Welcome to the second edition of the Pipewriter eMag. We’re pleased to say that last months first edition was well received, and some very good feedback came in which will hopefully allow is to improve the content going forward.

In this issue we've included:

I thought I’d start with a little background on how Pipewriter started, and where it’s going in the future.

A couple of years ago I searched the Internet for a piece of software that would allow me to tidy up some of my ‘dog-eared’ bagpipe music. Like many I failed to find any which could do what I wanted in the price range I wanted to pay so being a software designer by trade I set about writing my own with half as a hobby, and half in a mind to selling it.

As it took shape, the potential of the package was obvious, so I approached Lindsay Davidson of the Complete Piping Service to help build an infrastructure for developing, marketing, selling and supporting it as a commercial package.

Since the first release, the package has been greatly improved through the introduction of midi sound capabilities (including harmonies), easier editing, built in metronome, and many more. I’m glad to say that nobody has ever had to pay any upgrade cost to take advantage of any of these features.

We don’t like to stand still for too long so in the future we have many more improvements planned which will introduce drum music, more close integration with the Internet, improved sound and much more. If there’s anything you’d like to see, please let us know and we’ll try to build it in.

Alan Corrie.

Bar 4 make all the High G gracenotes bigger. This is to speed up the harmonic rhythm of the tune at this point, thus marking it as a special moment.

Bar 5 as Bar 1.

Bar 6 as Bar 2.

Bar 7 Make the E doubling the end of the phrase by giving it a slight pause. Make the G gracenote bigger in the tachum to show something new is happening. Do not pause excessively on the Low A before the throw, as these two things should seem linked to create a good phrasing effect. Pause after the throw. Make the G gracenote in the C doubling open ON the beat as opposed to before it. Make the doubling more open to give it gentle emphasis.

Bar 8 Be careful not to slow down here.

Part 2

This part is a total change in phrasing structure from the first part. Basically it follows a three note, four note pattern, in that the subphrases are built on groups of three notes followed by groups of four notes. This is further highlighted when the part reaches its imperfect cadence in bar 4 by reversing this feature. Ana Stretch the F slightly to mark the beginning of the second part.

Bar 1 Pause on the High A. Make the D slightly longer than the F. Do not stretch the High A beyond its arithmetically correct value. Pause on the E after the doubling. Make the tachum very crisp and avid any pause on the Low A. These two notes must link with the F doubling as a subphrase.

Bar 2 Pause after the F doubling. Make the D slightly longer than the F. Pause on the E after the doubling. Make the last two notes identical in rhythm to the anacrusis.

Bar 3 Up to the C doubling should be identical in rhythmical shape to the anacrusis and first bar. Pause after the C doubling. Make sure the G gracenote closes exactly on the half beat. To wait longer here would stop the flow and indicate a finishing at the wrong time.

Bar 4 as Bar 4 Part 1.

Bar 5 as bar 1.

Bar 6 as bar 2.

Bar 7 as Bar 7 Part 1.

Bar 8 as Bar 8 Part 1.

Part 3

Again this is a total contrast to the previous part. Here, every beat is a subphrase in itself. Ana Pause very slightly to make the fall to Low A more dramatic. Remember music is driven by the creation of tension through expectation and delivery (or not) of satisfaction of that expectation.

Bar 1 Give the effect of a brightening in rhythm by shortening the Low A by a tiny amount and giving this time to the C. Cut the second C to keep the drive in the tune. This is a happy tune, not an angry one, and this is the overall impression to be made by this part specifically. Repeat this rhythmical procedure from beat 1 exactly in every respect for the second beat.

Bar 2 Beat 1 as beat 1 bar 1. Do not pause excessively on the E; link it to the High A Doubling. Make this note "hang in the air" but avoid stopping the rhythm.

Bar 3 as bar 1.

Bar 4 as bar 4 part 1.

Bar 5 as bar 1.

Bar 6 as bar 2 up to the high A. Give a slight pause to mark the end of the phrase but 'surprise' the listeners by going to the C. Stretch that C to give an extra lift to the tune.

Bar 7 as Bar 7 Part 1. Make the E doubling a lot more prominent here by making the gracenotes bigger and leaving more time between them.

Bar 8 as Bar 8 Part 1.

Part 4

Ana - make the audience wait. The High G doubling does not in itself have tremendous harmonic drive. It can either fall or climb here. Half of the audience (at least) will expect it to fall because of its positioning next to a Low A.

