When adjusting a chanter reed there is a fine balance between the mouth size and the thickness of the blades. Concentrating on one while ignoring the other can be very detrimental.
Just squeezing a reed, if the mouth is too big, may make it easier to blow but it will also reduce the vibrancy and raise the pitch. The solo player may get away with this one-sided solution but in a band situation, striving to get all chanters to the same pitch, with maximum vibrancy, it would be very detrimental.
Squeezing the blades together will raise the pitch, make the reed sound thin, decrease the vibrancy and reduce the volume. Finding the correct balance between mouth size and blade thickness with relation to pitch, strength, vibrancy and volume will take practice but the rewards will be worth the effort.
