Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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9 4 21 20130930 21 reeds normally the notes may be intoned by pressure to an acceptable tuning. There has been described the refurbishment by Geoff Wooff of a Coyne set with a fourth regulator of that kind. (An Píobaire, Vol. 4, Issue 8, p. 10.) Geoff didn’t restore it, among other rea- sons, because “it would get in the way for most people playing the set.” Picture 1 shows the c sharp set with home built regulators and the e’ regulator, added to a Matt Kiernan set of drones. This e’ note almost doubles the possibilities of chordal functions. The double stops: ae’ allows a minor and a major triad chord, with the appropriate chanter note along with it. ge’ : e minor and c major be’: e minor, e major ce’: c major and a minor Later on, instead of a complete e’ regulator, I built a key only, hinged on the main stock and opening a tone hole underneath the baritone regulator, just in the middle between the d’ and f’ sharp. I tuned it carefully by stepwise open- ing the tone hole. Picture 2 shows this kind of key mounted on a C set by Robby Hughes from below, with the bass drone removed. I built another version of this e’ key for another set. As this has a detachable bass regulator, I found it better to set it alongside the tenor reg- ulator. So the key may be used on three-quar- ter sets as well. In any case it is important to find enough space between the tenor regulator pipe and bass drone parts for the key plate to be opened wide enough. Picture 3 (page 22) shows this key, mounted on a Podworny three-quarter set in D. More drones for keys and modes other than d and g. Changing tonic drones while play- ing Strictly judged, only the tunes with the tonic d are appropriately accompanied by the classical drones, and this is the reason why these tunes form the core of the uilleann pipes repertoire. In some tunes it seems that the drone has had an impact on the melody structure. Many fiddle tunes in d, played on the pipes, lack this close relationship to the drones and thus are not really considered to be part of the repertoire. I was wondering how the many tunes in our repertoire with tonic g, a, b and e would sound if they had a tonic drone group under them as well. I expected them to sound much better that way. Hans-Jörg Podworny had made his set with two additional drones for e and e’ in the late 1980s, Picture 2

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