Something approaching pressure stability is occurring in my piping. The drone's getting more constant, and I'm getting better at timing my use of the bellows to fill the bag at opportune moments. It seems - although this may turn out to be a delusion on my part or just a compensation for bad technique - that the way to go is to avoid refilling the bag on long chanter notes, because then any pressure fluctuation is significantly more audible than it is when the chanter's changing notes, partly because I'm also getting the hang of the idea that some notes seem to require slight pressure variations anyway.
That latter might be down to having a hire set of pipes that's presumably not in the best of condition, but given my experience with the recorder it seems that anything using a tube of differing lengths with discrete fingerings is going to require pressure variations to get the temperament right throughout the range.
Which perhaps answers why the high A is so sharp and unpleasant. Time will tell... that not's so extraordinarily unpleasant that I'm readily willing to believe in a minor chanter defect of some sort.
Showing posts with label basic technique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basic technique. Show all posts
Monday, 22 January 2007
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
More noise isn't necessarily the same as progress
More noise can be fun, though. Yesterday I got around to playing again after a bit of a break with returning from my parents' after Christmas, and also after they came up and delivered my water manometer, which was far too large to take on the train with me. After a quick pressure check I unplugged the thing and decided to just try and play, and it worked out fairly well, although the same old problem with refilling the bag still manifests. This is to be expected, I'm sure.
I've also noticed that differing pressure has a very pronounced effect on the middle notes of the chanter. Particularly today I was finding that the middle D was going sharp at the slightest inclination, and by sharp I mean really sharp. However, once I figured out the cause I was able to keep some better control over it, and it usually only happened around bag filling time, where my pressure control is right out of the window anyway. That does seem to be the critical thing at the moment.
I also thought, just for fun, try opening up drone number two. I was playing simple pieces in G, so I had the low G drone going anyway. Opened up the high D drone and tuned it in (surprisingly easily, I must be getting a better ear or lower standards), then played for a bit. It was nice, but a little odd. Opening up the low D drone as well added a real depth and richness, although the bag empties at an alarming rate with three drones running.
I don't think I'm supposed to use the low D drone for G music, but I thought it sounded quite nice with some pieces. Presumably it'd work horrendously with others though... maybe today I just got lucky.
I've also noticed that differing pressure has a very pronounced effect on the middle notes of the chanter. Particularly today I was finding that the middle D was going sharp at the slightest inclination, and by sharp I mean really sharp. However, once I figured out the cause I was able to keep some better control over it, and it usually only happened around bag filling time, where my pressure control is right out of the window anyway. That does seem to be the critical thing at the moment.
I also thought, just for fun, try opening up drone number two. I was playing simple pieces in G, so I had the low G drone going anyway. Opened up the high D drone and tuned it in (surprisingly easily, I must be getting a better ear or lower standards), then played for a bit. It was nice, but a little odd. Opening up the low D drone as well added a real depth and richness, although the bag empties at an alarming rate with three drones running.
I don't think I'm supposed to use the low D drone for G music, but I thought it sounded quite nice with some pieces. Presumably it'd work horrendously with others though... maybe today I just got lucky.
Saturday, 30 December 2006
Baby steps
What's pleasant about learning the pipes as a second instrument is that I don't have any problem reading the music. The range of a set of Northumbrian smallpipes isn't much more than two octaves if that (it rather depends on the design of the chanter, which varies), and it fits very comfortably into the range of notes which I'm already very able to read from treble clef due to my recorder experience.
The trick of course is matching those blobs on the page to fingers and keys on the chanter. The fingered notes aren't particularly difficult, it turns out. They progress nicely up the chanter, and each note requires only one hole to be exposed, so although the fingering system is odd, it's not taking me a great deal of time to get used to. What's really throwing me is the keys.
Fingered notes: lift the right finger, get a note.
Keyed notes: find the right key, press it with the right finger, get a note.
