Get Your Chanter Reeds Under Control! Part 1: Least destructive methods to bring in your reeds! 

Right, it isn’t magic it’s a process.

Glad you're finding the videos useful! Like everything, it's just a process. In this case, just not a very well documented one!

Thank you! I’m having a blast making these videos and am glad so many people are learning from them. 👍👍👍

You're welcome! The next one is the scary one, where I scrape and sand a few of these bad boys!

You're welcome! Glad these are helping you out.

Thanks! I would like to hope I don't talk *quite* this much at a lesson (have to let the students get a word in occasionally!)

Have you considered looking for an instructor?

Great to hear!

Glad you found it useful!

Many thanks!

Glad you found it helpful!

You're welcome! Glad you are finding the channel helpful. 60 years is quite the history of piping!

@@MattWillisBagpiper Thank you. I am a petite 5'2" female too haha

Ah, not a sir at all! Corrected my previous statement. :) :)

You wouldn't happen to live in Southern New Mexico? Lol

@@rabidrooster6525 No, I live in New Zealand

I hope the next one is as good! Fingers crossed. And thank you! Share with any pipers you think could get some use out of it!

You're welcome! I probably should have added, if you are in one of those bands that doesn't let the members touch their reeds, then don't use me as excuse as to why you broke the rule! Kidding aside, these are critical skills that all pipers need and I'm happy to share what I know. Cheers!

Lol... Never been in one that wasn't inclined that way, but now retired from banding a long while so do my own maintenance and setting up, but having the technicalities covered as you have been doing is great. All of this would make a great book manual, having it in one place, as opposed to being accross several sources and in your down to earth understandable terminology, or even better a collection of your videos on dvd. A project for the long dark nights perhaps?

Glad you are enjoying the videos! Cheers!

Thank you! Share it with any pipers you know who could get some value from it... Cheers!

Oh wow! I don't know anything about the gaita... Are the reeds similar? Glad this video could be of assistance!

It's a similar reed but slightly smaller than the one for the highland pipes.

Noted! Tuning videos are hard to make... Hopefully I can get one up soon. Cheers!

Appreciated! Hope to get the next few chanter reed videos out soon!

Good topics to discuss! Seems like I may never run out of future bagpipe related topics. Stay tuned!

They can sign up as patrons!

@@MattWillisBagpiper what I mean is they are starting to see results instead of just blowing ...now they are talking tune and sound!! coolness txs!

@@MattWillisBagpiper BTE i put gravel in my bag to make it sound better!.....lol

I bought it from Chris Apps many years ago.

Really depends, but there’s always some variance.

I play 28-30 reeds. Easy, but not super easy. Below 28 I can’t really “lean” into the bag with arm. I used to play 32, but never got my breath capacity back after my first bout of Covid back in 2020.

@@MattWillisBagpiper Thank you!

Glad you're enjoying the videos! I got that pressure gauge years ago from Chris Apps.

Both are excellent bagpipes that will serve you well your whole career.

Setting up new bagpipes can be daunting, even for an experienced player. Is there anyone in your area that can help you? It’s difficult to determine if you or the instrument is at fault without actually playing it... have you tested to make sure the bag is airtight?

The Braw tuner is very nice for the chanter. I find it a bit squirrelly for the drones though. But it's now my preferred chanter tuning app.

@@MattWillisBagpiper I'm the same way, I've been using my old yet reliable Korg tuner for my drones, BRAW to check notes on the chanter

I think the R.G. Hardie twist-trap long practice chanters are the best for sturdiness and keeping the reed dry. They also tend to have slightly better D and high G's. Definitely a long. The short chanters have more intonation issues, it seems.

appsreeds.com/products/reed-pressure-gauge

I think ridge cut reeds are the easiest to work on. Less fragile, more cane to work with.

I use the ultimate reed poker from Jori Chisholm at bagpipelessons.com

Hello! There will definitely a video (or video series) on drone reeds in the future. Stay tuned! And hope you've subscribed!

The colors do not, they can represent either different brands or different ranges from a given maker, but not strength.

Have you tried going step-by-step through this video? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lBotVgTWIPs.html

I just buy the $100 one. Not worth the time for me to source all the parts...

Peterson's iStroboSoft

Standard and long are pretty much the same these days. The long has extra length below the low G hole, and occasionally slightly wider finger spacing (but not always). Maverick makes a very good chanter indeed, but yes, not cheap. Any polypenco/plastic chanter from any of the major manufacturers is a good instrument to get started with...

I recommend a teacher, Skype or zoom if you have to, I know it's expensive, but if you go it alone with a tutor book and even RU-vid vids, you will develop bad habits without knowing it. Pros will hear/see things that you won't know you are doing. Wish I had proper instruction when i started around 20 years ago. Now I do Skype lessons and my instructor corrects me on things I'm not even aware of.

Good question, and there's no one answer... I'd say if it's still too hard to play after 3-4 attempts (of a few minutes each), I'd start trying to ease it a bit. Just remember you can't put cane back on the reed once removed... So less is better when you do start sanding/scraping.

Great question! I am going to go into this more fully in the next two videos, but briefly, if there is no crow on high A when under-blown, it could mean that your gracenotes are going to not have the "crack" you might want. In modern piping, folks tend to blow through the crow to a clear High A, but there are lots of recordings of older pipers with quite strong crowing High A's, so it seems to come in and out of fashion...

There's actually good audio on Spotify of Stuart Liddell having a crow on his high A playing Fair Maid of Barra. Every example on RU-vid, though, is a clear high A. I prefer the clearer version.

@@molasses4masses Agreed. Crowing drives me bonkers like fingers down a chalkboard. A nice clean, slightly disappearing high A for me personally.

