A Daye penny chanter kit came into my possession this weekend, and I broke it out today to see what I could do with it.
First 15 minutes: Oh my god, what have I done? This sucks. I can’t freaking seal the holes, the thing is hissing when I fill the bag. Why is it hissing?
first 30 minutes: Oh, I think I’ve figured this thing out. You need to keep the the chanter on your leg to seal it off. Hissing has stopped. I squeak out a note or two
First hour: I hate the fact that I want to play pennywhistle fingerings. So I decide to switch to right-handed playing (since I play pennywhistle left handed), and it helps my brain understand this is a new instrument. Start being able to make the scale more easily. My hands hurt like the dickens after a few minutes, but after a few seconds of rest, they’re ready to go again. Piper’s grip is a challenge, since I play even the low whistle fingertip style.
Second hour: I can make the first octave scale, and pump out a pretty sucktastic Amazing Grace. My hands aren’t hurting so much.
When you are used to left-handed playing on the whistle you shouldn’t switch to right.handed playing on the pipes - after all, the fingering is not that much different, you still have the same tones on the same fingers, the only difference being to keep the lower fingerholes closed, and the use of the thumb, so the whistle is in fact a great help to you.
Is your set right- or lefthanded??? If it is righthanded (bag under the left arm), I would strongly advice you to get rid of the bag and get a left-handed one. The chanter is symmetrical as long as there are no keys on it, and the only thing you have to do with the bellows is turn the inlet valve around. No good idea to play right-handed when you’re already used to left-handed playing, no good idea to play left-handed on a right-handed set, either; when you’ll want to get regulators, you’ll be sorry at the latest.
thanks I was just copping to that pattern last night when working scales…it’s what gave me the confidence to try Amazing Grace
Today, in reading through the paperwork more thoroughly (now that i have a better understanding of the instrument) I find that i have the reed staple set on the loud/strong position. I’m going to try to nudge it a hair south and see if that makes playing a little easier.
Your fingers shouldn’t hurt from playing. You are employing the death grip, which is a really bad habit to form in the beginning. Your hands and wrists should be very soft and supple, so that you can eventually build up speed. As hard to believe as it may seem in the beginning (been there, done that, wasted the effort) your ability to cover the tone holes does NOT improve with increased finger pressure. It is a matter of learning to feel the chanter and drop the fingers in the right place by force of habit (i.e. practice, practice, practice).
Not my fingers..the muscles in the backs of my hands. I’m just not used to piper’s grip, and will get it soon enough. I’m not gripping the chanter super hard (though i’m sure nerves are making me grip it harder than I intend). I went through much the same thing when first learning the whistle. Using new muscles, or using old muscles in a new way. I’m not surprised that there’s some initial discomfort to work through. After doing my exercises last night, I found that I was doing exactly what Daye recommends in the book that comes with the thing: Play until you feel uncomfortable, give your hands a few seconds rest, and then get right back to it.
Think about being real stingy with the air you let escape from the chanter. Lift only one or two fingers at first.
After you get the hang of on the knee stuff, you can experiment later with coloring notes off the leg or with different fingerings. Each chanter seems to be a different beast.
It takes very little pressure on the holes to stop the air flow.
You might try taping the back D hole closed and practice sealing the chanter without using your thumbs.
You will be surprised at how much pressure you can put on the bag and still keep the chanter sealed with the forearms and wrists completely relaxed.
Close the reed down until you get a gurgle on the bottom D, then open it slightly until you can play the hard D, possibly needing a cut with the top ring finger.
Much more confident going up the scale. A little wobbly going down the scale.
Amazing Grace is not sounding too bad. Can play Down by the Sally Gardens and Dawning of the Day, from ear (since I know them on the whistle). All of them need work, of course, but I’m still having fun.
I practice out in the garage. The neighbors look at me funny.
Secondly - and with all respect - I strongly believe that no learner should practice tunes for the first couple of months, or at least until D and G scales and exercises can be confidently and correctly played. This includes not just basic bag+bellows technique, but the ability to “stop” the chanter between notes, at pressure - i.e. scales both with and without chanter closures between notes. Also it’s vital to start and stop notes with the fingers, rather than the bag - i.e. keep the pressure going even when the chanter is not sounding.
