So would this be considered a “sharp set?”
Flat sets:
http://www.irishpipersclub.org/Web_art2.htm
No, no, no, the opposite of a flat set is a round set.
Flat sets are created by running over your pipes repeatedly with a car.
I remember a friend of mine once dropped her D tin whistle in a horse stall that she was mucking out, and the horse later stepped on it. She found it the next morning and rang me up to say, “you remember my D pennywhistle? Well, now it’s in D-flat.”
Joey, that’s a really small set of pipes… or the person playing them is really big! Very odd…
They look vaguely like Northumbrian pipes to me.
The instrument in the photo is a set of Northumbrian small pipes. They are very tiny and rather quiet, almost dainty sounding.
See http://www.hotpipes.com/pipe0018.html for more information.
That is Kathryn Tickell playing them. She’s really an amazing player. I have the first Kathryn Tickell Band album (1991) and enjoy listening to it greatly. She takes the Northumbrian pipes places other bagpipes cannot reach!
Too many other people playing.
What is wrong with solo Northumbrian piping? Billy Pigg did lots of solo stuff.
You might consider them flat pipes as they commonly play in C and F.
That’s funny. There’s only four in her band. How many in yours?
Touche! We have 6 when everyone shows up.
We do lots of solo/duet/trio/quartet stuff as well as the full band.
The concert uilleann pipes are a tiny bit louder than the Northumbrians and cut through better. About half of my piping with the band is solo or starts out solo.
Our fiddler plays the shuttle pipes and we only use percussion with those. Of course, his GHB is out of tune with everything else, so he does those solo as well.
Actually, they have a very small nasal sound like a kazoo that always sets me to laughing every time I hear it. 
djm
I can’t believe failure to recognise Katherine T, let alone not spot the smallpipes… What’s going on??
Alan
I think Joey was just trying to be funny (unsuccessfully-sorry, Joey).
Remember, most of us over here still think Riverdance is a pretty neat idea.
:roll:
Hey, I recognized that it was Kathryn Tickell! And that she was playing a set of Northumbrian smallpipes!
Kathryn Tickell’s absolutely marvellous…She’s also a darned good musician, too.
Hey, did Chris Ormston ever get around to doing a solo album?
I find it funny that djm has such a thing against smallpipes. Is it just Northumbrian pipes that cause you to snigger uncontrollably or smallpipes in general? That would be interesting considering that smallpipes in A are pitched lower than the flattest of flat pipes…
Good call, Pat, it was a joke. Sorry, a lame one. (Disclaimer: this apology is not a joke.) I was laughing pretty hard about the one about the REALLY big person! Like those bellows aren’t hooked up where they’re supposed to be, and no one’s noticed…
Although I must admit, I figured they weren’t my babies, but I’ve never seen a set of Northumbrians in person…or gasp really ever…so… Guess I was hoping to learn something in a rip-on-myself-sort-of-way…
Any significance to how much they look like Uilleanns? One octace range, huh? I mean, everything else looks the same, except they’re like the travel-yahzee version.
Joey
Joey, did you follow the hotpipes link Pat posted?
There are a few pictures with good description.
Also… this website has some nice detailing (CAD drawings) and sketches. Much of the information is relative to all pipes.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5701/smallpipes/pipe1.htm
Watch got those stupid Geocities pop-ups.
Sound file:
http://www.piping.on.ca/sounds/Tousignant_onEvansNSP_The%20Star.mp3
From this website:
http://www.piping.on.ca/products/instruments/northumbrian/
Re: Northumbrians:
Definitely not a one-octave range. The 17-keyed chanter has a potential range of two fully chromatic octaves from B to b. My own pipes are an 11-key set (see www.daveshaw.co.uk), which gives me enough notes to play everything I want, and a range from low D to high b. Overblowing to a higher range is not part of the traditional technique, although it is used by some players to good effect. The pipes overblow at the 12th (Octave and a fifth). The earliest NSP had a one-octave range in g without keys, and that is still the core of the instrument underneath all that metalwork.
Two things you have to keep in mind with Northumbrian pipes: first, most sets don’t play in concert pitch, but rather in traditional pitch between one and two half-steps lower than a=440. THis would be the equivalent of a C set of uilleanns, or what an orchestral player would call a B-flat instrument (like a trumpet or clarinet). You can get sets in concert G or concert D, but they are less common. Second is that the fingering is unlike any other woodwind, in that each finger (and each key) represents one pitch, and only one finger is ever off the chanter, or only one key is depressed, at a time. Normally three drones (out of four) are playing at a time, in a root-fifth-octave configuration. One top piper (Adrian Schofield) has even had regulators made for the NSP, though I’ve never seen nor heard them.
The best website, IMHO, on the NSP is Julia Say’s at http://www.nspipes.co.uk.
And yes, Chris Ormston’s new CD is out, but I haven’t heard where one can get a copy.
I’d be happy to try to pass on any other information, or answer any questions, I can.
Happy piping
Tim
Sorry, its nothing personal, and its not aimed at anyone. I can’t say that I’ve heard every type of smallpipe. But when I hear that tiny nasal goo-goo-goo sound it just starts me giggling. I have to leave before I upset the player, as I can see it takes a good bit of skill to play them. Just that particular sound that sets me off. What can I say? :roll:
djm