As with any instrument, anyone can learn how to play the bagpipe. I have successfully taught people of different ages and abilities, and no one is incapable of learning. It all depends on your own personal work ethic. Your own goals will play a part in the kind of practice you need to perform. Your teacher should be aware of the goals you have set for yourself and should be able to help achieve those goals with the right type of instruction. For example, you shouldn't be focusing on learning heavy open-grade competition music if your goal is to play in your local St. Patrick's Day Parade. Your goals will be able to tell you what you need to focus on.

Generally, these steps will be apparent upon practicing. Books and videos are very helpful, but it's best to have a teacher in a one-on-one or class setting to tell you where your faults are. Even the best pipers have a mentor who will critique their playing - the feedback improves playing by catching simple mistakes before they become ingrained habits.

Practice daily, even if it’s only for ten minutes. You should be seeing improvement over time. Your progress won't show overnight but more over weeks and months. Yes, there will be times where you feel like you aren't moving forward, but stick with it. Having a healthy amount of faith in yourself and your teacher will keep you going on your journey to learning the bagpipes.

So, the question “how do I learn to play the bagpipe?” does not have one simple answer. First let us consider the following points.

The Realities of Learning:

1.  Playing a Full Set of Bagpipes is Physically Taxing:

The Great Highland Bagpipe is far and away one of the most difficult instruments in the world, both in terms of technique and physicality. Apart from the memory work involved in learning tunes and the often complicated finger techniques required to play, one must be reasonably physically fit in order to be able to play the instrument. While a normal set of bagpipes weighs about 5 to 6 pounds they can feel incredibly heavy after a 30 minute practice session.

The very beginning stages of learning will be the hardest. Many beginners experience light-headedness after a few minutes of blowing, but with practice, this will go away. Unfortunately, headaches from the effort and back pressure in the sinuses can be frequent and annoying, but staying hydrated will aid your short term endurance.

You will definitely sweat. A LOT. You might experience pain in the arm, shoulder and elbow that is used to squeeze the bag since you will be using muscles in your arm that have never been used in this way before. Older pipers sometimes complain about the joints in their fingers and cramping in their hands as they age out of very fast and complicated tunes.

Your lips will also begin to give out after a short while of playing but this does go away as practice is steady and consistent. Playing the bagpipes is like a full time gym membership, but instead of counting reps, you'll be counting minutes.

2.  No One EVER Begins on the Actual Bagpipes, Despite What is Claimed on YouTube:

To further add to the difficulty of this instrument, you shouldn’t begin learning on the actual highland pipes. You'll want to invest, first, in a good quality practice chanter. This is a small, family-and-friend-sanity-saving  practice tool that lets you practice the fingering and basic gracenotes without the loud sound of the highland pipes. Usually made of plastic and involving no bag or drones, this small instrument doesn't sound like a bagpipe nor is it as hard as one.

Every decent piper has begun their career on a practice chanter and, while this is a beginner's tool, you’ll never stop using it. Bands, teachers, and experienced competitors continue to use the practice chanter for the rest of their lives on a daily basis. Why? For the same reason mentioned above, that you can practice the fingering and melody without the volume factor and there is virtually no stamina required to play it.

After you have learned the basic embellishments and your first handful of tunes, you should be ready to move to the highland pipes, at which point you'll feel like you're starting all over again. This phase can take anywhere from a half a year to upwards of 2 years.

3.  They Are VERY Loud: 

No one really understands how loud the bagpipes can be until they are practicing at home, indoors. The bagpipes were made to be played outdoors but doing this in your backyard today might result in some upset neighbors. One solo bagpipe can range at about 110 decibels (about as loud as a vacuum cleaner or a motor cycle) while a full pipe band will range at about 130 decibels (about as loud as a jet engine taking off). All players should begin with wearing ear protection as repeated exposure to these loud volumes can result in deafness over time.

