Pondering

First posted Aug 14th, 2012 by newpiper

Yesterday I played and it didn't go too badly. No playing today as it's band night, which has become the traditional days for members of my family to ring me. So having yacked on the phone, fiddled about with bank things, and finished some bibs for a colleague about to go on maternity leave, I now have time to think...about my new pipes, my little velvet monkey.

I've already chosen the design, because it was the lovely engraved silver that caught my eye in the first place (I have a knack of picking out the most expensive item in a shop...) With cocobolo mounts. Definitely a combination set. This was initially because the fan said it would be easier to play with other instruments, but having played D...fabulous - I definitely want D, but why drop A? A is where I began, it's what makes pipes and pipe music - that being in A. And, yes, I could just have an A set and a D set. The reeds are in "split" stocks which means they are tucked inside the chanter and wont come to grief when I'm changing them. The only other smallpiper I know has a combination set and has no complaints. It means that if/when I get to go to sessions I need only carry one set of pipes. A combination set will take up less room in an already overcrowded flat, and, let's face it, a combination set is cheaper than two sets...

So then there's the drone switch, and I know that's pinched from uilleann pipes, and isn't traditional, but then arguably Scottish smallpipes themselves aren't traditional. Sometimes when I want less volume I block off my drones. Simon made me nice wooden pegs, which are on leather strings around each drone. Nicer than blu tack! However, pegs fall out and there are three to fiddle with. For combination pipes there would be four to fiddle with. Two things sold me on this. The first was Ian's suggestion, when I was playing Leaving Barra, that "in performance" (and, gosh, how nice of him to suggest that performance of any kind is something I could ever think about) it would produce an interesting effect to run through the tune droneless and then kick them back in for the repeat, which, the tune ending on D, could easily be done with one hand. The second issue is that when I block off my drones the pressure alters and I have to adjust like mad, but I found that with Ian's pipes it made no difference. Maybe that's the pipes rather than the drone switch.

So the big issue is keys. The fan feels that lots of extra keys would give me lots of extra notes and allow me to play lots of extra tunes in keys that won't scare off the rest of a session. Vicki has three keys on her A chanter, and would like three on her D chanter. So I have thought of keys. They aren't cheap, but they would make other people happy, apparently.

But Ian himself said something about ending up with a different instrument. I looked at the pictures of Iain MacInnes on the CD sleeve of Tryst. Pipes with no keys. Mike Katz on You Tube (presumably playing some of Ian's pipes). Pipes with no keys.

All day I've been humming the Boy's Lament and Leaving Barra. And then on the way home I stuck Mike Katz in the CD player, and I thought - yes, I like this music: the traditional tunes, especially. And the traditional tunes - Scottish tunes, pipe tunes - they're all in A. I don't need high B or C sharp or G something else, I just need those 9 notes. Think of the most rousing, heart-lifting march, the liveliest reel, the most heartbreaking piobaireachd and they all use just those 9 notes. And I think that although I have enjoyed playing with other people it's never what I set out to do, and I don't see why I should maul my instrument about in order to please those who play Irish music. I don't play a substitute for uilleann pipes, I don't play Irish music: I play Scottish music, I play a Scottish instrument. So I think that I will order a set as nature and the shades of pipers past intended: key less. Probably.