Hi. Are closed fingerings the standard normal way to play the pipes? Do you need a special chanter to use open fingerings? Did those of you that played whistle before pipes find it cofusing when first switching from an open to closed system?
Thanks for the info!
-Brett
First learn the closed finger method. It is the basis of UP playing. Later learn the open finger style, and use it as an ornament to break up regular closed fingering and add some dynamics to your sound.
I don’t understand people who make a big deal out of learning multiple fingering between whistle, UP closed, UP open, cross fingering, etc. Its all part of the same thing. To only learn one part would be very limiting.
djm
I now start my students off playing closed fingering [and I mean that in the sense that I have them stop the chanter between notes by putting the fingers back before the next set of fingers comes off]. Most of them come to me as accomplisehed whistleplayers and starting them on the closed style takes them away from whistling habits and sets them up as pipers. Closed style will, after getting used to it, give you a better control over the chanter and will give you a good starting point for developing a style, ofcourse fairly quick you relax the ‘tight’ notes, no style is completely open or closed, it’s how you mix it that decides your style.
Andy Conroy maintained he would end up playing so tight he’d need a chanter without holes, most of us though manage with a standard one.
edited for a bit of claryfication
Most of the players I have seen use closed fingering the majority of the time, so the beginner should start with that IMHO.
The fingering wasn’t as confusing as I had thought it might be before I got my pipes. It took me a while to get used to using the thumb to get the octave D, though.
Once you learn the closed fingering and can play that in tune, then is the time to investigate the more open and various cross fingerings available for on the knee and off the knee that work on your chanter.
Then you can get all that expressivness that you are wanting out of your chanter. It will take you a few years if you are an old f@r7 like me.
I am at 10 years playing and I am still discovering new stuff that sounds good on each chanter I have. The trouble is remembering which chanter has what neat thing another doesn’t and using the proper stuff with the right chanter.
I find that many people who come to UPs from GHBs tend to start out playing pretty open. The thought of intentionally stopping the chanter just seems so…unnatural. After the initial thrill of playing really sloppily and really, really fast wears off and you start playing at a slower, more leisurely pace, you might just find that the tight fingering starts to creep in on its own. If not, lock yourself into a small, dark space such as a closet and listen to Robbie Hannan for 48 hours.
It’s interesting to note the changes in my own playing that I’ve noticed over the last year. It is true (in my case anyway) that as I’ve gone along I find myself adding more and more stops and stutters to my tunes on the pipes. I think this is also due to the fact that having spend several years on whistle before as well, (much like GHP) you’re not as used to ‘stopping the tone’ between notes. It does feel unnatural at first, but comes. Closed fingerings for the pipes, and regular whistle fingerings aren’t as different as they might at first seem, but the do have to be approached differently.
From a total beginner’s perspective,I think that concentrating on closed fingering at first is the way to go-there’s enough for a beginner to be concentrating on without considering loads of alternate fingerings!
The tutors that I’ve seen all teach closed fingering,and although Heather Clarke does provide charts for open fingering and fingering ‘off the leg’,these are included as appendices,closed fingering being taught in the individual lessons.
I agree with Brian that although the closed fingering approach may appear a bit daunting at first,in fact it isn’t that much different from whistle.Interestingly enough,I think that after a little while playing the Pipes,your attitude to whistle changes,and you begin to approach playing the whistle like a ‘Piper’.Certainly,the closed method of Piping demands that you be very accurate with your fingering to avoid leaks ‘n’ squeaks!
the most similar thing I had played was whistle (i’m a string guy)…and so the thing that took the longest to sink in for me was remembering to lift two fingers for the E, and not just one.
I’m closed fingering all the way. The only time I will use an open are
I played whistle and flute (and saxophone before that) prior to buying a set of upipes. Trying to wrap my head (and hands) around the concept of closed fingering was really weird at first (on the advice of others I began playing closed right from the start). It was the best thing I’ve ever done for my upiping, IMHO. Not only that, but my whistle and flute playing improved because of it.
Thanks for you comments and suggestions. Janice: I also played sax for years and then whistle, so that’s why I asked the question…closed fingering didn’t seem to make intuitive sense to me, but based on everyone’s comments I guess it’s the way to go (at least starting out).
Thanks again!
-Brett
if it seems counterintuitive just remember that there are times you stop playing the whistle and sax for rests and pauses…to do that you stop the airflow. when using drones, you can’t stop the airflow at the bag, so you must cover up all the chanter holes to do it.
if you had drones on a whistle or sax you would likely have a similar mechanism for stopping airflow to the melody part of this instrument.
You need to do a stint on Northumberland Smallpipes and then UP “closed” fingering will feel plenty open.
Royce
tell me if i’m wrong but there is open fingering charts and a close fingering chart but when we talk about a close playing or a open playing we don’t talk about the fingering chart you choose to use but we talk about legato and the stacato. legato is the way of playing when you join all the note togheter and ste stacato is when you add silence between each note like when you do a tripplet. so when a player use a more open playing he can do that with the close fingering chart he his just not adding silence most of the time. I know that you can’t play the stacato way on a open fingering like the one that you don’t put the chanter on the knees, of course because it is imposible!
PManiac, that is correct. Closed fingering is related to close/closed piping which is related to, or very nearly, stacatto playing. It really means how much silence there is between notes. Obviously, in open fingering and open (legatto) playing, there is no silence between notes. In close piping, the silence can be very brief, or long enough that, with pressure, the individual notes pop out, which would be very stacatto.
Hope that helps,
djm
what i think is that close piping refer to the stacato effect and not to the fingering chart. because you can play legato , more open style, on the close fingering chart!!
but maybe i’m wrong
The uses for the term “closed” are interchanged frequently. You can’t play stacatto unless you are using closed fingering, but you are correct that you can use closed fingering and still play legatto. Confused yet?
djm