Practice - Our Instruments
The fifers in the Loyalist Fifes and Drums are playing on what are called, "Model F" fifes, purchased from www.beafifer.com. These fifes are made from Grenadilla wood (also known as Blackwood) with long, chrome plated ferrules on each end. These fifes have 6 holes and are what are called B-flat instruments, like the the trumpet, clarinet and tenor saxophone. What makes them a B-flat instrument, is that if a person covers the holes to play the note, C, the pitch that will sound out of the instrument, will be a B-flat. Most reproduction fifes are now made in the key of B-flat. After personally purchasing and trying out half a dozen fifes, I have found the Model F fife to be the easiest to play, have the nicest sound, and great for beginners or professionals alike. It is a very good quality instrument and the price is quite modest.
The drummers of the Loyalist Fifes and Drums play on side-slung, rope-tension tenor snare drums. After trying a few others, we have found the company, "Cooperman" to make the best drums for our purpose. Cooperman makes custom drums, with wooden shells and rims. They can either make you a drum with calf-skin heads and natural fiber ropes, or they will even put on synthetic batter and snare heads with synthetic ropes. Historically, the drums would have had skin heads with hemp ropes, but we have found that the weather affects the sound of the skin heads, as heat, humidity and the elements all contribute to altering the sound of the drum. For our purposes, as we are often a performance group, we have chosen to put synthetic heads on some of our drums, to regulate the sound quality of the instrument.
