Thanks for listening JK !!!

best wishes to you both

JH

Great job, JH!

Thanks for the comment Carrie, I aim to please !

And thank you johnp, I knew that I would leave something essential out ! (its me age, you know !)

JohnH

Best answers come from putting what you've already said into practice

A few words on keys.

If you tune Ddd then starting at the zero fret keeps the D scale, if you start from the 3rd fret you get a G scale.

Another common bagpipe tuning is A'AA where you start from DAA and drop the bass string to a low A.
This gives you an A scale on the zero fret and keeps the D scale on the 3rd fret.

Helen ! I was so busy making a smart ass answer that I failed to address your question, sorry ! "what is bagpipe tuning" Bagpipe tuning - where all strings are tuned to the same note (in the video above, D) with the bass string an octave lower than middle and melody (1-8-8), offering constant drones, ie, as the bagpipe ? Assuming you are in the popular DAd all you need do is raise your middle string to equal that of your melody string, to Ddd. This should be OK on your strings if you are in the 27/28" VSL range, having suitably associated guages.

Bagpipe tuning enables Ionian and Mixolydian to be played without retuning. (Galex tuning requires strings to be all of the same gauge (typically 0.009 or 0.010), all tuned to the same pitch, ie, ddd, giving more of a hum than a drone?)

Possibly not the best of explainations? the bare bones are there tho', and I am sure you will get a better answer from someone else !!!

best wishes

John

Thank you Helen (but you are far away, from Bristol UK, lol) Thank you for watching

best wishes

John

Thanks for the link John Henry. That is a pretty hymn! (Proverbs 22:1 and Matthew 5:8) By the way, I don't think I can learn Welsh even if I ate Spam

johnp. Good choice, as you say he would not have minded in the least !

John

Thanks Val ! I can honestly say that I never felt the need to 'discard' my Englishness at any of the Internationals I went to, the worst trouble my brother and I had was at an All Blacks/England game at Twickenham. We were surrounded by New Zealand nurses who got so excited they wanted to hug and kiss us every time The All Blacks scored, so far as I remember they beat us by about forty points ! Happy days............!

regards to Mary
John

Very nicely played John, hope you discarded your English scarf and were nicely tucked in among Welch supporters when singing along.

Calon Lan means 'Pure Heart' in Welsh and the words are rather good.

Several translation here :

Wikipedia - Calon Lan

Someone asked me to put together some kind of a medley for Nelson Mandela when he died. The only South African songs I could think of were Asika Tali and the new national anthem, representing his early and later years, and needed something to represent the man after his death.
Calon Lan was what I came up with, I'm sure he wouldn't have minded, S Africans love their choral singing as much as the Welsh.

Correction ! The link works ! Got to be my positive thought for the day. Perhaps I should point out that this version is a direct translation from the Welsh, you might be better looking for an English Translation which Rhymes if you intend singing it ?

John

Thank you Patty! " A Welsh Hymn" ? more of an anthem really! Lots of sources on You Tube,this one for instance ( http://youtu.be/osGMmzdU850 ) just don't try to learn it in Welsh !!!

John

(yes I know, I have'nt made a proper link, you should be used to my computer failings by now, I have obviously not eaten enough Spam throughout my life !)

JH, that is a pretty song. A Welsh hymn? Do you have the words to it? Thanks for posting. First vid I saw tonight and it's a good one

Steph, what you heard from me may have been 'gentle',but I can assure you that hearing many thousands of fiercely proud, tribal Welsh sing this in Cardiff will raise the hairs on the back of the neck,and folkfan, Men of Harlech does'nt come close !!

thank you so much for listening

John

Thanks Randy, comment appreciated !

John

unless you have had the privilige of sharing space with these guys (and I have, our club hosted a dinner/dance for a visiting All Blacks team a few years ago) its a job to vizualise just how BIG they are !!!

Part of my ancestry is supposedly Welsh (the Griffin side), but some of my family were born in New Zealand and one adopted child is part Maori, I find this discussion very interesting. Also, I, too, was surprised that there was this softer side of football....

Thanks for watching Steve, lol, I cannot lie, no skill on my part in keeping the dulcimer on my lap ! After many queries along the lines of " I can't quite see what your noter hand is doing" I seem to have drifted into that dropped left leg position, aided by a strap around my butt. Perhaps should also state that I am using a possum board ?

best wishes

John