Bad habits learned at this stage, or just plain mediocre foundation skills, will hold your playing back more or less forever, or at the very least until you go back and re-learn from scratch. The latter “un-learning” of course takes longer than focussing on the basics from the start.
The only reason to attempt tunes in the early days is the satisfaction of cheering yourself on, which is fine, but realize that this can be detrimental to your basic skills if you try to go too quickly. I really cannot stress this enough - even learners with extensive previous wind instrument or bagpipe experience need to start from the beginning and take it slowly with this instrument.
As to handed-ness, if you are naturally right-handed you should play right-handed regardless of what you’ve done on whistle, before. If you stick with it and someday want regulators, you’ll want to play them with the dominant hand.
Bill is right on the money and chock full of wisdom, as usual. I mostly skim the postings on this site, but I always sit down and digest carefully what billh writes.
Ditto that. Or as the kids say, word. The thing that makes the pipes the pipes are all the pipery bits and you’re only going to get those by practicing scales and basic ornaments. Otherwise you’re just playing whistle on the chanter and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?
Everyone here will back me up when I say get thee to an instructor and/or tionól. The inconvenience of the time and money of getting to one will negate itself with the vast amount of knowledge you’ll pick up.
There are two great tionóil coming up - St. Louis and our own Minnesotan shindig. There’s nothing wrong with flying across the country for a tionól, I mean this is the pipes afterall, if you’re interested in learning them you’ve already shown yourself to be someone touched in the head.
My practices are consisting of about 90% scales and working the bag and bellows, and then trying the occasional easy tune for exactly the reasons you mention: to cheer myself on. Scales are an awful bore Playing long loud notes while trying to keep everything steady while working the bellows to keep the bag filled is also a bit dull, though I know it has to be done. So I’ve been treating myself with 5-10 minutes of play time each sit-down to remind me that it’s music that is keeping me going.
I’ve been practicing right-handed, even though i play whistle left-handed. It seemed the right thing to do, and actually seems to be making initial progress go faster.
As for an instructor or tionóil, I’m afraid they’ll have to wait a bit. I’ve got a number of things (like cataract surgery, for one) that are taking a big bite out of my pocketbook.
One thing I forgot to mention. If you haven’t already, get yourself some solo uilleann CD’s. There are plenty of threads on the site with lists, but the more you listen to good pipers, the more you’ll start to hear. Someone here said it once I believe, you’ll hear what you need to hear when you’re ready to hear it. Or something along those lines.
Yes, thank you millions! I’m still trying to sort the pressure/chanter-stopping thing. I’d plunged into the Clarke tutor and was happily honking away and never grokked the chanter stop until the dread “staccato triplets” lesson (11, I think?) and have been stuck there ever since. Any good exercises for that?
I’m playing scales and stopping each note, but I’m so SLOW! Does it ever get better?
I’m also playing my whistle with more piping fingerings, but wonder if there’s any value there. (The flute won’t tolerate it)
Anyway, thanks everyone for all the help you’ve given so far. It’s been huge, and I’m so grateful.
As to handed-ness, if you are naturally right-handed you should play right-handed regardless of what you’ve done on whistle, before. If you stick with it and someday want regulators, you’ll want to play them with the dominant hand.
Hope not… I’m naturally right handed… But before I started pipes, I picked up the tin whistle, and I picked it up left handed, because that’s what felt most natural for me. Well 3 long, intensive whistle learning years went by before I got into uilleann piping, and I too thought it would be better to learn pipes right handed simply because that’s how most everybody else plays, so I figured by learning right handed on the pipes I would only give myself a better advantage…
Wrong. I only hurt myself as the fingerings confused the hell out of me, and to try playing even the simplest of tunes (Dawning of the Day for example) I had to really think about what my fingers needed to do. Well I was advised to swtich my set around before I spent too much time playing pipes right handed, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of positve difference that made for me. Of course I had to start from scratch again, and once I got used to using the pinky and taught my brain that the thumb is middle D not my index finger as on whistle, all that confusion that I had before went away.
Each to their own of course, but I’m playing left handed pipes and I’m right handed and that’s how she’s going to fly.
Personally I’m not worried about the regs, I know I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Bill, I’m not harping on you, your input is greatly admired by me, I’m just sharing my personal experience, nothing more.
great thing)))
I was just copping to that pattern last night when working scales…it’s what gave me the confidence to try Amazing Grace 
