Piping Progression

[SteveB]

Ohiopiper,

I understand small space acoustics. On Sunday I serve my church as a religious education instructor. Each week we start with a "Children's Chapel" service. The music director got piping scores for most of the hymms we use with the children. I accompany them with the practice chanter, as it provides a low enough level of music for the children to sing with, without deafening them. I have used the smallpipes in the larger room, on the occasion that we use it.

The hymns are a great source of practice for me, as it forces me to learn to read musical score.

Slainte

[Spartan]

Steve,

My Kitchen Pipes were in the mail when we arrived home last Monday (May 18). They are great. I'm really pleased with them and glad that I made the purchase. I too think that they are the right step along the way to the GHB. Mine have the original Walsh reeds as well. Thunderbolt's going to make an adapter for me so that I can try my Gibson Practice Chanter for a little stronger presence.

Frank

[ohiopiper]

I put them in the Kitchen Pipes and tuned up. Probably 50 percent louder and the increased volume and pressure make the chanter much more responsive to embelishments. I'd feel comfortable playing faster tunes on them now, as the chanter doesn't have the little bit of dullness or sluggishness in it anymore. In short, the embellishments pop now instead of thudding along at low pressure.

If I were to use them in just a PC, I'd probably consider it a waste of air and too loud to be usefull. In a set of small pipes, I like them.

Now as far as reading score, my humble opinion is that it's an indispensable tool to any musician. Yes, I know the old guys did it by ear and song, but I'm not quite that talented and we can all afford paper now. If you spend five to ten minutes a day reading some random score, you'll have it in two weeks, tops. Lay off for a while and you get a little rusty, but won't forget. A good goal is to sight read and play melody notes (no embellishments) at half speed, minimum. Of course half speed for a reel is still 3X for A.G.!

[Spartan]

I put them in the Kitchen Pipes and tuned up. Probably 50 percent louder and the increased volume and pressure make the chanter much more responsive to embelishments. I'd feel comfortable playing faster tunes on them now, as the chanter doesn't have the little bit of dullness or sluggishness in it anymore. In short, the embellishments pop now instead of thudding along at low pressure.

If I were to use them in just a PC, I'd probably consider it a waste of air and too loud to be usefull. In a set of small pipes, I like them.

Thanks for that information on the Abbott Reeds. I want to get a set and do the same thing. It sounds like they will give more authority to the chanter, which we be helpful.

[SteveB]

The idea of putting the Abbott reeds into the smallpipes came from the Abbott reed in my Dunbar Long blackwood practice chanter. The increased presence that the Abbott reed produces has aided my learning on the PC. Just simply that the errors of my fingering are amplified for my learning purposes. I had hemped up the Dunbar chanter bottom and put it on the kitchen pipes, and the sound improvement was awesome. Scot's Wha Ha'e, and Amazing Grace sounded like they should be coming from the GHB, only at a lower volume. This has worked well at church in the smaller meeting spaces.

I agree that a musician needs to be able to read score. It is that I am starting on this effort from having zilch musical knowledge or background. I have to train all the functions, eyes to read score, ears to interpret the sounds and fingers to produce the right sounds. After that it is learning tempo, and interpretation of the music as it is written as well as how it should be played for the enjoyable sounds to be produced.

Congratulations on getting the smallpipes up and running with the Abbott reeds. I am sure that the sound will travel well in your performances. The smallpipes are making even scale work a pleasure as I am learning the squeeze and breath thing. I am getting them to strike up fairly well and my endings are getting better. I am far from perfect, but that is what practice is for.

[SteveB]

At the suggestion of my Tutor, I now have a set of Great Highland Bagpipes. Not that I will be hopping onto them right away, but that the opportunity to own a well cared for set at a reasonable cost should not be passed up. This set has exactly the drone sound I have been dreaming of. It comes with a poly band chanter. Everything else is top quality blackwood.
This set is the wallpaper on my computer screen. I now enjoy my practice even more in anticipation of playing this magnificent instrument.

Slainte

[Spartan]

Sweet! The pipes are calling! Congratulations!

I'm actually enjoying the struggle and challenge of getting mine playing.--and then back to the practice chanter.

[Jack Daw]

Cane reeds are a booger to get and keep in tune. I'd rather do 10 tax returns.

[kypnkilt]

Cane reeds are a booger to get and keep in tune. I'd rather do 10 tax returns.

Can't count how many times I've heard that before.

For those of us that have the "luxury" of having more than one set of pipes to play, reeding up one set with cane drone reeds is definitely a learning experience. Concerning cane reeds, the "trick" is to play them everyday until broke in and at least blow the drones every other day for 5 minutes or more with chanter stock corked. You'd be surprised how much they can stay in tune. But of course, if you were playing indoors only, the chances of "drone failure" is a lot less. Once you go outside....all bets are off.

However, I do encourage others to try to pop in a cane bass reed with their synthetic tenor reeds. Not as problematic as with all drones with cane. Depending on type and bore size, that particular combo can be very pleasant to hear.

[SteveB]

I am at the beginning stages of learning this magnificent instrument. As my very experienced tutor has explained to me each stand of pipes has its own character. We have examined the set, and I have a shopping list of materials that I should obtain to keep the pipes playing. Obviously spare reeds, drone and chanter, fall high on the list. The pipes originally had a set of shepherd synthetic drone reeds, which a previous owner chose to change to the EZ-drones. The set has a Shepherd poly chanter, and I will soon have a Shepherd blackwood chanter to go into the kit. I would like to have a back up set of synthetic drone reeds, and a set of cane reeds. Once I have mastered playing these pipes and learned how to properly care for them, I hope to learn the skills to work with setting up the cane reeds, and the skills to properly tune the instrument on my own.
I have a poly practice chanter, and a blackwood practice chanter. IMHO the blackwood practice chanter produces a far more enjoyable session than the poly. I have heard the difference on my tutor's pipes, as he uses the band's poly for band work, and his blackwood chanter for solo work and competition. I find the blackwood chanter producing a more resonant sound, as well as crisper embellishments. Just my opinion, yours may vary with different results.
Slainte