I'm 17, live in New Zealand and I've been playing/teaching myself smallpipes for about 3/4s of a year now (I have a video of me playing on youtube ).
My smallpipes are in the key of A but it had bothered me that they were actually pitched somewhere halfway between A and Ab making it very difficult to play with other intruments which I simply avoided by playing solo...
But...
Just yesterday my chanter reed gave out, prompting me to replace it with a spare (the first time I've had to do this). I had suspected the new reed would take a while to settle and after a few slow airs and some tweaking of the drones I was back in tune. However I found the bag required more pressure to play and the chanter was a lot louder due to the vitality of the new reed.
Also my ears sensed a change in pitch too, and, to resolve my suspicion I hit the A and E keys on the piano beside me... lo and behold they were perfectly in tune with my smallpipes!
I'm quite excited about the possibilties of playing with other intruments and backing tracks etc. In fact I invited my pianist friend over and we jammed with some jigs and reels as well as to one of his new age compositions which he had unconsciously written within the pipe scale. Great fun! I shall upload some videos soon utilising the new-found music-friendly pitch of my intrument
Also I'm really happy with the "energy boost" my pipes seem to have got from their new reed.
Has anyone else had this happen? Should I simply replace my reeds regularly to avoid a drop in pitch?
Coz now they're at A 440hz I want them to stay in A!
The reed can make a huge difference. I was using a practice chanter that was given to me as a gift while I was waiting for my convertable set to arrive (got it last April) and it was very difficult to play and horribly out of tune. I ordered a Walsh synthetic reed and the difference was like night and day. My smallpipe chanter reeds are custom made cane reeds (my set is bellows fed) and they have wire bridles. I find the bridle setting (i.e. how "open" or "closed" the reed is) makes a big difference in how it plays. I'd definitely keep a spare reed from a reputable maker on hand! Happy Piping
Oscar, are your pipes bellow or mouth blown? If bellows then you should never have to change a smallpipe reed once you have a good one. The first rule of tuning any pipes is that you push the reed slightly further into the chanter to sharpen it or put a wee bit more hemp on it and pull it out a wee bit to flatten it. It sounds to me that your first reed was just pushed far to far down. Also with smallpipes overblowing/squeezing can dramatically sharpen the reed. Check your octave jump from A to high A - If you are applying too much pressure then the high A will be sharp. Good luck.
If any of the Gurus out there feel like writing a tutorial on how to get smallpipes or border pipes to play at 440Hz then I (and probably many others) would be very grateful.
The only technique I have managed to get to work is to pin down a couple of the A keys on my keyboard and then try to play along with them. And an awful lot of to and fro-ing with bridle, reed height and pressure. There must be a step-by-step way to do this systematically? (I'm talking about border pipes here - I manage the smallpipes reasonably easily since the chanter reed is pretty good right now.)
Once I am reasonably close and have the 440Hz going reliably from some other source (i.e. keyboard) then I can use my ears to keep things exact. But It takes me ages to get to that point. Tuning the drones to 440Hz isn't enough since I need to do that at the pressure at which the chanter is also going to hit 440Hz - and I don't know that in advance!
Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
Hi all!
).
I'm 17, live in New Zealand and I've been playing/teaching myself smallpipes for about 3/4s of a year now (I have a video of me playing on youtube
My smallpipes are in the key of A but it had bothered me that they were actually pitched somewhere halfway between A and Ab making it very difficult to play with other intruments which I simply avoided by playing solo...
But...
Just yesterday my chanter reed gave out, prompting me to replace it with a spare (the first time I've had to do this). I had suspected the new reed would take a while to settle and after a few slow airs and some tweaking of the drones I was back in tune. However I found the bag required more pressure to play and the chanter was a lot louder due to the vitality of the new reed.
Also my ears sensed a change in pitch too, and, to resolve my suspicion I hit the A and E keys on the piano beside me... lo and behold they were perfectly in tune with my smallpipes!
I'm quite excited about the possibilties of playing with other intruments and backing tracks etc. In fact I invited my pianist friend over and we jammed with some jigs and reels as well as to one of his new age compositions which he had unconsciously written within the pipe scale. Great fun! I shall upload some videos soon utilising the new-found music-friendly pitch of my intrument
Also I'm really happy with the "energy boost" my pipes seem to have got from their new reed.
Has anyone else had this happen? Should I simply replace my reeds regularly to avoid a drop in pitch?
Coz now they're at A 440hz I want them to stay in A!
Cheers,
Oscar
# Posted on January 24th 2009 by Picopanpipe
Re: Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
The reed can make a huge difference. I was using a practice chanter that was given to me as a gift while I was waiting for my convertable set to arrive (got it last April) and it was very difficult to play and horribly out of tune. I ordered a Walsh synthetic reed and the difference was like night and day. My smallpipe chanter reeds are custom made cane reeds (my set is bellows fed) and they have wire bridles. I find the bridle setting (i.e. how "open" or "closed" the reed is) makes a big difference in how it plays. I'd definitely keep a spare reed from a reputable maker on hand! Happy Piping
# Posted on January 24th 2009 by jasonlburnfield
Re: Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
Oscar, are your pipes bellow or mouth blown? If bellows then you should never have to change a smallpipe reed once you have a good one. The first rule of tuning any pipes is that you push the reed slightly further into the chanter to sharpen it or put a wee bit more hemp on it and pull it out a wee bit to flatten it. It sounds to me that your first reed was just pushed far to far down. Also with smallpipes overblowing/squeezing can dramatically sharpen the reed. Check your octave jump from A to high A - If you are applying too much pressure then the high A will be sharp. Good luck.
# Posted on January 24th 2009 by bogman
Re: Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
If any of the Gurus out there feel like writing a tutorial on how to get smallpipes or border pipes to play at 440Hz then I (and probably many others) would be very grateful.
The only technique I have managed to get to work is to pin down a couple of the A keys on my keyboard and then try to play along with them. And an awful lot of to and fro-ing with bridle, reed height and pressure. There must be a step-by-step way to do this systematically? (I'm talking about border pipes here - I manage the smallpipes reasonably easily since the chanter reed is pretty good right now.)
Once I am reasonably close and have the 440Hz going reliably from some other source (i.e. keyboard) then I can use my ears to keep things exact. But It takes me ages to get to that point. Tuning the drones to 440Hz isn't enough since I need to do that at the pressure at which the chanter is also going to hit 440Hz - and I don't know that in advance!
And by the way I'm using bellows...
# Posted on January 24th 2009 by Crackpot
Re: Pipers: Keeping reeds at concert pitch
Thanks for the replies guys!
Yes I forgot to say my set is a Walsh Scottish Smallpipe and it's mouthblown. I've heard that the warm air requires tougher reeds?
Thanks for the tuning tip Bogman... the last reed probably was sitting incorrectly in the chanter. :o
# Posted on January 25th 2009 by Picopanpipe