In one brave moment I pulled out my whistle during my lunch hour amongst innocent bystanders.
It was time for a whistle fix. And I needed to practice for a campfire sing-a-long on Wednesday night. We are doing an acted out Rattlin’ Bog so I thought it fun to introduce the whistle to the kiddies.
To the point, one of the parent chaperones heard me playing, which soon lead to a conversation of the pipes.
He is an officer and has started taking pipe lessons for the Columbus Police Pipe and Drum (band) I know there is a better title but can’t recall it.
Anywho, I asked what key is his practice chanter in? (he does not own a full set yet) He did not quite know,
So here’s my question. What is the standard key of pipes? I have encouraged the fella to bring it in on Wednesday and I would like to bring a matching key whistle with me.
The highland pipes aren’t in a particular key.They are approximately in the key of Bb, but the pitch has been creeping up over the years, getting closer to B. Also the notes are tuned to chord best with the drones, which I guess would be just temperment as opposed to the equal temperment +/- of a whistle.I don’t think practice chanters are generally tuned well, I doubt anyone cares enough to.
Having said all of this, I think a Bb whistle would come closest.
Pipes are tuned between Bb and B, and use a form of intonation based on the harmonics of the drone.
A good whistler will use just intonation, and be flatter than the pipes.
I get round this by playing a Bb tunable whistle, that I can make a bit sharper (if not a piper should have a flatter (longer) reed).
Intonation’s still a bit of problem, but that’s my solution!
Certain practice chanters have mercy on the ears and actually tune to concert A. My Shepherd blackwood is tuned as such. One problem with this is that I’m always a wee boot flat of the rest of the chanters in a group practice.
GEEZ Dave…don’t you ever sleep!! Working at the hospital, making and playing whistles, playing the Uilleann pipes, and now the GHB!! You don’t happen to have any smallpipes laying about do you? Maybe a harp or a fiddle as well?
I had to cut back on the Highland pipes to only once or twice a week because all the intense huffing and puffing was triggering my migraine headaches. Have you found it to be a problem as well? (I seem to recall your saying years back that you had migraines as well…)
Actually, I also play Scottish Smallpipes, have made a set of Northumbrians (17 keyed chanter…never again) and have a set of Walsh shuttle pipes that I love. Yeah, the last thing you wanna do when you have even the hint of a headache is grab those GHBs…I don’t think it’s the volume, I agree with you that it is the puffing and extra thoracic/cranial pressure that brings on the mother of all headaches. If you wanna see me sleep, drop by in July…I intend to be through my waiting list and during that month am going to act like a possum in winter.
Daniel,
That’s pretty close to accurate…the 7th is flattened a bit, and it is a Mixolydian scale. Some pipe chanters have a bit of a flatted high A also. Sounds out of tune all by itself but seems to work well in group settings…not as shrill.
Daniel again…
The actual notes on the chanter are labelled as G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A’. The low A is used to tune the drones and is the beginning note for a tonic scale on the chanter, thus it is the “key” note. You can play a g to g scale, but it sounds really wierd.
dave
Actually, the hotpipes.com site shows the key of ‘A’ chanter having G, A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A.
I was curious though if the Bb chanter would simple be a half-tone higher across the board, eg. Ab, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb wouldn’t this make sense or does the Bb chanter do some weird microtonal stuff?
I had considered designing a whistle practice chanter for someone and I noticed a few problems. Do GHB Chanters play with only on hole open per note (in most cases) rather than lifting multiple fingers like on tin whistles?
Dan,
Don’t know about the Bb chanter, since everything is called “A” with the GHBs. They aren’t fingered like Northumbrians (closed hole fingering). It goes like:
low G: t(x) xxx xxxx
A t(x) xxx xxxo
B t(x) xxx xxoo
c t(x) xxx xoox
d t(x) xxx ooox
e t(x) xxo xxxo
f t(x) xoo xxxo
g t(x) ooo xxxo
a t(o) oox xxxo
a t(o) oxo xxxo (used in piobreachd)
A GHB player friend of mine explained this to me once, so here’s my go at it :
What pipers call an A is actually a Bb, more or less. The scale is A (Bb to the rest of us) mixolydian, with the low G (which is really a low A) added to the bottom.
Clear as mud?
Anyway, I’ve always had pretty good luck playing an Eb whistle, starting on scale tone five (XXO OOO) as your tonic pitch. You’ll see that this produces a major scale with a lowered seventh pitch. A Bb whistle will work too, but you often find yourself having to half-hole to get that lowered Seventh.
Okay, now it’s starting to make sense. Like transparent mud.
It’s like 2 x 4’s aren’t really 2 x 4".
Or example: 3/4" copper tubing is really 7/8" OD. (BTW-I think that’s why plumber make so much money)
We drive of parkways and park in driveways.
And how many tinwhistles are actually made of tin!
To Dave Parkhurst, I just need to make a little correction to your fingering of the scale. The note used only in piobaireachd is on the high G. So it would be (x)oxo xxxo. Honest mistake I’m sure.
Slainte!
Aaron
