Here is my assessment , if you will, of a Ron Peeler Ferrary fife.
Overall, it’s a lovely fife. Solidly made and well turned.
Sound…about as close as any modern fife I have ever heard or played to an old Ferrary I played years ago. Its voice is loud, clear, and has its own character (which is hard to find on fifes). For people who are looking for an “expressive” fife, Ron’s is certainly the best I have played.
The fife is quick and transitions very well. Even the first octave, much harder to get, and produces a round low note but reaching it is difficult. Needless to say, on most fifes getting a good round first octave note is nearly unattainable….but on this fife it is possible.
Great fife…highly recommended for people who want to be heard!
All fifes no matter what kind or maker were not made to play in the first octive. Getting a good first octive out of a fife is not easy, but some seem to be better than others.
As for people here, I know the low D flute is the choice, but there has been some intrest, at least at a few ren fairs, of using the fife for some Irish songs. I don’t play “Irish Music” but I do like flutes.
So, for anyone out there who is intrested in Fifes, that is my 2 cts worth.
All fifes no matter what kind or maker were not made to play in the first octive. Getting a good first octive out of a fife is not easy, but some seem to be better than others.
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Exactly, but Flute players like us use the first Octave in what we play so it would be like playing like a high pitched Flute. Sounds like a nice Fife, have fun playing it.
One of the main reasons I switched from the fife to the flute was because of the low octave problem. Playing in the second and third octave indoors was ear piercing, to say the least. Tom Madden put it nicely during a visit with him a few years ago regarding my fife: “It’s not exactly a parlor instrument.” The fife was ment to be played outside, “in the field”, so noone makes a good low octave. Ralph Sweet makes a few “Fife For Folk Music” which are pretty nice but not as clean and neat as the Irish flute low D, E, and F.
Much Irish music written can be and was played on the fife. I would guess for an outside dance it would do well.
My understanding is that one piece Bflat military style fifes have a weak first octave because theymust sacrifice that in order to attain a playable third octave. These fifes were developed to not just play martial ceremonial and march music , but most important, to transmit military orders in camp and on the battlefield. They had to be shrill to be heard over the din of combat.
It is possibly to produce a fife that has three good octaves, and several fife makers have done this over the years. The McDonough type fife played for many years by the Army’s “Oold Guard” ceremonial unit and the fife produced by Skip Healy are two American examples, as is a the fife made by Hammy Hamilton in Ireland, I believe, but Hammy’s fife is in B rather than Bflat. (It also costs about $400.)
I presently have a Cooperman fife in Rosewood and a Healy fife in grenadilla. The Cooperman is a very good one-piece Military fife. The first octave is rather quiet…playable right down to the bell note, but completely overbalanced by the strength of the second and third octaves.
The Cooperman cost me $75 new when I got it some years ago.
The Healy is made in two pieces, which allows it to have a silver tuning sleeve. The head piece, as I understand it, has a bore that has a Boehm-like taper while the pore of the body is cylindrical. This allows it to have a very strong 1st octave as well and a 2nd and third. I can get the typical hard reedy sound sound on the low first octive notes so beloved of Irish flute players. The Healy cost me about $200 as I recall, but you can check Skip’s and Hammy’s websites to see what they re charging now.
I guess the best way to describe my style is it’s the oldest music known to man.
I play purely improvised (ad hoc, impromptu) music. There are so many people that play a particular genre of music, that I decided to be different.
I keep a general idea in my head such as water, leaves on the wind, or some other elemental concept and create a “sound track” to the thought, on spur of the moment, for however long I wish.
I started playing the Native American Flute about ten years ago, and the original Native American style was improvised playing which I continue to cherish to this day…and play on my other flutes and fifes.
It is a very free and wild style of playing, and people love it at the open mics. Every now and then I will run into someone who simply does not understand what completely improvised music is…they keep insisting that I used some song/tune/sheet music as a base and worked around it.
For a lack of a better term I call it “Surrealism” since the Jazz folks have coined improvision.
Which model, hole spacing and type of wood fife did you get? Mr. Peeler makes more than one fife.
I would like to add that I think that you will find the low notes become easier to hit the more you play, and when you are comfortable with the low ”D” that your tone will be better with the other notes. Or at least that is what I had found.
To you and your like it is advanced F O C U S E D noodling. Believe it or not, there are few people who will dare to get up in front of a room of people, or in my case, a field of people and noodle…no guidance from notes or any tried and true song (that’s right, I said the word song…not tune! horrorgasp, gasp)…
I do ask people to try it…not just randomly noodle…but hold an image or emotion in your mind and try to give it shape with music. Some people call it composing on the spot. Each song is unique on to itself, and when its over, there will be no other just like it…ever.
You may not want to make it your art, as I do, but I’m sure you will find it adds a new “dynamic” to your playing…like going trail riding when you normally work in the ring.
It is a Grenadilla six hole Ferrary. As for hole spacing..its just the regular “Ferrary” model he makes. I can get a good round first octive “D” from the fife, but only on a “good day”.
It’s tricky as all hell, but I’m sure with practice it will become easer.
