Bagwhistle

Whistle
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Daniel Bingamon developed plans for a bagpipes-type instrument which has whistles instead of reedpipes and posted them to the Internet a few years back. I contacted him, and he agreed to build me a set (in fact he’s accepting orders till the end of the year http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kadima/bwhistoffer.htm ). I got it in the mail a couple of days ago. I admit that I haven’t entirely got the hang of playing it yet–but it takes more than two days to learn an instrument. It takes a good deal of wind to play one of these things.

My sister walked in the room and saw me with it for the first time and she said “That’s a bagpipe.” It is made of PVC pipe, and has a vinyl bag. The chanter is a very nice low G whistle. Here is an unenhanced clip of the whistle played by itself (without the drones or bag). The three drones are capped, and work on the ocarina principle. Plugs are also available for the drones, which enable different configurations, as well as the ability to play without the drones.

Cherokee National Flag
::WALDEN::

[ This Message was edited by: walden on 2002-11-22 00:23 ]
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I think the idea is pretty awesome. I hope you get good at it and really see what she can do.

For some reason I can’t get the clip to play. Is it just me?

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Fascinating!

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So this should actually sound a bit like a pipe organ?
Cheers,
Aaron

5

It sounds like you’re tonguing. How is that achieved?
E

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Daniel more than admits to the high requirements : he even says “awful” and doesn’t hide the whole gas factory is under development.

Now, one candid question : if it’s so hard to keep the bag full, why is it mouth-blown, instead of bellows-blown like an Uillean ?

I wouldn’t even mind a foot-operated bellows, a bit like the kind campers use to inflate mattresses. Now, sure, for the bagpipe looks… :roll:

2nd stoopid question : didn’t I read somewhere Copeland had a project of the kind (which makes sense given an alledged pipe-organ background) ?

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Hello everyone,

I built this recent bagwhistle for Walden with a mouthpipe that could be sustituted with a bellows. I’m still contemplating the bellows design. The foot operated idea sounds interesting.

The soft tongueing effect can be done by releasing tension on the bag. A bagwhistle does not require the classic ‘goose’ or kick that is needed to get a reed operating like on bagpipes.

The more drones you put on it, the more air it takes.

You sounded very good on that clip. I think Maybe I might start a hall of whacky whistles website.

The chanter part is CPVC whistle in the key of ‘G’. The drones are closed ended and have that Organ/Caliope like sound. I think the drones sounds a lot like train whistles.


[ This Message was edited by: Daniel_Bingamon on 2002-11-21 23:28 ]