Originally Posted by TheOfficialBren
Here's one for our pipers:
[Here are my questions:]
1) my practise chanter has always, even when brand new, been very difficult to blow. I even put a nice, brand new Gibson reed in it and it's still harder than the Dickens to get a steady blow for longer than five or ten minutes. This was always the case. Is it my technique or my intrument?
2) my chanter sounds "pitchy." I had to use Autotune when recording to correct some pitchiness. I suspect that either its holes were incorrectly drilled or pipes don't quite fit into a standard 440-based scale?
3) I've always had the habit of biting my mouthpiece. My piping instructor never corrected this even though I gather that this is a big no-no. It's a hard habit to break. Any advice?
4) Although there is no substitute for a warm body teaching the student (I can vouch for this having had drumming students of my own and having meen a music student many times myself), what and where are some good respurces to help get me back into piping? I'm assuming that starting back at the very beginning would be prudent since that's the advice that I offered my drumming students who had stopped drumming for many years and wanted to take it up again. Is this accurate? Is this a good place to start (http://www.bagpipe-tutorials.com/play-bagpipes.html)? (I know of PM Bill Robertson's reputation and his skill certainly is extremely high on the talent scale [haha, pardon the musical pun]).
The other respondents have offered some excellent suggestions. Here are my answers:
1) Probably more instrument than technique, especially if it’s one of the ‘Learn to play the Bagpipe’ $30 practice chanters made of a burgundy-colored wood. Those are notoriously difficult to get to play properly and anywhere close to the proper bagpipe scale.
Which leads to answer 2) As Richard has posted, the pipes do not use the Western chromatic scale that we’re accustomed to. Also, I’m told the pitch has risen over the past couple/three/four decades to where it is today (A=476 to 482 or so, depending on a few factors like humidity, temperature, etc.). Even practice chanters have been subject to this rise in pitch, though not as dramatically. My PC tends to pitch at about A=466 (Walsh long blackwood).
3) I use a short piece of plastic tubing (clear, water supply grade) on my bagpipe blowstick, but nothing on my pratice chanter blowstick. I don’t tend to bite that. This kind of goes back to your first question. It takes practice to develop the lip muscles in keeping the air-tight seal on the blowstick. In the beginning, expect to have some issues with getting tired, drooling and ultimately being unable to maintain the seal. I still have difficulty after an hour or so of playing the big pipes at band rehearsal.
4) Others have hit on this well already. I would suggest going back to the beginning and (re-)developing your technique cleanly. Invest in a good tutorial book (the College of Piping green book, Sandy Jones’ tutorial, et. al.) and try to find an instructor, either local or on Skype.
Welcome (back) to the journey!
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