The frequency range of the bagpipe chanter is also quite high. Most normal orchestral instruments tune their concert "A" to 440 hz while bagpipes tune their "A" anywhere from 470 to 486, resulting in a much more shrill and high pitch. You may want to think about where your practice will take place as many public places have noise ordinances, and the pipes may disturb others around you. If you live in an apartment, you might be able to practice in a park. Sometimes churches will allow you to use their spaces for a short while, but you should always ask. 

4.  Practice is VERY Time Consuming:

As any musician will tell you, perfect practice makes perfect, and the bagpipes are no exception to this rule. Either on your pipes or your practice chanter, the time it takes to run through a good practice should take some effort. Only through intense, accurate and honest practice will an individual be able to progress normally onto their pipes which can take up to another several months or several years to become fully competent.

A normal practice session with the practice chanter should start at ten minutes a day and increasing as fingers settle into pattern, tunes become less like work and familiarity allows speed with accuracy, but by six months practice on the practice chanter should last at least half an hour daily. Pipers who are serious about their craft will practice for an hour a day plus half an hour on their pipes, so dedication, persistence, accuracy and physical fitness all make a champion piper.  

Beginners who transition to the pipes struggle to keep the instrument going for more than 5 (or so) minutes while many advanced players attend weekly band practices lasting an hour or more. Again, through regular practice, your endurance will improve. I have taught many beginners of all ages and a surprising number of them just quit because of the practice requirements this instrument demands.

If you have issues with time commitment and/or don't have patience to sit and practice, you will struggle to improve at the rate your day allows. The rule of thumb here is just do it.

5.  REAL Bagpipes are EXPENSIVE:

In all honesty, who can blame someone for wanting a good deal on their first set of bagpipes? You will see prices online for a full set of “highland” pipes for as little as $200. Before eagerly heading to the checkout page you should be aware of some things. Especially, beware of pipes from Pakistan. These instruments, while cheap, are not made to be a functioning musical instrument; rather a decorative piece to hang on a wall or above the fireplace, but that is not stated in the descriptive information! Just don't purchase this instrument thinking you will get a quality set. When in doubt, always check with another more experienced piper to make sure this is a real instrument. 

With today's internet, there are lots of online forums and Facebook pages available to someone who is looking to identify a set. Decorative pipes like the Paki pipes are usually made of junk woods like pine and cottonwood. The internal dimensions and fittings are poorly cut and bored, and the fittings are cotton string and cheap nickel. The bags are usually poor quality, uncured goatskin, and the cane reeds are dreadfully cut and of poor quality. Assembled, they may look real, but tuning and playing them is fruitless and frustrating. Avoid these so-called sets if you want to play the instrument. 

A good set of real pipes made of African Blackwood or cocobola can be purchased for as cheap as $1,000 while a more inexpensive set made of Polypenco or Acetyl Plastic could be as low as $700. Both are good instruments but there are differences in tonal quality and stability. A typical beginner will most likely want a new set of pipes, but sometimes you can get a hold of a used set which could be cheaper. You'll always want an experienced piper to check these items for authenticity and playability. Ask your teacher for assistance - he or she can guide you as can members of the band who service pipes.

6.  Finding the Right Instructor:

Learning the bagpipe requires instruction, since the nuance of the music and the instrument are difficult to learn from a book, and having a set of experienced eyes and ears correcting errors before they become habits is essential, not just for the pipes. That said, good players who can teach well are few, so many people find it difficult to get a hold of a teacher. Often times you can start with a teacher by going to your local pipe band. Most bands will teach you the basics if you are willing to join the organization once you are competent enough to play.

7.  What if there aren't other pipers close to you, or any that are willing to teach?

This is a bit tricky. I do not recommend tackling the bagpipes on your own. Trying to "teach yourself" will bring about bad habits which will cause problems in your technique and, over time, amounts to the instrument not sounding like it's supposed to. This is what gives the instrument a bad name - a badly played oboe is blamed on the player, but a badly played bagpipe is ALWAYS blamed on the instrument. I cannot understand or explain that, but there it is.

