Upper Octave Fine (but only Legato)

[A.C. Fairbanks]

Howdy,

I'm a UP Newbie...

At this stage of the game, I can play in the upper octave easily, and with reasonable facility, but only if I play legato, that is, with open fingering.

If I try to move to the upper octave playing staccato, that is, with closed fingering, well, things don't go quite so well. I can sometimes get the upper octave note, but certainly not consistently, and moving to another upper octave note rarely works.

And so, these questions:

Is the upper octave typically easier to manage with open fingering? What might I work on to improve my upper octave success playing with closed fingering?

Sincere thanks for any insights, though good wishes, and prayers are certainly welcome,

A.C.

Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 11:08 am

[myles]

What's going wrong, is the chanter dropping to the first octave?

You may well already know this, but the upper octave 'a' and 'b' usually need to be vented with either the index or middle finger of the lower hand - the fingering isn't completely closed. In practice this usually means sliding up into the note.

Getting an effective seal on the holes is essential, this can take a lot of practice. You need to be accurate while keeping the fingers relaxed...something that still defeats me a lot of the time.

[An Draighean]

Is the upper octave typically easier to manage with open fingering?

It mostly depends on the reed and the chanter.

A softer reed (or a reed with more closed lips) will be easier to play in the second octave, but there is an ideal compromise to be reached where the reed is open and/or soft enough to yield a nice hard bottom D, has a solid not-sinking back d, and is still easily playable in the second octave.

On a well set-up reed and chanter, you should be able to play tight or staccato in the second octave easily. In fact, it is necessary to be able to produce traditional ornaments such as tight triplets. But if you have a relatively hard reed and are not used to the pressure it may require, it can be frustrating at first. I have one set by a famous maker, known to make hard reeds, that took me a while to learn to use enough bag pressure to get everything to work and both octaves to be in tune.

Some chanters and reeds will have a hard time jumping from the lower octave straight to second-octave A or B; in this case it is allowable to play the "a" with an open fingering to get there, then you can close up your fingering once you're there in the upper octave.

What might I work on to improve my upper octave success playing with closed fingering?

You really need a teacher or at least a more experienced piper than yourself to play your chanter and reed and see what it is like. There is now way to tell from a distance if the problem is the reed and chanter or your own technique. Where are you located? Who made your chanter and reed?

[bcullen]

Make your own reeds. Use some of your practice time to make them I made many many reeds over a period of time for my 2 chanters
A Rowsome I made and a Hunter The amount you learn from the different reeds gives an insight into the nuances of a chanter I now
have had the same 2 reeds for over a year and both play comfortably in 2 octaves (Must admit I can't get the 3rd octave D). I no longer strangle the bag and hardly notice the change in pressure. It is such a plus when you can hit the high E every time and go straight to high A. Some tunes have octave jumps A-a G-g They show no mercy and are a good judge of bag pressure.

Harvest Home hornpipe. triplets staccato legato my test piece

My biggest problem is finger fatigue.

[Torrin Riáin]

As myles has mentioned already, the uilleann pipes chanter isn't really meant to play the upper octave above the 'g' note in any form of staccato. In fact, in order to get to an a, b, c or what have you, you need to have already attained the upper octave by having played an e, f, or g and then moving from one of those notes into the higher territory.

Basically, as long as you can get an e, an f, and a g (using just your pointer finger rather than pointer and middle can make getting into the upper octave easier on a g) from a closed chanter, then your upper octave is doing just fine. If you are having difficulty with that that you believe is beyond the "just a newbie figuring things out" phase of things, then you may have a reed issue.

I personally wouldn't bother learning how to make reeds while still simultaneously learning the basics of chanter fingering, but that might just be me.