I know there’s flat pitched pipes Lower than D, but higher? I just recieved the the Celtic Harp cd by the Chieftains with the Belfast Harp Orchestra, and on track 7, Paddy does a solo tune. (one of the few solo piping tunes I’ve heard him do) Anyways, when I play my whistle, a D whistle… I usually play to the drones of the pipes. You know, hold the low d and see how long and smoothly I can hold it as long as the drones are playing. And my D whistle is pretty much dead on to those drones. Except for this tune Paddy plays. I tried doing the D droning with my whistle, and my D note seemed a bit flat… Tried all my D whistles, one even a tuneable Burke. Picked up an Eb whistle, and those drones quickly became in tune with my whistle. I even tried half-holing the the low D note on the D whistle, and it came out right. Unless my whistles just all of sudden came out of tune… I’m not an expert on uilleann piping, so I’m asking. Does anyone know of Eb pipes? Or, if anyone knows of him playing Eb pipes for this tune? I’ve personally never heard of any, so just asking.
Yes, E flat was a very common key for UPs just a few decades back in time, and maybe coming once again…if you can have a craze going for C sharp sets, you gotta have an E flat set too! Well, I remember Dennis Brooks mentioning chanters in F. (I don’t know if there were full sets to go with them) I think it was for a child’s practice set. Small hands<Small chanter!
Man… can you hear that E flat whistle blowin’ …clean down to San An-tone…!
Play for the Bucks!..Sean “cash” Folsom (Sorry! I just saw the film!)
I remember Dennis Brooks mentioning chanters in F.
Alain Froment has made some half sets in F. I remember Gerry Buckley, a Dublin banjo player, inquiring about a half set in F or Eb for his son who was 6 or 7 at the time. Cant remember if he ever did get one though.
I know Arie De Keyser made a chanter in G for his son too.
Tiny chanter. But he scaled down measurements from a Kenna C chanter and tweaked as he went along.
Interesting, the holes were almost all the same size, equal hole spacing too.
Jo McHue
He does and Joe McKenna plays one too. I think Joe McKenna’s is a copy of a Taylor set which would be quite sharp of A 440. slightly smaller reeds would bring it fairly close to concert Eb.
You’d need a narrow bore though to avoid breaking glass…
It is Paddy’s D set. They actually tuned to 447 often. But in several of their CDs, if you listen closeley, you’ll hear their pitch shift from one track to another.
Hey E flats Brighter that D any day of the week and Tommy Peoples tuned HIS fiddle up to E flat when I saw him at Slattery’s. A great bit of moving UP the scale, as the evening started with Bobby Casey, the fiddler from Clare…He had HIS fiddle down in C sharp! Then some group (name un-remembered, but good 'un) came on in A440, in the usual keys…THEN Mr. Peoples! He played brilliantly, with quite a few Scots tunes (strathspeys, and reels) to much adulation. As I had the “Paddy in the Smoke” LP album with Mr.Casey on it, and as he was standing at the bar, after all this continous show, in the interval…with nobody noticing him, I decided to go and shake his hand and tell how much I admired his music! I meant it and Mr.Casey cheered up greatly…Alasdair Fraser and lots of other famous Scots fiddlers tuned to E flat as well! (GHB influence do ya think?)
Then, California fiddler Will Spires calls Eb “the people’s key” ,as so many
times he’s had to retune in order to accompany various singers, or the audience joining in on the chorus in …you guessed it…Eb!
In Dee sad low key of D…Sean Folsom
I have quite a bit of Chieftains albums, going on 12 and still wanting more. However, as Brian said, I actually have noticed this pitch change from album to album. Very minute, but noticeable as I often do my “whistle droning” when Paddy’s drones are going. Just something about drones of a bagpipe that grab my attention and almost hipnotize me. This goes the same for me with the Highland bagpipe drones. Just something about those drones.
It’s not even just from one album of theirs to the next - but withing the same CD as well. I think I first noticed it on their best of compilation, but then heard it on several others as well. Gotta love the pipes!
When I played with
Paddy and the boys this year they were tuned to 443… Matt said that Paddy’s Rowsome was playing a bit flat that tour. It was somewhat of a bitch to tune everything up that high, but somehow managed…