Obviously, then, you will need some kind of instruction with either a live person or - if in person is simply out of the question - an online lesson. With the fantastic online resources today, you should be able to find someone who would be willing to teach you through Skype or other video lessons. You'll want to do your research on the types of teachers you want to take tuition from. There are even online piping schools which employ multiple instructors who have years of playing experience. It is truly amazing what an online search will do for you.

You definitely want someone reputable who will honor your commitment to learning. Private teachers usually give lessons that can last an hour. A reasonable rate is anywhere from $25 to $60 for an hour. Remember, you are paying for someone's time as well as the years of experience they've had playing this instrument. 

Beware the "price-point" teacher. Most self respecting pipers who are decent players will refer you to a good musician for lessons. However, there are those who are willing to take your money and keep you sounding terrible so you keep coming back for lessons. Most beginners aren't aware of the skill of their teacher, but the simple way to avoid this is to listen to the teacher play.

By and large, you get what you pay for. Do your research and be smart about who you choose for tuition. As both a piping teacher and student, I know the value of having someone who is both knowledgeable and practical in their teaching style. Music reading and experience playing other instruments help. If you are already a musician, whether a novice or professional, the skills you’ve already learned will greatly help you learn the bagpipes.

Hopefully, you now have an inkling about what you’d need to develop as a bagpiper. And as mentioned before you will have to learn how to blow and squeeze the bagpipe to produce sound. At least that will be easier though if you can transition some of your music skills to learning fingerwork.

Lastly, you only get out of piping what you put in. Slow and steady improvement and practice wins the race. So if you practice, you will progress. However, if you are a skilled musician who is too lazy to practice, you may not progress much, as I have seen with some musicians. So pick up the chanter, and come and see us! 

At my first bagpipe lesson, this is what my instructor called the thing. He even denied it was a musical instrument at all - there were no rests, no dynamic range, a single key signature. Yes, he was just making a point, but at the time, I was appalled at his complete disregard for his expertise and talent on this amazing, historic and incredible instrument.

I have also met bagpipers (usually people who've never touched another instrument) who declaim it's the pinnacle of difficulty and expression in music. Clearly these people have never seen a pipe organ or an Irish fiddle (or the Uillean pipes!) played! But over the last thirty years, I realized my first instructor WAS right - that the bagpipe is really just a nine-note party favor, but one that comes with a very colorful (and sometimes, especially in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, very hot) costume.

The nine notes of the bagpipe form a simple Mixolydian scale with a flattened 7th on top and bottom. We write these notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. I boldfaced the first A because it's the tonic, and the note we tune our drones to. There’s a chart in an earlier blog post if you need to review the fingering of these notes, but I digress. Now, strictly speaking, the C and F are sharp, but for some reason it's suppressed in printed pipe music. Don't be fooled! Add two sharps in your head when you're looking at tunes in pipe collections.

Old pipe music was largely dual-tonic; that is, often it would have a phrase in A, followed by a phrase in G (think "The Devil in the Kitchen"). Sometimes this role was reversed (G Lydian mode, like "The Bob of Fettercairn"), or the two keys would be in B minor and A (like "The Ale is Dear").

The scale of the bagpipe is ideal for this kind of music, but it is pretty limiting to the modern ear.  Recently, more and more music has been written for the bagpipes in the key of D major, forcing a retuning of the chanter's D (which used to be sharp relative to most intonation systems).

 So every bagpipe tune you see will have these nine notes. If you see a tune with more than these, it's already been adapted for fiddle. Similarly, tunes and songs adapted for the bagpipes will be "squished" to fit this scale. Many is the tune in A major that saw its G# (e.g., "Highland Whisky") flattened to fit the pipes. And others saw a high B turned into an ornament, or a low F-sharp turned into a low G. 

But wait! I've been lying to you, because though pipe music is written as if it's in the key of two sharps, it's now played somewhat sharp of three flats! So our scale really is 25 cents sharp of Ab, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb.

