Search found 5282 matches

by pancelticpiper
Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:44 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Is Alba still selling whistles?
Replies: 11
Views: 306

Re: Is Alba still selling whistles?

I will mention that the various Alba whistles I've owned sometimes have unusual bore sizes compared to most other makers. Most makers use their Low D whistle tubing (usually around 22mm ID) for their Low C, in other words the Low C is simply a stretched Low D. Colin Goldie, Reviol, and other makers ...
by pancelticpiper
Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:26 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Is Alba still selling whistles?
Replies: 11
Views: 306

Re: Is Alba still selling whistles?

I bought an Alto G from Alba in early January this year. That's good to hear. If you wouldn't mind, could you measure the ID of your Alto G? I have a chart of whistle bores from various makers but no Alba mezzo/alto G yet. So far I have mezzo G Freeman (brass tube) 15mm mezzo G Freeman (alloy tube)...
by pancelticpiper
Tue Mar 26, 2024 4:35 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: New Double-Whistle Idea
Replies: 24
Views: 676

Re: New Double-Whistle Idea

The Bulgarian flute (Kaval) uses an entirely different way to be chromatic. The Bulgarian bagpipes, like the various Mediaeval and Renaissance woodwinds, have a basic diatonic scale. The Bulgarian pipe makers came up with the mormorka, Baroque woodwind makers narrowed the bore and holes and came up ...
by pancelticpiper
Tue Mar 26, 2024 4:13 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Is Alba still selling whistles?
Replies: 11
Views: 306

Re: Is Alba still selling whistles?

I emailed Stacey a while back asking if she was still making Bass whistles and she said she was.

I didn't inquire about smaller whistles.

I have, by the way, three emails for her

pictx@me.com (I think this is the most recent)

albawhistles@aol.com

info@albawhistles.com
by pancelticpiper
Mon Mar 25, 2024 5:29 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: New Double-Whistle Idea
Replies: 24
Views: 676

Re: New Double-Whistle Idea

Some Eastern European bagpipe genius came up with this hundreds, perhaps a thousand, years ago. The upper-hand index finger's hole isn't a normal note-hole like the others, but has a long extremely narrow bore. Somehow (I don't know if anybody understands the physic at work) opening that tiny deep h...
by pancelticpiper
Sat Mar 23, 2024 6:31 pm
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: New Double-Whistle Idea
Replies: 24
Views: 676

Re: New Double-Whistle Idea

The Hungarian chanter has what on the Bulgarian bagpipes is called the mormorka (I don't know the Hungarian name for it) which is operated by the upper-hand index finger. On Bulgarian gaidi opening this hole raises the pitch of any note below it by a semitone; in other words it transforms a diatonic...
by pancelticpiper
Fri Mar 22, 2024 4:44 pm
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: New Double-Whistle Idea
Replies: 24
Views: 676

Re: New Double-Whistle Idea

I would have to see a diagramme, I'm having a hard time visualising it. What does exist in the bagpipe world, scattered across several Eastern European countries, is a double-chanter setup with "counterdrone". Bored in the same piece of wood is the normal chanter fingered in the normal way...
by pancelticpiper
Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:58 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Tuning Slide Revolution?
Replies: 12
Views: 537

Re: Tuning Slide Revolution?

Wanderer wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:39 am

https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-publi ... df/1103462

Should be a direct link to the patent's PDF.
Thanks! I couldn't get anywhere.
by pancelticpiper
Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:54 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Tuning Slide Revolution?
Replies: 12
Views: 537

Re: Tuning Slide Revolution?

Here's some pics showing how it works (not the best images, I found these online prior to seeing Wanderer's post)

Image
by pancelticpiper
Tue Mar 05, 2024 3:52 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Tuning Slide Revolution?
Replies: 12
Views: 537

Re: Tuning Slide Revolution?

I tried to look up the Patent but evidently it's quite a process. When I googled 'nicholas alberti flute" what came up was a Piccolo he made with his Patent double-tube system, from the Dayton Miller Collection in the Library of Congress. I wonder what happened to the flute?? https://www.loc.go...
by pancelticpiper
Mon Mar 04, 2024 3:52 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Tuning Slide Revolution?
Replies: 12
Views: 537

Re: Tuning Slide Revolution?

It's a great idea, but you're 110 years late. It's been done and patented: US Patent no. 1,103,462 (1914) "An interesting attempt to adapt to unstable pitch levels was made by Nicholas Alberti in 1914. He devised a flute with a rotating inner tube whereby the instrument could transpose itself f...
by pancelticpiper
Thu Feb 29, 2024 8:38 am
Forum: Flute Forum
Topic: Keyless Flutes: Just, Equal, or Embouchure Magic?
Replies: 2
Views: 650

Re: Keyless Flutes: Just, Equal, or Embouchure Magic?

I think people make too much of an issue out of Just Intonation v Equal Temperament thing. Even on the Uilleann pipes, where you don't have an embouchure, the difference is negligible and within the range you can adjust with blowing. My uilleann chanters and my flutes can be played to perfect ET yet...
by pancelticpiper
Thu Feb 29, 2024 7:51 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: So, what is this then?
Replies: 8
Views: 875

Re: So, what is this then?

These Native American flutes are essentially giant whistles with drones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD5He0d3IFk Then there's a quite different approach where you divide the octave between the two hands. There's plenty of iconography concerning the extinct British double-chanter bagpipe which app...
by pancelticpiper
Wed Feb 28, 2024 7:55 am
Forum: The Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum
Topic: Tune Identification please.....
Replies: 11
Views: 944

Re: Tune Identification please.....

Thanks for the link. It seems like every tune has multiple names, and sometimes a name is used for different tunes. That makes it difficult for the likes of me sometimes. Right, it would only be with a recently-composed tune that you would have a 1:1 relationship tune:title but even then the tune w...
by pancelticpiper
Tue Feb 27, 2024 12:04 pm
Forum: Flute Forum
Topic: Does an easy-to-play flute lead to a lazy or poorly developed embouchure?
Replies: 16
Views: 1622

Re: Does an easy-to-play flute lead to a lazy or poorly developed embouchure?

I think most professional musicians (I'm thinking flute, clarinet, sax players mostly) play instruments that are efficient, that is, giving you more with you putting in less. Their instruments are tools for doing their job, and saddling themselves with a "stuffy horn" that you have to forc...