| Uilleann
Pipes - How They Work An
interview with Chicago Musician and All Ireland Piping Champion
Brendan McKinney By Lou
Carlozo Chicago Tribune Staff Writer.
Uilleann pipes are worn, not held. A bellows gets strapped around
the right arm, and a waist band holds the bellows on one side
and a leather air reservoir bag on the other. The bellows is
pumped with the right elbow — hence the name "uilleann" or
elbow pipes.
The pipes rest across the player’s lap. They consist of
an eight-hole chanter (played with the hands like a tin whistle);
three pipes or drones (a bass, baritone and tenor, which provide
a constant background); and three regulators (similar to stopped
organ pipes, and each with four or five brass keys that act like
buttons on an accordion, allowing the player to finger chords).
Each regulator has its own oboelike cane reed for producing sound,
and rushes (actual dried blades of bog grass — as in the song
"Green Grow the Rushes") are fitted inside the regulator bore to
help fine-tune notes from the keyholes.
Air from the bellows travels through a tube (worn across the stomach)
into the air bag. In a fit of inspired tinkering, McKinney designed
an adapter from garden hose parts to keep the bellows and air bag
tubes locked. From the leather bag, air flows out through a main
stock pipe, where it gets distributed to the regulators and drones.
When they are played, the pipes are about as loud as a robustly
played fiddle. |
