Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

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DaisyD
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Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Hello folks.
This is my first post.
I am a classically trained violinist, and I find myself in retirement getting interested in playing some traditional music, though I've played many fiddle tunes over the years. To that end I am looking at getting a set of pipes, tossing up between some smallpipes, or Hummelchen. I don't want to pay the earth to start with, but I'm grade 8 recorder player, can play flute and sax so I think, I hope, I can bypass forking out for a practice chanter as well. I will also be playing these at home, so don't want anything that requires a misty morning on the side of Loch Lomond. :wink: I have to consider hubby... and the other people who live in our village :lol:

Does anyone have any pointers as to best place to buy ? I'm in France, but prices seem, like with the violin market, very expensive. I found some makers in Germany, some helpful stuff on this site and prices seem reasonable https://www.dreiers-dudelsackbau.de/ins ... lchen.html I also found RT Shepherds in the UK, but I will get stung for customs and tax...

Any suggestiong would be welcome - it would be a first foray into seriously restricted keys, I saw that some hummelchen seem to have little plugs you stick in the drones that change the note. I also see that some hummelchen have baroque recorder fingering which would make life very easy, but I assume you can't overblow very easily to get more than around 1 octave. Some chromatic functionality would be useful. So, to sum up, I am an ignorant beginner and any suggestions or help would be very welcome.

Thanks
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Meticus
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Meticus »

Hi DaisyD, welcome to the forum :)

I recently bought a Dreier-hümmelchen from the link you posted. It is my 2nd bagpipe from Cristian Dreier after my A/G medieval bagpipe. His instruments are very popular among German bagpipers and I love both of my pipes. Very high quality and he also is very helpful, you can always contact him if you have any problems or questions. He's also very quick with maintenance (maybe shipping could take some time from/to France). You can order pipes according to your personal preferences regarding fingering (open or baroque), number/position of drones, colour, etc., however waiting time can be a bit long (I waited about 10 months for my hümmelchen). But he always has some instruments in store, so if you're lucky the one you want is already available.
A cool feature is that you can take off the chanter and use it as practice chanter without the bag, there's a plastic mouthpiece attached by default.

I presented my new hümmelchen some weeks ago in another thread, there's some details and also a video with an audio sample (but as written before you can order it in many different variants):
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewt ... 9&t=112954
For me it is quite easy to play, not too much pressure required and the volume is convenient to play at home without getting neighbours angry :D

Best regard,
Meticus
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Thanks Meticus, well played BTW. So, that goes from C to d' ? . Can I ask what other notes can you get ? Are there cross fingerings to get semitones etc ?

10 months wait, oh that's a long time.
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Meticus
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Tell us something.: Hi, I just started learning to play the German/Medieval Bagpipe. I also play the guitar, recorder and want to learn some songs on a tin whistle. I want to come in touch with international communities to share experience and get new input and inspiration, such as tunes from different regions, appropriate for my instruments. Therefore I joined the Chiff & Fipple forum :-)
Location: Nuremberg (Germany)
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Meticus »

Yes, the chanter is from C to d'.

Besides the standard notes you can play C# and D#, the 2 lowest holes are double holes. For F# there is a 2nd thumb hole to open and Bb can be played by fork fingering.
Guess there are also other approximate notes possible with special fork fingering, but I didn't try this, the "official" notes were sufficient for me so far :D

That's only for open fingering, though. I don't know about the baroque chanter variant.
You could contact Christian Dreier, he has fingering tables for all his chanters which he could send you.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Ah, thanks for that, that covers most tunes I'm likely to need at this stage. I have contacted both Christian Dreier and also Toru Sonoda, so far I have had several very helpful responses from Toru Sonoda and he has just sent me a fingering chart. The baroque fingering can be fully chromatic and extend from low C to f' which would cover just about all possibilities. Getting excited now :) My retirement present, well the second one as I bought myself a cuckoo clock, my childhood one must have got thrown out during one of our moves.

Do all posts have to be moderated or is it only the first few ? Just wondering ...
Last edited by DaisyD on Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by aphillips »

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I just want to say that I have a gaita pequeña from Toru and it is a beautiful instrument. It has lovely tone and beautiful workmanship. Have fun!



By the way after your first few posts you won't need any moderator approval.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Nanohedron »

DaisyD wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 3:43 am Do all posts have to be moderated or is it only the first few ? Just wondering ...
Normally just the first three. You can read it here (3rd paragraph down). When you have time, do have a look at the so-called CCCP (where the link came from); it has an index for getting a quick lay of the land. Just about every procedural question you could have about C&F ought to be covered there by now.
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Meticus
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Tell us something.: Hi, I just started learning to play the German/Medieval Bagpipe. I also play the guitar, recorder and want to learn some songs on a tin whistle. I want to come in touch with international communities to share experience and get new input and inspiration, such as tunes from different regions, appropriate for my instruments. Therefore I joined the Chiff & Fipple forum :-)
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Meticus »

I don't have any experience with Toru Sonada, but I know some people playing his pipes. His instruments also seem to be of high quality and are quite popular, so that would also be a good choice :)

