 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-07-28 20:38
Yesterday I noticed the pipe band were tuning the Bb of their drones to 480Hz. So if that's the Bb, what would that make the A?
I realise they call the written/fingered note given by the drones and all six fingers (and left thumb) down on the chanter A instead of normal woodwind fingering/writing where six fingers down is either written/fingered D or G, but 480Hz is nearly a B in Concert Pitch (with A440Hz, Bb is 466.16Hz and B is 493.88Hz).
And does anyone know a page which will show the frequencies for any given note and will give the calibration for the A if you type in Bb=480Hz?
This chart http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html only has lists from 432Hz up to 446Hz, but it would be good to see exactly the pitch the pipers are using. It's clearly High Pitch, but is it 452Hz or more?
And before you all start saying "use the formula to work it out" - I'm not a mathematician and got GCSE grade E for maths both times I attempted the paper, so maths is definitely not my forte. So if there's a simple way to work out the calibration from the Bb being 480Hz, then please let me know.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2014-07-28 20:39)
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Author: Michael E. Shultz
Date: 2014-07-29 02:18
Here is an article that explains bagpipe tuning:
http://cityofoaks.home.netcom.com/Bagpipe_Tuning.html
"The bagpipe scale does not match any of the scales used in modern Western 'concert' music."
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2014-07-29 02:21
I've been in Quimper (Brittany) last week and saw the Bagad Kemper Band. The Director would, upon tuning, hold his tuner to every drone of every player and pull out/push in each and every of them, so yes, they are indeed tuning.
--
Ben
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-07-29 02:47
I've told this story here before, but at my age I'm expected to repeat myself anyway. True or not, it's funny.
The story goes that in the days of reel to reel analog studio tape, an entire album of bagpipe music was produced with the tape running backwards- end to beginning- and nobody noticed until after the LP's were on the store shelves.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2014-07-29 09:13
http://www.flutopedia.com/pitch_to_frequency.htm
Not as easy as what you wanted, but using the work around of choosing a note and putting numbers in the A4 box you can change until you get the pitch of whatever note you chose, in that case Bb 480.
Maybe there is an even easier calculator, just Google it. This is one is still very easy anyway.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-07-30 00:00
That's exactly what I was looking for!
So with the Bb being 480Hz means they're calibrated to A453.06Hz in real terms (even though it's their written/fingered A that's 480Hz).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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