Bar 1 The High As go together in one unit and create a mobile 'thematic block' serving only to fill up this part of the beat to allow the music to then use the offset character of the second part, and the three, four note groupings. This part should be a summing up of the tune, and is by far
the most musically complex section. Make the D slightly longer than its given time to highlight the following tachum. Pause on the Low A after the tachum. Do not pause on the E at the end of the bar, as this must link into the next bar.

Bar 2 Pause after the High A. Make the Low a longer than written and use this to cut through the C. Suggest a tiny pause on the E before the doubling to create tension and interest but do not allow it to stop the flow. Give the last E its exact arithmetic value. This is introduces an
impersonal touch which lies in conflict to the methods deployed above. Such a 'classical' technique is required somewhere in the tune to give it an extra musical polish and strength. This is best done early in the last part to avoid creating the need to make this conflict the inner and main argument of the tune. Later in this last part would make it an irrelevancy. There will need to be a second reference to this nearer the end to give it intelligible meaning.

Bar 3 Recognise the E from the last bar, and the first two notes here as one group of three, in the same fashion as Part 2. Cut the F but give it a very big High G gracenote at the start of the bar. This keeps the strictly metrical substructure needed at this point in a tune of this nature. Make the D slightly longer at the end of beat 1 so that it falls naturally onto the C. Bounce crisply off the C, implying a three, four structure.

Part 2, but then immediately annul it by moving in time, and not before onto the tachum. This tachum then belongs effectively to the next subphrase. Keep the tune moving here and play strictly in arithmetic time. This will give a slight pause at the end of the bar, naturally marking out the next bar as something already known. This is important in summing up the tune.

Bar 4 as bar 4 Part 1.

Bar 5 as bar 1.

Bar 6 as bar 2.

Bar 7 as Bar 7 Part 1.

Bar 8 as Bar 8 Part 1.

Bars 9-12 are a repeat written out for ease of writing on the printed page.

Bar 12 Make the High A and F identical to the anacrusis at the very beginning of the tune.

Bar 14 as Bar 6 Part 1.

Bar 15 as Bar 7 Part 1.

Bar 16 as Bar 8 Part 1.

Below is a selection of questions, which have been received over the past few weeks along with the answers given. If you have any questions which relate to Pipewriter, The Complete 'Piping Service (or anything that we might be able to help with), please email us and if we know the answer, it may be published in the next eMag.

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Q – How can I find out what new tunes have been added to the Pipewriter library on the web site?

A – At present, the only way to do this would be to download the whole library, and check the latest dates on the files. We realise that this isn’t the ideal solution so will be web-enabling the next major version so that you can access the web site from within Pipewriter and pull down any new tunes automatically.

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Q – How can I produce notes that aren’t standard to Pipewriter

A – Pipewriter has the capability to define custom grace notes by using the following syntax:

#<number><notes>

Where number is replaced by the number of individual notes in the group, and notes is each note in order. If a throw on D was written in this way, it would be entered as #3LDC

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Q – In some cases, my gracenotes appear to be touching the following notes. Can I make larger gaps between them?

A – If you go to the "Options" + "Print Options" menu option, you’ll see that there’s the slider named ‘Gracenote spacing’ moving this to the right will space all gracenotes a little further from their following notes.

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Q – Can I update Pipewriter files with another editor?

A – Yes, there are no hidden codes. So long as the file contains valid Pipewriter script, and is saved with the .PIP extension, you shouldn’t have a problem.

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Q – I saw something mentioned about drum scores not so long ago. When will I get them?

A – We’re building full drum score capabilities into the next major release using a very similar coding mechanism to that of the pipes. Watch this space!

For anybody who's not sure, the current version of Pipewriter is V1.51. You can find out what version you are using by selecting HELP + ABOUT from the Pipewriter pull down menu. If you don't have version 1.51, drop us a mail with your name and registration number to receive a free upgrade, but note that you MUST have registered to get the upgrade.

We're currently working on a new version of Pipewriter, which will give all the functionality needed to produce and play full band scores (including drum music!). There's still quite a lot of work to do on this version so we don't have a date for it's release yet, but watch this space! The new version is likely to be 32bit only which means it will no longer run on Window V3.x, but will support long file names!

In the mean time, we'll continue to produce free incremental releases to address any minor issues or enhancements. If you’d like to see anything about Pipewriter changed, please send details. Keep an eye on future eMag editions and on the web site at the following address to find out when these become available:

HTTP://MEMBERS.AOL.COM/PIPWRITER

If there are any facilities that you’d like to see in the new version, drop us a mail at the address below.

In next months eMag, we’d like to embrace the festive spirit, and include some classic Christmas tunes set for the Bagpipes (cringe!). If you have any such settings, please let us know by sending them to the usual address shown below.