I've asked one or two pipemakers whether a stopped "Dixon Peacock" chanter could be made, with a slide or a bead so that you could set the chanter to either a sharp seventh or a natural seventh. At the downstream end it would need a key for the low natural seventh. There are technical difficulties with this idea. These difficulties are lack of space at the top end of the chanter, and the question of how to put on the bead (because the collar is wider than the rest of the chanter). But no one has said it is impossible. An alternative would be to have a key for the high natural seventh. Personally I don't like the usual position of this key, because the hole is under the left thumb. Another thing to consider is whether the sevenths in Dixon are, in any one tune, all sharp or all natural. There is a view that they may be some of each.
Edmund Spriggs -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 02 October 2006 23:48 To: [email protected] Subject: [NSP] peacock pipes I've had the idea of a keyless, open-ended chanter with a flattened seventh that would be played with NSP style fingering, primarily inspired by Dixon tunes. Julia very kindly gave me a keyless chanter to experiment with, but I haven't had the heart to open up the bottom or fill and redrill the 'f' hole. It's been a lot of fun to play as is. John Dally -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
