Expert: Arash Ebrahimi - 9/1/2008

Question
Hi there,

I've been a piper for about 16 years now. Though because I don't do do the competition or pipe band thing, I'm sometimes a bit out of touch with some of the current trends in the piping world.

One of these major trends is definitely chanter pitch. I'm aware that over the years pipers have been gradually increasing the overall pitch of their chanters in the attempt to make them sound brighter... especially the pipe bands. As far as I know, this is why the instrument is keyed somewhere between Bb 440 and B 440, but pipers still refer to the tonic note as 'A'

I recently bought a new set of Gibson pipes for a pretty good price, as my old set was always far to flat with just about any other pipers I came across. The plastic Gibson chanter is unbelievably sharp... it reads at Bb 464. I have highland chanter keyed in A 440, so I'm going to make the old set an old-style 'A' set.

While I'm glad to now have a very sharp chanter to go along with some other folks... I'd like at least having the option of getting my solo Naill chanter sounding a bit closer to the Gibson pitch. My Naill is wood, the feeling is better, and the overall tone is better overall (so I prefer it to the Gibson).

The sharpest I seem to be able to get the Naill to sound is Bb 454. Is this normal and the Gibson is just ridiculously sharp... or should I somehow be able to get the Naill pitch higher?

Answer
Hey Nate,

There seems to be a definite trend in in changing chanter pitch for competitions.  To those with highly trained ears, this trend is somewhat annoying and bothersome.  Lucky for me, I barely have moderately trained ears :)

In the end, your chanter is only going to go so high or so low.  There are ways to mess with the actual chanter to change the pitch, but this can be dangerous.  An easier way would be to modify your chanter reed:

http://www.bagpipejourney.com/articles/chanterreedmod.shtml


Here is an article that dives further into the pitch issue:
http://cityofoaks.home.netcom.com/Bagpipe_Tuning.html

I don't have too much more to offer than this, but with two sets of pipes you should be good to go solo or with others.

For further assistance I would contact a pipe band in your area and talk to the pipe major.

Arash