GaryKelly wrote:I'm rather partial to the sound of the pipes, particularly on tunes where they have the drones going.
Bingo. There's something extremely primitive, even reptilian, about drones that hypnotizes me. They bypass the logic circuits in the brain and head straight for the stem. I love 'em.
I want to make a bagwhistle. a normal whistle connected to a bunch of drone whistles. That would kick.
GaryKelly wrote:I'm rather partial to the sound of the pipes, particularly on tunes where they have the drones going.
Bingo. There's something extremely primitive, even reptilian, about drones that hypnotizes me. They bypass the logic circuits in the brain and head straight for the stem. I love 'em.
Feadan wrote: And when Uilleann pipers in particular start ranting and waxing eloquent about the virtues of just intonation I have wonder just how many of them use that as an excuse for a poorly tuned chanter. "
The trick is ofcourse to have everynote on the chanter tuned in such a way that the drones play a perfect harmony with every note played. That's something to wax lyrical about.
You can wonder if your bad sounding pipes aren't really leaning towards equal temperament(for the moment excluding those which are really out), something some pipemakers resort to to please their customers playing with other instruments, that spoils the idea ofthe pipes ruining the harmony between the different parts.
Peter Laban wrote:
You can wonder if your bad sounding pipes aren't really leaning towards equal temperament (for the moment excluding those which are really out), something some pipemakers resort to to please their customers playing with other instruments, that spoils the idea of the pipes ruining the harmony between the different parts.
Interesting idea, because of course the fiddle can play in equal or just, it's the keyed instruments like concertina and accordion (and piano, lord help us) that fixed ITM to using equal temperament.
Fiddle plus pipes could play just as well in just temperament, if the pipes are built in just temperament.
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that schwing
There ar a few pipemakers (and whistlemakers for that matter) who ar tuning the F sharper from what used to be common (Sean Potts was giving out to me about modern high end whistles all having their f 'too sharp'). That doesn't suit playing over droens very well, you loose the sweetness.
Concertina depends, they are often tuned to meantone comma, you can custom tune concertina (Geoff Wooff tuned Jaqueline McCarthy's concertina before the last recording to come close to Tommy's pipes). Overall they are not necessarily straight forward euqal tempered, it depends who tuned/made them.
Folks I know either love pipes or hate them. Doesn't matter what kind and there are no inbetweens. It's one extreme or the other.
There are a lot of poorly tuned pipes played though and in public. (I'm talking GHBs here) A lot of the problems stem from uneven air pressure from players who can't keep an even amount of air going.
I think the hardest thing for me to grasp in GHB piping is
piobaireached
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
cowtime wrote:
I think the hardest thing for me to grasp in GHB piping is
piobaireached
Piobaireachd is, IMHO, GHB piper's pipe music (particularly competition pipers). Me...I find most of them monotonous. About as enjoyable as watching the grass grow. My favorite piobaireachd title is right on the money...
"Too Long in this Condition".
cowtime wrote:
I think the hardest thing for me to grasp in GHB piping is
piobaireached
Piobaireachd is, IMHO, GHB piper's pipe music (particularly competition pipers). Me...I find most of them monotonous. About as enjoyable as watching the grass grow. My favorite piobaireachd title is right on the money...
"Too Long in this Condition".
Cheers,
David
You hit the nail on the head.
Although I must admit that I've grown to be able to listen to it and not freak completely.
The first time I went to drum/pipe school my roommate was complaining about having to learn the stuff and when I realized that the "timing" was nothing akin to any timing I could relate to , I was happy that I'd kept my piping to a fun thing for myself and was at school to improve my drumming only.
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
Folks I know either love pipes or hate them. Doesn't matter what kind and there are no inbetweens. It's one extreme or the other.
You must not know my mom then,I think she counts as in between. She's ok with my practice set, likes the sound of a chanter fairly well in general, but she cannot grasp the concept of drones.She just doesn't like the drones much.I think she's nuts in this matter. I've explained and explained, she has heard some truly brilliant, beautiful, harmonious drones, and she just goes "What are the drones for? They just go 'MWRAAAA,'(s)he'd sound a lot better if (s)he just didn't have those nasty drones." Crazy. I'm on the waiting list for mine,maybe she'll get used to them once I'm the one playing them.
Is it possible to love the sound of pipes without any real impulse to learn to play them?
It's odd, because I love the sound - more than whistle or even flute, but I've never been seriously tempted to learn them. Flute, quite possibly - I think that's within my grasp, if I work at it - but it seems that there are just some many things that can go wrong with pipes.
Now if I were independently wealthy, and could devote hours a day to the attempt, maybe - but I don't know if my coordination is up to the challenge of pipes. I have enough issues with the simplicity of a whistle's 6 holes
I can't talk about UP's. . . but GHBs are not that much more difficult to learn than flute. (As far as I can say, anyway). Of course you have to learn to maintain a constant pressure that a) sounds good and b) alllows one not to pass out. But on flute you need to learn embouchure.
In terms of the fingerings, from what little I know GHB's may actually be easier. No second octave to worry about. Very, very little cross-fingering.
My favorite piobaireachd title is right on the money... 
Crazy. I'm on the waiting list for mine,maybe she'll get used to them once I'm the one playing them. 