I have a friend who really wants to play a bagpipe but the question is which variety. She is a life long Baroque recorder and Boehm flute player and also plays some whistle and keyless flute.
We tried Highland but she can’t handle the pressure… requirements. It aggravates her chronic sinus problems. A bellows variety of Scottish pipe is a possibility but the Scottish fingering system is a challenge to translate from recorder and flute.
An instructor at an Early Music workshop whipped out a gaita galega and she thought that was a good possibility. The open fingering and scale appealed to her sensibilities. Anybody know of a gaita galega fingered whistle?
So we’re looking for something low pressure, probably with a more open fingering style that can do a variety of folk and early music genres.
There are a number of makers, mostly in Germany that make low pressure pipes of various kinds with recorder fingering. Usually any “Hummelchen” type pipes will fit this pattern. They are all specifically aimed at the early music scene. A number of French pipes are also quite close in fingering patterns.
I would push myself forward, too, but just as yet, while I made some pipes with recorder fingerings, but louder tone than usual SP or hummelchen ones, alas, I do not yet offer them for sale. (sniff)
I got a set of renaissance pipes from Sam Coulter, athttp://www.dancingstickmen.com/ They are low preasure. They sound good. They have open fingering like a D whistle. I did have him add a F natural thumb hole. I think he makes a good insturment. He does a varity of different styles of pipes, I think they are all mouth blown. My pipes can be seen on his commets page.http://www.dancingstickmen.com/comments.html
Have you looked at Paul Beekhuizen’s work: http://www.paulbeekhuizen.nl/
I’ve heard his instruments in person, they’re not particularly high pressure.
BUT you can get 2800CPS out of a 1.2 litre double underarm bag (composite reeded) with a single-wing flapper valve. Betcha the average audience approval point-spread rating (AAAPSR) is like, at least 1 in 5 on that… Pass the cigars.
As mentioned above, the gaita gallega’s fingering is quite similar to that of the recorder, including the use of the thumb to get notes in the upper octave. Many early-music players who are used to recorders, shawms, crumhorns, etc, take to the gaita gallega very quickly. Actually recorders are used sometimes at gaita lessons to teach tunes, as you can use gaita fingering on a recorder.
