So, are Bb fifes of Eb piccolos loud enough to be hard at all next to a (single) bagpipe? Has anyone got any experience in this?
I’m thinking about it since a bagpiper I know brought his instrument at a demonstration a few days ago…
The only melody instrument I have ever tried that can be audible against a Highland pipe going full blast is a soprano ocarina - I have old Mathieu metal ones in A flat and B flat which can play in the right key. I suspect a sopranino zurna might also work (I forget the Turkish word for it).
If in danger or in doubt…
Unless you play bombarde, don’t even think about it - run or you’ll be well and truly bagad! 
The Ghastly Howling Banshees will get you! 
More seriously, I daresay a good Bb band flute/fife might compete tolerably with a single GHB, especially in the middle and top registers and an Eb picc would penetrate still better. You’d probably find that, even against a number of pipes, if you went a couple of fields/streets away you’d be able to hear the little flute(s) well enough, but maybe not so much close to.
A piper brought his pipes to demonstrate the pipes to interested parties or s/he brought them along on a political demonstration?
A piper brought his pipes to demonstrate the pipes to interested parties or s/he brought them along on a political demonstration?
Oh sorry, it was at a political demonstration 
I would be amazed if you could hear any wind instrument other that brass against highland pipes, which produce 100 - 110 decibels at 1m.
Do the pipes usually play in Bb just intonation at A=440? Just wondering about being in tune with each other and all that.
As long as the flute is mike and amplified well it can certainly hold its own up to a pipe band. I’ve seen Matt Molloy do this with a Bb flute in blackwood, 5 keys with tuning slide. I wonder who the maker of that flute is…
In Galician music the Requinta, a type of one or two keyed flute, is commonly played with the pipes and it stands out, unamplified. When the pipes are in C the Requinta is usually in G, or for Bb, the Requinta in F. Here is a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Z8GNOUnzI&feature=related
Casey
Historically fifes were heard above cannonade-fire. . .even at a distance of several miles. Piccolo can routinely generate 110 Db. in the second and third octave. Hence the US Nat’l Flute Assoc. advising the use of earplugs for practice. . .
Bob
The GHB play at about A470 (if I remember correctly), A440s are made but are the exception.
Also your flute will need to be able to play the tone bellow the tonic ,Ab for a Bb tune.(a common feature in the music)
Most modern pipes sit most comfortably at sharp of Bb concert but it is relatively simple for a decent piper to tune to concert Bb. A fife may be heard at some distances but close up I doubt it. The pipes are loaded with harmonics reaching far higher than the human ear can hear. You find that these harmonics swamp the tone of other instruments. Mic it up and of course you’ll be fine. Bb flute or fife is not what you’re looking for - an Eb is the ideal flute/fife/whistle to play with pipes are the scale of Bb mix is brightest and easiest on an Eb.
Ask if your pipper has any small pipes.
I manage fine with an Eb Generation whistle.
Check out “The Tannahill Weavers”. Incidentally, I heard recently that their flute and whistle player, Phil Smillie, has nearly completed a solo album - should be worth looking out for.
I manage fine with an Eb Generation whistle.
Of course when miked all is simple, but it looks like an Eb piccolo will do well enough even without amplification. Now I’ll have to try get one on ebay at less than 50 euros
Yeah, then you’ll have to learn all four bagpipe tunes
I was thinking of them too - they’ve always combined flutes/whistles with GHB very effectively - though amplified, of course. That’s good news there’s going to be a Phil Smillie solo album, Kenny!
Lorenzo, I have a reasonably nice little English 6-key Eb picc that could use a new home. It has a crack in the body socket which I haven’t fixed, but it doesn’t leak. I could do a quick glue only job on it. I want a little more for it than the figure you mention, but not way higher…
Who said anything about mikes ? I joined in with a piper in one of our “Deeside Sessions” last week, and on a few occasions before that, and the whistle could be heard fine.
My favorite melody instrument for playing w/our GHB is my Yamaha SFZ marching snare! ; )
Best,
Deisman
I can’t even hear a generation when playing in a session…
I use an Eb flute and can be heard not so much by myself but by those a little further than me. Mine is an old band flute and seems pitched sharp as to play it in modern Eb I have to pull the slide out loads. It still sounds okay there though, but sounds great with the pipes. Some tunes are fine for a Bb as well but the drama of the flat low note is gone but up an octave is okay.