Reels split into two very different styles, pointed and round, and they call for two different kinds of practice. My dot-cut reels, like Piper's Drummond and Sandy Duff, demand endless work on holding the dot and cutting the cut; my round reels demand the opposite: dead-even eighth notes with no holding or cutting at all.
The real trick of a reel isn't the dot-cut, it's pulsing: a slight lengthening of the beat note within an already-cut pair. I take the long portion of the beat and stretch it just a hair, never touching the short notes, and that's what turns a mathematically 4/4-sounding tune into something that unmistakably feels like a two-beat reel.
If you're playing for Highland dancers, tempo matters more than anything else. My advice is to find out exactly which dance, which length, and what tempo they train to before you ever pick up your pipes; a dancer has to fight gravity on every jump, so playing too fast is far worse for them than playing too slow.
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All about Reels
55m · Full class available to Inner Circle members
competition Rant four-part Cumming's reels and Willie🔒
big Assynt Morrison House John tunes: The Pretty of Marion and🔒
with levels Setting tempo the Metronome Piper's🔒
reels for Playing Highland dancers🔒
About this class
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