Ben Jaber and Zac Leger - pipes and bouzouki reels in San Diego

[Vevlirare]

where can I find the first reel in scores? or do you have a recording of it?

[Legertymusic]

@Vevlirare the first tune is called "The Old Bush" and is a very common tune in the Irish tradition. If you search for it on youtube, you should be able to find many, many different versions of it to learn. I highly recommend learning it by ear, as that is how Irish tunes are traditionally transmitted. All the best!

[Vevlirare]

you guys rock!!!!

[Legertymusic]

@Vevlirare Thanks!:)

[DanielCoryMusic]

may i ask how in the heck are you playing those bagpipes without blowing air into them ;D You guys are now my heros from now on u.u im getting a bouzouki very soon finally, and i can only hope to be as amazing

[Legertymusic]

@DanielCoryMusic,

Something tells me you already know;) If you get your zouk and want to do some lessons over Skype, hit me up! If you need some ideas about where to find a good one, send me a PM any time.

[guinnessboy111]

@DanielCoryMusic there uilleann pipes, not bag pipes

[Legertymusic]

@guinnessboy111 I suspect Daniel was making a joke on the sly based on comments other folks left here asking how the pipes are played;)

[FireWalkWithMe91]

This is probably one of my favourite YouTube videos! I love the sound of uilleann pipes, and this never fails to put me in a good mood :D

[TheLordbanjo]

funny in most videos you play guitar in more bouzouki fashion, but here your playing bouzouki in what i consider a more guitar approach .love your playing ,its just an observation

[Legertymusic]

Thanks! I try to treat the zouk and guitar very differently. Generally I play guitar in a very rhythmic, syncopated style, whereas I end to play zouk in a lighter, more rolling style. I try to take advantage of the fact that zouk isn't a guitar and can be approached differently. Mainly it just depends on the sort of feel I am going for in a given situation, though. Here you will notice I am mixing and matching a variety of different rhythms and techniques. Hopefully it worked!;)

[obekind1]

Amazing! You guys are very good! The speed of the entire piece is awesome. 

[Legertymusic]

@obekind1, cheers!:)

[sgeolan28]

Great Job!

[survivorman250]

Very well played!

[ancientfifer]

Tinker's Daughter, one of my favorites. Wonderful version on the pipes!

[giditupyis]

Excellent!

[BrendanM1014]

ahhhhhh amazin

[Legertymusic]

@GrafBrotula95, Sorry, I missed your reply! The best advice I can give you for playing with Highland pipes is that they are generally more or less in Bb, meaning most players playing guitar in drop-D, DADGAD, etc or playing zouk in a tuning like GDAD, ADAD, GDAE, etc will capo at least at the first fret (giving Eb instead of D) or the third fret (giving Bb if you are using A fingering).Hope those ideas help. Keeps you from having to tune your instrument up high, although some folks prefer that.

[Legertymusic]

@GrafBrotula95, The bouzouki is originally a Greek instrument, and was modified by Irish players and makers in the 70s. This is an Irish flat top version, made by Joe Foley in Dublin. And yes, there are many great players and bands that utilize bouzouki or cittern with Highland pipes. Many Scottish bands use them. There's really no such thing as a "Celtic" bouzouki, as "Celtic" is really just a marketing term designed to sell collective music from several loosely related traditions.

[BardicPiper]

Anyone know the name of the last reel?

[DJFozter]

@BardicPiper the last tune is a great reel called Richard Dwyer's

[BardicPiper]

@DJFozter Thank you bunches!

[BardicPiper]

I loved every second of this. Keep 'em coming please!

[TheDaddyNaggins]

Excellent guys. Check out my band The Daddy Naggins tune medley the devils apron on YouTube. We do country,bluegrass and Celtic based in Scotland. Cheers guys. Fantastic music!!!

[biglee0779]

well done lads!!!!!

[milpiper]

Zac--check your msg box..sent you a reply with some details..would like to work out lessons.

[sykostar]

Amazing all around!!!

[sykostar]

Wow serious pipe skills good show!

[bookpacker]

Zac, what kind of capo are you using on the Foley?

[aligman07]

Amazing. ive played my uncles bouzouki and its the most amazing sound ive heard, evenn though i play guitar myself, however this is amazing good effort

[picopanpipe9]

Exilarating! These instruments totally flatter each other and they are both played with great skill. I keep returning to this video :)

[LPScarface]

that was amazing!!! specialy the final song

you two have a lot of talent!!

[Legertymusic]

@LPScarface, cheers!

[HaileISela]

lovely music, you guys are fantastic!

[AbigailGreen]

Love it! Inspiring :-)

[Legertymusic]

Thanks, Abigail! :)

Zac

[skully4795]

great use of bellows on the pipes, i have a set of highland pipes and can't play em cause i can't blow up a truck tire with sheer lung power....always thought i needed an air compressor, but bellows.......hell, i can do THAT!

awesome, keep it up!

