I’m a passionate whistler who is getting very serious about ordering my first set of pipes, and although I absolutely love GHBs and Scottish smallpipes, and I’d be thrilled to squeeze a set of Uilleann pipes, I’ve been feeling called to other types of pipes and I’ve been looking closely at this particular set of smallpipes built by Mr. Toru Sonoda in Germany that is tuned to Sopranino F - here is a video of these pipes from YouTube:
https://youtu.be/52EqUegIPrU
Does anyone here own a hummelchen in any tuning? I know this sounds incredibly naive, but one of my main questions is that I’m wondering what type of music might be explored on a hummelchen of this type? Although German Hummelchen music is obviously one answer, I haven’t really found many good learning resources (particularly in English), and I wondered if Scottish pipe music could be adapted to these pipes, albeit in a much different key and pitch? To my untrained eyes and ears, the chanter in the video above appears to play a similar range as Scottish smallpipes (again, in a much higher pitch), and I’ve been really curious what Scottish pipes tunes might sound like on these pipes, and if anyone here owns a Hummelchen and could share what types of music fit the instrument well? For example, I’m hoping that many early Northumbrian tunes would work perfectly, as a typical keyless Northumbrian chanter would sound in F (or F-sharpish, I’ve read), although this chanter is open not closed. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I suppose my main concern is that I’ll buy this beautiful instrument, but be left both not knowing how to play it very well and also without much access to traditional tunes that can fit it well… I’m not necessarily a brilliant musician, but I have found that I learn well with clear practice and perseverance, so I could really use a focused approach to learning if I’m going to progress with an instrument. Are there any other Hummelchen players out there (or pipers from any tradition who could offer some encouragement)? Also, can anyone recommend a good instructor who might be able to help me get my footing with the type of pipe I linked above? I’ve been dreaming of starting this piping journey for far too long, I just want to make sure I get a strong start in the right direction... At times I recognize that buying a practice chanter and saving up for a good set of SSPs would be a very logical (and rewarding) approach, there is something about the sound of these super high pitched small pipes that just lights me up (I just need to figure out what type of music I can learn on them)!
![pthtttbt :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz_144.gif)
Thank you all for any support or advice you can offer to a newbie!