardie Press and Mel Bay)
The arrangements are in DADGAD, Open D and Open G tunings. The Centerstream publication comes with a CD of me playing the tunes, while the other book has no CD. I wanted to record one, but the publisher threatened to charge me £500 for the priveledge!
The emphasis in my books is on melody. I don't fill in spaces with lots of arpeggios, but feel free to do that if so moved. The biggest influence on my playing has been traditional singers.
Cheers,
Rob
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leoroberts
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My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Feb 5, 2015 8:28:56 GMT
Your appearance on this 'ere forum might just be the push I need to actually do something with the book ... it'll be the one with the CD, obviously, as I don't read dots
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Post by vikingblues on Feb 5, 2015 8:45:08 GMT
Hi Rob As I've said in your introduction thread I've a big liking for your book "The Scottish Guitar". I have also got as far as having "Scottish Traditional Music For Guitar" in the basket at the Hardie Press site. That £500 charge is pretty outrageous for you doing something that would help sell the book for them! I really love the arrangements you have done - though I'll admit with some of them I have struggled a bit to find the key to unlock the flow and shape of the piece. The Ports were particularly tricky in the initial stages for this, and are still "under construction" as it were. I have recorded a fair few out of the book and often posted links on the forum here. Be warned that often I am so eager to share my "find" of a new piece that I rush out a recording before it's properly matured. Only one recording so far with my new Lowden S32 (Oran An Aoig) - the rest are with my lovely wee Tanglewood TW73 parlour which punches well above its price level. Some recent attempts:- Oran An Aoig - The Song of DeathThe Lord Aboins AirPort Atholland the one that started it all off:- Rhonas TuneI really like the idea of "less is more" and the arrangements you have allow this. I admit I have had to miss out some notes here and there due to my hands being a bit arthritic, especially the little finger on the fretting hand. Some of those 4th finger stretches to the lower strings are agony! Another bit of a limitation is my hand span puts me in the category of "Petite Plucker" as far as the membership of this forum goes according to a survey that was done here of finger length and hand span. I struggle on! Hopefully people who hear my renditions of these will realise there's a great deal more to be brought out in this music than I manage. The very best to you - and many thanks for such a wonderful book. Mark
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 9:10:38 GMT
Leo - you don't read dots, but do you read tab? If not, some of the tunes are fairly simple, though there are odd twists and turns here and there. If you have half-decent ears, you should be able to work some pieces out, plus you'll pick up things that are not in the score, such as phrasing and ornamentation. Good luck!
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 9:29:34 GMT
Mark - great to hear your performances of Oran an Oig and Lord Aboin's Air! Good performances, I'd say. The Lowden sounds great, and theTanglewood almost as good. I'll get round to the other tracks later - I have a student in four minutes!
Here's me playing Lord Aboin's Air on a baroque lute. Note that the manuscript asks for the lute to be tuned to a D major chord - alternate Tunings are nothing new! Also note that most of the bass notes are open strings, which kind of makes things a little easier for the left hand, though not for the right. I've just listened to this performance, and it's too fast - I'm a bit annoyed at myself. However, the ornaments come out clear.
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Post by vikingblues on Feb 5, 2015 20:16:32 GMT
Many thanks Rob for listening to and commenting on those two pieces. Nice to know I'm not going off track too badly! Very impressive the way you handle that lute - very musically played too. I found even a cittern was too many strings for me. One thing fascinates me about your book and I think it shows how important getting a feel for the idiom of that type of music is. In the early days of using your book I did a few times try to listen to your version on the CD first while looking at the score - and found it a bit difficult to connect the two, Then when I'd worked on the piece a bit and got it starting to work I'd listen to your recording again while reading the score and this time it would make sense. The best way I can suggest that initial feeling was would be listening to someone say something in one language while reading the same thing in a different language - makes the brain feel a bit giddy. I just tracked down my first post on the forum here about your book in early April in a thread about "A Journey Into Open and Altered Tunings" which started with a Martin Simpson book - my thoughts about your book are still very similar to what I said back then, which was:- "I recently got a book "The Scottish Guitar - 40 Scottish Tunes for Fingerstyle Guitar" by Rob MacKillop. I've been really enjoying it - one of teh very best guitar books I've ever used. I did get it with having it in mind that it had DADGAD tunes in it. However it also has Open G and Open D. Half of the tunes arrangements in the book are in open D - from 17th century Scottish lute repertoire - and I've found myself drawn to having fun on those.
