Hello - F naturals are not the most favoured keys on the pipes and there are many reasons for this - A lot of them are mechanical. Each and every note should sound as pure and clean as it can, you need to have absolute confidence that every note you play is going to come out just how you want it to. Getting the F natural to sound like this is a challenge.
The key itself is very short with the pivot very close to the hole-pad (In comparison to high B or low D). This affects how the note is sounded. If the key is pressed slowly, the opening forms very slowly and with little clearance and the note does not form at all well. The aim is to get a clear clean start to the note and then to let the spring return the key on to hole. There are complications for the player to cope with here:
- The key end requires significant travel to reach with the thumb. From a rest position the thumb comes off the chanter, across over the D# and down on to the Fnat before returning in the same way
- Top G thumb often obscures the Fnat hole, I have found that the angle of the top thumb affects the sound of the note due to the key clearance. Large thumbed players especially struggle here
- The D# can interfere with the F nat key travel.
Ben Power wrote:
Is it simply a matter of speed and ultimate economy of motion developed by long practice and repetition
Primarily yes it's speed and economy - but it's also a matter of adjusting the timing in the music to give you room to play the sequence without it sounding artificial.
should one always have one thumb or other on the chanter when moving between Fnat and G and back (and work toward that as above) or does one try to develop a hold that works without either thumb on?
I would not advocate a 'thumbs off' positioning of the chanter. That is not to say that when playing the sequence there may be an incredibly short period when both thumbs are in fact off. At *speed*, the friction from the fingers can be sufficient to maintain the position of the chanter for a very small period. It's not something that can be explicitly practised - by playing with thumbs on and improving the speed and economy and overall control of the chanter I have found that some top thumb, bottom thumb transitions do now have this gap. As soon as I conciously think about it, the notes go and the chanter moves.
If you want to explore 'fully thumbs off' there are two possibilities:
- resting the chanter on the fingers
- planting the chanter foot on your thigh
It's worth doing both simply to understand how chanter control affects the playing - but I don't advocate either as best practice. Planting the chanter has other benefits which work for other people but I don't think 'thumbs off' is the primary reason
pursuant to the above question, does one play many of the lower notes without one's right thumb in contact with the chanter, ready to touch a key as needed, or does one always return one's right thumb to a constant position on the chanter and move once again to a key from there?
I advocate a mixture of both and treat the middle thumb hold as a 'rest'' position. Fundamentally, the player should be performing a balancing act with the chanter (between the hands) rather than gripping it with either or both hands. When either thumb is removed the controlling hand has to correct the resulting moment (rotation) of the chanter. The lower the forces being exerted by both hands, the less correction is required and the less the chanter wobbles around. The less the chanter wobbles, the less mental and muscular effort is required for control and more can be devoted to music. The listener shouldn't be able to hear the mechanics of the player.
Playing a full tune with the right thumb of the chanter is an excellent exercise in that it highlights issues with bottom hand grip, top hand control and key execution. There are however tunes out there that almost require 'right thumb off' in their entirety.
Are there any obvious tricks to playing Fnat with ease?
I would remphasise the point that it is '
a matter of adjusting the timing in the music to give you room to play the sequence without it sounding artificial.'
In addition to the above: One option is to skip the F natural note itself if it is a passing note (or to skip the G). I always look at where the beat is and what the chord is when considering this. Another one is to play an F# instead if the tune is in a mode of G - there are number of tunes that do this (Suttors of Selkirk has short F# and long F nats also some versions of Holey Ha'penny switch).
Good Luck
Rob