I’m a whistler hoping to try some small piping at some point, so what I’m wondering is which pipes are easiest to transition to from whistle?
I live in Scotland and am surrounded by hardline GHB culture but there are aspects of this I find too rigid and I don’t have the years available to learn all the intricacies of Highland piping.
I am drawn to the SSPs but I see pipers here buying them and using them as GHBlites and I would not be able to measure up to that, and in any case I am not keen to be stuck in the ‘default’ tradition for pipes when I am coming at them from a more pan-Celtic approach.
With this in mind, I have looked around and I was drawn to Leicestershire SPs mostly because Julian Goodacre says: “THIS IS A SIMPLE ENGLISH BAGPIPE WITH A LOW, RICH TONE. IT CAN BE PLAYED AS A QUIET SOLO INSTRUMENT OR TO BLEND WITH OTHER ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS AND IS AN EXCITING ALTERNATIVE FOR THE PENNY WHISTLE PLAYER.” on his site http://www.goodbagpipes.com/goodbagpipes/english-bagpipes/leicestershire-smallpipe.html
I see they are popular in D (and actually play the D scale), so it would be possible to play with other session instruments, which I’d like to do eventually.
Have any of you tried these/ own these and what do you think of them?
Would there be any other alternatives that I’d find more accessible than SSPs with their attendant GHB baggage?
I don’t have any experience with Leicestershire pipes.
Personally I wouldn’t write off smallpipes just because some GHB pipers play the same stuff on them. I have a feeling that most GHB pipers don’t know the first thing about smallpipes. I do generally use GHB technique on my smallpipes, but that’s more because it’s easier for me because I spend nearly all my practice time on GHB, rather than from some dogmatic standpoint.
Since you’re in Scotland, you might look into Duncan Soutar of St. Andrews, who makes a mouthblown smallpipe from entirely synthetic materials. It has a good sound.
An advantage your SSP has is the ability to use chanters in a number of keys.
Interesting replies, thanks. I wondered if I would get any! What’s a hummelchen? Is it a German pipe? I will go and look of course.
highland_piper, I have not written off SSPs - i do love the sound of them. But the thought of playing them here is not great - can you imagine what all the GHB players wd be saying? They’d be confused and critical. People here are not even aware that bagpipes come in all shapes and sizes - they truly thing GHB=bagpipe and the military tradition is the only one. It does drive me nuts. I love the GHB sound but the lack of imagination is staggering for such a dramatic and beautiful instrument.
I will check out those synthetic ones… are you suggesting them because they wd be cheaper but still sound good? That wd be good.
Most modern Hümmelchen (at least the German-made ones) use recorder fingering, playing a plagal scale in F and an authentic scale in C. Not really similar to whistle fingering, and certainly not similar to Pretorius’ description of the Hümmelchen’s range and scale.
The Gaita Galega has a fingering very close to the Tin Whistle (actually, I often use the Penny Whistle as a practice chanter for my gaita). They are usually in Do (C), so imagine to use a C Whistle
Update: sorry, I didn’t read you’re talking explicitly about smallpipes, I don’t think there is a small-gaita…
Are you sure that’s true? I ask, because I know a lot of people who are critical of pipers who apply GHB technique to SSP.
We live in different countries and all, but I think that for most GHB players, the “attitude” starts and ends on the big pipes. Would “they” whoever they are where you live, really care what you play on SSP?
Yes, the synthetic pipes are cheaper. Less technique to learn too, since there’s no bellows. There are other mouthblown SSP too, but the ones with cane reeds are impacted by moisture. One advantage Duncan Soutar has over other lower cost SSP is that they make reeds too, so the reeds and the instrument are designed to go together and they produce a great sound. Not as good as say a Ray Sloan instrument, but my whole set didn’t cost much more than one of his chanters.
The three drones on the SSP I have really make a beautiful sound that you just can’t get from a single drone.
I thought all the bellows instruments had cane reeds. My Ray Sloan D chanter came with a (big!) cane reed. Don’t really know – the ssp I have is the only one I have, and I’ve never seen another taken apart.
hi
I have a set of Scottish smallpipes by ian Ketchin (http://www.ianketchinsmallpipes.co.uk/). His chanter plays perfectly with highland fingering, northumbrian fingering or whistle fingering. You choose.
