Does anyone have experience with the Garvie Session Pipes (www.borderpipes.co.uk), especially within a session environment? Also, does anyone know how hard it is to fit two octave tunes (as played e.g. in D on Flute) into the possibilities of the session pipe range (G to A)? And still have them sound good. Or is one limited to solos/specific arrangements such as one might put together for a band?
Chris
Garvie Session Pipes
-
ChrisCracknell
- Posts: 418
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:05 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Contact:
-
AaronMalcomb
- Posts: 2205
- Joined: Sat May 25, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Location: Bellingham, WA
I have a Garvie chanter and it works well in a session environment. Nigel can reed them for various volume levels which he rates by how many fiddles you can overpower (1-3). It's obviously better suited for playing Scottish and/or Border sessions than Irish.
As for compressing tunes to fit the scale, it may be more of a solo thing. Not all sessioneers will want sudden bursts of harmony or, even worse, dischord depending on how you truncated the range.
There are some good examples of it working though. Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson do it on border and uilleann pipes. Terry Tully has some really good settings of traditional Irish tunes transposed to the GHB.
As for compressing tunes to fit the scale, it may be more of a solo thing. Not all sessioneers will want sudden bursts of harmony or, even worse, dischord depending on how you truncated the range.
There are some good examples of it working though. Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson do it on border and uilleann pipes. Terry Tully has some really good settings of traditional Irish tunes transposed to the GHB.
-
pancelticpiper
- Posts: 5322
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format. - Location: WV to the OC
Well the purpose of the session pipes is to enable one to play the Highland pipe repertoire in a key and at a volume suitable to session playing. If one wants to play Irish tunes, the uilleann pipes are the thing to use.
I have the Garvie session chanter, a Hamish Moore "reel" chanter, and a Jon Swayne "Lowland" chanter. Despite all the various names, these are all basically the same beast, that is, a Highland chanter with a narrower bore (though still conical) brought down to the key of A and giving about half the volume of the Highland chanter. The volume of the Garvie and Moore is a bit loud for a small session. I ended up preferring the Swayne because it is a bit softer than the others (though still somewhat louder than uilleann pipes) and it uses a plastic reed and is always in tune.
The Swayne and the Garvie both have keys for high B which is very useful. All of these chanters are chromatic- unlike an uilleann chanter, these so-called "border" or "lowland' chanters respond well to "fork fingerings".
These chanters can be used in bellows blown or mouth blown bags, and can have the drones in a common stock or on the shoulder seperate stocks Highland-style. I use a 100 year old "Lovat reel pipe" reeded to play in A for these chanters.
I have the Garvie session chanter, a Hamish Moore "reel" chanter, and a Jon Swayne "Lowland" chanter. Despite all the various names, these are all basically the same beast, that is, a Highland chanter with a narrower bore (though still conical) brought down to the key of A and giving about half the volume of the Highland chanter. The volume of the Garvie and Moore is a bit loud for a small session. I ended up preferring the Swayne because it is a bit softer than the others (though still somewhat louder than uilleann pipes) and it uses a plastic reed and is always in tune.
The Swayne and the Garvie both have keys for high B which is very useful. All of these chanters are chromatic- unlike an uilleann chanter, these so-called "border" or "lowland' chanters respond well to "fork fingerings".
These chanters can be used in bellows blown or mouth blown bags, and can have the drones in a common stock or on the shoulder seperate stocks Highland-style. I use a 100 year old "Lovat reel pipe" reeded to play in A for these chanters.