Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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9 4 20 20130930 20 ~ TECHNIQUE ~ Just Accompaniment My personal solutions for just accompaniment of tunes in keys other than D on the pipes S INCE I STARTED PLAYING the Uilleann Pipes in 1976, I have been searching for ways to build drones and regulators which would accompany not only the tunes in d and g to best effect, but also the ones in e, a or b in adequate quality. Here I want to describe in short the experi- mental steps I have gone through during the last 22 years to find my personal solution. Now, after having used this setup for some years in playing in concerts and sessions, I have the impression that it doesn’t leave any- thing essential to be desired, at least for my personal style. The e’ in the regulator compass The beginning of the process was when I got my first full set in 1977 and wondered about the missing e’ on the standard regulator setup. I made a ring-shaped key between the baritone d and f sharp, opening the tone hole underneath the pipe. It could only be played with the right hand taken from the chanter. This is obviously the best position for it. I have seen elongated tenor regulators for e’, but this e’ cannot be played along with the other regulator notes with the right hand on the chanter. And even then it only may go with the bass regulator notes; the baritone notes are discordant except the a’. Then I found the most useful solution on the Willie Rowsome set in Francis O’Neill’s Irish Minstrels and Musicians: a fourth regulator be- side the bass (not easy to recognize as such on the photo), with a long key beside the b and c bass keys. Why only two? Around 1990 I built a set of regulators to complete a Kiernan half set, containing a forth regulator for e’ with a key long enough to play all bass keys along with. The explanation for Willie Rowsome’s reluctance might have been the fact that an e’ justly tuned to the bass a note give waverings against the b because of the non-tempered just tuning. Still I use these chords, as with my soft Picture 1

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2013-09-30T00:00:00

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