Brass Chanter Update 12/3
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Jim McGuire
- Posts: 1978
- Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:43 pm
oh, it's not a kit. just the instructions, and they're not even really done yet, kind of first draft. I have produced a working prototype, it's more a matter of getting them written up in a way that other people can understand and replicate.
But the instructions, when finished, will be for every aspect of a fully keyed full set - from reeds to keys.
For those of you I've sent the pdf to, I did catch a couple spelling typos. I corrected them, but I won't be re-pdfing until the next step is finished.
But the instructions, when finished, will be for every aspect of a fully keyed full set - from reeds to keys.
For those of you I've sent the pdf to, I did catch a couple spelling typos. I corrected them, but I won't be re-pdfing until the next step is finished.
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Kevin Popejoy
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Columbia, Missouri
okay..here are pics with my extremely poor use of a digital camera. maybe i'll play with laying it on a scanner later, but i have class so this will have to suffice for the time being:
http://members.aol.com/manicpublishing/chanterpage.html
http://members.aol.com/manicpublishing/chanterpage.html
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Kevin L. Rietmann
- Posts: 2926
- Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2003 2:20 am
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Cascadia
I have a full set. I used the bore of my chanter as the model for this one.
But I know what I went through trying to get my full set, with all the money and time et cetera, and I thought, wow...knowing how many people try to get a full set from the start (whether you agree with that or not) I would imagine many get turned off completely and walk away. I would imagine most people are not fortunate enough to make it here before starting, I know I wasn't.
Let me just give you my take on that - I'm the type of person who, when I wanted to learn the trumpet, went out and bought the best (not necessarily most expensive, but about six times the cost of a student model) trumpet I could find because I only ever wanted to own one. I was the same way with the pipes, and almost never got started because of it. Then I got a practice set as a gift, learned to play, and immediately began saving for a full set.
I don't quite see what the problem is with a full set to start, from a learning perspective anyway. you can shut off the drones and simply not use the regs until you're ready. I know I would have found the transition to using all parts of the full set MUCH easier had I developed my playing (style, posture, et cetera) with the drones and regs in my lap, even if they were just there on "stand by" for a number of months or a year.
but I digress
This project began because I wanted to give a celtic musician friend of mine a set of pipes for her graduation. She helped me get started with her instrument (harp) and found the pipes fascinating. There is no way I could afford a practice set for her, and no way I could even afford a daye penny set (I just found out that I wasn't going to be rehired for the coming school, so major purchases were out). I tried to find a simple way of making a chanter - but the bore was the difficult part. I tried to put together a daye set from instructions on the web somewhere, but i couldn't make heads or tails out of them. And I thought, "there has to be an easier way..."
Once I got the tubing, and figured out the lengths of each piece with the probe on my chanter it took me five minutes to cut them to length, and two minutes to slide them all together with the superglue. I then had a chanter that played "D". Copied the fingerhole locations from my chanter and used their diameters as an assumed general "target" for my holes as I "grew" them (drilled all the smallest diameter and enlarged little by little until everything was in tune. That took about a half hour.
So for less than an hours work, and $25 worth of materials I had a working chanter that didn't sound half bad and looked pretty nice, too. It didn't look like a regular chanter, but it didn't look thrown together from household items. I got the Garvin book that includes plans for a full set and said to myself that if I could make a chanter the rest of it (except for designing a key mechanism) should be fairly straightforward by comparison. Especially the drones.
I figured if there were simple plans out there, using no special skills or materials not readily available, for a full set, gift sets and first full sets would be within reach and perhaps the population of uilleann pipers would swell by just a few...
But I know what I went through trying to get my full set, with all the money and time et cetera, and I thought, wow...knowing how many people try to get a full set from the start (whether you agree with that or not) I would imagine many get turned off completely and walk away. I would imagine most people are not fortunate enough to make it here before starting, I know I wasn't.
Let me just give you my take on that - I'm the type of person who, when I wanted to learn the trumpet, went out and bought the best (not necessarily most expensive, but about six times the cost of a student model) trumpet I could find because I only ever wanted to own one. I was the same way with the pipes, and almost never got started because of it. Then I got a practice set as a gift, learned to play, and immediately began saving for a full set.
I don't quite see what the problem is with a full set to start, from a learning perspective anyway. you can shut off the drones and simply not use the regs until you're ready. I know I would have found the transition to using all parts of the full set MUCH easier had I developed my playing (style, posture, et cetera) with the drones and regs in my lap, even if they were just there on "stand by" for a number of months or a year.
but I digress
This project began because I wanted to give a celtic musician friend of mine a set of pipes for her graduation. She helped me get started with her instrument (harp) and found the pipes fascinating. There is no way I could afford a practice set for her, and no way I could even afford a daye penny set (I just found out that I wasn't going to be rehired for the coming school, so major purchases were out). I tried to find a simple way of making a chanter - but the bore was the difficult part. I tried to put together a daye set from instructions on the web somewhere, but i couldn't make heads or tails out of them. And I thought, "there has to be an easier way..."
Once I got the tubing, and figured out the lengths of each piece with the probe on my chanter it took me five minutes to cut them to length, and two minutes to slide them all together with the superglue. I then had a chanter that played "D". Copied the fingerhole locations from my chanter and used their diameters as an assumed general "target" for my holes as I "grew" them (drilled all the smallest diameter and enlarged little by little until everything was in tune. That took about a half hour.
So for less than an hours work, and $25 worth of materials I had a working chanter that didn't sound half bad and looked pretty nice, too. It didn't look like a regular chanter, but it didn't look thrown together from household items. I got the Garvin book that includes plans for a full set and said to myself that if I could make a chanter the rest of it (except for designing a key mechanism) should be fairly straightforward by comparison. Especially the drones.
I figured if there were simple plans out there, using no special skills or materials not readily available, for a full set, gift sets and first full sets would be within reach and perhaps the population of uilleann pipers would swell by just a few...