Teach Yourself Bagpipes by Lindsay Davidson

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Main Index

Back to Welcome page
How to Practice
Order of Study
Rhythm and Reading Music

Exercises 
Tunes

Bagpipes:
Transition to Bagpipes
Tuning a Bagpipe

Getting Better:
Using Midi files
Intermediate exercises
Advanced

Band repertoire

Links:
Where to buy equipment
Links to teachers
Links to Organisations
Links to pipe bands
Links (other)
Doublings - General Principles

A 'doubling' is a way of accenting, or making more prominent, a note.

It works by firstly playing a gracenote to a note (a little accent) and then by repeating the note by 'cutting' it into two using another gracenote.

Long ago, doublings and all other embellishments were called 'cuttings'. Some gracenotes have the job of making a note stand out, whilst others have the job of cutting it. Understanding these two different tasks will greatly help in mastering doublings.

Exactly when the gracenotes should be opened and closed in relation to the beats is a question of interpretation and should be approached freshly in each case. However one can say that typically and most frequently, the first gracenote opens before the beat and closes the note to be doubled (or accented) on the beat, with the second gracenote making a small cut thereafter.
Rudiments Index

Hand Position and the Scale
Crossing sounds
G Gracenotes
D Gracenotes
E Gracenotes
G,D,E Gracenotes exercise
Strikes
Throws
Doublings - general principles
Low G Doublings
Low A Doublings
B Doublings
C Doublings
D Doublings
E Doublings
F Doublings
High G Doublings
High A Doublings
Grips
Taorluath
Birl
Tachum
Hara

About this project
Lindsay Davidson
About the author