Let us know once you got your pipes. I'm curious now, which it will be :D

With the cuckoo clock now you already have a metronome to practice :lol:
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Well, a development, Toru Sonoda said he'd take a while to make a set, there's a waiting list, - understandable, but Christian Dreier got back to me and has a set of Hummelchen just about ready that he can make a second drone for quite quickly. He sent me a vid. They sound good, and the tuning is also good, so I think I'll probably go for that set in order to be able to start my Hummelchen 'journey'. Only thing I don't think will be possible, or at least it may not be possible, is the extra notes, a high e' and f' above the normal top note of D in a C/D set that Toru Sonoda had proposed he could do. I suppose I could start with the ordinary set and then maybe get a different chanter, or exchange the chanter for one with this facility . not sure.
I'm just wondering if you can half hole the thumbhole and somehow access higher notes on a normal set of Hummelchen, like on a recorder ? Normally there's a change of air pressure and angle for a recorder so perhaps it's not possible.

Next thing, a beginner book in English. Does anyone have recommendations ?
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Nanohedron wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:24 pm
DaisyD wrote: Thu Jan 13, 2022 3:43 am Do all posts have to be moderated or is it only the first few ? Just wondering ...
Normally just the first three. You can read it here (3rd paragraph down). When you have time, do have a look at the so-called CCCP (where the link came from); it has an index for getting a quick lay of the land. Just about every procedural question you could have about C&F ought to be covered there by now.

I understand the point about moderating the first three posts - this is my sixth believe, the fifth one was still stopped to be moderated... I have been a member of a 4x4 forum since 2004, over the years we've had to deal with quite a few spammers.

Anyway, I look forward to being a regular contributor, as a beginner I am sure I'll have a lot of questions to ask. It seems a helpful place. BTW I have read all the info on the link and promise to stay off politics religion etc.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Nanohedron »

DaisyD wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:18 amI understand the point about moderating the first three posts - this is my sixth believe, the fifth one was still stopped to be moderated...
It's not a fully automated process, here - this is intentional, since general spam abatement and member approval actually soon diverge into two different things: the former is automated and scary-good, but for the latter, which are the gleanings, we value human judgment and agency. In some cases a legitimate applicant can have 2 approved first posts with only that magic third to go, but let's say that instead of submitting one, out of enthusiasm the applicant submits another three yet-to-be-approved new posts waiting in the wings, as you did (and you won't have been the only one to do this, BTW). See where this is going? This, on its own terms, is what the mod is presented with (and this is not to scold, but to explain. We're all humans here). So anyway, even if just one of the three is approved (constituting of course the 3rd approved post), it is now irrelevant for Admin purposes, for it doesn't change things for the remaining two which are still just as unapproved as ever, and must still be addressed individually regardless. At this point it's pretty hands-on. As you might understand, the mods don't have a lot of choice but to activate full permissions at the timing given to us, so that's why I said above, "Normally the first three." - which, as chance would have it, has just been illustrated right here. Perhaps there are programs that could handle the ambiguity for us so we could do other things while claiming the credit, but some things just call for the human touch, and sometimes it's like curating under fire. And behold, you are no longer just a candidate under scrutiny, but now have full permissions (even if it unintendedly took five submissions rather than the usual three). We only hope you haven't meanwhile torn your hair out. :)
DaisyD wrote:I have been a member of a 4x4 forum since 2004, over the years we've had to deal with quite a few spammers.
At one point it had indeed become a nonstop deluge of spam applicants up to the neck here - as many as 400 or more a day - and we had to do a lot of picking through the dross to find the legitimate applicants; needles and haystacks would be an apt analogy. It put a real crimp on our having the time to do other things requiring mod attention. So we had to go draconian, but it's worked out quite well for the legitimate membership, I think. The mods like it, too.
DaisyD[/quote wrote:Anyway, I look forward to being a regular contributor, as a beginner I am sure I'll have a lot of questions to ask. It seems a helpful place. BTW I have read all the info on the link and promise to stay off politics religion etc.
:thumbsup:

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Whilst waiting for my Hummelchen I got myself a Scottish practice chanter, and Robert Wallace's Bagpipe Tutor 1.
Two things, wow it's going to take some puff, and work getting the lips to seal round the chanter to get it to speak. I have put some thread around the reed which has helped a little. Just need to keep practising.It's way harder with the top on the chanter than without, quite a bit more pressure required than playing oboe or sax.

I've got the fingering off no problems, but then I hit the awkward fact that the chanter in A isn't in A , it's in concert B flat. Ugh. So with perfect pitch, the lowest note sounds A flat, B flat, C, D, E flat, F , G ,A ,B flat. the notes as you read them show G to A. I think I've found a short cut to coping with this aural anomaly, to read the notes as if they were in Alto clef in B flat major. I have only just cracked playing baroque violin at A 415, so now my brain is addled with three possible different pitches for the same note, A flat, A or B flat. Help ! :lol:
At leaat the Hummelchen when they arrive will be in concert pitch. Is Hummelchen music written in the key you actually play it or is it another transposing instrument I wonder? Could be fun.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by Tjones »

Hi DaisyD,

Like you, I went out and bought a Scottish practice chanter and the tutor #1, even though I wasn’t going to play the Great Highland pipes. I hated it!

