Tell us something.: Here for a bit to get info on adding another keyed lefty flute to my instrument collection. Preferably something from a highly respected maker. Been playing since 2006.
For some evil reason, I have contracted the urge to learn pipes. I play flute/whistle already, but lefty. Would it make more sense to get a regular set and re-learn fingering (with the added advantage of starting with a "blank slate") or get a regular set and a new bag cut lefty?
Decades ago I used to play highland pipes as well (lefty), so if there are even more bad habits to overcome, add that into the equation.
And yes, I noticed the LH Gallagher set posted recently. A really *easy* solution to this question would be a number of charitable donations in that direction
Are you actually left-handed, or right-handed and just play whistle/flute left handed?
If you're left-handed, then yes by all means get a left-handed set - but if you're right-handed, it will sure open up a lot more possibilities and options for sets now and in the future, if you learn to play right-handed.
I am right-handed, but learned to play the whistle left-handed 40 years ago. When I could finally afford a set and and start on pipes six years ago, I went ahead and ordered a right-hand set. I used the time waiting to: a) play a right-handed practice set, and b) re-learn the whistle right-handed. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be to switch hands on the whistle; a little more concentration and practice for a few months. Now, I can't even remember how to play the other (original) way.
In any event, have fun on your journey as a piper. No other instrument I've ever played is as difficult, expressive, or as ultimately satisfying.
Tell us something.: Here for a bit to get info on adding another keyed lefty flute to my instrument collection. Preferably something from a highly respected maker. Been playing since 2006.
Like you, I am not natural a lefty. When I started GHB, I sat *across a table* from my teacher and mirrored her. For months. Doh.
In any event I don't see how handedness matters too much with woodwinds. Recorders are no problem to play correctly/righty, and it's actually a way to reset th3 muscle memory a bit.
This is a finely balanced one. I start all my GHB beginners right-handed and I see no reason that it matters. It certainly would be a little bit easier for you to pick up the basic elements on a left handed set.
On the other hand, you are pretty much condemning yourself to needing to commission your instruments new and being unable to play most other people's sets. For most people, the right set at the right price on the second hand market is rare enough without adding the lefty variable in.
Tell us something.: Here for a bit to get info on adding another keyed lefty flute to my instrument collection. Preferably something from a highly respected maker. Been playing since 2006.
Fergmaun wrote:I write and play the Bodhran, Irish bouzouki, Guitar and Button accordion right handed.
I play the uilleann pipes left handed, tin whistle and kick with my left foot.
I have tried playing right handed and it was like learning all over again and I wouldn't brother.
I play left handed as far easier as I am comfortable playing this way.
So get a Left hand set and play left handed.
Cheers
Ferg
That's the rub, I guess - I have 30+ years of muscle memory built into lefty whistling/piping/fluting. . . wondering if it makes sense to relearn that for pipes, but keep my fluting lefty. I have a lovely keyed flute, lefty, that I won't be parted with. Lemme ask the question I should have started with:
To what extent does a whistle serve as a "practice chanter" for pipes?
Would 30+ years of whistling/fluting help or hinder someone when learning UP fingerings?
Last edited by Flutulator on Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tell us something.: Here for a bit to get info on adding another keyed lefty flute to my instrument collection. Preferably something from a highly respected maker. Been playing since 2006.
Flutulator wrote:That's the rub, I guess - I have 30+ years of muscle memory built into lefty whistling/piping/fluting. . . wondering if it makes sense to relearn that for pipes, but keep my fluting lefty. I have a lovely keyed flute, lefty, that I won't be parted with. Lemme ask the question I should have started with:
To what extent does a whistle serve as a "practice chanter" for pipes?
Would 30+ years of whistling/fluting help or hinder someone when learning UP fingerings?
If you don't mind ordering a set directly from a maker, definitely consider playing lefty. There are a number of quality makers with relatively short waiting time for a practice set.
While there are some similarities between the whistle and pipes, I would not call the whistle a "practice chanter." A couple years ago I picked up the pipes after playing the whistle for 10 years, and the transition was painful. Now that I am more comfortable with the pipes, it is relatively quick to transfer a tune from the whistle to the pipes, but I wouldn't say the whistle playing helped much other than general instrument playing and basic ornamentation (cuts, rolls, crans, etc.). That being said, now that I have been playing the pipes, the low whistle grip is much easier than it used to be.
Flutulator wrote: Lemme ask the question I should have started with:
To what extent does a whistle serve as a "practice chanter" for pipes?
Not at all, unfortunately. The only things that will translate directly over to piping are the cuts, rolls, taps, and to some extent crans, and of course your knowledge of tunes and Irish music in general. The fingering is different; you need to learn to play the chanter "closed" (on the knee with only enough holes open to make the note) and the whistle can't be.
Flutulator wrote:Would 30+ years of whistling/fluting help or hinder someone when learning UP fingerings?
It won't necessarily help or hinder, except that you already know the mechanics of cuts, pats, rolls, etc. But again, the whistle is played completely open (all fingers off the holes except the minimum needed on to make the note), while you need to learn to play the chanter closed (all fingers on the holes, except for the minimum needed off to make the note). After you learn to play closed, you can venture forth into the multitude of shadings, tones, and open fingering available on the chanter.
Tell us something.: Here for a bit to get info on adding another keyed lefty flute to my instrument collection. Preferably something from a highly respected maker. Been playing since 2006.
I'm a lefty as well. When I started the GHB, I instinctively picked up the practice chanter with my right hand on top, and my first teacher--who was a bit of a non-conformist Hamish Moore acolyte (not that that was a bad thing at all)--thought that was totally OK. In retrospect, I wonder how my musical life would have been different if I had been instructed to switch my hands at that first lesson. In any case, by the time I realized that it might be a bit of a problem in the ways that Calum mentioned above, it was too late, and after wrestling with the chanter for a couple of weeks, I decided that switching and starting over was not worth it. I play GHB, smallpipes, whistles, flute, and uilleann pipes all left-handed, and that works fine for me. I've never had any trouble ordering sets from makers, and I was very lucky to get an excellent used left-handed flute--a Stéphane Morvan 6-key-- a little over a year ago.
If you were going into uilleann piping without previous musical experience, I'd say just get a standard right-handed practice set, but since you already play GHB, whistle, and flute right hand on top, I'd stick with that. Pipemakers don't have a problem with making them, and good used sets do OCCASIONALLY come up. (A year or two before I actually started playing uilleann pipes, a friend e-mailed me to tell me about a LH Rogge C full set that was up for sale. I think the seller wanted about $3,000 for it. "Why would I ever want a set of pipes in C?" I thought. I'm still kicking myself for that one.)
Playing right hand on top has never had the stigma in the Irish music world that it has in some other musical traditions. Left hand on top is really only a product of instrument mass-production and standardized group playing. Many of the very best uilleann pipers play(ed) left-handed sets, and not all of them were/are left-handed: Patsy Touhey, Willie Clancy, Seán McKiernan, Pat Broderick, Davy Spillane, Michael McGoldrick, and Aaron O'Hagan are just a few of many examples. After a few decades of being frowned upon, it's also creeping back more commonly into Scottish piping as well.
(I realize I'm really going off on a tangent here, but one Scottish piper I'll mention in this regard was the late Duncan Johnstone, who was right-handed but played with his right hand on top. He was of the opinion that everybody was doing it wrong and that a piper should always play with his dominant hand as the top hand on the chanter for optimized stability and clarity of gracenotes. Needless to say, his view didn't carry the day back then.)
Bottom line: get a left-handed set. Anyone crazy enough to take up the pipes has enough trouble as it is, so why make it any harder for yourself?
