New to the forum, and relatively new to small pipes.
About 18 months ago i commenced the small pipe journey making a first set based on some drawings my son found for done and chanter specs and a rather comprehensive set of Northumbrian pipe drawings for all of the other components. I have constructed the chanter reed (many trials later) from the ross book and Utube, and the drone reeds using the square section brass and a plastic tongue. Most of it works satisfactorily, although the smallest drone reed is very unsteady.
I do have (some time ago) a fair bit of experience on GHB.
My big question relates to tuning the chanter.
The pitch is described as D. What I have been unable to find are the target pitch values (ie unambiguous specifications for the required notes.)
My historic understanding of a D instrument is that each note sounds a tone above its written equivalent on the piano.
If I play my D whistle - the instrument most likely to be involved in a session, it plays at concert pitch with 2 sharps.
for comparison, the 3-finger note G played on the whistle is at concert pitch G5= approx 784, the bell note written D is D5= 587
My chanter playing the bell note - written G3 plays concert A3= approx 220. The octave, written G4, plays concert A4 = 440. The reed needed to achieve this does not play at the Ross target of C#, but he may well have been targeting a different chanter design. This gives me a scale that is in tune with itself, is consistent with it as a Transposing Instrument, but leaves a few things hanging.
If I play from the same music with a D whistle I will be a tone out of tune. It also does not seem to make much sense tuning the drones to Concert D&A (there is no note sounding concert D)
If I drop the pitch (starting with a new reed) and provide the 2 sharps in D Major i would finish up with>
G3=196
A3=220
B3=247
C#4=277
D4=294
E4=330
F#4=370
G4=392
A4=440
This gives me a major scale from A, and would be an octave below the whistle, but pretty sure the pipe tunes would be out of tune
![wink ;-)](./images/smilies/icon_wink_144.gif)
It does make more sense for the apparently standard drone tuning of DAd.
Can any one help please?
(there will be a similar follow up related to the A chanter, but I havent built one yet - thought I would get the 'easy' one done first. I do note that the D whistle plays a concert D scale as written, but my C whistle is actually a transposing instrument. ie, the written D sounds concert C. Things you find out when you actually start measuring stuff)
Cheers
David