I've also been having fun with this book due to Rob MacKillops view of interpretation. He doesn't believe in showing ornamentation on the transcriptions but instead gives guidance on types of ornamentation and leaves the player to use when they feel moved to. Also on a lot of the pieces he recommends that the player can let themselves be quite free with the rhythm as long as the rhythm breathes - avoiding the metronomic sort of rhythm. I spent a long time under the whip of learning music that had to be played EXACTLY as per the printed page and eventually hating it, so this approach of Rob MacKillops ticks all the right boxes with me.
I've been working on one particular tune for a week or so - it sounds nothing like as good as his version on the CD - I'm quite a bit faster, and probably to near to a metronomic rhythm. But at least now when I listen to his recording and read the book at the same time I can make sense of what he's doing - which I couldn't do when I first tried it. It was an untitled piece - he called it Rhonas Tune, and so have I because it is essentially his tune I'm trying to play.
I think I will need to keep working on this for a long time. It needs to be much more fluid and mellow and needs to sing better."It is certainly true about working on the tunes for a long time - I am still trying to, and need to, develop "Rhonas Tune" ... and I still probably need to slow it down. All such great fun though - very much so. Mark
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maninashed
Cheerfully Optimistic
Mad Farmer Liberation Front
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Post by maninashed on Feb 5, 2015 21:28:00 GMT
I got a uke for Christmas and I'm really enjoying '20 Celtic Fingerstyle Uke Tunes'. Lovely arrangements!
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 21:47:55 GMT
Thanks, maninashed! The perfect Christmas Present, and all the other days of the year too
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Post by andyhowell on Feb 5, 2015 22:40:06 GMT
I have your Scottish Book and CD Rob — and a very fine thing it is indeed!
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 23:40:02 GMT
Thanks, Andy. Again, much appreciated. What a nice place this is
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 5, 2015 23:48:28 GMT
Mark, I've listened to your performance of Rhona's Tune, and as I was doing so, my daughter Rhona rang the doorbell. We listened to it together. She liked your recording, and so did I. Just one observation for you to perhaps consider, not every note of a melody is as important as the rest. I'd like to hear more inequality of stress in your phrasing of the tune. It's a hard thing to describe. Try to decide which are the main notes. One way to bring them out is to play them louder. But a more subtle way is to play the other notes more quietly. That way the listener feels the music is heading somewhere, instead of sitting on each note as it comes. I'm just talking about the melody here. Overall it was really nice. Really nice.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Feb 6, 2015 0:11:26 GMT
Just ordered the Celtic Uke Book - need some new inspiration ukewise!
Keith
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Post by vikingblues on Feb 6, 2015 7:25:22 GMT
Mark, I've listened to your performance of Rhona's Tune, and as I was doing so, my daughter Rhona rang the doorbell. We listened to it together. She liked your recording, and so did I. Just one observation for you to perhaps consider, not every note of a melody is as important as the rest. I'd like to hear more inequality of stress in your phrasing of the tune. It's a hard thing to describe. Try to decide which are the main notes. One way to bring them out is to play them louder. But a more subtle way is to play the other notes more quietly. That way the listener feels the music is heading somewhere, instead of sitting on each note as it comes. I'm just talking about the melody here. Overall it was really nice. Really nice. My thanks to you for listening to my recordings and for your thoughts about them Rob, and I'm pleased that there was good things for you (and your daughter Rhona) in the recording. That's interesting advice on the melody aspect and it sounds very sensible - it's a bit embarrassing to admit I hadn't considered that reverse way of thinking of letting the other notes to be lower in volume. I do recognise this as being an area of my playing that needs improvement .... I have certainly heard (and commented) on a number of the other members here about the way their playing subtly enhances the melody. Doing that, as you have noticed, remains a bit of a magic trick that's hidden to me! I shall try and bring in your suggestion to aid my attempts to improve things. Mark
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Post by robmackillop on Feb 6, 2015 8:29:55 GMT
Keith - I hope you enjoy the book!
Mark - Being aware of the problem is the first step towards solving it. Good luck! Sounds to me that you are very close already.
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Post by andyhowell on Feb 6, 2015 18:11:25 GMT
Thanks, Andy. Again, much appreciated. What a nice place this is Oh yes — only the best guitarists are here!
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