Drone reed shut off
Bill Carr
Do you agree with the folowing statement?
For what reason?
GHB drone reeds, cane or synthetic, should be set up so that they can be
shut off by the Piper applying a moderate ammount of extra pressure
while playing the pipes (overblowing).
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Bill Carr
Richard Mao
Wow Bill....
Your question is still somewhat imprecise, but my feeling is:
Your pipe drones should not shut off in response to any amount of normal
pressure fluctuation from the piper's playing...e.g. marching,
adrenaline rush of competition, increasing moisture from breath and air
over time, etc. If I want to shut off the drones while playing my pipes
I want to do it WITH INTENT...I would not describe this as moderate
extra pressure.
Having said that...I want my drone reeds to draw only the amount of air
necessary to balance their tone and volume with the chanter reed.
Generally, the less amount of air they draw...the easier it is to blow
the pipes, the less amount of effort it takes to play (efficiency), in
turn allowing you to play longer without fatigue, in turn allowing you
to enjoy playing your music (as opposed to fighting the octopus).
Generally, the weaker/softer (corresponds with quieter/wimpier volume)
you play your chanter reed...the less air you can set your drone reeds
to take...the quieter your drones...
I hope this is responsive to your question....
Richard Mao, The Peking Piper ( peking...@mao.org )
BTW hope you have a happy holiday season...
>Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 08:46:47 +0100
>From: Bill Carr <wc...@sn.no>
>Reply-To: wc...@sn.no
>To: bag...@piobaire.mines.uidaho.edu
>Subject: Drone reed shut off
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Chris Hamilton
Bill Carr <wc...@sn.no> wrote ...
> Do you agree with the folowing statement?
>
> For what reason?
>
> GHB drone reeds, cane or synthetic, should be set up so that they can be
> shut off by the Piper applying a moderate ammount of extra pressure
> while playing the pipes (overblowing).
Depends on how moderate is moderate ...
I might be in the minority on this, but I set mine up so they WILL NOT shut
off except with extreme overblowing. I find that they're more stable for
me this way. If they are on the cusp of shutting off with slight
overblowing, (a) they will, or (b) they will be unsteady until they finally
do shut off.
This often a hair in each reed and / or some futzing to get them just the
way I want them.
And I HATE drones shutting off! :-O
You would think then that I play a pretty stiff set of drone reeds, but my
experience playing other peoples pipes has been that my drone reeds are
fairly moderate and mellow but my chanter reed is stiffer and louder in
many cases. Kind of the opposite of what I expected.
Chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Hamilton -- tone...@erols.com
City of Washington Pipe Band
http://www.serve.com/cowpb/chamilton.html
Bill Carr
Richard Mao wrote:
>
> Wow Bill....
>
What I was getting at was that if I set my drone reeds up so that I
can't shut the drones off by applying more pressure then the whole
instrument becomes a real test of stamina to play more than 10-15 mins.
And I'm no weakling either.
I read in an post by Peter Anderson, about Ian Macey's Workshop, that it
should not be possible to shut the drones off in this way. At least
thats how I understood it.
Quote..
> The last item was balanced drones - he (Ian Macey) suggested that the chanter be
> replaced with a rubber bung, the drones should not alter pitch as the
> blowing pressure changes, blow as hard as you can and the drones should not
> stop,
This just got me thinking and I wanted to get some discussion going
about it.
Peter. If you reed this. No flames intended. I just wanted to quote your
post as an example of the different oppinions I have been given by
Pipers at every levels.
Cheers
Bill Carr
BTW I have my Ezeedrone reeds set so that I can shut them off. They
never shut off while I practice alone but they do after about 1 hour of
practice with the band. This is (I think) because I tend to overblow
when I start to get weary which, combined with the added moisture, shuts
the reeds off. So now I am working on not overblowing.
BC
Turpen, David T.
> GHB drone reeds, cane or synthetic, should be set up so that they can
> be
> shut off by the Piper applying a moderate ammount of extra pressure
> while playing the pipes (overblowing).
>
Statement might be true if your control and blowing is rock-steady but
mine isn't yet.
Sometimes I do overblow a bit and I wouldn't want my drones to shut off.
It should take a LOT of overblowing to shut off your drones.
But should they be set up so that they ALL shut off at the same point?
Seems like my bass shuts off easier than my tenors.
Cane reeds.
Dave