Is it ever acceptable to perform a top-hand triplet containing a B in which the B note is played with only one finger (i.e., the middle finger)? For example, if you were playing a C# - B - A triplet, do you have to play the B with both the B and A fingers, or can you just use the B (middle) finger? Assuming it’s ok to use one finger, are there only certain top-hand triplets in which this is acceptable? I know using one finger is sometimes done for the G in a bottom-hand triplet, but I haven’t seen or heard anything about this with the top hand.
Same rule as used for single finger G applies to any other note - there are no rules! Whatever works for you. There’s lots of triplets in the upper hand: ACA, CBA, ABC, ABD, DBA, etc. Single finger allows you to play faster, especially important when you are playing stacatto. Single finger doesn’t usually play the note true on many notes, so single finger is frowned on when you want to hear that note ring out clear and true, but a really stacatto triplet spits the notes out like pepper, so you don’t get a chance to hear the note value for any length of time.
While some chanters allow you to get away with single fingered B, I think it’s prudent to err on the safe side (you may want to change chanter at some point in time and re-learning is harder than doing the job right in the first place) and use two fingers for B.
In my early years of piping I experimented a lot with single-finger Bs in triplets but after a time found it just as easy to play the B with two fingers off.
Part of my problem was that I was attempting to play the first B in the BC#B triplet and the BC#D triplet tight. Then I really began watching and listening and discovered that the guys I was listening to were actually approaching that first B legato; in fact, only the C# was staccato in their triplets. That’s not to say that some pipers might play the first B staccato, but all the guys I was listening to weren’t.
Somewhere around Bb, yes. If you were holding the note for much more than 1/20th of a second, that might be a problem, but in a BCB triplet or a BCD triplet, you’re not. Of course, in all other situations, you would finger B with both middle and ring fingers off the chanter.
Horses for courses, I guess, but for doing tight triplets–especially if you’re just learning how to do them–I think that opening more than one hole on the chanter would be counterproductive.
If you haven’t mastered playing your pipes into tune then you probably shouldn’t be thinking about triplets yet. Triplets are an advanced skill, and stacatto triplets even more advanced. Learn to crawl before you try to walk or run.
His teacher suggested playing DCB, BCD, and BCB with a two finger B, and playing CBA with a one finger B, although he admitted that he didn’t have a F%&*@#’ clue as to what would be considered proper and acceptable on Henrietta St., sublimely masterful wizard though he may be.
Ah, this makes perfect sense, as it’s the middle note of a triplet which must be “tight”. So, a rule of thumb might be formulated that the B is played one-finger when it’s the middle note of the triplet, but two-finger otherwise.
