The Glasgow Pipers Club mini Tionol was on today (definitely mini, only 5 of us )
The usual round of chatting and chanter swopping ensued, but when serious playing started it was in B (there were enough B chanters to go round those playing). It was heavenly with about an hours worth of B playing.
Kenny McNicholl, the pipemaker in residence, had brought some C chanters, so again there was enough to go round and a couple of hours C playing ensued.
For a change the D chanters came out and jeez what a horrible racket. Chanters that had sounded fine earlier on thier own sounded absolutely dreadfull when any more than 2 were playing together. So to save our eardrums the C chanters came back out and everything was melodious again.
There are two possible reasons for this and they are that either the chanters were not in tune ,or that they were not being played very well !!
I was at the Doran weekend there awhile ago, where good pipers played good concert pipes and it sounded wonderful.
I like to think of concert pitch pipes like a well tuned ferrari,in that if you put a ferrari in the wrong gear at speed ,you,ll probably rip the gear box out .
Flat pitched pipes are like an old cart horse that anyone can drive!!
There,s an old saying â A bad workman always blames his tools.
It seems the same can be said of some pipers
I am a crap piper, the best chanter in the world sound bad if I played it, and I have some nice chanters in various keys that I can prove it on .
Uilliam would verify that I am his dunce pupil, but I try and am getting better slowly. Once the session started in earnest there was no way I had the skill level to keep up on the pipes, so I played bodhran
The other pipers there were well able to handle and tune thier pipes and they sounded fine individually in D. It was only when they all started getting going that it sounded awful.
David
BTW I admit to being crap, but I have not heard any instances of your playing, how about posting a clip - on any pitch of chanter you prefer?
We wanted you to be there, If you had brought that nice Rogge B set, we would never have got out of B. It would have been great to hear your and Uilliamâs Rogge sets firing on all cylinders together (and hear you play my Bb set).
Liam and me are planning to get another Saturday afternoon session set up soon, to get a few hours of mass flat piping lol.
The only thing we ever seem to see from the Rory character is an over-abundance of question marks and exclamation marks after every sentence he writes.
The thing is Dave is that I may very well be a crap piper too,but I blame it on my lack of ablity ,not on the instrument I play.!!
I would also like to thank Pikey for giving me the oppertunity to inspire him to make his first post ,considering he has been a registered member of the forum for a good few months,
and I would like to thank him again ,in that, if my habitual over use of Question marks and exclaimation marks is the only fault he can find with my posts ,I take that as a real complement !!!
Ferrari or cart horse itâs the mechanic/smith and driver that make the difference - without those you just have a lump of metal or a walking glue factory.
Just passing by and thought I would help BigD oot a bit seeing as Rory has got it wrang and misunderstood Davys post.
The point BigD was making echoed by Seisflutes and certainly said by all of us at the mighty gathering was that after playing flat for a while in a smallish room.(in oor case for over an hour) then switching to concert..(in the same room) the effect on the ears was quite dramatic.
It had nothing to do with player ability or tuning or anything other than going frae flat to concert and not vice versa,and the noise volume created thus was not pleasant on the ear..so we went back to flat playing.The presumption that is prevailent amongst some o ye that flat sets are somehow magically easier to play than concert pitch is truly wonderful and says more aboot the posters than the flat sets in question.
Boyd ye were indeedy missed here are a few foties for ye
I would normally agree with the comments regarding it likely being the players more than the instruments, except for the fact that all were fine in B or C, but the D was a problem⌠seems to point more to a question of questionable tuning, and we all know how just a smidge off can sound like the skinning of live hares, and the more pipes there are, the more likely for one or more to be a bit off, and the eardrum damage rises exponentially.
Getting digs in about folkâs qualities as human beings or pipers doesnât change that, now does it?
Edited to note that I now see that it was a question of taste rather than tuning⌠either way, wish Iâd been a fly on the wall.
Ah uilliam, I just knew you wouldn,t stay away for too long,we all missed you terribly
Did I misunderstand the title topic too .
âI hate concert pitch chantersâ what way would you interpret it ??
Too true, after B and C playing D chanters burst your eardrums.
To answer rorybellows assertion that playing flat chanters is easier than playing D - wrong, it was trying to play my first Bb that finally got the concept of balancing bag and bellows and playing with the bag not bellows into my thick skull. It is amazing how much easier it felt to play any chanter once I got that.
I just hope that you dont think I was having a go at you personally Davy,because I,m not ,but so many times on this forum people have had a go at concert pitch pipes and I dont think its fair .I really love CP and all my favorite pipers play CP. I,m just defending what I love .
Regarding flat pitch being easier to play ,in a recent thread Benedict K was reported to have said that flat pitch is more forgiving to poor playing .
Maybe BK was referring to K&Q chantersâIâve not noticed crap playing sounding any better on flat pipes than concert pitchâŚactually I think my own crap playing (when it was really, really crap, not just plain vanilla crap like now) sounded better on my Mackenzie concert chanter than my Gallagher B.
"I asked Benedict Koehler if he had a favourite pitch to play in and he as much said no, then commented how flat sets can be more forgiving. Something about a concert pitch that shows most flaws.
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