keyed chanters-a beginners question

octavedoctor · Post by **octavedoctor** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 4:57 am

hello one and all! i'm a cittern player who has acquired pipe-itis and so after a year or so messing about with a low whistle, ive decided to take the plunge! Being skint, i've started making my own set-very happy with bellows and bag, and i've made a pretty successful reed for a (probably pakistani) chanter leant to me by a friend who gave up on it. Due to the aforementioned skintness, and the difficulty of finding the appropriate bore sizes of pipe, ive chosen to try a craig fisher square chanter rather than a PC. My question is this-i've already encountered the joys of c nat, and have heard about c nat keys-just how does it function? does it try to replicate the cross-fingering on a keyless chanter, and if so how? also, does anyone know of any free learning resources please-ive been trawling the web for weeks now, and all ive found are fingering charts and the intermediate lesson on scoiltrad. Any help with these things would be very greatly appreciated

boyd · Post by **boyd** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 5:36 am

C nat key is handy in the upper octave for some [but not many] tunes.
In the lower octave there are many more possibilities open to the piper. The note can be bent from flat to slightly sharp by slowly uncurling the left index finger, for instance.
Different fingerings will give C nat with differing qualities, and the sound quality can vary from chanter to chanter.
So I don't use the key in the lower octave.

Boyd
http://www.strathspeyinmay.com

Kevin Popejoy · Post by **Kevin Popejoy** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 7:59 am

octavedoctor · Post by **octavedoctor** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 2:58 am

thanks guys! regarding the square chanter, i made the tapered box this weekend-harder than i imagined, and today i'm drilling holes-pretty scary stuff, but if it works i'll post some pics to the list!