A question for Galician and Asturian pipers

Bagpipes (Non-Uilleann)
1

I have a couple of questions. I have a Galician set that I just bought last week and I would like to learn how to play the Asturian bagpipes as well. Is it possible to just buy an Asturian chanter and use the drones that I already have for my Galician set???

In your opinion, which bagpipe is better??? The Galician or the Asturian one?? please explain your reasons. I heard that the Asturian sets are more complete than the Galician ones. I mean that you can play one and a half octaves on the Asturian and only one octave on the Galician, BUT my Galician set plays one and a half. I heard that modern gaita gallegas are able to play more notes. Do you know anything about this??

Thanks

2

Well Luife is really your man to answer this stuff- he’s the real expert on Galician chanters.

As I understand it, Galician chanters have changed over the years in order to facilitate playing in the 2nd octave and to faciliate playing chromatically at the expense of volume and power in the low octave.

The modern Galician chanters are designed to play with open fingering because putting fingers down causes a dramatic lowering of pitch, which is what you want to get the chromatics.

The Asturian chanters are played with closed fingering in the low hand. So, the fingering which gets you a minor 3rd on a modern Galician chanter gets you the normal major 3rd on an Asturian chanter.

This lift-one-finger-at-a-time fingering is how the Asturian gaiteiros can play all that amazing staccato stuff.

Also, the modern Galician chanter has a “built-in” sharp upper 7th (B natural on a C chanter) requiring a cross-fingering to get the flat upper 7th (B flat on a C chanter), while Asturian chanters have a “built-in” flat upper 7th (B flat on a C chanter) requiring a cross-fingering to get the sharp upper 7th (B natural on a C chanter).

So, the Galician and Asturian chanters don’t really look or sound all that different but have a quite different fingering system.
I would think it would be no big deal to stick an Asturian chanter in a Galician set.

Both types of chanters should be able to get up to the 4th in the upper register, maybe higher.

3

Thanks Pancelticpiper for these words :wink:

About the questiosn:

1.- Traditional Asturian Bagipes only had ONE drone. So if you want to play in an “authentic” mode, you will use only one drone. Another question is the pressure: Asturian Chanters uses more pressure and are a little hard for play, so you will need a HARD drone reed for get an stable sound without variations.

You can put an Asturian Chanter in your Galician Bagpipe set, in fact I do the same, but the reason for this is that I haven´t money for buy a complete asturian set. But there is a very important thing: ASTURIAN DRONES and GALICIAN DRONES don´t have the same sound.

Asturian Drones says: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH

Galician Drones says: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH

2.- What Bagpipe it´s best? This is a very subjetive questions. If you want chromatic potential and second octave, and this is your main proposit, then you need to play Uilleann Pipes, Northumbrian Smallpipes or maybe Musette de Cour.

Galician and Asturian Bagpipes are instruments joined to an historic tradition. They are “rural instruments” in their essence, so you will play very well TRADITIONAL MUSIC with them.

Galician Bagpipes can play two octaves, but it´s not easy. Also Asturian Bagpipes. I see two players that can do this. Always with perfect instruments made by the best makers. But the question is: WHAT IS THE REASON FOR GET A SECOND OCTAVE? Galician Music don´t use the second octave, only a few notes, but the major part of their songs only use the first octave. Asturian Music uses more notes of the second octave, but not always, so…What is the reason for need a second octave? Irish music needs a second octave, but Galician and Asturian music only needs a few notes in some songs.

Today, the possibilities of both bagpipes are exactly the same. The main difference is the fingering. What fingering do you like more? Galician Bagpipes usually plays with open fingering, but in the past, they were in closed fingering system, different from the asturian close fingering system.

Finally, I think that the best thing that you can do for decide what bagpipe it´s best FOR YOU is listen a lot of music, and think which is more attractive to your particular taste. Then, select a bagpipe an try to do this with it. But if you are thinking in musical possibilities, both bagpipes can do the same.

4

Hey there, I am so sorry to take 4evr to reply, I was out of town. Thanks Pancelticpiper and LuifeSpain for your answers, that does help a lot =)

LuifeSpain, I had no idea about what the Asturian and Galician drones say, I have never heard of that b4. It would seem that they would make the same sound if they were both pitch in the same key.

Yea I understand that the Gaita gallega is a very rural instrument and that I must play its traditional music, but I was just wanting to play a little more Irish with it because my first instrument is the Uilleann pipes and I am use to all those notes, I am also a Northumbrian pipes. I just wanted to play some of that Irish and Northumbrian music with it. ALSO I play for church services and some of those hymms require the second octave.

As far as the fingering goes, well I am use to both open because I also play Irish whistles and close fongering because I play the Northumbrian pipes. So I don’t really care about the fingering. However, is there one better than the other one??? I don’t really know ont this Spanish pipes.

By the way LuifeSpain, I have a couple of questions for you, but I will pm you for them.

Thanks Again

5

Open vs closed fingering, is one better than the other?
I don’t know if anyone can say that, they’re just different.

It’s easier to play chromatically on a modern Galician chanter.

Say if you go 1-2-3-4-5 (do re mi fa sol) the Galician chanter is:

x xxx xxxo
x xxx xxoo
x xxx xooo
x xxx ooxo
x xxo ooxo

but the Asturian chanter is:

x xxx xxxo
x xxx xxoo
x xxx xoxo
x xxx oxxo
x xxo xxxo

So the fingering x xxx xoxo gives a major 3rd on the Asturian chanter but is a crossfingering for a minor 3rd on the Galician chanter. On the Asturian you have to half-hole the minor 3rd.

All that closed fingering on the Asturian chanter gives you the cool staccato that they use.

6

I like that drone description… AAAHH and OOOHH.

I don’t know if timbre would be the right word to describe the difference but the sounds are quite distinct.

To the OP, this clip may inform your decision. It’s Anxo Lorenzo on gaita galega playing with Lúnasa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiOobgbgdO8

7

And another clip to inform your decision, Tejedor and Niall Vallely playing a “Salton” (a kind of Asturian dance tune usually translated as reel).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4I8GNB4w4M

8

If you see the final part of this video, you will notify that Anxo Lorenzo can play a complete second octave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M98oSYkrDnM&feature=related

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Brilliant - was he born in a hurry?

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That is some amazing playing, I wonder who made that punteiro, or perhaps it’s his reed that makes it get such a good range.

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Also in regards to fingering, I totally agree, they are just different. Aberto is good for those who play flute and whistle as you get instant gratification, but alas a good pechado punteiro has a sound of it’s very own. I am hoping to pick up the closed fingering style when I visit Galicia this winter, there is not too much info about it online, and I know it varies greatly from player to player.

12

About the chanter of Anxo Lorenzo, it´s made by ANTON CORRAL from Vigo. He is an old man and he don´t accepts order now. He only accepts order from Friends. I´m the happy owner of a closed-fingering galician chanter in C and a complete bagpipe in B flat (also in closed fingering) made by Anton Corral :wink:

But for the person who wants an Anton Corral Style Chanter, you can talk with his best pupil, Xose Manuel Xil:

http://www.gaitasgil.com/

The quality it´s the same.

About the “pechado”, if you read spanish, you can visit:

www.agaitadofol.com

13

Take care about Luife´s words. Freak of pipes, jajaja!

Saludos, amigo, jeje.

14

Wow wow wow!!! LuifeSpain those videos are totally AmAZinG!!! Nunca sabia que la Gaita Gallega pudiera alcanzar dos octavas. Oye y la digitacion es abierta en esa gaita verdad???