 Why do we write it one way and play it another? It is because the pitch of the instrument has been rising in the last couple of centuries relative to most other instruments. When Joseph MacDonald - a trained violinist who studied the pipes as a young adult - wrote his manuscript on the Highland pipes in 1759, he felt the scale of the bagpipes was close enough to call its tonic "A." But A drifted pretty high in Victorian times.

With the Scots Guards "Queen's Hall" standard in 1799, A became more than half-way to what we now call Bb. When it drifted back down, during the late 1880’s, the Highland pipes stayed up there. For a while, then, it was in vogue to play with brass bands, so Bb was a perfect key for the instrument. But that fell out of fashion at a time in the 1970’s when competition judges and pipe majors were looking for a "brighter" sound for bands. So, mistaking "sharp" for "bright," up the pitch climbed again, almost to halfway between Bb and B.

Sanity has once again crept over the community in the last few years, and now it's just sharp of Bb now. At the same time in the 70’s as folk music drifted into mainstream and celtic tunes became popular, a movement to "play in A" began, a tragedy of perception, so you're now seeing a few weird solo and "Celtic" pipers having chanters made in concert A to be more fiddle friendly (think “Red Hot Chilli Pipers”). Sorry we can't do more about the volume!

One more slight exaggeration must be revealed about the bagpipe scale. It's really not nine, but more like eleven and a half notes. Many current polypenco (plastic) chanter/reed combinations, with much creative fingering and blowing, can play a note close to C-natural and F-natural as well, and a very few can play something close to G#, with an alternate and heretical cross-fingering. Even fewer can play a high B! But the tuning on these notes is usually suboptimal, even with yards of tape and hemp, so they're better for passing tones than notes one holds on.

Realistically,  formal bagpipe music never uses these notes; woe upon you if you actually play "Lochiel's awa' to France" in a proper A minor in competition. We purists will seize your nine-note party favor and break it.

How to relax the Chanter Death Grip and relax into speedier and more accurate fingerwork - go pet a puppy.

I have a habit of attempting to choke my chanter, practice or pipe, to death. I grip it hard, strangling and crushing it, while I work on speed or technique, and I wonder why the sound I then get sounds muted, sloppy, and/or badly executed. It’s all about the grip. When I relax and allow my fingers to move freely, the tune comes out, bright, melodic and executed well. 

One of the challenges we pipers all face is the need to keep our fingers and hands consistently relaxed while playing. Top players achieve a relaxed yet strong grip, allowing for the most efficient movement and providing strength and quickness when needed. This allows them to play fast, strong, clean, and for longer durations without stress or strain. I have found something that helps when I start to tighten up, and I'd like to share my exercises for hand relaxation inspired by the piano teacher and author Margaret Elson.

In her book Passionate Practice, Elson describes what she calls "puppy dog hands":

“When your hands are heavy, or after you release a ball, or when you let your hands fall easily, palm up, in your lap, there's no extra tension in your hands. They look like a puppy dog's paws when she's on her back waiting to get a tummy rub. All easy and floppy.”

I know. It’s not masculine. But dammit, it works. Now, Elson in her book is describing the technique for piano players, but it is such a great concept that here I've modified it for us pipers.

1 Sit in a chair with your practice chanter lying on the table.

2 Rest your hands in your lap, palms facing up. Breathe slowly and let your hands feel heavy.

3 Slowly raise your hands up and place them on your chanter. Keep your fingers and hands completely relaxed and free of tension as you place your fingers into position over the holes. Be floppy.

4 Focus your awareness on the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your fingers in position on the chanter, covering the holes. Let the natural weight of your hands and fingers cover the holes, but don't add any extra squeezing force. Just let the hands hang heavy.

5 Blow Low G.

6 Stop and put down your chanter and go back to Step 1.

7 Repeat several times until you can achieve perfect relaxed form — holes covered, ready to play, aware of the minimum energy needed to get into position.

The next and most challenging step is to maintain this state of relaxed fingering while playing more than Low G. Keep it simple at first and gradually build up the complexity.

