Chiff and Fipple Forums

Years ago when I lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I planted some arundo donax. It was too cold there to really thrive. It would sprout, then early frost would stifle it and it would re-sprout, but hampered by a limited growing season. My recollection is that with succeeding years the initi...

Recently I added another photo to the entry for Barney Delaney, and added more information to the bio of John Hicks, one of the few pipers known to be a US Civil War veteran.
http://livesofthepipers.com/index.htm

Enjoy!

Nick Whitmer

Did Tom Busby not make the cut time wise?

Neil,

Busby is on my list but it will be some time before a bio appears.

Nick

I have added a biography of Michael Carney to the website. It was first published, just recently, in NPU's An Piobaire. On the web here with their permission.

Nick

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the kind words.

I just put up another biography, of James C. McAuliffe, the first Irish or uilleann piper to make commercial recordings (1899) - in North America, anyway.

I'll be adding more bios from time to time.

Regards,

Nick

I don't think 1988 is correct, he was still in Oz then. Wooff (or someone) scratched "g wooff 1988" on the bag end of the mainstock. I also have an image of a letter from Wooff, presumably (but not a certainty) talking about this set, 11 Jan 1988, from Australia. Going back to the subject...

Mr. G - good to read your comments. Geoff Wooff worked on the set in 1988. He made mainstock & bass reg, bushed the chanter holes.

Nick

Interesting... Some years ago I bought a set which looks very similar. Pitched between B and C. No maker marks. Mainstock and reedcap not original. Once owned by Thomas Standeven of Philadelphia. Story is that Matt Kiernan gave them as a box of parts to Standeven. Perhaps this is the set Tommy is th...

You are in luck. Langwill says Thomas Scott, active before 1806 and after 1810. In partnership with John Purkis, made flageolets, invented a model of double flageolet. A mark gives 17 Holborn Bars, London. Nailed it! The New Langwill Index by William Waterhouse 1993 p. 368 Langwill, a "dictiona...

One thing I found helpful in a small way when just starting out was to buy a B flat whistle and play on it. The finger-stretch begins to approach that on a UP chanter.

BTW, in my experience, almost all pipers can play the whistle, but a few who do will not admit it.

Nick

I have an old wind-up Maelzel metronome (the kind in the shape of a pyramid) with a bell or dinger function. The 'nome tick-tocks as usual but you can set the bell to ring every 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 6th beat. This might be helpful, or might be plenty annoying.

Nick

http://www.whitmerpipes.com/gif/medex_whistle.jpg [best available image] [From the Troy, New York, Daily Whig , March 10, 1862.] Fred Medex and His Whistle - their History. The subject of this sketch, Fred Medex, was born in a small village on the Garonne river, in France, of parents in moderate ci...

Of possible interest....

Sue Truman of Seattle made this crankie about Pat Touhey, very sweet.

https://youtu.be/at4jNjffxCQ

Nick

Grey Larsen writes about him, a biographical sketch and about his music, in his book The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle. Thinks very highly of him. I'll never forget seeing him at a concert at Willie Week, c. 1986. It was the Top Class flute & whistle concert. This fellow is roll...

As prototypes for another project I have made what I think of as "tin can whistles." Closing the finger holes makes percussive sounds. A large tin can with a whistle inside, like this: http://www.whitmerpipes.com/gif/tin_can_whistle.jpg The sounds are not loud, more apparent to the player ...