Dear Peter,
When I came into piping very few pipers could play together because of wide variations of pitch so when I took up pipemaking I determined to establish a standard pitch with my pipes. As the pitch was between F and F# I chose F as the standard as at least it was a key that was reasonably friendly to other musicians if they wanted to join in. However I was up against a prolific pipemaker just up the road called David Burleigh whose pipes were consistently sharp on F: not F# but about 20 cents sharp on F and like Canute gave way to the waves and tide I had to accept I couldn't succeed. In fact the sharper pitch is preferred by most pipers so it just meant putting a slightly sharper reed in the chanter. I have made chanters with the holes drilled to give a true F# for those pipers who really want to play a higher pitch instrument apart from going the whole hog and playing in G If anyone wants to play exactly in F it is just a question of adjusting the reed as the hole positions can remain the same so it is up to the pipers and not the makers to set the standard which in the majority of cases will be sharp on F. Colin R -----Original Message----- From: P DUNN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Dartmouth nsp list N.P.S. site <nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:17 Subject: [NSP] re piper's pitch v. concert pitch Regarding the question of pitch, it is all a matter of whether one is playing on one's own or playing with others. If playing solo, it doesn't really matter what the pitch is. The problem comes when trying to play with others. Then, it's just a nuisance that the pipes aren't in true F. Personally, I think that pipe makers should grasp the nettle and start to make pipes consistently in F, then they could be a true transposing instrument. Peter -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html ________________________________________________________________________ AOL Email goes Mobile! You can now read your AOL Emails whilst on the move. Sign up for a free AOL Email account with unlimited storage today. --