Here are some things to play while you focus your awareness on your puppy dog hands.

1 Low G

2 The scale

3 The scale alternating with Low G between the other notes

4 High G grace note scale

5 GDE grace note combinations scale

6 Doublings

7 Grips, taorluaths, D Throws

8 . . . any of the exercises in the green book and handouts Bill has given us.

Remain focused and aware of the tension in your hands and fingers. If you find yourself tightening up at any time, stop… pause and release the tension and try again. If you're like most pipers, some elements of your fingering will be overly tight or tense simply because you've practiced that way. It's a normal phase every piper goes through as we learn to control and master our technique. But REALLY good pipers understand the importance of relaxed technique - it lets us play cleanly and consistently at a variety of tempos while conserving energy to let us (and our audience) enjoy playing for longer stretches of time.

Playing the chanter and the pipes should be enjoyable and relaxing. Becoming more familiar and comfortable with our instrument will decrease our performance anxiety, allowing us to be less concerned about technique and more focused on the accuracy and speed. After all, choking the chanter to death because youre worried simply exaggerates the anxiety. Relax. Think puppy dog hands. And watch your technique improve.

You've just finished playing your bagpipes, you’re hot and sweaty and aren't quite sure what to do with them when you are done. Take them absolutely and completely apart and swab them out with Q-Tips? Just toss them onto the black leather car seat while you run off to the beach for a leisurely summer swim?

What steps are necessary to properly stow your pipes after playing will depend on a number of factors, primarily having to do with moisture control. Now, most of the advice below pertains to the care of wood bagpipes. Plastic (or "poly") pipes are very durable and handle extremes in termperture and moisture much better than wood pipes - hence not a bad choice for piper who plays in snow or in desert summers - or, like me, is just lazy.

On the other hand, while poly pipes usually sound pretty good, you just don't see them at the top levels of competition, so there's a trade off involved. Also if you are one of the masochistic few who have a set of bagpipes with corked joints or worse, rubber grommets, ideally these joints should be disassembled when not in use to keep the cork from compressing and losing its springiness, and keep the rubber rings from breaking down. But, as I said, most of us have hemp.

If you are a dry blower, live/played in a dry climate, use a moisture control system, or simply didn't play that long, you can probably get away with just disassembling the base drone and putting the pipes in their case. Unzipping the hybrid bag and giving it a quick wipe with a paper towel is good, too. Otherwise, wiping out your chanter and drones will probably be a good idea as you do not want standing water left on the surfaces of your pipes.

Excessive moisture can cause your wooden pipes to split. You may hear stories from pipers who insist on one of the extremes - just bung them in the box or a meticulous cleaning first - the thing is, what works greatly varies from piper to piper, pipe set-up to pipe set-up, and climate to climate.

Personally, I remove my chanter, cap it, sometimes I may plug that stock, remove my blowpipe (I have an in-stock valve), open my zipper, place my pipes in the case and then take off and flip around the top (two sections) of my bass drone - I typically don't play for hours and am not a particularly wet blower. A bandmate dries his reeds, blowpipe and drones, then breaks them down completely - he has determined that his system works best for him.

One more thing - this is a precious and sometimes expensive wooden instrument. Oil the bores of the drones and chanter at least twice a year to prevent them splitting, and to enhance the tone of the drone note. Any oil is better than no oil, but the majority of musicians use almond oil or bore oil (a blended oil for wood) on a pull-through such as a rifle rod or a shotgun pull-through. It doesn’t take long, and the instrument will last for ever. Food-grade mineral oil will work too, but I prefer the plant-based oils.

Don’t oil the bore of a poly pipe, though. Please.

That said, let’s seriously talk maintenance of your expensive musical instrument.

Chanter.

Most pipers remove the chanter from its stock and place the chanter in a "dry stock" (also called a "chanter cap") which covers the end of the chanter and protects the reed. In most locales, a chanter reed will develop mold more quickly if the chanter is left attached to the bag when not in use. And sometimes the chanter may become stuck in its stock—not exactly the most desirable situation! I advise you to buy one chanter cap for every chanter you own, because breaking a worked-in reed is not fixable, it takes time to get a chanter reed “just right”, and accidents happen, usually just before you’re getting ready to play a gig. 

