searched, but cant find;
1.) fingerings for Macedonian (Thracian?) gaida;
(chanter 10" stem to stern, single reeds, one 3-piece drone, goatskin)
left: thumb,1(flea)2,3
right: 1,2,3,4
2.) what approx pitch am I looking for on the chanter.
3.) what chanter note does drone tune to ?
(tell me it isnt the minor 7th below the top note 
)
THANKS
CHasR
If your chanter is straight and has a tapered bore, it is a Thracian gaida. It is most probably a G-chanter, although it seems a little bit short to me, my G-gaida chanters are 26 - 26.5 cm. The A-chanter, however, is only 23 cm (and tends to be flat). Gaida chanters are named by the lowest note, but the actual keynote is the one played with thumb and three top-hand fingers - in this case, D. This is the note you tune your drone to (to make things even more complicated, Kaba gaidas from the Rhodopian mountains are named by the key they actually play in). The tones you get are: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A. The flea-hole raises the fingered notes by a semitone (low G# usually doesn’t work) and is used for ornamentation and vibrato. I learned to play with a somewhat half-closed fingering (my teacher was from Dobrudja) but there are people who play mostly open and very few who play almost perfectly closed (Ilia Dimitrov). The fingering as such is not very critical, due to the very large toneholes it doesn’t really matter what you do with the fingers below the note you’re playing.
Should your chanter have a crooked end and cylindrical bore, it is a Macedonian gaida - sorry, I know nothing about these…
What I forgot: although C# can be played by fingering C plus the flea hole, it is often played with a technique called kurmá (u pronounced as in “turn”). That is, momentarily closing all the finger holes, then bending the right index finger inwards, thus half-opening the D-hole, then closing again. So you play a very short low G, then C# followed by a very short low G again, creating a staccato effect.
THANKS for your help!!!
I have a Kaba Gaida. Its a straight, tapered chanter. I’ll give it a go.
…the one with the straight tapered chanter is the Djura Gaida (=Trakiiska gaida). The Kaba (=Rhodopska) Gaida has a crooked chanter end like the macedonian one, but the chanter is hexagonal in cross-section, and the bags normally are HUGE!
Macedonian gaidi, like Bulgarian kaba gaidi, have an angled end to the chanter. So, one could think of the kaba gaida as a bass Macedonian gaida. Kaba gaidi are usually in E (the three-finger and drone note) while Macedonian gaidi are usually in B flat or A (three-finger and drone note). Bulgarina djura gaidas have a straight chanter which can be stopped on the leg like an uilleann pipe. These come in many keys- I used to have chanters in low G, low A, C, and D (three-finger and drone notes, called by Bulgarians by the lowest note in solfege “do”, “re”, “fa”, and “sol” respectively).
One problem with gaida fingering is that players use a variety of fingerings seemingly at whim. It boils down to the fact that they may use open fingerings when playing open, closed fingerings when playing detached, and may change which lower fingers are kept down depending on which low note is used as a “pedal”. Kostadin Varimezov is the master at using on-the-leg playing at times- hear his fantastic rendition of Nestinarsko Horo.
But generic gaida fingerings are as follows:
tonic x xxx ooxo or x xxx oxxo or x xxx oxxx depending on context
flat 2nd x oxx ooxo etc
normal 2nd x xxo ooxo or x xxo xxxo etc
minor 3rd x oxo ooxo etc
major 3rd x xoo ooxo etc
4th x oox ooxo
5th o xxx ooxo etc
lower hand:
flat leading tone x xxx xoxo etc
sharp leading tone x oxx xoxo etc
6th x xxx xxoo
low 5th x xxx xxxo
low 4th x xxx xxxx
Some djura chanters can do chromatic notes down low, most cannot.
Thank you both!
Its just a few licks for one of those elementary-school-multicultural-multibagpipe shindigs;
on a friends borrowed instrument no less,
I’ll put up a picture of it before I give it back! 
As promised here they are:
my Rhodopes ‘Kaba’ Gaida on the left,
the instrument in question on the right, shorter.
It definetely is a Thracian djura gaida (Thracian doesn’t mean it is played only in Thrace, in fact, it is played all over Bulgaria except the Rhodopian mountains, where the Kaba gaida is in use).
Is the Kaba by Bai Tasso Ivanov, what key is it in, and are you happy with it?
It’s by Anastas Ivanov, from Boyan Savov’s ‘Bulgariana’.
It hangs around E-Eb, usually(+ loves Philly’s hot, humid summers!)
Yes, I’m very happy with it;
but, mind you, It’s never been a goal of mine to become a world-class Gadianitsu(?)!
I manage to do a couple exciting ratchenizas in 13/8, 11/8 + other syncopated signatures, and just enjoy ad-libbing the rest of the time. 
Im returning the Thracian to its rightful owner tomorrow. 
