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Note: Today’s post is by David Hester, who has been exploring an alternative approach to Piobaireachd playing at his website, altpibroch.com. Sound familiar? Probably not. But it is a motif which you have played quite frequently. Only, you know it by another name: "echo beat." Well, in an effort to educate and edify, I propose we begin calling them by their Gaelic name, much as we do taorluaths and crunluaths and lemluaths. The reason why "crahinin" is a better term than "echo beat" will become clearer very shortly. In Laments Crahinin suffuse the lament genre of pibroch. Of course, it appears in other genres as well. Additionally, it needn't always appear in a lament at all. But where and when it does, it is important to understand what is being expressed. Because, unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) we are told about the rhythmic and mechanical aspects of this motif, but are rarely, if ever, are we ...