I’m with you there, I usually show up with a Low D in hand.
When there’s a tune that doesn’t work on it I go to the bar, or the toilet, or something.
But around 20 years ago I got into a thing of wanting to play all those cool fiddle/box/banjo tunes that go below Bottom D and/or are in D-unfriendly keys, so I learned a load of tunes on the C, A, and G whistles.
One example was an accordion player around here who used to play Gravel Walk in D minor. I’ve also encountered fiddlers who play various tunes I usually hear in A minor a string down in D minor. For these one only needs to switch to a G whistle (not the horrid insectlike Generation G) for everything to work.
Then there are the fiddlers who play tunes normally heard in G, in A. A Major, with G#'s all over the place. For those I’d have an E whistle.
So back then I’d always show up with Low D, high D, C, A, G, and Low E whistles in a little roll. Still not much to lug around compared to the other players.
About the songs, it depends on who is there. There’s a fiddler who is also a great singer and she plays the fiddle to her own singing and naturally others join too.
Though off-topic this got my attention because we’re almost exactly the same age. I too began playing in 1975 though I was 18.
Back then, for some reason, Hardies were the most widely known pipes here in the USA. When I started playing all the good players played c1890-c1930 “classic” sets by MacDougal, Henderson, Lawrie, Robertson, Glen, Center, and the like. All the newbies got Hardies and waited for the opportunity to obtain a classic set.
About African Blackwood, it wasn’t even offered by Highland pipemakers in the 19th century. All Highland pipes were made of Cocus or Ebony. Cocus, or “Cocoa Wood” as the 19th century makers called it, is perhaps the finest tonal wood for flutes and pipes, but now is very difficult and expensive to obtain.
Modern pipers always imagine that their fine vintage pipes are ABW, but usually they’re not. Which is surprising because Ebony, Cocus, and ABW are quite distinctive from each other in appearance and feel.
Around 1900-1920 many makers began offering ABW as a third choice (in their price-lists Ebony and Cocoa Wood are listed at the top, ABW in a footnote). By 1940 most makers had dropped Ebony and Cocoa Wood and were only using ABW.
One player had a silver mounted Henderson that looked really good. (I think it was a Henderson.) My nickel ferules all came loose so I had to glue them constantly. My practice chanter was a Henderson with counter sunk holes; man, that was a good chanter made of some unknown wood.
My instructor at the time, Nancy Crutcher (in case you know her too) was all of 27 years old and I had a major crush on her. She told me a few things that still stand out:
Many pipers play too fast just to prove they can or because they are covering up difficult parts.
Always take off your bonnet when playing the pibroch, even when you are alone.
Pibroch is good meditation music. (This was the 70s after all.)
Which got me thinking…
I know various whistle tunes are played at a certain speed, but some of the older generation players like
Micho Russel seem to play it a little slower. Am I imagining things or are virtuoso players today speeding things up a bit just because they can?