I ran across this bit of trouble last night in a fiddle tune “Charlie O’Donnels”.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to play this bar ?
Back D (Quarter note), High F - Back D - High A - Back D - High F - Back D (all eighth notes)(I tried to put in the picture of the bar but it did not work)
I know that the High A can be played as Low A but it doesn’t quite have the “pop” it should. Is there a way to vent to make the High A jump from the Back D? I have seen this type of phrase pop-up in a few of the fiddle tunes that I try to play so there must be something you can do on the pipes to make the jump? Or if not what is a good substitute?
I usually drop the A to the lower octave but if the mood takes you ( as it sometimes does) you can pay you high A and pop it, do the usual, vent F as a stepping stone on the way up. As Ennis called it, ‘pinch it’.
Pete, thanks for the tip but I am not a real advanced player and am lacking some techniques (ok a lot of technique). I have only played one tune where I actually “vent” to reach the upper octave so can you do a step-by-step on what I need to do to reach the High A using the F as the vent note?
To play A’ close the chanter completely silent, give a little more pressure; you will find that the higher the note the greater the pressure required. Lift finger 4 a fraction before lifting finger 5. Then close finger 4 immediately sounding finger 5 alone. Thisis known as pinching
I would usually keep the lower finger open to aid tuning but it varies from one chanter to the next, overall I wouldn’t really recommend playing high A single fingered all the time. In this case though you can get away with it if you also pop the note, venting it by lifting the chanter briefly.
I have seen some chanters that are not happy with pinching. Some require the g be left open while playing the a, or the g plus f# while playing the a. This might also be a reed issue. I only mention it in case the standard fingering method Peter describes doesn’t work for you.
Thanks djm, I have a K&Q chanter with a new reed from Benedict so I really do not know how the reed is behaving as of yet, except I knew I was not going to be able to jump straight from F# to A without some extra fingering.
Thanks again
I’ll have to try out what Peter suggested and then if it works post the result.
The most reliable way for me, with the K and Q chanters, to get from back d to the upper octave a is to vent with top g finger. Popping it works as well and the phrase mentioned above would be played by myself by shortening the d-silence-and a lift of the chanter that slightly vents the bell but does not lift it from the leg to play the f and repeat to play the a then repeat to play the f. Dropping down to the lower octave A as Peter mentioned is a nice variation as well. I suspect that playing a f-g-A triplet (upper octave f and g staccato then ending on the lower octave A more open) might sound interesting and will try it tonite at home.