Wow. I've been enjoying this thread a lot. What an incredibly complex, haunting sound those hummelchen get... Now, the obvious question- would it be out of the question to get an A chanter in that scale I could screw into my Walsh smallpipes? Would a maker even consider making a chanter for another maker's pipes? May seem like a silly question, but I'd really rather not ask for something embarrassingly outside professional courtesy. I can see all kinds of fantastic applications for playing Irish stuff on there...

Well, Madman; Its been my experience that ( gosh ! Ive *always* wanted to post that sentence online somewhere! thx ) makers of these non-mainstream types of pipes dont conceive of them as being mix&match ....
as in Highland pipes, for ex, where playing a "McGrumpy" chanter on a "Blennderson" set raises nary an eyebrow

Many alternative pipemakers, (particularly those who see themselves as a link in a very thin chain of descent) will simply NOT 'Just make you a chanter" & thats that. Its meant to go with the whole shebang.

OTOH, you might just hit someone on a slow month & get a separate chanter; but I;d wager the former.

_________________
*NEW* http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zampognaridifiladelfia2

http://www.folkworld.eu/51/e/cds2.html#sylv
http://itunes.apple.com/album/sylvia-pl ... mpt=uo%3D1

I guess it should be possible to get just an A chanter - but most likely, the result would be an instrument which sounds like a Walsh smallpipe with a strange, and probably just not "right", sounding chanter... The drones are built considerably different from smallpipe drones, hence the different sound.
These instruments are not so expensive that someone who is really interested could not afford the full kit.

I have ordered a hümmelchen with T Sonada.

Are there any books on learning to play the hümmelchen?


Thanks.

Only one, AFAIK. I will find out if it's still available.

PM sent.

Thank you.

Verlag Der Speilleute has a few books that you could use, these two are probably closest:

http://www.spielleute.de/product_info.p ... and-1.html
http://www.spielleute.de/product_info.p ... and-2.html

These are for the so-called "medieval" bagpipes (no historical background) which are open-fingered and give a dorian scale in A (and can be used for nothing else), based on the six-finger note.
Although these tunes can be played on the Hümmelchen if transposed to D dorian and the drones tuned to D and A, this is not what the Hümmelchen is designed for, and remains behind its actual possibilities.