SSP would be the easiest for you to learn, if you haven’t played any other woodwinds: bellows technique takes a wee while but not as long as you’d think
What kind of music do you play? Each pipe has it’s own type of music. I have a small pipe similar to the Leicetershire pipes in D, and find that it’s good with English country dance music, like what Julian plays and has in his excellent books, and some Welsh music. But I find them hard to play with most Irish music, which I play the most. The SSP fits very well with the GHB music and that’s why so Many Highland pipers play them. If you are playing a certain type of music then consider the pipes that fits the best.
I have absolutely no background in piping, but got interested after trying a piper-friend’s SSP.
Last year, I picked up a used John Walsh A (mouth-blown) set at a very low cost, on the Bob Dunsire forums. They’re lovely — warm, rich and easy to play. I’m spending a bit of time with the ‘Green Book’ for GHB students, but only out of curiosity. Mostly, I just pick out tunes I know that lay out well on the chanter. So far, no burly guys in skirts have pounded on my door.
Since they have a single-reed, they’re quite flexible on fingering, so open or closed works. I’m also a 'whistler who took up piping, and I use something pretty akin to pennywhistle fingering on my sackpipa. The only real difference is you can’t do forked fingering, however several of the scalloped-areas where the holes sit have double-holes, so you can get the chromatic notes pretty much the same as you’d half-hole a pennywhistle.
More good points: the sackpipa have a really interesting tone, more chromatic notes than the SSP, and are a good fiddle/guitar-level volume. Sackpipa commonly come in E/A and D/G, the latter of which plays in most of the popular Celtic keys. They usually have one drone which is the same note as the chanter’s low note, though pipes with one drone an octave below the chanter pop up, as do a few multi-drone sackpipa.
The Swedish makers are a little pricier ($1000+), but there are an American maker (Seth Hamon) and Canadian (Boris Favre) who make wooden pipes in the $700ish range, mouthblown or bellows, in whichever key you like, optionally with different/additional drone settups, key for the high 9th, etc. Better yet, Hamon makes a synthetic set (which I have and love) which runs just $385. For a reasonable additional cost, Hamon also makes synthetic reeds, which are especially great if you’re a noob and don’t want one more complication to learn.
Not to be overexuberant, but I’ve become a huge fan of the sackpipa since getting one last year. Check around YouTube under “swedish bagpipe” or “sackpipa” to get a ear for how they are, and check out Olle Gallmo’s online instruction book: http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa/
Feel free to ping me back if you have any sackpipa questions!
I have been thinking about this for a while as well, having recently traded my uilleann pipes for a great flute but still wish to have a set of smallpipes the more I learn scottish tunes.
I would like a scottish smallpipe chanter that would play in D but also have a c nat and c sharp at the top. I would imagine that youd need a key as crossfingering does’t work on a cylindrical bore but I could be wrong. This would allow one to play normal scottish repetoire {it would just come out in d instead of a} as well as Irish tunes in d and g with octave folding, harmony bits for the high parts. I’m sure a scottish maker could supply this.
Something designed like this with one drone and simple bellows would be a great student pipe.
I’m sitting here playing a load of irish tunes just using the low octave on the flute and I’m enjoying the sound though it sounds odd but not unpleasant.
I wouldn’t mind something that used uillean fingering but has a small pipe bore only playing in the low octave maybe closed at the end but that would mean losing the ability to play scottish music properly. perhaps a Northumbrian maker could supply this.
One day i’ll get a set of Uilleanns again I just like smallpipe tone.
Thanks Davy. I’m thinking that maybe a Montgomery smallpipe from Julian Goodacre {if its available in D?} with a key for c may do the trick. It would seem to work with a sort of northumbrian fingering as well which would mean you could get some uilleann style staccato effects as well as using it for scottish tunes though I’m unsure.
I suppose though I would like a d to be able to play with others in a session with Irish tunes but then again it may not be loud enough for a session anyway? But then again I would like to be able to play it in the flat here in Govan {lately I’m driving the neighbors mad with piccolos imagine a loud set of pipes}
I just like the sound of d smallpipes in comparison to a.The sound of Swedish pipes just doesn’t do it for me either though they could proabably be made cheaper and have the features I would like.
Maybe If I built the bellows and bag myself and some simple brass drones in D and had Julian supply the chanter?
Is it common for smallpipes to have both a sharp and flat leading tone on the top hand?
The Montgomery pipes have a sharp leading tone on top and bottom originally I believe.
I would like a flat bottom but sharp top with a c nat {in d terms} available by a key like the long c on a flute.
