Hi all…
I hope this hasn’t been covered in depth before… but I am curious about fingering an F nat on a key less chanter. Does one just play and E fingering and half hole? Or is there a cross-fingering that is used? I am working on the tune: Maids of Mitchellstown. Thanks,
Arbo
I finger E as if I am playing an on the knee E but raise the chanter off the knee and use a bit more bag pressure than usual.
I haven’t had any luck with half holing.
I haven’t played any fast stuff using the off the knee F nat, I use it in slow airs.
I half-hole. I play F nat all the time and I have a key but when playing fast or I want to slide to the note I’ll half-hole.
In the second octave, lifting the chanter off the knee raises the pitch of E to nearly F, and I crack my finger open a hair to raise the note the rest of the way.
Strange about the acoustics of the D uilleann chanter, that in the second octave, lifting the chanter off the leg raises E to around F, and lowers F# to around F.
Most of the time I use the key for F, in both octaves.
On my Patrick Sky D chanter, I get a nice F-natural without lifting off the knee simply by fingering F# but lifting the other fingers on my right hand as well (i.e., everything except my RH index finger).
Cheers,
Mick