The Trip To Pakistan reel

Hats off to Niall Kenny, a flute player from Edinburgh. He’s written a tune that has since been incorporated into the traditional reportoire, much like Calliope House or The Green Fields Of Glentown.

This is a tricky one to play. Take it slow at first to get the hang of the unusual rhythm. That last part takes a lot of practice before it "clicks".

For variation, try putting in some pauses.

Once you can play this tune you can start telling all your friends that you play "World Music" now 🙂

I played at a session with Niall when he was visiting the North of Ireland perhaps 10 years ago. At some point I launched into this tune completely unaware that he was the composer. He was quite taken aback, but delighted that I knew it and that his tune had been absorbed into the repertoire.

I heard this on a recent trip to Glasgow in the Ben Nevis, played in a set with a tune, I think, called Hogside - maybe a Phil Cunningham composition.
Any one got the dots for this?
Gerard

This is another tune that irritates me enough to want to pour cold beer down the back of whoever starts it. The tune begins okay but then it just fizzles out and goes nowhere. It’s that last part that does it I think.

I love this tune- the 3rd part has very cool rhythms. It’s definitely worthy of its status in the traditional repertoire (in my opinion).

I do like this tune. The third part is particularly nice and I think you are over-reacting a little Dow but I agree it does seem to fizzle away or at least I reckon there should be a 4th part to it. Are you meant to play the second part again?

Okay maybe I wouldn’t pour cold beer down their back - that’d be a waste of beer 😉

So how about writing a fourth part yourself or rewrite the end. I’d be interested to see how you would change it. Please!!!

I feel bad now so I want to make it clear that I think the 1st 2 parts are ok. I just find myself wanting a change of mode towards the end instead of that 3rd part, like maybe to a Gmaj base or something to allow the pipers to play with their low D, whilst throwing in some hooks form the 1st 2 parts. Off the top of my head:

G based:
|:Bc|~d3e dcBd|c2cA BGGF|EGBG ~c3d|BAGB A2:|
or D based?:
|:GE|DAAG ~A2cA|~B2dB ceGB|DAAG ABcA|BdcB A2:|
and then back into the 1st part GF|EGBE ~G3B…

Thank you

This great tune appears in the "unicorn set" on https://thesession.org/recordings/54

I love to play this leading into Michael Ferry’s (https://thesession.org/tunes/767 - as a flute player, I prefer the Gary Shannon interpretation of that tune in Em ).
It’s great fun to hit those off beat bottom notes and make them honk on the flute to create a great syncopation, or raise some of the notes in the last part an octave to create a variation. A great tune.

I wrote the tune more in the Breton style rather than as a reel, and I know it is played this way by the Breton pipe bands. I think the Tannahill Weaver’s version is closer to how it was written, but then I did share a flat with John Martin for a number of years.

Hi , Niall - glad you found us. Welcome to "the session". Did you know that Kevin Krell’s trying to get in touch with you ? Probably something to do with "Wooden Flute Obsession 4" unless I’m much mistaken, and no better man than your good self !

Didn’t the Kildares play this tune?

A Youtube video has appeared of Niall Kenny playing at the Edinburgh Folk Club; the Trip to Pakistan is the last tune in the second set

Sorry forgot to put in the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsY0eod7eQM&feature=user

play video

Move over West (Britanny), go East everyone! perhaps not as far as Pakistan but if you turn all the f# into f natural and sharpen the g’s in this tune, you’ll get a nice eastern surprise.

You are correct, the first part sounds very much like a Breton tune (due to the long notes), but the 2nd and 3rd parts sounds more Scottish of Irish. This tune has been adopted here in Paris for a couple of years.

All the best,

Emmanuel.

Sorry, I meant "to Niall Kenny", I failed the double check, shame on me..

groovy use of a limited range of notes

Is her tune "To the Tequila Bar" basically an adaptation of this?

The structure of this tune (short 3-measure parts playes twice) is very much like a fling.

Did I say 3? I wanted to say 4. 4 measures …

Thanks for writing this tune! I learned it from Brian Finnegan at Boxwood Festival in Nova Scotia in 2008, where it is now a standard at sessions. We also play it at my session here in Halifax. I enjoy its 3-part structure - there are plenty of other good tunes with 3 sections - and the syncopation of the 3rd section is great. I performed it yesterday at a recital (giving you credit of course), and a woman who just moved here from Scotland told me she plays it on her celtic harp.

I was inadvertently looking for a quick download of this tune..I know it fine..and I know Niall … But had to abandon my quest as it is written WRONG. There is a whole beat missed out on the 2nd bar …2 notes.and another few here and there!! I wrote it out on Sibelius myself….but I just want to bring this to people’s attention….

I’d query some of the actual notes in the submission, but there’s nothing missing. Listen to the midi.
Please post us your "correct" version.

Adding another beat to the second bar would put it in 5/4. I don’t think so.

