I’m just learning about pipes and I’m interested in purchasing a penny chanter practice set. I have a basic question about the drones, sorry if it’s a silly question.. Do the drones play only the root note of the chanter? For example if I get the D chanter, are the drones going to be D-D-D 3 octaves apart? David daye has a 3/8 set with just 2 drones or 1/2 with 3 drones. So my question is this: are the drones useful when playing in other keys where D isn’t the tonic? I currently play whistle and flute and many of the tunes I play are not in D. For example tunes in G. In this case the drones would be playing a 5th. But in tunes in Eminor or Aminor (sorry I don’t know them by their modal names) it seems to me the drones wouldnt be useful. Am I missing something?
In Hindustani classical music the drones are played by a Tapura, and using electronic alternatives (including iphone apps) is very popular for practice. I found Michael Eskin’s JustDrones for iPhone which allows playing drones in all keys. Would this be a good alternative to allow me to purchase a practice set?
Seámus Ennis sometimes said ‘G’ was the home key of the pipes. Ennis always showed great sensitivity for the harmonies between drones and chanter when choosing the key of his tunes, particularly the airs, and he had a point as far as I am concerned.
Anyhow, the drones as they are work fine for the overwhelming majority of traditional tunes. They can throw off some accompanists though, in some keys.
As for electronic drones, it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Managing drones is an essential part of playing and bagtechnique. If you’re aiming to become a complete piper, and considering they’re an integral part of the instrument, leaving them out doesn’t seem the sensible thing.
The Indian bansuri uses the ‘G’ note for it’s tonic, so that makes sense.
Electric drones would be temporary to keep the entry cost low. But my main question is: does one use the drones even when playing tunes in Em? It seems the D drone would clash with the ‘tonic’ E.
Dunno about the uilleann pipes, but it’s done all the time in Highland piping (ie A drones with everything). But then again, some Scottish smallpipers are now regularly retuning drones beyond the obvious A E A and A D A bass/baritone/tenor combinations.
I did more research and what I found is that when playing alone, some pipers like an Eminor tune played with D drones. However when playing with other harmony instruments, some said they would turn the drones off.
To test this out myself, I purchased the JustDrones iPhone app and tried both D and E drones with a couple airs in Eminor. I found that I much prefer the E drone for E minor tunes. Particularly on the last few notes which is often F# or D resolving to E. To my ears it just sounds better with the tension that is released when the melody ends on the same note as th drones. When using D drones, ending on E didn’t seem to resolve Anything for me.
Another interesting thing was I found pipers talking about using different drones with different chanters.
The drones double the cost of the penny chanter so I think I’ll start with the “practice” set and continue experimenting with JustDrones and leave the drone decision for later. It seems several of my favorite airs are in Eminor, so I’ll experiment some more..
There’s no simple answer to this question:- one Em tune can differ in it’s structure from another Em tune. As it happens I have some E drones and they just don’t sound right with many tunes that appear to be in Em. Apparently, according to people with much more musical knowledge than me, many of these tunes are “bi-modal” i.e. not in E all the time. An example would be “Galway Bay”: I play this in Em but use a D drone. There are other E tunes where G drones sound o.k but the E drones sound terrible.
IMO you don’t always want a tune to be “resolved”. Sometimes I like a tune to end hanging in the air, asking a question,just like other things in life - this also works when you are following on with another tune.
I told my pipe-maker that I found Em tunes over D drones to be dissonant. He told me to take my dissonance like a man !!
He then agreed to add a G/A drone to my set. I frequently play 2 D drones (tenor and bari) with the G drone for G tunes. From time to time, I add the A drone to the 3 D drones for tunes in D but this demands a lot of air, particularly when I play the regs.
I’ve been told that some Em tunes sound great over a G drone but haven’t tried this yet (don’t know why).