Mouth blown practicing

Age Jonny · Post by **Age Jonny** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:34 pm

I have come across these two home pages:
http://www.angar.net/bob_may/
http://www.songsea.com/uwc.htm

When we look at these practice options, when overlooking the fact that pumping and squeezing are important, and we do only concider the practicing on the chanter itself, how are these solutions like?
Any experiences? Previous threads?

mukade · Post by **mukade** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:55 pm

Age Jonny wrote:I have come across these two home pages:
http://www.angar.net/bob_may/
http://www.songsea.com/uwc.htm

When we look at these practice options, when overlooking the fact that pumping and squeezing are important, and we do only concider the practicing on the chanter itself, how are these solutions like?
Any experiences? Previous threads?

You can't overlook the fact that pumping and squeezing are important on the uilleann pipes.

Flamenco and airbus and banana spoons.

Mukade

tommykleen · Post by **tommykleen** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:55 pm

To echo a familiar commercial jingle from my youth (now long gone

)

Ain't nothin' like the Real Thing baby,
Ain't nothin' like the Real Thing

T

Elmek · Post by **Elmek** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:31 am

Mouth blown UP's do not exist in the real world - damp will be the death of a proper Uilleann reed

You need to learn to use the bellows and bag to control the pipes

John

misterpatrick · Post by **misterpatrick** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:17 am

The sound clips tell you all you need to know.

CrackPiper · Post by **CrackPiper** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:28 pm

How many times are we going to have to answer this question?

Here's an idea...why don't we all chip in and buy a couple of these beasties and then loan them out to folks so they can see that they are totally useless.

mq

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:34 am

CrackPiper wrote:How many times are we going to have to answer this question?

mq

Likely as long as people don't check the tagged messages that stay at the top? I assume this info's there (it should be if it's not).

tomk · Post by **tomk** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:45 pm

To give yourself a satisfying experience with theres things , you have to have understood the thought process behind the concept being espoused first .
It all started with those cheap plastic belloweses that are used to inflate air mattresses while camping out .
From there , the pipes were taken to some hospital somewheres , and properly fit with surgical tubing ,, and brought back to the garage where ,,,,

amackenz · Post by **amackenz** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:25 pm

Ahem...
Not wanting to start a debate, I do wish to share my experience concerning these mouth-blown practice chanters, as I did purchase one.
Being a highland piper, who also played bellow blown smallpipes, the hardest part of attempting to learn the uilleann pipes was not pumping and squeezing, but rather the new fingering.
With this aspect I do feel the mouth-blown practice chanter was beneficial. It's relatively small size made it easily portable, thus allowing extra practice sessions not easily accessible with a starter set. Even compared to the whistle, the mouth blown chanter allows you to practice fingering not achievable by the whistle.
That being said, my mouth blown chanter was almost never in tune, so in some sense useless.

In summary... if you are short on cash and a former highland piper, then and only then is the mouth blown chanter a good idea.

tomk · Post by **tomk** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:44 pm

wernt we all?

,, lol .

PJ · Post by PJ » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:50 pm

amackenz wrote:... the hardest part of attempting to learn the uilleann pipes was not pumping and squeezing, but rather the new fingering...

Is the fingering the same? I couldn't find a fingering chart on the website.

amackenz wrote:That being said, my mouth blown chanter was almost never in tune, so in some sense useless.... if you are short on cash and a former highland piper, then and only then is the mouth blown chanter a good idea.

You don't work in sales or marketing, do you ...

Call me finicky but if an instrument is invariably out of tune, then it's not a good idea.

mike spencer · Post by **mike spencer** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:45 pm

PJ,the fingering is open and completely different with one octave. Low 'a' to high 'a' with a low 'g' which makes 9 notes.The key is somewhere around b flat but this can vary depending on the chanter.I learned the fingering for the ups using a highland practice chanter while I was waiting for my pipes to arrive, although I couldn't get the upper octave and the hole spacing is shorter in the highland pipes.

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:15 pm

I think PJ's asking if the fingering of the mouth blown thingies is the same as uilleann thingies, not GHB.

Pat Cannady · Post by **Pat Cannady** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:11 am

See what Patsy Touhy said on the matter, especially regarding newcomers with prior musical experience.

http://billhaneman.ie/AFH/AFH-AppendixB.html

But what did he know?....

Pat Cannady · Post by **Pat Cannady** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:09 am

Honestly GHB dudes and dudettes, if an uillean practice chanter was at all helpful in teaching uilleann pipes, don't you think it would have become part of irish piping tuition methods a looooonnnnnngggggg time ago?

I don't see or hear any mention of a practice chanter in the NPU video tutor. But you do see kids age 10-14 handling a bag, bellows, and chanter at WCSS and tionoil all over Ireland. HMMMMMMM

Here we go again: the coordination of bag and bellows with the fingering/shading of toneholes/lifting the chanter/increasing or decreasing bag pressure are integral to controlling the chanter. You really can't practice the fingering in isolation from the bag and bellows and expect to get anywhere.

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