I asked this in my last post, but the title of the thread was a bit misleading.
So how bout it? Have any other people made the switch? What problems can I expect to encounter? Wil the new fingerings screw me up completely? Is it possible to continue studying both pipes? And what about getting used to those bellows? Any tips you can offer is greatly appeciated.
God Rest,
-Leech-
Yup, my name is Joseph, and I am a switcher.
But at the time, it really wasn’t so much of a switch as it was a branching out sort of thingy.
It really isn’t that much of a difference, but as somebody has already mentioned, you will need to lose what death grip you have and play with soft hands… similar to that term used for holding a golf club… but not the same knd of grip… sort of… wel… oh… never mind that, just force yourself not to hold your chanter too tightly.
The second biggest thing, IMHO, is learning to coordinate the operation of the bellows correctly… can be tricky, but once you get it down, you will hardly even notice that you are wearing a bellows.
You will find, and least in my experience, that changing fingering will not be as big an issue as one might be led to believe; it isn’t all that dissimilar to GHB fingering. It just takes a little time with good practice habits, and before you know it, you’re off to the hills!
Wooo Hooo!!! Look at me, I’m piping! I’M PIPING!!!
Please be warned: JES is a bi-piper.
djm
And in truth, the death grip won’t do you much good on the GHB. The bottom hand holes may be bigger but it doesn’t take much pressure to seal them. The rule of the pint glass holds true for both pipes.
Cheers,
Aaron
Watch out! Don’t get into any ethnic stereotyping or ole JES (whom you just dissed) will shut this thread down!
And talking about locked threads (and off topic to boot) will shut it down even faster and even get you banned.
But back to topic. You want elasticity in the fingers. That comes from the muscles and tendons in your forearms, not in your hands (which would be gripping). You only grip as firmly as you would a pint glass, but if you want to be culturally sensitive (or a smart a$$) you could say a lightbulb but then that brings you back around to the old “how many pipers does it take to change a lightbulb” joke.
The other conversion obstacle is the bellows. Getting used to playing from the bag instead of the bellows is tricky, especially for a mouthblower where instinct tells you to pump the bellows when you would normally blow.
The answer is going to depend a lot on how accomplished you are on the highland pipes, I think. I’ve only had about a month worth of practice on the UP’s, but have just about made it through the Heather Clarke tutor with tunes up to speed, and without too many squeaks and sqwuaks. I’m not sure how long it usually takes, but I suspect that’s a decent pace. I have found that there are a lot of familiarities - especially with the the embellishments - and I think that my finger control is generally pretty good thanks to my GHB experience. I should mention, though, that I’ve been playing whistle for about a year, and that I can make a decent sound on a sax, so those are helping too.
That all being said, the UP’s are clearly their own beast and are IMO a more difficult one than the GHB’s (though not as physically draining). I still have a very long way to go before I’d be comfortable playing for people.