Just after some tips for playing the 2nd octave. I’ve got to the stage in the tutor books , dvd’s , cd rom etc where the tunes are hitting the second octave. I’m hitting the notes I would say about 6/7 times out of 10. Apart from practising more are there any tips that makes it easier to play the 2nd octave such as one or two fingering for G etc. Diolch/thanks Mei
Everything in the second octave is based on starting with the bottom of the chanter securely sealed against the leg and all the tone holes covered. It’s easy to miss by just a hair, and this is enough to allow the chanter to fall back down into the lower octave. You will often hear even the best players occasionally falling back down into the lower octave. It takes very little to lose the pressure required to stay in the upper octave.
Practise playing each note separately and cleanly in the upper octave instead of trying to play tunes. Tunes are a waste of time if you haven’t turned the basics into habit, and the only way to do that is practise, practise, practise.
djm
Often beginning students think that they’re not pressing hard enough to get the high notes, but actually the problem is that their pressure in not steady enough. Steadiness can come from practicing long notes, keeping a note at exactly the same pressure through a few cycles of the bellows.
Yes the bottom of the chanter, and all the digits, have to make good airtight seals.
Each chanter is different regarding fingerings.
You’ll see some pipers using that one-finger high G.
You’ll see some pipers using this high F#:
x xxx xoxo
which used to puzzle me until I played some chanters on which that was the only high F# that’s in tune.
Then some chanters have a difficult high E. I had one chanter that high E would squawk unless I “scooped” up to it by gliding the two E fingers off. No matter what pressure, if I simply lifted the two E fingers straight up, the note would squawk.
So much of it is simply having a good reed. A good reed should overblow in tune (except for the high E which is usually a bit flat, and the high B which is usually a bit sharp). A good reed should produce high A and high B without undue pressure.