Differences between Scottish Smallpipes and Lowland pipes?

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:19 am

Sound of the two instruments is mainly what I'm after, but I wouldn't mind knowing the mechanical differences of the two- IE, drones, chanter information, etc.

-Eric

Borderpiper · Post by **Borderpiper** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:12 am

Scottish smallpipes have a narrow parallel bore chanter, have a soft "buzzy" sound, play an octave lower than written and have no cross fingered notes (notes outwith the A mixilodian scale; thats A major with Gnat).

Borderpipes/Lowland pipes have a conical bore chanter and have a much louder sound, closer to the highland bagpipes, play an octave above the smallpipes and you can cross finger the following notes outwith the A mixilodian scale; Bb, Cnat, D#/Eb, Fnat, G#

The drones are the same for both sets, though they come in the following combinations; Bass A and two tenor A or bass A, tenor A and alto E.

Both kinds of pipes also come in other keys, most notably D for smallpipes.

Hope that helps answer your question.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:00 am

Borderpiper pretty well covered the major differences.

Simply put, the SSP chanter is in the same range as a tenor drone whereas the border pipe chanter is in the same range as a GHB chanter (just quieter).

For an audio reference listen to samples from The Piper And The Maker. Tracks 1, 4, 6, and 12 feature border pipes (1 and 12 are accompanied by fiddle). Tracks 2, 3, 7, 9, and 11 feature SSP.

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:24 pm

Hi Key of D

AAronMalcolmb and border piper covered it quite well.

Border pipes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM5zcHiJTdo

They look like a Hamish Moore set.

Smallpipes (and uilleann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZhRrTg5Ywg

For more information http://www.lbps.net/ the lowland and border pipers society.

DAvid

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:45 pm

I forgot about YouTube.

Vicki Swan again, this time on SSP: Scotty's Last Munto

Chris Ormston on Garvie border pipes: Cock Up your Beaver

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:59 pm

Those youtubes were nice, put a simle on my face listening to them. Both the small pipes and the lowland pipes.

So the lowland pipes, sound just like the highland pipes, only quieter. The fingering looked and sounded the same as highland pipe fingering.. This true? How about the smallpipes' fingering?

Awesome stuff guys, thanks,

-Eric

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:11 pm

Key_of_D wrote:The fingering looked and sounded the same as highland pipe fingering.. This true? How about the smallpipes' fingering?

True... on modern pipes anyways.

The first modern smallpipe was an open-ended Northumbrian smallpipe chanter made to play with GHB fingering.

There is debate as to how similar the technique on the historical instruments is to GHB... it was probably different.

Because accidentals are possible on Lowland/Border pipes (chanter reed allowing) the fingering is more sensitive. If you don't have the right fingers down, even on a brief passage, you will get a false note. Also they are more sensitive to slacking or surging pressure, causing false notes and discord.

Smallpipes are much more forgiving in this regard but can encourage bad habits that will come out on GHB or Lowland pipes.

For a really wild video, here's a clip of Fred Morrison playing his Reelpipes (Lowland pipes for Highland music).