The Sporting Pitchfork wrote:I have to be uncharacteristically blunt here: if pastoral pipes were so well-suited for ITM, then a hell of a lot more people would be playing and making them.
That's not to say that they _can't_ be used for ITM or that they don't sound nice when used for ITM (or other music for that matter), but the uilleann pipes work so much better. Before you spend a significant amount of money acquiring a set of pastoral pipes, track someone down who already has a set and try them out. Better yet, embark on a mystic quest to try all of the crazy bagpipes out there that people have mentioned so far in this thread and pick the one you like the best (or hate the least--YMMV).
I think there's a lot of unfortunate and misplaced anxiety about the uilleann pipes being somehow more difficult than other types of pipes. I play GHB, SSP, UP, and flute, and I do not think this is the case. They can be equally rewarding and challenging in their own special ways. If you have a good instrument and a good teacher, the uilleann pipes needn't cause you any grief.
If you want to play ITM on pipes, you will not find a bellows-blown bagpipe better suited for ITM than uilleann pipes. If you want to play Northumbrian tunes, Northumbrian pipes are definitely the way to go. (The fingering system is closed, meaning you only lift one finger at a time. However, if you have a lot of keys on your chanter--which you would probably need if you wanted to play much besides the core Northumbrian repertoire--you would have to get used to being pretty dextrous with your thumbs.)
I'd love to get my hands on a Lindsay chanter someday, but while it sounds great and opens up a lot of exciting doors for Scottish pipers, there's no way it would ever be as well suited to playing Irish music as uilleann pipes already are. As I said, pastoral pipes _can_ sound very nice for playing ITM, but there are some good reasons why the pastoral pipes gave way to the on-the-knee union/uilleann pipes, and these reasons have not been totally addressed in the modern pastoral sets being made now, improved though they may be. The ability of the uilleann pipe chanter to be closed on the knee is, in my view, crucial to be able to play ITM in a tasteful way. Just playing the chanter open with no ability to stop between notes sounds, well, slobbery. This is not a tight-fingering vs. open fingering thing either. Listen to "open style" uilleann pipers like Johnny and Felix Doran--even they stopped the chanter on the knee between notes every now and then. Pastoral pipes do not give you this option, and the clusters of gracenotes that Scottish pipers employ to give the illusion of space between notes don't always sound nice on them either. Pastoral pipe chanters generally have a more nasal tone than uilleann pipe chanters--not necessarily louder, but more nasal, say, halfway between uilleann pipes and border pipes. If the sound of NSP and SSP is what you like best, pastoral pipes are going in the opposite direction.
Again, yes, you ABSOLUTELY can play Irish traditional music on a number of different bagpipes if you really want to. You can also eat a burrito with chopsticks if you really want to. The choice is yours.
Take some time to _really_ think hard about what you want to do with the pipes you want and how much time, effort, and money you're willing to spend. Trust me, if there were a kind of pipes that genuinely worked better for playing ITM than uilleann pipes, you'd have a line of uilleann pipers out the door desperate to get their hands on them.
Let’s go back in time a bit, the pastoral pipe was developed to play the “new music” of the time (1720ish), the players wanted an expanded range over what had previously been available. The pastoral pipe has a full two octaves, giving it a much greater range than many of the pipes being played at that time, the broadest range was in the border regions, where the pipes were limited to an octave and a fourth. The pastoral pipes were still being made in the 1850s and were being played up into the first world war. I’ll guess they were even use for Irish music. Then they were kinda lost. I think we should remember that even uilleann piping in Ireland was almost lost, if it hadn’t been for Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU, the Society of Irish Pipers), founded in 1968, bringing them back; along with the folk revival of the 1960s and 70s, with bands like Planxty, the Chieftens, and the Bothy Band, they would probably be lost also. For the pastoral pipe there is only a few makers, making the occasional set, mostly out of historical interest.
I think it’s when regulators were added to the pastoral pipes that we see the beginning of the pipes decline. Historically there are examples of pastoral pipes with one, sometimes two regulators. The foot joint of the pastoral pipe adds about 8” to the length over the uilleann chanter. I added one regulator to my set, and I use it to add a note, on the occasional tune. Because of the foot joint, there is no way that one can play them like an uilleann piper plays their regulators. Removing the foot joint, facilitates playing the regulators, a big part of playing bagpipes in Irish music. It also had a huge benefit of being able to stop the chanter, and play staccato. Todays Irish piping developed and revolves around this style of piping.
Stopping the uilleann chanter also opened up a whole new range and variety of color in the sound of what the piper can play. Each note can have several different ways to play it achieving a different timber. I’ve heard it said that it takes 21 years to learn to play the uilleann pipes. (I can’t remember the exact quote) There is so much involved besides just learning the technical fingering. I had a workshop with Keiran O’Hare where he spent a 90 minute lecture on the first two measures of a tune. (He is a great teacher by the way.)
Irish piping like Scottish piping, both have a very unique and recognizable style that takes time and practice to become accomplished, most often starting young. When someone plays these pipes in other than the accepted style, the piper is often criticized. One, not only has to learn to play these pipes, but also in the acceptable style of playing.
“However, you can't just go ahead and play away as you would on flute, this would result in sounding like bad uilleann piping - you will have to learn to play the instrument the way it should and needs to be be played.” ~ MichaelLoos
For me this is an issue. I would not consider myself an accomplish musician. I love instruments and have a variety of them, but master of none, I didn’t really start playing an instrument until I was forty, stopped, and then restarted on an Irish flute at 53. So when I was in my 60’s the idea of learning the uilleann pipes, and how to play them in the correct manner was more than I was willing to try. So, I bought my pastoral pipes, because, as far as I could tell there is no right or wrong way to play them. So it shouldn’t matter if I play them using flute ornamentation, or what ever works for me.
The pastoral pipe is pretty straight forward, it will never sound like an uilleann pipe chanter with it’s many colors and variety of sound, the foot joint won’t allow it. The pastoral chanter is very similar to a narrow bore uilleann chanter, in fact Ray Sloan used his narrow bore chanter design to build a pastoral set of pipes, by adding a foot joint. I doubt there is anything more one could do, or should do to enhance what the current makers are doing. For me, the pastoral pipe has an old enchanting sound that blends well with its drones, and can be played with other instruments.
Just thought I’d add that uilleann pipes can be played standing by adding a small foot step.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCCNSUvgBTc