This month we are taking a look at some of the uncommon instruments with Northumbrian Small Pipes the subject of this week’s blog and video.
I have so many instruments in my life that I love to play, and many more that I would love to play or that I love listening to. One of the instruments I love to play are the Northumbrian Small Pipes.
Northumbrian Small Pipes
The small pipes are one of the few instruments that you have to strap yourself into! They consist of bellows to power the pipes (unlike Scottish Highland pipes which are mouth blown) and these are worked by pumping the bellow under the arm.
The rest of the kit is the chanter, which is where all the different notes are made, and the drones in a single drone stock (as opposed to the Highlands which have their drones in separate stocks).
The chanter of Northumbrian Smallpipes is stopped, meaning there is no hole at the end, unlike most other bagpipes which have a hole at the end to allow the air to flow through continuously.
For the NSP this means that NO air flows until you take a finger OFF a finger hole. In this way the NSP can actually play silence, so to speak; Think about Great Highland Pipes (the one most people think about when they think about bagpipes). There is always a sound coming from the chanter which gives a constant sound even in between notes. With NSP you don’t get that – you get the opposite – silence in between notes. But this means with NSP it’s all about taking your fingers OFF one at a time as opposed to putting your fingers on – which can take some getting used to!
When playing the NSP we use bellows on our right arm to bring air into the sack which sits under our left arm. This left arm is controlling the amount of air pushed to the chanter and drones. It’s a continual balancing act of allowing air to come in from the bellows, while also keeping a constant pressure of air to the chanter/drones. It can take a lot of practice to get that balance right!
A very good friend of mine always claims that playing the Northumbrian small pipes is a bit like wrestling with an octopus, only slightly harder 🐙 😂
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