Galician smallpipe?

[dunnp]

Has anyone ever made or is it possible to make a small pipe, bellows blown but with Galician open fingering maybe in d with a scottish smallpipe like sound and more notes available? I think this would be a useful instrument. I love galician pipes but they are far to strident to practice in an apartment. I don´t know the workings of pipes all that well so forgive me if this is a silly question. Patrick

[MichaelLoos]

An instrument like this can certainly be made, but more than the usual nine notes would only be possible by means of keys because reed instruments with a cylindrical bore can not overblow to the octave. Maybe Yuri can help you, he is specialised in straight-bore pipes?

[BigDavy]

Has anyone ever made or is it possible to make a small pipe, bellows blown but with Galician open fingering maybe in d with a scottish smallpipe like sound and more notes available? I think this would be a useful instrument. I love galician pipes but they are far to strident to practice in an apartment. I don´t know the workings of pipes all that well so forgive me if this is a silly question. Patrick

Would a set of Northumbrian half long pipes not be more appropriate - the Swayne made sets have an octave and a half range and are bellows blown?

David

The man himself playing a set of his half long pipes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVZkJmcGfrw

[AaronMalcomb]

Davy's suggestion is apt for getting something that pops up into the higher range.

I've read that Pete Sutherland and Julian Goodacre have collaborated on some open-fingering smallpipes.

Mike MacHarg is a good reference too.

[Iago]

Some years ago Ian MacKenzie offered to make me a galician chanter for my small pipes. This was after I had ordered an A chanter with 5 or 6 keys on it. But his galician chanter would have been conical bored , mas que cylindrical. So it would been an octave higher than the other, For this reason I said no.

I've often wondered since if this was a mistake

[MatthewVanitas]

A little thread necromancy from last year, since I was wondering about the exact same topic today and found some new gouge.

Yuri, our pipemaker down in NZ, whipped up a "Galician smallpipe" for a fella on GaitaForum, so there's a thread there on the instrument. He also has several YouTube clips up, some searchable under "Galician smallpipes".


As predicted above, the easiest solution appears to be basically an SSP with a chanter drilled for gaita fingerholes. You lose the ability to overblow (presumably), but get quieter volume but still a low-octave chanter.

There's a bit of precedent for this with a E.J. Jones on YouTube doing some Iberian tunes on an SSP, and there a few other European pipers doing similar. Making a chanter specifically for gaita fingering seems a small step but a rather clever approach.

[Yuri]

Here are a couple of the gaita smallpipe clips. Played by the guy who asked me to make the instrument for him. It has a slightly flared bore, not completely straight, so strictly speaking it isn't a real smallpipe, though it is close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bio9LYTj7SM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5Nz2huUd0
And no, you cannot overblow. It's not flared enough for that.