Transition from GHB to Uilleann Pipes

[Evian Repyp]

What does it take to transition from the bagpipe to the Uillean pipes?

I've been playing bagpipes for 2 years, trumpet for 12.

Thanks

[Mitch Man]

Tried it, it's note the same thing in terms of fingering and also you have to deal with octaves.

I'll just stick to mindless pipe playing! :wink:

JM

[John Dally]

Originally posted by Evian Repyp:
What does it take to transition from the bagpipe to the Uillean pipes?

I've been playing bagpipes for 2 years, trumpet for 12.

ThanksPerhaps, Ian Lawther will respond, because he actually Uillean pipes.

Fingering wise, if you already play the whistle you are more than halfway there. There are a lot of other technical aspects to playing that are critical, including reeding. If you've ever checked the UP newsgroup you may have noticed they rarely talk about music. It's almost always about scraping cane.

Ian?

[Ian Lawther]

I saw this thread a couple of days ago and apologise for not jumping in - been a hectic weekend......

There are a number of issue to consider when taking up uilleann pipes after highland, and this post will probably just be the tip of the iceberg.

Firstly you have to get used to the bellows, which also applies NSP and SSP. Along with the bellows you are going to have to adapt to a lower pressure than you are used to playing at with GHB, plus the fact that you need to use different pressures for the higher and lower octaves. This pressure has to come from the bag (not forcing extra air via the bellows).

When I took up UP (or even UP up) I had already been playing GHB and NSP so the bellows weren't new. But what did cause me a problem, and temporarilly put me off the instrument was that some of the fingering is very close but not the same as GHB (eg UP G is the same as GB D except that the lower hand ring finger is also down) and if you are not careful you will compromise you GHB playing - you have to keep the fingers seperate.

The other thing you need to do is change the way you think. With GHB we are taught there is one correct way to do things. With UP the fingering of some notes varies from chanter to chanter, and there may be alternate ways to sound the same note.
Some ornaments are similarly sounded in differing ways. For instance the "cran" is a combination of gracenotes played on the D or E, and usually consists of three grace notes played with the upper ring finger, lower index and lower middle finger (e,d,c grace notes in GHB terms). However some will play this as a run of descending gracenotes, some an ascending run of grace notes and some in the sequence middle, lower, upper). Ever heard of a GHB teacher saying "play that taorlauth with the gracings low g,e,low g,d if it sounds better to you?

Having said all this playing the GHB will have taught you how to play gracenotes, and while you are going to have to "reprogram" the sequences it is far easier teaching someone UP who understands the mechanics of gracenotes than it is someone who has come from instruments that do not employ them. You will also be used to the flat fingering position which again confuses people who have play "finger tip" instruments.

John commented about the reed scraping fraternity in UP. One thing the GHB has that no other pipe I know of has is a wide ranging support industry - bag makers, reedmakers, sundry suppliers etc. For many other pipes you are reliant on the original maker, a few specialists or yourself for reeds and repairs. Having said that a reed will last a long time if properly looked after. What seems to happen to a lot of people is that they get convinced they have to make their own perfect reed and spend all the time they should be practicing scraping away at cane and discussing it with the similarly afflicted ("how many thousands of an inch do you sand it by to get that perfect back d?"). Interestingly a lot of the top pipers do not make their own reeds - maybe thats how they got to put the time in to get so good.

Hopefully the above will help a bit, but come back with further questions.

Ian.

[Royce]

You can buy one of those UP PC mouthblowers from Lark in the Morning or Song of the Sea to get an idea of the fingering, then get the Heather Clarke or An Piobairi video/CD/printed tutors. Then decide if you're up to it. A practice set of pipes will run between 500 and a thousand, and the Daye Penny Chanter is a good way to get an instrument that's going to work out of the box for you, which is a major consideration, and David fully supports the instrument.

As far as playing, you'll get some help from GHB playing if you actually play jigs, reels, hornpipes, and in general play Irish embellishments already on that. You will have to use a few other fingers and you will have to forget about playing out of a base of low A or G. Luckily, I've got serious right hand problems that lock up my birl, and gee, my UP playing is totally unaffected by not being able to play a birl any more without two hours of therapy before it starts working. On the other hand, you'll be required to play a lot of upperhand rolls and so forth not usually common on GHB, and as Ian says, get used to thinking about playing each note in some interesting new way depending on what note you're coming from.

The trick of the bellows on UP, unlike others cauld wind pipes, is you don't blow steady at all, each note has a different blowing pressure so the bag and bellows work is constantly changing in order to maintain proper intonation.

Then you get into reed adjustment, and ideally reed making, which is necessary as weather changes to keep things like the octaves drifting apart or certain notes going sharp or flat from ruining a season of play till the weather gets back where you had them playing right.

Royce