Throating (Glottal Stopping)
Throat stopping is the technique of enunciating notes using the throat. This technique is also known as "glottal stopping".
This is a really very simple technique. As with tonguing, once learned it has to be applied skilfully and judiciously, as "joined notes" are what make Irish music flow, but glottal stopping can be applied to emphasise rhythm, for it is this combination of rhythm and joined notes that make Irish dance music so good to listen to.
The best way to teach this is aurally, so I'll talk you through a couple of tunes, and how I apply "throat stopping" or "glottal stopping" to my music.
The first example is a recent upload of mine called "The Garsun Who Beat His Father". This is actually a fairly good example of how to incorporate many types of ornamentation into a reel. You'll hear that I include X notes to emphasise the rhythm early on, with much of the first few sequences containing very little glottal stopping, and flowing nicely as a result. However, because of the contour of the tune, this isn't really possible towards the end of the first part. As a result, I have a few four-note sequences towards the end of the first part first time around (between 8 and 11 seconds into the video) that have glottal stopping for the first note in the four-note sequence, to emphasise the beat. See if you can pick it out on this one!
This is a really very simple technique. As with tonguing, once learned it has to be applied skilfully and judiciously, as "joined notes" are what make Irish music flow, but glottal stopping can be applied to emphasise rhythm, for it is this combination of rhythm and joined notes that make Irish dance music so good to listen to.
The best way to teach this is aurally, so I'll talk you through a couple of tunes, and how I apply "throat stopping" or "glottal stopping" to my music.
The first example is a recent upload of mine called "The Garsun Who Beat His Father". This is actually a fairly good example of how to incorporate many types of ornamentation into a reel. You'll hear that I include X notes to emphasise the rhythm early on, with much of the first few sequences containing very little glottal stopping, and flowing nicely as a result. However, because of the contour of the tune, this isn't really possible towards the end of the first part. As a result, I have a few four-note sequences towards the end of the first part first time around (between 8 and 11 seconds into the video) that have glottal stopping for the first note in the four-note sequence, to emphasise the beat. See if you can pick it out on this one!
The next example is a bit easier, and where throat stopping comes into it's own
This is a jig called "Trip to the Cottage". It's got some gorgeous sequences in it, and I've slowed the whole tune down to emphasise the really nice sequences.
If I tongued the whole thing, it would lose it's rhythm entirely, but you can see with the glottal stopping, you get that nice intermediate between emphasising the notes and also letting the rhythm flow.
Ignore the initial triplet, and focus on the three-note sequences in 6/8 time. You'll notice for the first couple of bars, I've glottal-stopped the first three notes, and the fourth note of many of these six-note sequences.
As with most things in music, variance is key, so this varies quite a bit as the tune goes on. But you can hear the emphasis without it taking away from the flow of the tune, which is the beauty of throating.
This is a jig called "Trip to the Cottage". It's got some gorgeous sequences in it, and I've slowed the whole tune down to emphasise the really nice sequences.
If I tongued the whole thing, it would lose it's rhythm entirely, but you can see with the glottal stopping, you get that nice intermediate between emphasising the notes and also letting the rhythm flow.
Ignore the initial triplet, and focus on the three-note sequences in 6/8 time. You'll notice for the first couple of bars, I've glottal-stopped the first three notes, and the fourth note of many of these six-note sequences.
As with most things in music, variance is key, so this varies quite a bit as the tune goes on. But you can hear the emphasis without it taking away from the flow of the tune, which is the beauty of throating.
Doing it yourself is hard to explain visually, so I'll try my best to explain how you go about it.
First of all, practice without a tin whistle. In anatomy terms, you're essentially letting out breath from your windpipe by using your epiglottis to release breath in bursts , with very brief stops in a flow of breath. It's like forcing your breath out in bursts, that you make shorter and shorter in stop until the stop is so barely noticeable that there's a hardly discernible break in the sound, save for a very brief emphasis. Essentially, you're using the part of your throat anatomy that stops food going down your windpipe to slap against your throat very briefly to create an emphasis within the music.
Once you've got the drift, practice with a tin whistle, on the notes B, A or G (arguably the easiest notes to make). Try a single note, repeated, then practice on different notes. Finally, practice putting sequences together that contain only one glottal stop, and lots of joined notes (multiple notes created on a single flow of breath). Only then are you ready to apply this technique to tunes.
I've made this sound pretty difficult, but it's actually quite easy to do once you get used to it. A lot of people will do this naturally when they begin, and will actually have to unlearn it a little to learn how to join notes, so the lesson here is actually, for some, more about recognising what they're doing and applying it properly and appropriately to tunes.
First of all, practice without a tin whistle. In anatomy terms, you're essentially letting out breath from your windpipe by using your epiglottis to release breath in bursts , with very brief stops in a flow of breath. It's like forcing your breath out in bursts, that you make shorter and shorter in stop until the stop is so barely noticeable that there's a hardly discernible break in the sound, save for a very brief emphasis. Essentially, you're using the part of your throat anatomy that stops food going down your windpipe to slap against your throat very briefly to create an emphasis within the music.
Once you've got the drift, practice with a tin whistle, on the notes B, A or G (arguably the easiest notes to make). Try a single note, repeated, then practice on different notes. Finally, practice putting sequences together that contain only one glottal stop, and lots of joined notes (multiple notes created on a single flow of breath). Only then are you ready to apply this technique to tunes.
I've made this sound pretty difficult, but it's actually quite easy to do once you get used to it. A lot of people will do this naturally when they begin, and will actually have to unlearn it a little to learn how to join notes, so the lesson here is actually, for some, more about recognising what they're doing and applying it properly and appropriately to tunes.
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