Just fascinating to watch! Thank you Matt. Of course MacCallum know who they are dealing with, concerning that reed… So they were sure you could make it work! :-D
Very informative. I have a set of Walsh shuttle pipes that are currently out of commission and in need of a setup. This is motivating me to spend the necessary time with them. Thanks!
I love your enthusiasm and energy, I know to you this is 'just another unboxing video' but to me I saw a bunch of cool technique in maintenance for small pipes that is of great value. Also, haven't heard Terribus in a long time, thank you for that! And no one plays High Road to Garlic anymore! Again, thank you!
I just replaced the synthetic bag with a Fraser/Warnock hide bag on my Fred Morrison bellows smallpipes, the sound is much improved and the comfort of the pipes is a lot more stable and seems easier to play
AAAAAAAHHH! Holy moly man, I can't afford your channel! You gotta do an, "Unboxing Your Own Practice Chanter, Which You, The Viewer, Already Own So You Don't Need to Buy Anything," video...
Ha! I couldn't afford my channel either! Notice, with perhaps the exception of the Pakistani pipes, all the rest of been things my friends and students have purchased.
This channel has some of the best bagpipe videos, thanks! It's also funny that a guy in Texas is teaching people in Scotland about bagpipes via RU-vid (while I'm close to the Scottish border and can't find anyone who plays them here).
I have received last week my McCallum polypenco small pipe , in mouth blown version. Nice instrument and I guess it will help me to improve my technic for the great highland bagpipe. 😊
How is yours working out? I bought a set of mouth blown and they have proved extremely moisture sensitive, requiring an hour of drying gel things for every minute of trying to tune, the valve wasn't installed in the blowpipe correctly and still allows air to come back up. I'm shorter than average so had to trim the blowpipe to around 9", the drones fall out of the stock and still fall apart after adding hemp...
Matt, I am so frustrated, however a little relieved! My E drone reed is also pitched to a D!!!! I am going to reach out to the Michigan company I bought them from so I can get it resolved.
I'm looking at smallpipes because of the longevity of the reeds and the fact that they're not crazy loud like GHBs; course I was self-taught so probably did a lot of things wrong but that was 20 years ago so probably forgot most of the fingering by now. Course these are fairly expensive but buy once, cry once, right?
Any chance of getting a video on how to properly use that strobe tuner Ap ? Oh, lovely SP's btw, I have a set as well, but I'm still working on learning the bellows.
I think I left a comment on another one of your videos a long time ago, but I thought I'd write one here; I don't write comments on this channel often. The comment might get a bit long though, just so you know; I have a few things I want to say here. First of all this is a great video, as usual. I wouldn't expect anything less :)) I've got to say I really like how those small pipes sound! I'll be honest and say that, for constant listening, I'd much rather listen to the smallpipes as opposed to the Highland pipes; they just have a sweeter sound to me. The highland pipes can start to get a little irritating after a while. That's not to say that I disrespect the Highland piping tradition though; it's more so the 'sound' of the Highland pipes that I don't really care for that much. Second of all, I've not mentioned this yet, but I find bellows-blown bagpipes, in general, rather appealing. The fact you don't necessarily have to worry about moisture from your breath potentially screwing up the instrument (well, duh, because your breath isn't used at all!) is nice, therefore meaning you don't really need to clean it and maintain it in the same way you would with a mouth-blown set of pipes. Plus they're also a good option for those who can't play mouth-blown pipes, like if they have a lung issue or something. But there's one thing about bellows-blown pipes that is ultra-awesome: you can fairly easily sing along while playing the pipes at the same time! I've heard people do this on RU-vid, I can post a link to an example here if you're interested. Technically, this is already possible to do with mouth-blown pipes, but the problem is that, at some point your singing has to get interrupted because you have to eventually use your lungs to re-inflate the bag. You could have the singing parts happening in between the bag inflations, but then that might remove the possibility of singing longer vocal lines (I.E lines that don't have much space for breathing in), while at the same time keeping the pipes from sputtering out due to the bag losing air. I suppose how big of an issue that is depends on the capacity of air the bag can contain (larger bag = larger capacity of air), not to mention how hard the bag is squeezed. Squeezing the bag harder obviously means the air will run out quicker. But taking this a step further, where this could get even more interesting is incorporating beatboxing together with the bagpipes! Now, this would be, practically speaking, pretty much impossible to do with mouth-blown bagpipes (unless you obviously had a second person with you doing the beatboxing part; I heard someone on RU-vid do this with the Highland pipes). When you're beatboxing, there's a lot of inhaling and exhaling going on in a pretty short amount of time, so it would be pretty much impossible to get enough air into the bag during the blowing-and-squeezing cycles, not to mention the fact that your beatboxing sounds would be rather distorted with a mouthpiece in your mouth! All this means that a set of bellows-blown bagpipes would be much more suitable for this task. Of course that's not to say it'll be super easy to do though :))). As a beatboxer myself, you can't imagine how much all this appeals to me! You see, I've heard people beatbox while playing piano at the same time (something I myself do, frequently), or beatboxing while playing guitar at the same time, or whatever. But I've not heard anyone beatbox while playing bagpipes at the same time (yet). So perhaps I'd be the first person in bagpiping history to do this if I were to try it :))))). Anyways, feel free to reply with your thoughts on this cool idea :).
I'm thinking of buying a set of Morrison smallpipes but your having so many problems getting them right is putting me off especially as Fred does say in clips that they take great care to provide a good experience from unboxing.