[Legertymusic]

The bellows definitely helps, although getting the coordination takes a while. On the other hand the range of the uilleann pipes is much larger than the Highland pipes and the technique much more complicated in my opinion. They generally take way longer to master than the Highland pipes. Or you can practice five hours every day like Ben;) BTW, if you already know the Highland pipe fingering, you might also look into a set of Scottish smallpipes or border pipes. Both are bellows blown.

[sacredsong]

@Legertymusic

as a player of both instruments, as far as technique is concerned, they both offer their own challenges but highland pipe technique and the embellishments that lie therein are much more complicated due to the fact that they're more regimented and are written into the sheet music. uilleann pipe technique and embellishment is left entirely up to the player and how their style goes, leaving lots of room to add personal flavor. of course the same can be said of the highland pipes.

[Legertymusic]

@sacredsong, Which is why the u-ipies are a lot more complicated, in my opinion. The range and scope are so much larger. The regimented playing of the highland pipes and their ornaments (there are only a finite amount of ornaments and ways to do them "correctly") plus the small range of a 9 note scale limits them greatly. Not that there are not tons of great HP tunes and players like Gordon Duncan that really added some new ideas to the technique and repertoire.

[Legertymusic]

but it is safe to say, since I have also played both, that they are very different instruments and difficult to compare. Might as well compare a guitar and violin on the basis that they are both stringed instruments. But I have heard plenty of players master much of the HP technique to high levels of competition in a very short amount of time. That rarely happens with the UPs. You will spend a lifetime just learning the technique, let alone playing well. A lot more layers of possibility imho.

[Legertymusic]

Which is not ti dissuade anyone if they want to play the Highland pipes. But I want to make it clear that the aspects of the two instruments are very different, both musically and socially, and they are designed to play very different types of music and operate with different approaches in mind.

[milpiper]

@Legertymusic -- Agreed. As a fairly accomplished GHB player (both pipe band and solo comps), the GHB is far less complex than the UP. I took up the UPs about 18 months ago, and while some of the basic GHB skills transfer over, I'm a complete novice to the technique and skill required to play the UPs. Zac...wish you'd move back to Ohio...I could use a little help!

[Legertymusic]

@milpiper, No plans to move back to OH, but if you are interested in lessons over Skype, drop me an e-mail!

[Graham30771]

cracking tunes and playing! thanks for the post! all the best!

[williamswhistlepipes]

brilliant pure class

[Legertymusic]

Cheers, man!

[onearmfrog]

Freakin Amazing guys. So bloody talented.

[Legertymusic]

@onearmfrog, thanks so much!

[thaindor]

Excellent ! Vraiment bien les gars.

Stay in this way of playing music... just great !

[Wizzad75]

Good God I love this jam.

[Legertymusic]

Thanks!

[cornemmuse]

lovely playing men!!

[Uilleannpiper]

The third tune is indeed Richard Dwyer's. It is a highland pipe tune and the setting I'd know is the highland pipe setting, which is more or less what Ross and Jarlath play on their album (though there are a lot of weird harmony things going on). Needless to say, it doesn't go below the G. I quite like your variation using the bottom D and a load of crans.

[Legertymusic]

Interesting. Considering that Richard is a box player, did he write it specifically for the highland pipes? Or was it modified to fit them?

[Uilleannpiper]

I don't know if Richard Dwyer did write it. I have a recording of Gordon Duncan playing it at a Celtic Connections piping concert. Ross probably learned it from Gordon, as he was one of Gordon's students. However, I have no idea if it was originally a Highland piping tune or if it was an Irish tune that Gordon modified to fit the Highland pipes, as he was prone to do.

[Uilleannpiper]

Your text is limited on this thing... Anyway, I suspect that it is the former since I have never heard another setting of this tune and the other tunes I know by this name are nothing like this one. A couple guys I know who play Highland pipes (I don't) seem to think that it has been around for a while.

[Uilleannpiper]

I asked a friend who plays the Highland pipes (and knows this tune) if he had any idea who wrote it. He said that Gordon Duncan listed it as unknown trad. In any case, he agreed that it was unlikely to have been written by the Irish accordion player because it has a weird range for an Irish Dmaj tune, but a fairly standard range for a Scottish one.

[Jenxxie]

|Well done Guys,  great stuff !

[NRamirezCR]

Excelente! debo trabajar mucho...

[piperjones]

What a righteous set of tunes! Whoa!

[Legertymusic]

Cheers, E.J.!

[MacHendrik]

wow, nice!

[PVCPiper92]

truly awesome

[Legertymusic]

Thanks!

