Is it generally acceptable to tune a chanter up a whole step, or does that put too much tension on the instrument?
Here’s my situation. I currently own a lovely D/G instrument, but I have a C/G being built that I imagine will be my primary instrument. One of my goals is to play with a piper, and during a performance, it would be nice to be able to change keys without changing instruments – especially as my D/G is “old-school” (as the kids say) with wooden tangents that require frequent touch-ups. My piper friend has a beautiful set up Uillean pipes with chanters in both C and D but at the moment, his only regulator set is in D. He also has a set of small pipes in concert A. (For the record, he is primarily a player of the Great Highland Pipes, but I don’t dare try to play along with that beast of an instrument. The tuning alone would drive me mad). SO; The String setup that I am getting on the new instrument is: chanters c / g / g´ trumpets g / c´ / d´ drones C / G / d I imagine that it will be easy to capo the drones and trompettes accordingly, but what to do about the c chanter in a d tune and the g chanter in an a tune? I am a pianist, so I’m relatively comfortable working my way around sharps and flats, and playing with an open c string also gives me the advantage of having the 7th below the low d (which is common on many Highland pipe tunes). However; I imagine that there might be some interval/intonation issues there, and of course, it would be much more physically comfortable to play these (mostly diatonic) melodies on an open d string. I have the same question regarding tuning the g chanter up to an a. I appreciate any thoughts on the subject. Jay -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
