I finally got my greedy hands on a Basel Piccolo, and have been obsessed with trying to coax music out of it. Half the time I’m simply trying to coax a NOTE from its cute little ebony and silver body.
Okay, I got G down to D, and G up to F#…maybe the occasional high G and high A (flippin’ little keys to think about too, and the instructions for this critter are in German) but I can’t connect two notes yet. And 90% of the music is in the THIRD octave. OMG.
I WILL acquire and embouchure. I WILL tame this thing. And once I can manage that, I WILL learn to walk and play at the same time!
The Basel piccolo is used in ceremonies by the Papal Swiss guard at the Vatican, which had a fife and drum corps from its foundation in 1505 until it was replaced by bugles, as in most other European armies, in 1814.
I’m not sure what a regular piccolo is, but this is a D, cross blown, with six holes corresponding to the D whistle, and six keys to give a full chromatic scale. It is blackwood with silver.
Y’know, I’m not so taken with the Basel piccolo, per se, as I am with the idea of playing in this group of fife and drum people. But when you play fife and drum you’re in a ‘corps’ and when you play the Basel piccolo and Basel drum (and play very specific music) it is in a ‘clique’ (pronounced cleek). As far as I know, there is only one clique in the US, and that’s Ameri-clique…the group I’ve been carrying a banner for for the past year. But anyone can carry a banner or wave a flag. I want to make music.
I’m still doing long tones on two scales: G and F. I imagine I’ll be doing that sort of thing for weeks before I try to tackle a tune. I’m having difficulties reading the music because there are so many little lines over the F line! Still, a real sense of accomplishment when I can get a tone without fussing around, rolling it back and forth, or trying to get my airstream properly directed.
