Hey all; I just received a Burke low D. I love it’s earthy tone and the ease of playing. I’m still adjusting my piper’s grip, I’ve got it down for the most part but sometimes doing E rolls or F E D descending triplets I don’t cover the D completely. I’ll get there. Any advice on rolls, cuts, etc.? Are there any rolls or cuts that are specifically hard or almost useless? I find B, G, F, E easy and A hard to roll on.
-Sean
You can play the low D just as you would any higher pitched whistle using the same taps, cuts, rolls and crans. Of course you’ll have to become accustomed to the extra reach and maybe some new air requirements. That comes with time and practice. I’ve played Burke low D’s for some time now and while they may not have the “snap” of a high D, they respond well to the full array of ornaments - at least as well as I can execute them.
Did you get the aluminum or composite Burke?
Feadoggie
I’ve been playing a Burke aluminum pro viper low D for several months now (every day), and like any instrument I suppose, the more I play it, the more I can do on it, and the more comfortable it is to play.
For the first month or so I had some trouble getting a good seal for bottom D as you say from time to time (an intermittent issue) but that went away with my fingers getting comfortable with the hole spacing.
One thing that did effect my pats on that low E hole was the position of the hole. I don’t know if yours is like this, but my Burke has a rotatable lower section so that low E hole can be moved around. Much experiementing showed that I got the best pats when the hole was directly in line with the other holes! I suppose it’s just what I’m used to, as every other thing I’ve played, bagpipes, flutes, and whistles, have in-line holes.
But anyway, all the ornaments I do on any whistle work equally well on the Burke low D, though I tend to play semi-crans on it rather than full crans.
Well I’m off to do some more playing!
I often cheat on my A rolls (all whistles)-one handed rolls are hard to get nice and crisp.
Instead of doing the G tap with the third finger of my left hand, I sneak my RIGHT index finger up and use that instead. With a little practice it’s actually quite easy. Be sure to leave the middle and ring fingers of the right hand where they belong so the index finger can find it’s own hole afterwards