I am enjoying my full C# Rogge set, has lots of character, and its own quirks quite different from my other C# chanter.
But I have been wondering something, since all the chanter holes minus the back D are facing away from me, would I likely be missing the subtle tone colouring (by venting tone holes and lifting chanter up off the knee.) that someone sitting in front of me may be able to hear, since the holes are facing them?
Of course giving my set to a different player will give a unique sound regardless, but I am wondering if anyone has heard or noticed subtle changes and effects that they would not have heard otherwise if they were playing themselves?
I’m always very interested in hearing my pipes played by someone else. Both tone and tuning. I’m always worried that I’m desensitized to how my pipes sound. Hearing someone else play them reassures me.
Occasionally, before or after painting a room, I’ll play the pipes when all the furniture and drapes are removed, so the sound bounces off the walls better.
You can get a decent idea of what you really sound like by setting up some high quality microphones to take the place of that “someone sitting in front” of you (a few feet away from you, not close up like a stage mic). Your phone microphone doesn’t do this sort of thing justice, but a few hundred bucks worth of studio equipment and a room with a few acoustic panels on the wall can capture a good amount of it.
Listen back to the recording, completely unmixed and unfettered with. That’s a pretty good representation of your tonality and exactly the sounds you are making, in that room at least.
Now if you’re anything like most of us, you’ll listen back and cringe in disgust for any number of reasons, but there are many steps on the ladder of “sounding good”.
About 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to be in a class with Paddy Keenan. Paddy’s pipes sounded great when he played them - lovely bright tone. During a break, I was bold enough to ask Paddy if I could try his pipes and he was generous enough to agree. I was surprised at how dull the tone of the chanter sounded when I played it, but when Paddy took his pipes back, the tone was bright again. Was it because I was “behind” the tone holes, or was it how the piper “attacks” the note ?
This comes from when I was playing clarinet in orchestras, and submitting audition tapes. I was told to practice with a hard blank wall in front of me, no further away than 6-8ft (~2m). The wall reflects everything back to you, good, and bad. If the wall is much further away, you can have issues with the delayed returning sound combining with the immediate sound coming to you from the instrument, and it will sound muddier (technical talk there) than it actually sounds to others. If the room is damped (rugs and curtains), so much the better due to the reduced reverberation of the rest of the room. Be prepared to hear all of your “cuffed” notes, squawks, and other rude noises.
Have you seen the thing some sax players use onstage?
It’s a sheet of clear acrylic with a clip you can attach to your instrument.
First time I saw one I asked the guy what the purpose was, he said onstage he often doesn’t have a decent monitor making it hard to hear himself.
I suppose a tall rectangle clipped to the lower part of you chanter, parallel to the chanter height, would do the same thing.
Somewhere I saw an uilleann piper playing with a large clear acrylic square sitting on the ground in front of him, coming up to around shoulder height. This was in a recording studio on live onstage (I can’t remember) and the idea was to reduce “bleed” rather than be heard, I believe.
In any case I think I can hear myself plenty well in a small tiled bathroom which is far cheaper than buying several expensive mics.