Working on Drowsy Maggie … this version has a G# and I have a key for it on my chanter…
What’s the fingering for this key?? The best way I have found so far to press this key is actually using the very base of my right index finger (actually part of the hand, not the finger at all). I assume the chanter is closed while pressing it? Although I get a satisfactory sound with G open and then adding the key … and it’s easier to finger.
As a GHB player, this whole key thing freaks me out a little…
Keys sound better if you leave the tone hole below them open, e.g. G# key plus G open, or even plus G and F# open. You are supposed to be able to hit the G# key with your back thumb, but depending on the length of your thumb/fingers, you may find using the ball of your index finger faster/easier. I know I do.
Thanks - don’t know how I’d manage to hit that key with my thumb efficiently, but leaving the tone hole open while playing the key seemed intuitive and I’m glad that is right. It looks strange to see me bend my hand in to hit it, but that’s all right. My wife the fiddler like to poke fun at the physical acrobatics of pipes. Yeah, like fiddlers look natural…
That’s because he couldn’t reach it either. I was the one who was doing it that way (going for the ball of the right finger). He would get upset because it “wasn’t right”.
Watch Debbie Q going for it and you’ll see how its supposed to be done, but her hands are much smaller than mine, her thumbs shorter. She has no problem going for G# with the back thumb.
The best way I have found so far to press this key is actually using the very base of my right index finger (actually part of the hand, not the finger at all). I assume the chanter is closed while pressing it? Although I get a satisfactory sound with G open and then adding the key … and it’s easier to finger.
I was the one who was doing it that way (going for the ball of the right finger). He would get upset because it “wasn’t right”.