Music in the glen help needed

Uilleann Pipes
1

When playing Music in the Glen, what do you all do about the low c and b in the first part?

Thanks
Bob

2

Play them an octave higher.

Y

3

Yep, fold them up (octave folding).

4

Paddy Keenan stopped into Nanny’s in D.C., some 8 or 9 years ago, accompanied by a cameraman who was doing some kind of video study. That evening, in the snug, we discussed the solution to the very tune. If I remember correctly, (to be taken as wholly uncertain,) he suggested that one ought to go from the bottom D directly to an off the knee one finger C# fingering, whilst feathering the top of the note in the usual way, so as to produce a pleasant C natural. That is precisely the way I had always done it. I had not before explored any other useful trickery, nor have I since stumbled upon any more serviceable approach, to that particular turn.

5

Thanks for the tips. What is “feathering”? This tune was one of the very first I ever heard on up back in the seventies by the bothy band and is still a great favorite today. I never thought Id be trying to play it though.

Cheers
Bob

6

“Feathering” is a term borrowed from 19th century steam engineer’s terminology, which refers to the choking and flattening the pitch of train whistles, resulting in the familiar “WOOoooooowwwoooOOO” of station signals. On concert pitch chanters, in this particular context, it might be termed “half-holing,” and this is accomplished with the left index finger, at the top of the C# hole. A compromise must be reached while voicing a chanter, in regards to the cross fingering of the C Natural and the fingering of the C#. Many old flat chanters favor the C natural, as the flatted 7th, or “blue note,” may well be considered more integral to traditional piping than the perfect 7th, (the nominal “C” sharp.) However, many times, modern concert pitch piping requires a truer C sharp, (so that pipers and listeners are not subject to cringe repeatedly, during, say, a tune in A major.) Therefore, some flattening may be employed for the C natural, which, happily, results in a degree of “bending” the C natural “up” into tune. Approaching the pitch of a C Natural, B, F#, or some other note, from below that note is sometimes more desirable than hitting the note directly, Hitting it a little sharp is unnerving.