I confess that nothing drives me crazier than improperly executed embellishments. There is just no excuse to massacre an embellishment by overlapping notes, swapping the order of notes, or including notes that simply don’t belong! For instance, sometimes I hear pipers putting a G gracenote in front of or atop a D throw. Go away! What the hell is that?
An embellishment is intended to enhance or ornament a melody note. Single gracenotes are the simplest of embellishments. They are primarily used to accent melody notes. Complex embellishments are specific gracenotes tied closely together and are always played separately, distinctly, and sequentially. I cringe when I hear anything different. This is perhaps why I prefer a single gracenote embellishment as opposed to something distorted or otherwise manufactured.
Various embellishments of D are expressed in today’s image. I’ve shown the embellishments first as coupled eighth-notes, then as coupled sixteenth-notes, then as coupled thirty-second notes, and finally as you will find the embellishment written in staff notation. The reason I did this was to stress “separate, distinct, sequential” and to lead you from a deliberate and “mechanical” method of playing into something more musical. To be completely honest, you will require hands-on instruction when making the jump from “mechanical” to “musical” HOWEVER technically, nothing changes. However close (or tight) the gracenotes become, individual notes are separate, distinct, and sequential. If they’re not, it’s not being done properly.
When I was learning, I invented exercises for each embellishment and played them over and over until my fingers remembered the sequence and rhythm. Here’s where I highly recommend Jim McGillivray’s outstanding book, “Rhythmic Fingers”.
The debate continues regarding what kind of D throw should be played. In just about all bagpipe music books you will see the D throw written as the “light” D throw in today’s image. Interestingly, this is most often played as a “heavy” D throw. I’m not here to join in that debate, other than to suggest you find the D throw that works best for you and stick to it! I’ve even gone so far as to teach the half-doubling of D instead of a proper D throw. Why? To keep the tune manageable for a particular student and to otherwise protect the melody of the tune.
