Glengarry

[OC Richard]

Good for you!

O Come All Ye Faithful is one of those gems, well-known tunes which happen to fit perfectly on the gamut of the Highland pipes. There's not all that many of them!

Here's my version of O Come All Ye Faithful, played on my Scottish Doublepipes (actually two Gibson practice chanters in a special rig)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8MDtCMlPRQ

A few more carols that fit perfectly on the pipes are
Little Drummer Boy
Good King Wenceslas
O Come Emanuel
We Saw Three Ships
Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
We Three Kings

While many other tunes require slight mutation to fit on the pipes
Angels We Have Heard On High
O Christmas Tree
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen

And some, well, the pipes just don't have the required notes, though it doesn't stop pipers from hacking through their 'versions' so mutated that they can be hard to recognise

What Child Is This (the worst one, I hear it all the time. Actually all of the correct notes can be played if it's done in the key of D minor, which nobody but me ever seems to do, possibly because all the notes are right, but the octaves have to be compressed).

[Andrews Son]

Good for you!

O Come All Ye Faithful is one of those gems, well-known tunes which happen to fit perfectly on the gamut of the Highland pipes. There's not all that many of them!

Here's my version of O Come All Ye Faithful, played on my Scottish Doublepipes (actually two Gibson practice chanters in a special rig)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8MDtCMlPRQ

Your double pipes are awesome, did you come up with the idea or are they a more traditional instrument?
I notice the fingering is the same as the GHB, but spread across two chanters, does it not matter that the left chanter bottom hand is open?
And did you make the set up yourself?

Gavin

[OC Richard]

Your double pipes are awesome, did you come up with the idea or are they a more traditional instrument?
I notice the fingering is the same as the GHB, but spread across two chanters, does it not matter that the left chanter bottom hand is open?
And did you make the set up yourself?

Gavin

Thanks.

I came up with the idea of cobbling together two practice chanters after experimenting with mouth-blowing them. I had a guy who makes Renaissance pipes (including doublepipes) make the special stock and bag.

But the idea has been around for a very long time. Doublepipes were quite common in Europe and Britain in the Renaissance period.

I bought a set of Julian Goodacre's Cornish Doublepipes. Here is Julian playing one of his sets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4uQYGfZ5o

I really liked the things, but I wanted something that would use ordinary Scottish fingering, and also something that was more stable (the Goodacre Cornish pipe was very difficult to blow into tune).

Julian's approach to the fingering layout is brilliant, assigning one chanter for each hand, and being laid out in such a way that using fully closed fingering (like the NSP) or partially closed (like the GHB) one chanter or the other is always playing the bellnote, which creates what Julian calls a "virtual drone". Then, at will, you can play polyphony.

So I'm just using ordinary practice chanters and ordinary Highland fingering. Doing nothing whatsoever different you get a steady unbroken Low A drone. But you can play harmony when you want.

Try it, if you have two practice chanters. You need to tape over certain holes. The hole layout is this: (o=open hole x=taped over hole)

o ooo xxxo (the chanter for the upper hand, which, due to GHB fingering, plays Low A whenever you're playing any low-hand note on the other chanter)
x xxx oooo (the chanter for the lower hand, which, due to GHB fingering, plays Low A whenever you're playing any upper-hand note on the other chanter)

Jerry Gibson got enthusiastic about my doublepipes and has started to make them. I don't know how well his work. The trick is getting two exactly matched reeds. They have to be far more matched than any two chanter reeds in the history of Highland piping, and have to be precisely identical in pitch, volume, strength, and timbre. If not you lose the effect.

[Andrews Son]

Thanks.

I came up with the idea of cobbling together two practice chanters after experimenting with mouth-blowing them. I had a guy who makes Renaissance pipes (including doublepipes) make the special stock and bag.

But the idea has been around for a very long time. Doublepipes were quite common in Europe and Britain in the Renaissance period.

I bought a set of Julian Goodacre's Cornish Doublepipes. Here is Julian playing one of his sets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4uQYGfZ5o

I really liked the things, but I wanted something that would use ordinary Scottish fingering, and also something that was more stable (the Goodacre Cornish pipe was very difficult to blow into tune).

I seen this video a couple of months ago , was going to say about it but couldn't remember where i seen it.
Very interesting

I have two practice chanters and i will find some electrical tape. Do you reckon two warnock reeds will be sufficient.
And thank you posting up which fingers holes to cover.
Im sure it'll take some getting used to

Gavin

[Andrews Son]

I didnt know O come all ye faithfull was playable on the GHB. But one google search away and i found the sheet music with a website with loads of music on.


Sorry for hi-jacking the thread everyone

[Liam]

Thanks.

I came up with the idea of cobbling together two practice chanters after experimenting with mouth-blowing them. I had a guy who makes Renaissance pipes (including doublepipes) make the special stock and bag.

But the idea has been around for a very long time. Doublepipes were quite common in Europe and Britain in the Renaissance period.

I bought a set of Julian Goodacre's Cornish Doublepipes. Here is Julian playing one of his sets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4uQYGfZ5o

I really liked the things, but I wanted something that would use ordinary Scottish fingering, and also something that was more stable (the Goodacre Cornish pipe was very difficult to blow into tune).

Julian's approach to the fingering layout is brilliant, assigning one chanter for each hand, and being laid out in such a way that using fully closed fingering (like the NSP) or partially closed (like the GHB) one chanter or the other is always playing the bellnote, which creates what Julian calls a "virtual drone". Then, at will, you can play polyphony.

So I'm just using ordinary practice chanters and ordinary Highland fingering. Doing nothing whatsoever different you get a steady unbroken Low A drone. But you can play harmony when you want.

Try it, if you have two practice chanters. You need to tape over certain holes. The hole layout is this: (o=open hole x=taped over hole)

o ooo xxxo (the chanter for the upper hand, which, due to GHB fingering, plays Low A whenever you're playing any low-hand note on the other chanter)
x xxx oooo (the chanter for the lower hand, which, due to GHB fingering, plays Low A whenever you're playing any upper-hand note on the other chanter)

Jerry Gibson got enthusiastic about my doublepipes and has started to make them. I don't know how well his work. The trick is getting two exactly matched reeds. They have to be far more matched than any two chanter reeds in the history of Highland piping, and have to be precisely identical in pitch, volume, strength, and timbre. If not you lose the effect.

Your double chanter pipes are great! Perfect for indoors.... I like the traditional Scottish sound, beter than the Cornish pipes, which are very interesting as well.

Well done sir!

[sgtslaughter64]

I didnt know O come all ye faithfull was playable on the GHB. But one google search away and i found the sheet music with a website with loads of music on.


Sorry for hi-jacking the thread everyone

No apologies necessary.....as a novice piper, I am very receptive to other ideas and opinions. I have to say that I too was impressed with how O Come came out on the pipes.

[OC Richard]

Do you reckon two warnock reeds will be sufficient

For my doublepipes, I went through a box of perhaps 40 or 50 Gibson practice chanter reeds to find two which were precisely matched. This matching is crucial, and here's why:

1) strength: if the two reeds are not precisely the same strength the instrument will be finicky and difficult to blow in tune. If the two reeds are precisely matched in strength the instrument will be extremely forgiving, because if your blowing fluctuates the two chanters will stay in tune.

2) volume and timbre: the smoothness of the overall instrument, the illusion of the virtual drone, the effect of the harmonies, are dependent on the two reeds having exactly the same volume and timbre (tone colour). Yes there are two chanters but it is one instrument.

3) pitch: obviously if the two reeds are not precisely matched in pitch the thing will not play in tune.