Matt Willis Bagpiper Great, I’m looking forward to that. I prefer their sound being closer to a GHB and because they’re easier to blow. I am currently stripping two layers of paint off the old pipe box my uncle kept his (now mine) old Lawries in when he was in the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders. I’m going to stain it and varnish it. I’m also going to get a sheepskin bag for them that a well known piobaireachd player said was rock hard under his arm 😁. I’ve only played a bag like that once many years ago. Also, a new polypenco blowpipe because they’re easier to keep clean. I thought one of my ring caps was loose, but it must have been on the pipes I sold a couple of years ago. I’ve still to do the airtight test on the drones as per your other video. I need to clean out the entire pipe. The Blair is fantastic, but I really miss tuning drones and having a bag under my arm. Nothing beats the real Great Highland Bagpipe imho.
I don’t know if I seen a mouth blown border pipe... interesting! My set is a reelpipe by Morrison And they’re brilliant and I love their tone, but will admit they are loud. I mean so close to the highland pipes as to not really make a difference. I’ll see if I can measure them with a decibel meter and compare.
You made those sing! I enjoyed the video, but I do wish there had been a better shot of the engraving work and wood grain. Maybe edit in a few high res still shots in future reviews and unboxing? I know, everyone’s a critic haha!
May I ask if you know where I may get a good reelpipes at a more reasonable price? Fred Morrison have stunning and beautiful sound pipes just they are out of my price rang plus I’m happy with polypenco honestly
Well, someone would have to send me a set! That said, I adore the Duncan MacRae line from McCallum. If I could afford one more highland bagpipe, I would not hesitate to purchase a modern MacRae. Absolutely brilliant instrument.
Here's a list of the tunes: 12:17 Mason's Apron (1st part) 13:07 Teribus (1st part) 14:22 High Road to Gairloch (1st part) 15:05 The Rowan Tree (1st part) 15:31 The Kansas City Hornpipe (1st part)
It took me years of youtubing bagpipes before I lucked out and seen your Channel,,, any suggestions on a smallpipe channel? .( I bug you enough with ghb,s)... I've been suggested the lowland and boarders society but its minimum explaining and hey; you spoiled me lol And the mixolydian ? With the chanter playing 7 notes of an octave (A-G) would that lean more into heptatonic or are ghb,s more pentatonic?
So are there sound holes for low G on this chanter? I'm thinking about getting a replacement chanter for my Walsh smallpipes which have an uncontrollably sharp low G with no sound holes which is bothering the MAZZILLO out of me because I'm very picky about tuning. Obviously I'd have to replace the bag with a zippered bag and add the moisture control to it.
@@MattWillisBagpiper I'm sure they can do that and can probably even adapt it to match the outside diameter of the Walsh stock. From what I hear Walsh isn't making pipes anymore and I do have a few recordings on my channel of the experience I've had with the last EVER smallpipe chanter they said they'd make for me, and if I don't like it I'd have to get a different chanter. Tough luck. The next two replies are the links.
Here's a random question: Are the diameters of the mainstock holes for the two small drones the same? Asking because I really like a bass + 2 tenor setup (Like the Folkpipes) and wonder if it's possible on this instrument by putting a second tenor in rather than the baritone.
@@MattWillisBagpiper Thanks anyway! I've watched this video many times because it's actually better than Fred's promotional vids for getting a sense of what the instrument is like. You should charge them a referral fee.
Are smallpipes finger positioning similar to ghb,s or dose it differ ?,,, is sheet music the same for both?and lastly dose changing key (chanter in tune of a vs b ) change fingering or reading music? I'm aware the reeds are all different build for each key Only when looking into smallpipes I found you playing the gael with bailey lol.. ironic but awesome
Smallpipes in A or B♭ have quite similar finger spacing to the highland pipes. The sheet music can be the same, though often there are better settings for the tunes in smallpipe specific books (as gracenotes and embellishments sound different on the smallpipes). The music is written the same though (same key, as it's always written in "A", though in A mixolydian given the flattened 7th degree of our scale). Hope this helps! And that video with Peter was fun.
mixolydian = bagpipe drones tuned to A (A7 in guitar?) so the notes on the chanter sound good with the dominant (louder) drones ... from high a to b the chanter has 7 notes then changes octave ..so is that heptatonic instead of pentatonic??? Such an old instrument with so much knowledge behind it 🤯
Mixalodian of the 7th flattened is gonna have me researching (glad it was in brackets... I think lol ) ive found a set of Walsh in D which is like a kids training chanter for finger spacing for an amazing price( blow stick thankfully, but I seen you on bellows and almost walked away ) ...and 2 ab pipe chanters for 50 a peice ( a naill and a maclellan) load of stuff for ghb,s for dirt cheap ??? .. I honestly think he bought smallpipes and ghb,s guts and selling from frustration ... reeds ,drone strings,mcs2 filters ,moisture system,.. all for ghb,s Once again thanks, looking forward to some bag practice withought making "as much" noise 🍻
I am SO disappointed! I have struggled with that drone since I purchased them; it really took the excitement away from what should have been an exciting experience. It wasn't until I saw Matt's video that I had an SMH moment to test it with my tuning meter.
I would easily have Matt do this. All experienced pipers know subtle adjustments and vital knowledge of setting up the woodwork and reeds (especially the reeds!) is highly complex and at times, very frustrating to get right. Having a good friend at hand is so reassuring and Matt seems just that!
