hello,
what do ya’ all think about that?
anyone here want to share his experience?
thanks,
nadav
My chanter has just the upper octave c natural key which is the only one really essential but the blocks are in place for the F, G#, Bb and high d keys. These semitones can be cross fingered but keys can make it easier.
There is a thought that the keys were essential on the chanters of flat sets because they were played in church in place of the organ and the accidentals were needed for the hymns but whether anyone can verify this I do not know.
If you can afford them go for it
John
In my case, the high D and Bb keys on my 5 key chanter are completely superfluous. I have yet to encounter a musical situation when I needed them. Had the price of the chanter been an important consideration, I could have saved the money and gotten by perfectly well with 3 keys - F, C and G#. It is somewhat comforting to know that those extra notes are available if needed, however. Your mileage may vary.
The Bflat key can come in handy for such tunes as Valencia Harbor (Song of the Books). Some chanters will do a “cheat Bflat” with all holes closed and pressing of the Cnat key.
t
How do you cross finger for F?
Four keys is really all you could possibly need for a concert pitch chanter. Some flat pitch chanters have five or more keys to better facilitate getting a few notes in the 3rd octave, but as I don’t play a flat set of pipes, I can’t comment on that. A well-made concert pitch chanter with a good reed has absolutely no need for a 3rd octave D key, although you will need to experiment with a few different fingerings to see which one works best (I personally find that opening the F sharp hole juuuuust a hair when playing a 3rd octave D works best for me).
It really depends on what you want to do: the C natural key is the only one needed for playing much of the standard piping repertoire. If you’re a pretty serious player and you spend a fair amount of time playing with fiddlers and/or box players who play a decent number of tunes in non-pipe-friendly keys like A, G minor, D minor, C, etc., then having a 4-keyed chanter would be advantageous. Particularly for slower tunes, half-holing notes like F natural works fine and can even sound preferable, but if you’re racing through a set of reels and suddenly an f natural or a g sharp pops up, having a key is the best way to go. Bb is probably the least essential of the keys, but you do occasionally need it for tunes like the aforementioned “Valencia Harbour”…“The Broken Pledge” also springs to mind…There are quite a few players that only have one or two keys on their chanters and quite a few more that have all four but could probably count the number of times they’ve ever used any but the C on their fingers…
Mind you, I once was at a session in Doolin with Isaac Alderson and he ripped through the fiddle version of “Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie”, hitting all the accidentals right on the nose, and he was playing a keyless Gallagher chanter at the time (the chanter he has now is keyed, I think). He also got a very nice, in-tune cross fingered high C natural, I seem to recall…Where there’s a will, there’s a way, I suppose.
Exactly my point, when moving fast I didn’t see how you could have hole an F and get it out correctly. I know I can’t do it.
edited for quote
Strange, but I’ve for the past 15 yrs found the Fnat key most useful. It’s the only key I have, so I guess that explains it.
My thoughts, keys in numerical order 1 - 7!
C nat key - most useful, can’t live without it
F nat key - 2nd most useful, also give you wonderful harsh F in lower octave, also for playing blues in G
Bb key - playing in G minor is loads of fun, ask Potts.
G# key - playing with fiddlers who play in A major. I don’t, some do! Also of some use playing the blues in A. No me neither.
D3 key - great for the odd tune, wouldn’t bother on a concert chanter, always in tune - great looking key - I could eat it.
Eb key - in my experience most old design (like Coyne) flat chanters play a ghost D rather than an Eb, so you can’t really get a true Eb without a key, and the bottom octave want to play up. However you can get close enough and ghost D is what I want anyway.
E3 key - the “free jazz” key - looks unusual, sounds unusual - for unusual people like me. I heard that it’s been used on a Cran recording though . . .
Play an E and lift the chanter off your leg.
Half hole F# (more used to bend E)
I don’t know any crossfingering where F would come up instantly, i’m lazy, i have a key for it… 
Hi nadav!
I went through the same process little over a year ago, so I can relate to the pondering.
As I wanted to be able to play other tunes than ITM I decided to get four keys (C nat, F nat, Bb and G#) and a stop key while I was at it.
That was the easy part 
As I never had played any chanter with keys and my piping experince was very limited, I had no idea about the configuration of these keys, especially the F nat. I tried to imagine different solutions but I was very unsure about a long or short F nat. billh, solved my problems very nicely by giving me the short ring F nat key (which was my first choice) and saving a mount for a long F nat key if I would change my mind in the future
There are also some key placements that use the bottom hand thumb, but that felt awkward for me, like dropping the chanter, but I know others that like them.
Good luck with your new set of pipes 
/MarcusR
When I started the pipes my Brendan O’Hare chanter was keyless.
When I was ordering my C snakewood chanter in June 1997 I faxed Andreas Rogge for 3 keyed chanter with Eb, F nat and C nat.
Andreas replied saying you don’t need a key for Eb cause there is a finger hole for this note. So I got F nat, G# and C nat keys on chanter.
Now I play chanters with 4 keys F nat, G# Bb and C nat.
I have a description and price list of pipes from Alain G Froment which I got in Feb 1999 when requesting this price for a Left-handed B nat 4 key chanter (he charges extra for left-handed chanters)
On Froment description/price list it says C nat key mounted on all chanters. Optional keys F nat, G# Bb and C#.
How do you play high C# if you don’t have the C# key on chanter.
Cheers
Ferg
You mean Cnat. Anyway, How many tunes have a high Cnat? Not many. So avoid them, or do what I do in times of inavoidability, slide into it, or rework the tune. Given that there’s squiilions of tunes out there for pipes that don’t require any keys, one’s repertoir can be just as extensive as any one else’s.
It depends on the chanter/bore design. The Eb that you get from a one-finger E can be pretty awful, tuning-wise, and with only one tonehole open it’s hard to finesse into tune (especially since the tonehole may be quite small on some designs). In any case it rarely works in both octaves. If, for some odd reason, you really want/need to play an occasional Eflat, especially on a narrow/flat chanter, the extra key can give you a good one in both octaves.
Eflat seems to have been a more common key than G# on the older 19th c. chanters. (But they usually had third octave d keys as well)
Bill
Copy of Alain G Froment description of pipes list which mentions the C# key.
Cheers
Ferg
I have recently taken delivery of a 7 key chanter in B.
The maker tells me that the D3 key isn’t D3 but C#3. This is consistent with what Ferg has written and the brchure material he has reproduced.
Ant comments?
On the historic chanters I’ve seen which had working ‘D3’ keys (Coyne, Kenna, Egan), the key did indeed seem to be d3 and not C#. That of course doesn’t directly impact on what your maker has told you about his instrument.
Bill
[Edited to say: I WAS WRONG! the d3 key is ALSO a c# key, if the top hand fingerhole is kept closed. Or at least that was the intention… see Colclough references below. ]
Colclough’s tutor of 1843 says to use the D3 key for C#1. Very gentlemanly sound.
two things - firstly I’ve located that example of Ronan Browne using the D3 and E3 keys, it’s on a Tim O’Brien track called The Crossing. Because it’s in A he had to speed the track up a semitone, play along with his 7 key Bb chanter, and then slow it back down to A. I think it’s fast enough as it is, but to have played it even faster and then slowed it down - bloomin’ eck. Not to mention using those keys!
Second thing, you may want to listen to this as a warning not to put any keys on your chanter at all . . .
What’s wrong with that? The guitar arrangement was atrocious, but the chanter’s ability to hit the off-notes cleanly was a rather over-the-top way of showing what keys can do for you. I was impressed.
djm