Submitted on October 19th 2011 by Nanoune.
https://thesession.org/members/61886
~ /tunes/11544

X: 2
T: Trip To Pakistan, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Bmin
|: BdfB d3 f | e3 d cdec | BdfB d3 f |[1 edcd B4 :|[2 edcd B2 BA :|
|: BdfB g3 e | f3 a fefd|BdfB g3 e |[1 fedf e4 :|[2 fedf e2 a2 :|
|: cdfc dfdc | BcdB cdcB | AceA ceAe |[1 edcd B4 :|[2 edcd B2 BA :|

Details
This is the version of Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (album "In The Moment").

# Posted on October 19th 2011 by Nanoune

The whole tune, in E, is played between the octave D-d, giving the impression its range is reduced to a 7th.
For similarly short ambituses in ITM, see: Loch Altan https://thesession.org/tunes/4255

birlibirdie’s version
sounds like a soundtrack of a B-Movie set in the desert somewhere 😉
fun!

Hi everyone,

I just discovered this tune with a video f Brian Finnegan where he speaks about breath control :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKbjkHGitlE

play video

I was looking for different interpretation, but I couldn’t find the one by Garry Sannon…
If anyone knows where to find, I would appreciate some help !

Thanks !

I always thought this tune needed a high 4th part, now it has one.

Which of the 6 versions included here (so far) is closest to the original (or the one most played in sessions)?

Hello everyone
Does anyone know who trip to Pakistan was written by?

Niall Kenny, a flute player from Edinburgh.

Sylvie, you should learn to navigate this site—the information is easy to find in the comments below the tune entry. Lots of great reading in the comments, truly. Check it out!

Or you could try this:
http://bit.ly/1KpRbqq

🙂

https://thesession.org/tunes/112

I was once sitting in The Green Tree in the Cowgate when we played this, and the girl sitting next to me said it was written for her. We ended up playing at her wedding, but I can’t remember her name. Niall?

and prouse, for the video of the composer playing his version, among other tunes we play at our local session. It’s very useful for us and a few pipers we’ll play with…

This is the setting I have heard in the session near me.
It’s only got some slight variations but I think that they work really well.

https://youtu.be/1Z9S8Y-oHFk

play video

Lúnasa plays this I believe. I’ll have to find the set later.

Version of the tune recorded by the folk band Stolen Notes in their second Album "The Loot" https://open.spotify.com/track/2o25B2Z2TPX9O8LUVoppWQ http://www.stolen-notes.com

Version of the tune recorded by the folk band Stolen Notes in their second Album "The Loot" https://open.spotify.com/track/2o25B2Z2TPX9O8LUVoppWQ http://www.stolen-notes.com

I really enjoy Alasdair & Natalie’s great version !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmS1Wwyidm0

play video

I learned this tune (in Em) a good few years ago from one of Nigel Gatherer’s tunebooks. He has it as Niall played it in that video above which Prouse posted 9 years ago. There are 10 versions above, none of which matches exactly what Niall plays. I don’t do ABC so can’t post a "corrected version", but the main differences are in parts 2 and 3.
2nd bar of part 2 is different, going up to a D’ on second note.
And in the third part, each set of 3 notes is repeated, so as in version X7

Absolutely brilliant tune! I can get into such a trance with it. Well done Niall Kenny, and thankyou for such a fine tune!

…if you like to ‘transe’, Annie Minnaar then i recommand a trip to Pakistan indeed. The Indian subcontinent has some of the best music and musicians on Earth, from Bangladesh to Balochistan.
One way of giving this tune a Sindhi flavour (like it was played on the double flute or on the droney sarengi fiddle) is to play a G drone for the version in E or D drone for the version in B. If you play fiddle for instance you can anchor that 3rd finger on the D string while play in E…)

A Pakistan themed set played by Old Blind Dogs:
Glen Kabul, composed by Fraser Fiefield, introduces this piping set;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3g2onMcCxs

play video

The two tunes are v different in character but make a good set. Here’s the link to Glen Kabul
https://thesession.org/tunes/16539

…and no, I don’t suppose Kabul is in Pakistan but I don’t particularly believe in borders either…

…back to the ‘trance’ theme; if you cannot afford the trip to Pakistan, perhaps you could take a trip to Brittany, where this tune eventually ‘wound back’ (and report on the state of covid times Fest Noz?) .
This tune is very much an An Dro dance in character, a very trancey experience …if you can still have it; for it involves dozens of people or more endlessly circling together in a mesmerising way…

The "an dro" and the "tour" are almost the same dance. In the following vidéo, the tune is played first as a gwerz (a lament) then as a "tour";
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLiEqGM9NIo

play video

Have no fear, this is a real morse -Oh!- d’anthologie!

…much preferable to this "scottische" version of the same tune;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VcpYRqOFSg

play video

…which has lost its élan somehow…

‘Schmaltz on the optics’ …by Queen of Klezmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc3FQKSBEuE

play video

We usually play it with another of Niall’s tunes, “The Shore Bar”, which is also well known around these parts.

and again in Bminor 🙂

X:15 PLease change the mode to K: Bmin

Hmm Swiss… I see Bminor for the key.

This is actually in F#minor, but I couldn’t find a transposed that did F# minor. So it should have F#, C#, and G#.