I am learning Humours on the Glen, in the key of D on my D concert Chanter, and it has a couple of lower octave A#'s (Bb’s) in it. What is the best way to get them. Currently I am sliding my A finger up next to the B finger only partially closing the A hole. Any other way?
I have a key for that.
Hmmm… I was not smart enough to ask for a Bb key
You can have Brad add the key when you’ve $75 or whatever it is. He always drills the holes, covers them with leather, turns out the blocks, unless someone specifically insists he doesn’t, which I assume you didn’t.
Willie Clancy didn’t play a Bb in that tune - I’d just play a B there. Bend into if you like. There’s usually no other way to get at the Bb than with the key or what you’re describing, either. Sometimes a chanter might let you approximate Bb by fingering the top hand X 0 X, lifting only the B finger. Most just use the slides for the sound they give. Lots of great pipers like Willie would just practice bending into notes like that, it’s useful to practice if you like the effect.
I am still very ignorant about a lot of this stuff. Brad made the chanter for me last year. He asked me if I wanted keys and which ones. I said to give me what he would suggest. I am pretty sure I have a C nat and F nat keys. I rarely use them. The Cnat really only works in the 2nd octave.
But… I kept playing with the chanter to see if there was any other combination of holes or keys to get be a Bb. Well I just found that with a fully closed chanter… The Cnat key gives me a really good but somewhat quite Bb in the 1st octave??? But in the 2nd octave it gives be a decent Cnat with an open A hole? Is that by design?
I see Brad in the next week or so and I will ask him. But for now I have my Bb.
I was wise, or foolish, enough when I ordered my chanter back in the 1970s to get all the keys on it (C, F, Bb, G#, and High D). There isn’t a single key which I haven’t needed for some gig or other.
On my chanter closing all the holes and opening only the High D key gives a perfectly in-tune C# (to Equal Temperament) in the low octave. The back C natural key doesn’t give a Bb like yours does though.
If I didn’t have keys I would probably just half-hole that Bb. Yes it’s hard to control and be consistent at first but with practice you can hit half-holed notes pretty accurately.
I had a Rogge D chanter that would produce a Bb (lower octave only) by closing all the holes and hitting thhe Cnat key. Here’s a snippet.
(guitar and reverb sold separately).