John Dally recently wrote: I have a friend with a very nice seven key lignam vitae chanter that doesn't get played very much. I'll have to offer to help him keep in in working order. ;-) Many thanks!
Hello John The chances are it will be a goodun, but just as (for me) Del Gesus have the edge over Strads it doesn't mean that there aren't a few exceptions! Good luck with it and I hope you find it a delight. The other point is, of course, that some totally dedicated players make a very good fist of playing 17 key sets fluently. First that comes to mind is Alice Burn - but then for 5 years the pipes were her first instrument at St Mary's Music School. She would travel 240 miles for her lessons (taking at least 6 hrs in total) and practice up to 5 hours a day. I remember offering gentle encouragement in the early days (she would be about 13) and she said, "Anthony what you're saying is that I need to put in another twenty hours at least on that tune". That's Alice for you! My comments were directed more towards us ordinary mortals who do not have the luxury of that much time to spend or the young fingers to stand up to that level of use! Cheers Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