1. The bottom two holes are the tone holes for low G. 2. I would alter the holes. Give it time and keep practicing and you’ll start feeling the holes. 👍 3. The chanter in this video is a full pipe chanter, not a practice chanter bottom, like the chanter portion of the twist trap. A real pipe chanter would not work with the twist trap practice pipes.

@@MattWillisBagpiper Thank you Matt!

Great question! Inches of water displaced. Much more info here! bagpipejourney.com/articles/manometer.shtml

Glad you found the channel! Hope you subscribed!

Fantastic, thank you. Is that mouthpiece with the gauge commercially available, or did you make that?

It is available! I'd direct link it, but that affects the monetization (aka, I make less money, since it takes you to an online store), but you can go to The Piper's Hut and look up "Chanter Reed Pressure Guage" (and yes, it's listed misspelled) and you'll find it. $110 USD at the moment.

Try increasing the amount of air you're putting through the reed. Let us know!

Opens the staple and makes the reed a bit harder to blow and can occasionally help with sharp high G’s.

@@MattWillisBagpiper Thanks Matt, have a great day.

What brand smallpipes?

@@MattWillisBagpiper McCallum ; reed: Shaw

iStroboSoft from Peterson (on an iOS device). The Android version does not allow "sweeteners" to be purchased, which is needed for the temperament of the highland pipes.

Reeds can bounce after playing, at least to some degree. I’d make sure the moisture control on your folks pipes is working well (perhaps time to bake the desiccant?)

It depends on how easy the reed is already. At a certain point, you'll ease up the reed to the point where you cannot maintain both a high A and low G at the same pressure. At that point, you simply need to be stronger. There is a minimum amount of blowing strength needed to play the pipes, and some folks need to add some cardio and strength training to their daily routine to get the masic fitness up to a level they can successfully play the pipes...

Ty

Lone Star Piper, Henderson Imports, J. Higgins, The Piper's Hut all have good reed selections.

@@MattWillisBagpiper thank you so much!

I'd need to see a video of the process to diagnose... Are you putting enough air through the reed?

Thanks! Is the high A too sharp or flat?

The A is flat...

Ross Hamilton try sinking the reed further into the seat. You may have to remove some hemp to do that.

Matt Willis Bagpiper great! I’ll give that a try...🙂

@@rosshamilton3203 Let us know how it goes!

I'm not sure I"m following your questions... Most modern pipe chanters tune around 480, which means the tenors would be 240, and the bas 120. The high A then would be 960... As for the other notes, in bagpipe temperament, they are specific fractions based on the low A frequency, but the math is beyond me. I use either a tuner or my ear against the drones to get the other notes in tune.

@@MattWillisBagpiper I like numbers (my reeds ballpark 465 low A give or take ) and the brawl tunner is awesome... but when I spoke numbers I was told "the chanter evens out in thirds , numbers has nothing to do with tuning,, it's about the art of tunning reeds " So thinking 50-500 pipers all play in tune I wondered if there was a way to tune a reed by seating,scraping or poking that his ear could pick out to be the true tuning The evens in thirds I just thought he was referring to what notes a guitar,piano ect has that a chanter dosent and maybe it was 2 missing between low g and low other instruments could hit Me being able to tune a guitar to near e by ear I thought his expertise allowed him to do similar with a reed and my talk of numbers simplifying it insulted his way maybe? Idk I never plan on playing in bands so if I'm off key but in tune with my chanter I'm comfortable .. thanks again

I'd go with another easy reed. Glad you found the channel! What brand pipes?

@@MattWillisBagpiper I went for McCallum acetyl pipes, thought it made sense as a learning set. Really getting excited to receive them, but dreading having to tie them in 🙂

The retailer wouldn’t tie them in for you?

@@MattWillisBagpiper ordered them online from thebagpipeshop.co.uk, since we have no retailers around here. Can they be shipped in a tied in state?

Hope this helps!

For info on lessons, please email me at matt@mattpiper.com Thanks!

I agree the pitch variability is great, but I cannot say it's unusual in my experience. Perhaps I always get a bad selection of reeds, but they are pretty much always this inconsistent. One of the reasons I chose not to name either the supplier or brand. But it hasn't mattered... I've gotten reeds straight from makers, from retailers... And lots of different brands. Can't remember getting a batch of consistent reeds. I suspect many other pipers have felt the same. I think it's a real problem and one that should be addressed, but in the meantime, I'll do my best to make videos to help get the reeds working for folks!

@@MattWillisBagpiper i agree i’ve never had a reed that you did not need to try to fix to make it work

Fyi i mean the type you put into the drone for measuring steadiness

Yes! It’s on the list, though there are a few things I need to cover first. But it’s on the list!

Tried to make one today to fix the over blowing on my top hand. Blew all the liquid out on the wall

Ha!! Needed a longer tube? Too much water?

@@MattWillisBagpiper 6 feet of tube each side and about i don't know a foot of water. Im gonna try restricting the exiting air see what that does. Or maybe im out of calibration.

Perfect example!

Jack Lee at his reed workshops talks a lot about licking his reeds and making sure there is enough moisture on them. If Jack Lee can sound like he does with a damp reed, I don't suspect a bit of water on the reed is going to hurt anything... One can certainly oversaturate a reed, but I think a mostly dry reed sound pretty thin much of the time.

Maybe only $130 worth of reeds. ;) But yeah, I always buy a lot of reeds and pray one works.

@@MattWillisBagpiper Thanks Matt, that's what I figured. Losing the reed that I have been playing and comfortable with is like losing an old friend and rather traumatic.

Email me at matt@mattpiper.com and I’ll get you my rates. 👍

Haven’t played many, but the few I did worked fine. 👍