Mccluskeyarundell > Leon > Music
Make your own tabor pipe
If you can't easily buy a tabor pipe, it's not hard to make one for yourself by converting a standard penny whistle. A standard D whistle is best for morris tunes and other tunes in the key of G or D. A larger whistle will give a softer sound, more suited to practising and to smaller indoor venues.
The simplest way to make your own tabor pipe is with a single strip of adhesive tape. Simply tape over the three holes nearest the mouthpiece, leaving the farthest three holes open. This makes a pipe that can be played with one hand, but that needs a second hand to steady it. You can't use it to play pipe and tabor together. If you decide that taboring isn't for you, just remove the adhesive tape and you have your penny whistle back.
The picture at left shows a standard 6-hole penny whistle (on the right of the picture). The middle whistle has its four "nearest" holes taped over. The upside-down whistle at the far left shows its new bottom (thumb) hole.
For a properly functioning tabor pipe (that can still be converted back to a penny whistle), follow these instructions. You will need a drill press, or an electric or battery drill. In the absence of those you could try using a hand drill, with care.
1. Take a standard penny whistle (preferably one with a cylindrical body rather than a conical one - conical whistles have a bottom seam that can make it difficult to drill suitable holes).
2. use adhesive tape to cover the three top holes nearest the mouthpiece, leaving the farthest thee holes open.
3. find your largest drill bit that fits through the fourth hole from the mouthpiece (the open hole next to the adhesive tape).
4. place the drill bit into the fourth hole, and drill straight through the bottom of the whistle. This creates an identical hole in the bottom of the whistle, at the same distance from the mouthpiece.
5. smooth the rough edges of the newly-drilled hole
6. use adhesive tape to cover the fourth top hole.
If the resulting note (with all three holes open) is tuned too low, you can raise it by making the hole larger (e.g. by drilling it out to the size of your next largest drill bit).
You can convert your tabor pipe back to a standard penny whistle by removing the adhesive tape from the top holes, and by taping over the bottom hole.
If you ever see a penny whistle with a small piece of adhesive tape underneath, you will know that its owner is a reformed taborer!
This page was last updated on 1 April 2006