Chiff and Fipple Forums

When I took up ukuleles, I couldn't really get on with the re entrant high G, because I played mainly melodies, so I'd put on a low G, & that gave me G3 upwards to play with. Uke music usually has a lot of strumming, so they put a high note at each end, and the up-strums don't sound radically di...

I keep reading your posts about Generation's quality control, but I don't think it 's enough to explain it. I can get the 2-3 top holes right, I think, but beyond that all sorts of problems appear down to the last 2 ones that are completely wrong. They are not even notes, they are more of screams a...

Many thanks, s1m0n, Peter, Iain, I have the Piper's Choice Border Pipes now, and I've put some air through them. They seem like a fine starter set. Polypenco sticks, imitation ivory mounts, combed and beaded. Bannatyne synthetic bag, Ezeedrone drone and cane chanter reeds. So I find that my blowing ...

Peter, Thanks. That's what I wanted to know. I'll dial up my ambition and spend some money. I'm looking at a plastic set from a known dealer. I would start with mouth-blown because it's cheaper, and I'm somewhat used to it. Garvie's has a very interesting site. I saw notes on the fingering chart (hi...

Thanks all, I'm pretty sure now that Border Pipes are what I want to try. My last doubt is about playing pressure. As I said, I'm reasonably comfortable with soft Abedour reeds at 22" H2O. Soft Megaritys around 27", not without serious shaving. Does anybody have hints or guidance on how Bo...

s1m0n, thanks for pointing that out. thequietpiper site is very nice. And the sound samples were instructive. I notice the smallpipe chanters are cylindrical bore. Is this constant for smallpipes? Last on the sound page was a sample of "Highland Drones" played (I guess) along with a conica...

I tried GHB, but a sad misfortune came over me, which caused me great difficulty blowing the things. Lately I had some success with an Abedour soft chanter reed that played well with only 22" H2O pressure, but I still had trouble tuning and balancing drones. I was wondering if other pipes would...

The Lydian mode, based on the flat 7th of the scale Strange way to put it, Richard! (Thought you'd mixed it up with Mixolydian having a flat seventh compared to the major scale, then realised you'd said 'based on', in which case why not based on the fourth of the [major] scale?) !!! Must be the pip...

I learned to emulate some of the bagpipe ornamentation. Could I ask what some of those ornaments would be? In pipe lessons the things that are taking my attention -- grace notes and doublings and grips and things -- I take to be punctuation rather than melodic ornaments. They often sound pretty bad...

Mind the spelling. Spelling is important. Woad is a kind of blue paint which is the only thing you wear if you're giving a REALLY traditional performance.

I agree with all of the above. But.... If you just want to cobble up a pipe-ish sounding instrument from a whistle then I suggest you make a "membrane pipe" chanter. Google is your friend. It's pretty interesting work but not too complicated. I make them using the bodies of my DIY CPVC wh...

Seems to me that the smoother the "dance" of time-tapping fits into the music, the smoother the performance will be. Then we're discussing different ideas of "smooth" Playing in a jazz workshop, the coach forbade time-tapping. He was concerned that people started to play along wi...

I'm tempted to get a whole lot of light-gauge PVC tube (hard to find here; mostly there's sched 40 CPVC plumbing pipe -- generally too heavy) and the instructions at http://www.ggwhistles.com/howto/#Favourite and find out for myself what the variables really are.

I had never thought of this before. It seems to me that most of the time I tap on the strong beats (1 and 4) and lift on 3 and 6. I think I do this because it is so common for music in 6/8 to have a quarter note on the strong beat, followed by an eighth note. It seems that I use the same pattern whe...

I know pipe-organ builders play these kinds of games when voicing pipes, but I can't get at the books that explained why and how. Least unclear thing I've found is http://www.pykett.org.uk/how_the_flue_pipe_speaks.htm#Timbre , including the part under "The Influence of Voicing Adjustments on To...