What key would I need to get the third octave d?
Also how often is the b flat key used?
I have a chanter on order with g#,fnat, and cnat keys.
I have no trouble fingering a cnat, so should I even get a cnat key?
I have never played a keyed chanter so any advice is very much welcome.
My chanter has g#,fnat, and cnat keys.
I regularly use the fnat, and cnat keys.
They are most useful for second octave fnat, and cnat.
They make playing those notes much easier for me than half-holing.
Anything that makes palying easier is a definite plus in my book.
Hope this helps.
Cheers! Richard
oh, might as well get all them keys if you can afford it, pyper. what the hell. ya only live once !!! 
A 3rd octave d key of course! 
Certain chanter/reed combinations just really donât like 3rd octave fingering, so thatâs why a key can be helpful.
b flat key is probably used (in my experience) in around one out of every few hundred tunes naturally, but it helps immensely if tunes are played in alternate keys that arenât exactly âpipe friendlyâ.
cnat keys are used for the upper octave c natural. Iâve had chanter/reed combos in the past that I could finger the upper octave c natural just fine without a key, but it was unreliable and having a key makes it so you can get it perfectly 100% of the time if thatâs what youâre after.
I would also suggest getting a stop key⌠if you have drones et al, it is worth it!
Thanks everybody!
I am getting a stop key too.
It will be great to tune my drones and regs without having to take my chanter out, over and overâŚ
IMHO it is all about taste & what you want from chanter + how much you want to pay. Keyed chanters look much nicer to my eyes & keys are very helpfull, especialy when playing fast tunes (to get precise notes), but in slower tunes â1/2 holingâ can sound much more musical to my ears, when responsivness of chanter is used to do it. John Mcsherry & Paddy Keenan prefer 1 key & they would advice you to learn without keys & that 1 key (C nat) is just enought, since all other notes can be cross fingered. Without Bb key tuning can be better & you can get D3 without key on a very good D chanter. But Yes, some pipers prefer them all. My 1st chanter (B) had 7 & 2nd (D) all 4 keys (I had to part with them sadly). But the new chanter I ordered will have only 1 key & the rest I will have to do with fingers. I hope 
AA
For the 0.0001% of traditional tunes that go to 3rd octave, you donât need a key.
In a traditional Irish dance tune in the key of D or G; never.
A Cnat key is helpful but not indispensable, unless you play a lot of tunes which require a 2nd octave Cnat, but theyâre few and far between. A cross-fingered 1st octave Cnat is far more desirable than a keyed Cnat.
First and foremost, learn to play traditional tunes well;Thatâs what the pipes are made for.
99.97354322222222% of these do not require any keys. But if you do wish for keys, if only for visual value, then spend your money first on the Cnat, and Fnat, in order of frequency required.
Cheers,
DavidG
It all depends on what you want to play. As has been said before, the vast majority of Irish trad music doesnât require any keys, only a handful of tunes make use of 2nd octave C nat, and I know only two tunes that have the 3rd D.
However, the C nat key can be useful for playing the back D-C#-Cnat triplet; whether you use it or not is a question of your personal style.
I have a chanter which has a 3rd octave D key, I have almost never used this key.
On my current chanter, I have two F nat keys (long and short), G#, Bb and C nat. I use them all (and I find the two F keys very useful, depending on the context of the tune), but only in playing non-traditional music (mostly Baroque music which often uses the keys of D minor and G minor, which sound nice on the pipes but are hard to play on an unkeyed chanter, and for modern music). For over 20 years, I played a chanter with only a Cnat key, and this was perfectly sufficient for playing a traditional repertoire.
You should put into consideration that keys donât really make the chanter easier to play, most likely you will have to slightly alter your finger position, you will have to watch that you donât press any key unintentionally, also of course the proper function of the keys will require a bit of care.
So, if you do have an exact conception of the type of music you want to play, and if this conception includes the use of semitones, you might as well get all available keys - but mind you, you will still be confined to the basic keys of D and G; having all semitones does NOT mean that you have a true chromatic instrument and does not enable you to play in any desired key.
If, however, you wish to stick with what this instrument is made for, a C nat key should be enough for many years of happy piping.
Thank you all for the good advice.
All this key business started because of one song that I âhaveâ to play Amhran na Leabhar( the song of the books). Otherwise I would be happy keyless.
I really like this song and thought I could play it, then I hear it played with the key and now I got to have it. 
You could always play Amhran na Leabhar in E minor, then you wonât need a key.
You could even play it D minor without a key: a good way to learn how to play a âbentâ F natural in both octaves.
Depends of course on what key you play it in.
The most popĂźlar version contains nothing that requires a key.
http://media.comhaltas.ie/notation/cltunes/CuanBheilInse.pdf