[Lochbesda16]

I think I know that third tune as Richard Dwyer's!

[Legertymusic]

Cool; thanks for that! Richie and Finbar always write amazing tunes.

[brescianimichele]

hey zac, you're a great musican :) can you give me the guitar chord for "the old bush"?

[Wizzad75]

Zac...truly sweet. I thank you for the post; much more the music!!!! It's on my playlist and it rocks my place! I play the banjo but now I need a bouzouki....thank you.

[Legertymusic]

Of COURSE you need a bouzouki! lol. Thank you for the kind words. It means a lot that people respond to and enjoy our videos:) Keep it up with the banjo!

[cellobanjoboy]

Fully sick Ben and Zac. I doffs me hat to you sirs. What tuning is the zouk there? Any titles of a good tutor DVD/book on Zouk across the Pacific there?

[Legertymusic]

Cheers! I was in GDAD here. I mainly learned from other players and recordings and developed my own style from that. Zan McLeod has a DVD out on HomeSpun tapes and there are a few books out there on Irish bouzouki. Listening and watching is the best way to learn, in my opinion. It is a pretty simple instrument in a lot of ways. Not difficult to learn at all and very forgiving.

[republicofcrissy]

Well done lads you should come to Ireland and show the lads over here how it is done.. Well done that is just amazing

[Legertymusic]

Thanks! I haven't been over in a few years. Expensive to go, though, and I am generally busy playing on the road somewhere. Maybe next year!

[lastfoxstanding]

Bloody Hell....That Was Amazing, Lads!!! Job Well Done!

[Legertymusic]

Cheers!

[williamswhistlepipes]

class! not much more i can realy say ,first rate boys well played,ps. how do you keep the pipes inflated !!!!!!!!!!

[symiankrone]

I don't really know thats why I asked you.......

[Legertymusic]

Ah, ok. I didn't know if this was someone I knew, trying to pull my leg. lol. Sorry. Didn't mean to seem snotty!

[symiankrone]

How do you have constant air pressure in ur bags? Is it an air compressor or something? Maybe a tank of air? hmmmmm

[Legertymusic]

Symiankrone, are you being serious? You really don't know? The uilleann pipes are operated by pumping a bellows under the arm opposite the bag.

[Nipponkoku]

Who made those pipes?

[Legertymusic]

Kirk Lynch

[TheComment123]

Yeah, Richard Dwyer's is the last tune, fansastic wee reel set there boys, i enjoyed it.

[Legertymusic]

Thanks! I wasn't sure about that last tune. Thought it might be a highland pipes tune Ross came up with. But Richie writes some tunes, so I am not surprised! Cheers for the info, lads.

Zac

[thecavanman]

Think the last tune is Richard Dwyer's.

[QRS666]

You are both very good players. Fantastic reel set! Beside the extremely good pipe playing, the bouzouki playing and the rythm is outstanding! I wish I could find such a good player to my own tin whistle and banjo playing.

[sirjohn2u]

Hurray!!! Give em all the orange crush and Lefty's pizza they want, says I....

[joshuadukes]

RIght on guy's!!!!

[uilleannaddict]

This video helped me make my mind up about buying a Kirk Lynch set when I can afford it; his pipes sound so wonderful!

[Legertymusic]

They do indeed! A fully keyed mopane chanter by Kirk is my main chanter as well. Very organic and mellow instruments.

Zac

[Cinatas666]

Oh my God I could listen to this forever, amazing :D

[murlach1]

brill stuff lads! :D

guy on the pipes is ace!

bouzouki is cathcy as Zac

all the best :)

[tschaknorris]

fantastic playing, guys!

[tidbre2]

AMAZING!!! My vids are just a bit different from yours but i love great music! Ben u are amazing!

[Legertymusic]

Thanks for all the kind comments, guys! Ben and I had a fun time recording this and we hope to do some more videos very soon.

Cheers,

Zac

[irishmusicgirl]

Sweet.

[To2ndMars]

Astounding stuff guys!

[SqueezeboxJoe]

Holy balls, Zac. You rule.

[Osmun79]

Yikes.. this is fantastic guys.. and that Pipe accompaniment is seriously jaw dropping!

[xbamluverx]

f'ing amazing. i LOVE pipes.

wow!!!! i love you guys. :D

[bethainy]

Insane!! I love it.

[meymic18]

*hepp.....agaaaiin!!!* :)

[Vikke1985]

Brilliant, BRILLIANT!!! I really liked Ben's playing... I think thats became my favourite Zac Leger video...

[boekenwurm5]

WOW

[XenomeJane]

This is so cool! I had no idea Ben played it!

[ralphsilat]

Gotta get myself some Orange Crush and Lefty's! I'd get myself anything that might make me play like that!  Great job, guys!