Last night I arrived at band practice a bit early. Several people were already there. One piper was practicing bottom-hand doublings, slowly and deliberately. I asked how things were coming along. “Nobody ever taught me the correct way to play these. Now I’m having to go back and fix things.” This morning I had literally the same experience during a one-on-one lesson with another student. “We never broke doublings down. We looked at them as ‘a note’ and simply threw things together and sounded sort of right.”

Going around the room last night, I was aware of a number of issues regarding doublings. Grace-notes overlapping. The doubling starting well before the beat. Non-precision. A great deal of inconsistency from doubling to doubling.

This morning I took our “busiest” tune and removed all the doublings. I left the leading G grace-note, where the doubling had been, to serve as a marker. This grace-note is to be played precisely on the beat. I explained my thinking in an email to the band and asked that they come prepared to play the tune next Tuesday with grace-note embellishments only. The goal is to play them precisely where they belong and in absolute unison.

This exercise did not change the melody whatsoever. In fact, it strengthened the melody. Once the band “nails” these notes consistently, we can re-introduce the doublings without the distortions mentioned above.

Most doublings begin with a G grace-note followed by another grace-note, which, in effect, doubles the melody note. (That’s why they call them “doublings”) If you’re working with younger or mature students, nothing changes. First teach exactly where that leading grace-note belongs. After that is “baked” into both head and hands, you can safely introduce the second grace-note to complete the doubling. If need be, revisit the method outlined above until everybody gets it!

The picture today is believed to be that of a William MacKenzie bagpipe, made in Dublin between 1911 and 1916. Tonight I’ll be working on that page in the Museum and this will be the topic of our blog tomorrow.