Okay so there are only two fingers to choose from for the keys - the left little finger and the right thumb, which are the only two digits unoccupied with finger holes. The problem is that on the nine-key chanter I've got, these fingers are together responsible for all nine keys - there are three positioned for the little finger, with the remaining six for the thumb. I'm quite pleased I don't have a seventeen-key chanter right now. They are fully chromatic over two octaves, which is useful to be sure, but the warnings that this doesn't mean you can play easily in any key make a lot of sense. You do not want to be playing most of your notes with just a little finger and a thumb, so it's always best to select music which fits in the range of the finger holes of the chanter as much as possible, especially if you want to play it fast.
The water manometer I mentioned in the first post has been tremendously helpful. Over the last couple of days I've had a few sessions and gained compliments from the family over my progress. I've attempted a few more tunes which are down as fairly easy in the Liestman book, and they do fit very nicely into the range of the instrument. Frere Jacque is quite obviously not an authentic Northumbrian tune - neither is Auld Lang Syne, although the latter is frequently played upon Scottish bagpipes. Both, however, aren't too difficult and help with the learning of the keys for low F#, E and D.
Then there are two proper Northumbrian tunes - Winster Gallop and Whittingham Green Lane. I have a recording of Kathryn Tickell playing the latter. Needless to say her version is far superior to mine! The bag is still presenting problems. If I didn''t have to worry about it I don't think the notes would be particularly difficult to deal with in these tunes, but I find myself forgetting to fill the bag, or overfilling it, and generally having difficulty maintaining a nice constant pressure while playing. This results in notes bending their pitch all over the place, and the result isn't pleasant.
Things to work on over the next few days: learn to refill the bag while playing a tune without mucking up the pitch and without stopping the tune until the bag's full.
The trick of course is matching those blobs on the page to fingers and keys on the chanter. The fingered notes aren't particularly difficult, it turns out. They progress nicely up the chanter, and each note requires only one hole to be exposed, so although the fingering system is odd, it's not taking me a great deal of time to get used to. What's really throwing me is the keys.
Fingered notes: lift the right finger, get a note.
Keyed notes: find the right key, press it with the right finger, get a note.
Okay so there are only two fingers to choose from for the keys - the left little finger and the right thumb, which are the only two digits unoccupied with finger holes. The problem is that on the nine-key chanter I've got, these fingers are together responsible for all nine keys - there are three positioned for the little finger, with the remaining six for the thumb. I'm quite pleased I don't have a seventeen-key chanter right now. They are fully chromatic over two octaves, which is useful to be sure, but the warnings that this doesn't mean you can play easily in any key make a lot of sense. You do not want to be playing most of your notes with just a little finger and a thumb, so it's always best to select music which fits in the range of the finger holes of the chanter as much as possible, especially if you want to play it fast.
The water manometer I mentioned in the first post has been tremendously helpful. Over the last couple of days I've had a few sessions and gained compliments from the family over my progress. I've attempted a few more tunes which are down as fairly easy in the Liestman book, and they do fit very nicely into the range of the instrument. Frere Jacque is quite obviously not an authentic Northumbrian tune - neither is Auld Lang Syne, although the latter is frequently played upon Scottish bagpipes. Both, however, aren't too difficult and help with the learning of the keys for low F#, E and D.
Then there are two proper Northumbrian tunes - Winster Gallop and Whittingham Green Lane. I have a recording of Kathryn Tickell playing the latter. Needless to say her version is far superior to mine! The bag is still presenting problems. If I didn''t have to worry about it I don't think the notes would be particularly difficult to deal with in these tunes, but I find myself forgetting to fill the bag, or overfilling it, and generally having difficulty maintaining a nice constant pressure while playing. This results in notes bending their pitch all over the place, and the result isn't pleasant.
Things to work on over the next few days: learn to refill the bag while playing a tune without mucking up the pitch and without stopping the tune until the bag's full.
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