I’d like to suggest you get rid of the Scottish practice chanter! It’s a tool for learning the Scottish Great Highland Pipes. If that is your goal, keep it, but if your are looking at a Hummelchen with open or baroque fingering, learning the fingering for the highland pipes won’t help you that much in playing the Hummelchen. The GHPs uses the half closed system of fingering, and the book concentrates on ornamentation from the Scottish tradition.

GHP, dominate the world of piping, because of this, when someone thinks of bagpipes they think of the GHPs. Most books and much of the learning material is based on the GHP. It’s my understanding that the Highland pipes have their own unique tuning. I think they tune to A = 466 and they are climbing higher. It might be hard to find books on the Hummelchen, but one book you might look for is :
Playing The Bagpipes (tutor book + CD)
‘Playing the Bagpipes’ by Bernard Boulanger. The book is most thorough, taking you from the first puff, up to complex ornamentation in easy stages.
Each step is accompanied by an appropriate musical example, which is played slowly and then at the correct speed, on the CD, you can order direct from the publisher: http://www.spielleute.de The tutor is available in English, French and German.
For me, listening to the music being played on the Hummelchen would be another step. It’s the ornamentation of that music that is important.

Ornamentation is what makes the pipes work and therefore, is very important in playing the bagpipe. With a bagpipe you have a continuous air flow and you need to separate the notes, and this is done with finger ornamentations. Since I come from a background of Irish music, I’ll use the terms I’m familiar with. For single notes you have cuts, strikes, and slides. For multi-notes, you have short rolls, long rolls, condensed long rolls, condensed short rolls, double cut rolls, cranes and some other stuff. These could be easily learned on a recorder or a whistle.

Your are lucky you are in Europe where there are many different kinds of pipes and piping traditions. One on my favorite pipers ~ Remi Decker, has some one line lessons that I think you could work on with a recorder or whistle until you have your pipes. https://www.youtube.com/user/varioleasbl/videos

You mentioned Perfect pitch ~ You might talk to the pipe maker and find out what temperament the pipes will be. Some makers will use just temperament for the chanter and drones, some will use equal temperament. If you aren’t use to just temperament, and only have been exposed to equal temperament, they may seem to be out of tune for you.
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Thanks for the reply and the links for the book and to Remi Decker too.
Toru Sonoda is sending me a book on Hummelchen in English so that will be helpful for when my Hummelchen are ready, in a few week's time. I have already heard my Hummelchen, Christian Dreier sent me a video - the tuning is good, A is 440, phew !
Yes, I had realised that the music and the fingering for the GHP was very different to the Hummelchen, but since I already know a lot of Scottish tunes it's been an interesting week grappling with the concept of not tonguing notes, blowing a reed through a tube without expiring, getting the air pressure right, and learning a whole set of new fingerings whilst trying to convince my ears that the semitone sharp notes are not actually a semitone sharp but what is written in the book 😅 I haven't succeeded with that but by reading the music in Alto clef I have reached an uneasy truce with reality.

The GHP fingiering is now in the muscle memory, though I can't play anything fast yet without resorting to simple remove one finger and you get the right note cheat. I also cheated and as suggested by someone on a video I watched, I put a small rubber band round the chanter reed to help a bit with the breathing pressure ( I took it off the other day and I can blow it better now I'm not grappling with the other difficulties ). I've got to lesson 10 in the Bagpipe book, with the grace notes getting better and all the exercises under my fingers, if lacking in speed.
Once I've cracked the Hummelchen, I may save up for a second set of pipes that use the GHP fingering - so I'll stick with it, doing short 5 or 10 minute practice sessions during the day with the dogs as critics. Most of all I'm having fun in between more serious violin practice and piano, hoping finally to do my Grade 8 - if they have exams at Christmas. We haven't had any live exams since 2019 as the ABRSM hasn't sent any examiners abroad since Covid. 🙁

I'm really looking forward to getting the Hummelchen, just waiting on the second drone to be finished - it's apparently been made. Then I think, I hope, the purchase of the GHP chanter will at least have helped with the concept of blowing a reed. With the tutor book A at 440, and the baroque recorder fingering I've known since a child it should be easier.

Off to have a listen to that link now.

I didn't get an email notification of that reply, will have to check my settings, or maybe it's in spam. Happy piping and thanks again for the advice !
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Re: Advice, hummelchen or smallpipes ?

Post by DaisyD »

Oh, and I'll be able to get started on the Hummelchen ornamentation on my descant recorder when I get the book, it's a whole new language :-) Makes a change from trills, turns, appoggiaturas and acciaccaturas,
Re just tuning and equal temperament, I guess as a violinist I adjust automatically depending on what key I'm playing in, though friends who are serious baroque players know the subject much better than me. I think my Hummelchen set is pretty much in equal temperament, which I suppose will suit for more keys and experimentation.
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