On day eight of the February Piping Challenge Dan Nevans presented a 30 minute Facebook live stream on the topic of developing the stamina to play your pipes for up to an hour. It’s a very informative and entertaining talk from Dan (with added bagpipe faeries), and is essential listening […]
By Tim Cummings Piping Today #76, 2015. Imagine for a moment that it’s February in the North Country, and you’ve been invited to a friend’s sauna. You enter into the thick, steamy, blanketing air of the sauna, which in midwinter feels absolutely wonderful, rapidly softening petrified muscles that have been […]
By David V Kennedy Yes, indeed: to watertrap or not to watertrap, that is the question! Some say that the trap is necessary in all climates. In an eight month 100˚F average summer? With less than an average 20% relative humidity? Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Logical? Well, not at first […]
By David V. Kennedy The question a piper may ask is: “Why on earth would one want to squeeze the blades or the staple of a chanter reed?”’ And this is certainly a valid question. After all, didn’t the reedmaker assemble the reed correctly? Didn‘t he tie the blades onto […]
By David V. Kennedy In an early issue of The International Piper, Mr. Roger Gould-King wrote an informative, and useful, article on the chanter reed. He included a drawing of the reed, dimensioned. From the top of the lips, going downwards to the staple- bindings, he drew in a conception […]
“The pipe reed obeys no laws. Like the most fickle woman, it rewards, if at all, the lavish attentions of an honest heart with but a brief and transient display.” – J.C.M., Piping Times, October 1949. By Chris Apps Contrary to ‘J.C.M.’s’ quote, the average pipe chanter reed, if well […]
Stocks By Seumas MacNeill Having dealt with the bag situation the next obvious consideration is the state of the stocks you intend to tie on to your bag. Most people probably feel there is not much in the way of maintenance to be done on the simple five wooden tubes, […]
By Dugald B. MacNeill Pipers will talk endlessly about their pipe chanters and go to great lengths to get them just right, or what they believe is right. They will spend money on reeds and buy new pipe chanters to increase the chance of getting both the correct scale and […]
By Roger Gould-King Figure 2 shows a typical chanter reed design suitable for most chanters and the average piper’s blowing habits. This design follows the principle that all dimensions of the blades are based on a simple ‘rule of 3’. For example, the staple is 4mm in diameter, which multiplied […]
