I am a highland bagpipe player and am looking for tunes of irish trad origin to play on them. The only drawback is they only have the one octave in comparison to the like of the tinwhistle or the uileann pipes. Any suggestions welcome
FolkTuneFinder advanced search allows you to specify the notes and key signature. I'm working on something better, but this is a start. ABC even has two Highland Bagpipe key signatures, but I don't think many people use it for many of the tunes you could play.
There is a huge number of Irish tunes that fit on the Scottish pipes.
In fact a big trend in the Pipe Band scene over the last ten to twenty years is to play lots of Irish stuff. This applies to pipe bands not only in Ireland but also in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc etc.
Sometimes most or nearly all of the tunes that make up a Grade One band's "Medley" will be trad Irish.
If you're looking for tunes already arranged for the GHB, in print, there's the Terry Tully book. Plus various Irish tunes show up from time to time in quite a few different newer GHB collections.
If you're comfortable doing your own arranging from sheet music you can look through any collection of Irish tunes (say O Neill's for example) and find a large number that fit onto the GHB scale.
Or heck, if you have a good ear you can just listen to Irish players and Irish bands and pick up their tunes.
These GHB adaptations of trad Irish tunes do vary quite a bit in their successfulness. For example the GHB version of The Gold Ring is sadly lacking because only around half the parts fit onto the GHB scale. So, you'll hear Pipe Bands play it as a two-part or three-part tune or whatever. But it's popular and quite a few Pipe Bands play it.
Oddly, there are a few Irish songs that actually fit better on the GHB scale than they do on the uilleann scale because they require the note which is Low G on the GHB and would be Low C on a D uilleann chanter.
Now oftentimes Irish tunes come out in a different key on Scottish pipes, so that to play the tunes in an Irish session you'd have to have Scottish smallpipes in A and D and ideally in G as well.
highland bagpipes
highland bagpipes
I am a highland bagpipe player and am looking for tunes of irish trad origin to play on them. The only drawback is they only have the one octave in comparison to the like of the tinwhistle or the uileann pipes. Any suggestions welcome
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Sull
Re: highland bagpipes
you could start with something like this:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/2236
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Duijera Dubh
Re: highland bagpipes
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/2411
Track 10, Dusty Miller set.
Should sound brilliant if you can get an arrangment. Put up a you tube, would love to hear a pipe and drums band version.
Good stuff.
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Duijera Dubh
Re: highland bagpipes
I have just the thing!
FolkTuneFinder advanced search allows you to specify the notes and key signature. I'm working on something better, but this is a start. ABC even has two Highland Bagpipe key signatures, but I don't think many people use it for many of the tunes you could play.
http://www.folktunefinder.com/advancedSearch/
Unfortunately you have to enter a search term, but you could enter 'reel' or 'jig' or something generic.
Joe
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Joe Wass
Re: highland bagpipes
try Bogman's profile - he has a list of tunes playable on bagpipes
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Yohan
Re: highland bagpipes
To clarify - you can specify the upper and lower notes, so you can exclude tunes that have notes that are out of your range.
# Posted on July 10th 2009 by Joe Wass
Re: highland bagpipes
There is a huge number of Irish tunes that fit on the Scottish pipes.
In fact a big trend in the Pipe Band scene over the last ten to twenty years is to play lots of Irish stuff. This applies to pipe bands not only in Ireland but also in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc etc.
Sometimes most or nearly all of the tunes that make up a Grade One band's "Medley" will be trad Irish.
If you're looking for tunes already arranged for the GHB, in print, there's the Terry Tully book. Plus various Irish tunes show up from time to time in quite a few different newer GHB collections.
If you're comfortable doing your own arranging from sheet music you can look through any collection of Irish tunes (say O Neill's for example) and find a large number that fit onto the GHB scale.
Or heck, if you have a good ear you can just listen to Irish players and Irish bands and pick up their tunes.
These GHB adaptations of trad Irish tunes do vary quite a bit in their successfulness. For example the GHB version of The Gold Ring is sadly lacking because only around half the parts fit onto the GHB scale. So, you'll hear Pipe Bands play it as a two-part or three-part tune or whatever. But it's popular and quite a few Pipe Bands play it.
Oddly, there are a few Irish songs that actually fit better on the GHB scale than they do on the uilleann scale because they require the note which is Low G on the GHB and would be Low C on a D uilleann chanter.
Now oftentimes Irish tunes come out in a different key on Scottish pipes, so that to play the tunes in an Irish session you'd have to have Scottish smallpipes in A and D and ideally in G as well.
# Posted on July 11th 2009 by Richard D Cook
Re: highland bagpipes
Oh I forgot! A great book of Irish trad tunes arranged for the Highland pipes is
"Traditional Irish Music for the Bagpipe"
by Dave Rickard
They're probably the best possible arrangements and serve as a great example of how to adapt uilleann etc tunes for the Highland pipes.
# Posted on July 12th 2009 by Richard D Cook
Re: highland bagpipes
Dept. Of Redundancy here -
I have the Rickard book, too, and it is a good one, IMHO.
I got it at Ossian USA .
http://www.ossianusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ossian&Product_Code=00168-BK&Category_Code=B1
50 tunes, good settings, I liked it very much.
Cheap, too.
# Posted on July 12th 2009 by Rook