Your favorite pitch?

[CHasR]

B

Wow, not much love for the concert pitch.

I prefer concert pitch Jonathan: its a far more socially acceptable instrument. Nice friendly keys like D, G, Am, Em. the C chanter would be a welcome utilitarian addition, but going the whole hog for a C full set positions one on the precipice of an almost heremitic piping existence in remote tonalities such as A# minor, B major, Eb minor, etc.
Which is fine for those who want to be soloists I suppose; but a major draw for the uilleann pipe for me at the beginning was to be able to play with other musicians, which I was missing after years of A=476Hz @ +/-110Db

[edit to add: Im absolutely hip to the draw of low pitched pipes, so nothing 'against' that idea...I get fixed for that from my 5 foot tall sei palmi zampogna ]

[rgouette]

after years of A=476Hz @ +/-110D

are you sure you can even hear what key it IS you're playing in?

[CHasR]

after years of A=476Hz @ +/-110D

are you sure you can even hear what key it IS you're playing in?

as my revered instrumental conducting professor used to say "There's only 12 notes, son & If you cant tell them apart, then you're in the wrong line of work".

[rgouette]

hah nice one

[gedpipes]

Favourite pitch has to depend on the mood and who I'm playing with

[fancypiper]

Favourite pitch has to depend on the mood and who I'm playing with

I wish I could say that.

[john]

i think that perhaps the individual style of a particular piper dictates whether they go for flat or concert pitch - i have known some players to be evangelical in their preference for flat pipes (robbie hannon for instance) - i remember reading an interview with ronan browne in which he said that he approached playing flat sets differently to concert sets and that his concert pitch playing was more brash/aggressive - personally, i can tell the difference between concert pitch and flat but haven't got to the stage where i can differentiate between different flat pitches

[rgouette]

his concert pitch playing was more brash/aggressive

for my part, I'm not sure I can even be too aggressive , considering the finger spread..
at this point anyway

I do know this, Lliam O' Flynn's rendition of Cailín na Gruaige Doinne (The Girl of the Brown Hair)
is lovely on 'The Given Note'
That's a flat set of some sort yes?

[john]

i remember hearing of a hunter chanter in g as played by ronan browne and wondered if anyone had tried to make them in a or a flat?

[dunnp]

There are clips and photos of an A chanter on the Hunter site.
http://www.hunterpipes.co.uk/Images.html
I would love to play my Casey Burns Low A flute along with this chanter

[Lulu]

Intresting and also big chanter... Where can I hear any A chanter?

[Gabriel]

Bb if I have my Bb flute with me, C if I don't.

[rorybbellows]

Interesting results, out in the the real world the most played pitch is concert pitch yet here on the forum the favorite pitch is C. So how would you interpret the contradiction of the result. Could it be that although concert pitch is the most played it is only because of the need to play with other musicians or is it that forum members are out of touch with reality ?

RORY

[mke_mick]

This is a pretty broad question, though. E.g., you might prefer playing a concert pitch set, but particularly enjoy listening to flat-pitched set-players.

Similarly, there's an awful lot of variability between chanters in any given key. Personally, I love flat sets that sound dark and smoky, but not chanters that sound like tenor saxophones...

[Patrick D'Arcy]

My favourite pitch, I would have to say, would be Croke Park.

Boom boom! It's the way I tell 'em!

Patrick