Tuning The Regs

Uilleann Pipes
1

I’ve got a few tunes up my sleave that I know quiet well:

The Stack of Wheat (hornpipe)
Maggie in the Woods (palka)
Rambling Pickforck (jug)
Wards (Jig)
An Gaoth Aneas (Air)

All from the NPU video of cause. I’ve also been practicing playing with the drones too. I’m starting to really like my Mackenzie set now that I know a few tunes. I’ve also found the H.J. Clarke tutorial book very helpful. It compliments the NPU video nicely as it fills in some gaps that the video leaves out.

So I’ve finaly decided to get the regulators going. I’ve been practicing the correct movemnets, and have been annoying everyone to no end because they are not tuned. I thought starting with only one (two) regulators might be wise. As I don’t wont to be frustrated. I read the article on Patrick’s site but that was for use with an Electronic Tuner. So how do you tune the reg’s without an electronic tuner, just the old fashioned ear.

Cheers L42B :slight_smile:
PS: If I can sweat talk my friend into allowing me to use the recording studio for ten minutes. I might be able to post a tune on the Clips and Snips web page.

2

There’s a good article by Geoff Woof on the Uilleann Obsesssion page. I don’t think that’s the one you were referring to so it should help. I don’t have regs, but as a guess, I’d say you’d have to rely more on tuning in with your chanter, being just temperament and all, which should be tuned in with your drones, ie, each note on the chanter sould be in harmony with the drone notes, so that D on the drone should be harmoniuos with E on the chanter etc, something not possible with modern tuning whcih electronic tuners are calibrated for.

Cheers,

DavidG

3

Hi Ausdag

Thanks for the information. However that was the article that I looked at first. Unfortunatly it only explains how to tune the regulators and the drones to an electronic tuner. Although it gave some handy hints on how to play them and give chordal accompniment. Does anyone have any clear explination on how to tune the regs ‘without’ an electronic tuner

Cheers L42B :slight_smile:

4

Here’s a bit of an article I wrote a while ago. Maybe it’ll help you out?

http://www.uilleannobsession.com/extras_geoffwooff.html#regtuning

Patrick.

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Cheer’s thanks Pat. It’s still not very clear though. Do you tune the first note of every reg to A or G (like the drones). Or do just tune each reg to eachother and not the chanter?

L42B :slight_smile:

6

L24B, the notes on the tenor reg, from top to bottom, are Cnat, B, A, G, F#. Tune these at first from the chanter. You should work on the reg reed to get the top note, i.e. the Cnat, in tune. If you can’t get the highest note in tune without a lot of rushing and pasting there’s a problem with your reed.

The bottom plug on the reg is made to pull out. Inside you will see a long wire is attached that runs right up the inside of the reg. This is what you attach bits of poster putty, wire insulation, electrician’s tape, etc. to get the remaining notes in tune. Notice I said to start by tuning with the chanter. This is to get you close to each note. Then you want to go back and tune all the notes to the drones to get them as sweet as possible.

The notes on the baritone reg, descending, are A, G, F#, D. Again, start at the top note and tune to the chanter. Then go back and tweak each note so it is sweet against the drones.

The notes on the bass reg, descending, are Cnat, B, A, G. All of these notes are below the chanter, so you will have to tune an octave lower. Also check them against the tenor reg. Finally, sweeten them against the drones.

Leo Rowsome had some information on chords and harmony with the regs in his tutor. This tutor has been added to the end of the Leo Rowsome Collection published last year by NPU. There is also some information in the Dennis Brooks tutor, available from the Seattle Pipers Club. The third NPU video has an introduction section on regs.

Mostly it is left up to the piper to figure out the regs. Listen to other pipers, especially Ronan Browne, to see what can be accomplished with them.

djm

7

Clarification, so you would tune the Cn on the base reg to the Cn on the chanter. Am I right in that assumption? Thanks for the description.

Cheers L42B :slight_smile:

8

You would tune the Cnat (top key) on the bass reg to be one octave below the Cnat (just below back D) on the chanter.

You tune the Cnat (top key) on the tenor reg to match Cnat on the chanter.

Hope that’s clearer.

djm

9

Here’s another article by Brian Howard -

http://www.howardmusic.co.uk/club_acoustics_tuning_regs.htm

It may offer some more useful info.

Cheers,

DavidG

10

I think you should first tune the drones spot on, then tune each regulator note to harmonize with the drones. You can play single notes and or chords to check.

Some chanter notes will change with pressure, so personally, I would avoid tuning to the chanter.

I tune the chanter to the drones rather than the other way, so shouldn’t regs be better tuned if tuned to the drones?

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Sorry, AlanB, I’d have to agree with FP. Both the chanter and the regs should be tuned to the drones.

djm

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You just don’t get around much, Alan. :wink: If you had a chanter and chanter reed like that, you’d tune the chanter to the drones too!


(L42B, listen to Alan)

15

I wouldn’t tune my drones to A, I would tune them to D (297.3 hz). Now I tune them to the D of the concertina rather than being able to use my pitchfork as it is somewhat flat of standard. :frowning:

Drones (after stabilization so they don’t change pitch or shut off with an increase in pressure to reach the 2nd octave), therefore makes it easier to tell what to do with the reed/rushes/poster putty that any chanter I have seen need (except for the magic point of temp/humidity where it may need nothing except the bell rush and ghost D putty).

Depending on the season, I may have to put poster putty in the bottom of ghost D, A, occasionally G and back D as well as the bell. How do you tell if you need to tune what notes if you don’t have a drone to reference to? I can’t think of any way.

Without the drones going, I can’t tell when the chanter is in tune. My practice set was never in tune until I got drones, got them stabilized and made my first successful reed.

If you tune drones to an out of tune A on the chanter, you have an out of tune set.

Of course, there are people that can afford the longer time needed to slowly approach tuning pipes to themselves, but if you play with a band, you need to tune quickly to the band’s standard tuning as the body heat/humidity rises with the audience present.

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Once again I see we are going to twist words and mix up meanings. My point quite simply is that everything, chanter and regs, should be tuned to sound true against the drones, plain and simple, regardless of tuners. It helps to be in tune with those around you. At no point did I say not to tune the drones as required.

As FP noted, the chanter can drift with changing temperature/humidity. Some individual chanter notes can go off from time to time. Tuning the regs to sound correct against the drones will ensure an overall good sound.

djm

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AlanB, what good is it tuning the chanter to itself? As soon as you turn on the drones it would be off. Everything about the UPs is based around the drones (most bagpipes are). Most pipemakers that I know off even flatten the Cnat on the chanter just to make it sound right against the drones. Tuning the regs should be no different. If the regs are out of tune with the drones they will sound like caca. So will the chanter.

djm

20

If the Cnat isn’t right against the drones, then the chanter (or chanter reed) isn’t in tune with itself, or your fingering is wrong for the chanter. How would you know that? You may not, but I dare say most of us would, and w/o a tuner or drones going. The UPs are not necessarily based around the drones. UPs are not like other bagpipes. Consider the UP chanter as comparable to playing an oboe where drones are not needed. Add drones or don’t add drones. Chanters often stand alone as a solo instrument and can be in as good a tune as the oboe. The regs are more like a pipe organ…add them or not.

Once you get a good chanter with a good reed, you’ll tune the drones to the A or G position (lower register!!!) on the chanter. Everyone does this except maybe for the odd eccentric who has a poor setup and doesn’t know it, or doesn’t know how to get it right first before tuning the drones to the chanter.

Like Alan says, “Tune your drones to your chanter, tune your regs to your chanter.” Stubborn adherence to anything else smacks of bats in the belfry.