Teach Yourself Bagpipes by Lindsay Davidson

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Mhari Bhan

Mhari Bhan

Link to RSPBA (Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association) source

Midi files

Please click on these files to hear the music played through midi.

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Quarter speedQuarter speed

 

Five discussion points

1   This tune is also known as Mharie's Wedding (in a variety of spellings) and so goes with the song of the same name, which unfortunately has a different rhythm and therefore won't help you here. The first challenge is to get the birl at the very beginning in time. You want the last strike of the birl to come up on the beat, which means you have to fit everything into a mere sixteenth note.
2  Given that the birl has to fit into a very small space, this rather defines the interpration of most of the embellishments later in the tune. The throw at the beginning of bar 2 needs a heavy low G, which will take half the time of the B. This is different to many of the other MAP tunes so far and so will represent a new challenge.
3   The first high G gracenote in the F doubling is a third of the time of the preceding D. This makes it a biggish gracenote; if it were to be half the value of the D it would be too long, and a quarter of the preceding D, while OK, does not carry the weight the tune demands. You wil need to say 'tripelet' again many times as you have in some other tunes.
4   The grip in the second bar of the second part is also a place were a third of the preceding note is donated to this event. Again 'tripelet' it out. You might want to mix some ta-ti tripelet exercises banging out the rhythms on the table to be able to switch between the movement of two, four and three events per beat without changing tempo.
5   The last birl of each part ends on the beat - the last strike comes up on the beat.

Five exercises 

Exercise 1

mapex12

Low PitchHigh Pitch
Full speedFull speed
Half speedHalf speed
Quarter speedQuarter speed

Exercise 2

mapex13

Low PitchHigh Pitch
Full speedFull speed
Half speedHalf speed
Quarter speedQuarter speed

Exercise 3

mapex23graphic.png

Low PitchHigh Pitch
Full speedFull speed
Half speedHalf speed
Quarter speedQuarter speed

Exercise 4

mapex29graphic.png

Low PitchHigh Pitch
Full speedFull speed
Half speedHalf speed
Quarter speedQuarter speed

Exercise 5

mapex30graphic.png

Low PitchHigh Pitch
Full speedFull speed
Half speedHalf speed
Quarter speedQuarter speed
 



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