You may wish to remove any beaded moisture on your reed, after removing the chanter from the bag, by gently pressing it with a tissue for a few seconds, though some pipers go so far as checking the reed against their lip for any wet feeling. Some recommend leaving the reed exposed to air for 5 minutes before stowing it in a cap. If you do air out your reed, be extremely protective of it, you don't want it getting whacked or rolling off of a table or chair!

If you are in a dry climate such as Denver, Colorado (high altitude) you could just leave the chanter in its stock on the bag to help the reed retain moisture. (Kinnaird Bagpipes of Canada invented the Piper's Pal Chanter Cap, a cap with a moisture stabilization feature which many pipers have found helpful regardless of climate. However, in Mississippi, I find it more expensive than effective.)

In cold temperatures or after lots of playing, moisture will condense on the inside of your chanter. If this an expensive African Blackwood - or, for that matter, ANY wooden chanter - ideally, this condensation should be wiped out after playing. There are a number of swabs on the market, basically a cone-shaped plume of absorbent material on a metal rod. These swabs work nicely. Oil the chanter twice yearly to preserve and protect the inner bore. Poly chanters just need a quick pull through with an extra-long pipe cleaner, and then the reed covered under a chanter cap. 

Drones.

Most pipers can get away without doing much to their drones after playing. But again, you don't want moisture sitting inside the bores of your drones. If this is an issue for you, a "pull through"—a string with a rag strips at one end—may be used to wipe out the larger bores of your drones, or you can buy a drone mop - basically a brush made of cotton fibers that you can push into the bores to catch any excess. Oil twice yearly, more often if it’s hot and dry.

Now, if you do happen to own a set of poly pipes, you'll find that condensation beads up more easily on plastic than wood and that moisture may run down and clog your reeds. It wouldn't hurt to check your bores and wipe them out when necessary.

Drone reeds.

Condensation on the tongues of synthetic drone reeds is a very common problem, even with dry blowers. It's good practice to dry the body of the reeds after extensive playing and wipe out under the tongue using a thin durable paper—paper currency (i.e., a dollar bill) works well since it's designed to not tear easily. Nose tissue and toilet paper is not recommended (too fragile)—nor is a business card which may have the unintended consequence of springing the tongue, affecting both efficiency and tone.

Some people remove and store their drone reeds in a protective box after each use. If you are one of these, make sure your reeds are very secure when you go to play - this constant removal/installation can compress the hemping and a reed may drop into your bag as a result, an embarrassing and sometimes alarming experience you never want, but all pipers will get.

Bag.

If you have a synthetic or hybrid bag with a zipper, then you will want unzip your bag to allow it dry out. Give it a wee wipe on the inside with a paper towel or a nice lint-free coton cloth. With a hide bag, you want to avoid having it dry out, but you also don't want it super moist either. You can help the bag retain moisture by plugging any open stocks with a cork. Unless you’re playing every day, a hide bag will gradually dry out even with all the stocks plugged—particularly if it's a sheepskin bag. If it's necessary to dry an overly-wet bag then leave one or more of the stocks open.

Into the Case.

A pipe case serves a number of purposes. It allows you to carry quite a number of items easily, it protects your pipes from impacts, and can also somewhat serve to mitigate rapid changes in temperature and humidity.

When you place your pipes in their case, you don't want so much leeway that the pipes knock around and chip, scratch, or dent. You also don't want to force the pipes into the case so that they are on the verge of cracking—while drones and stocks are reasonably solid overall, the tuning pins are particularly vulnerable, as is the chanter. And remember, if you employ a hose system in the bag for moisture control, make sure these lie flat as you don't want any kinks.

Wrapping the chanter in something (such as fluffy fabric or bubble wrap) to protect it is wise. If you really want to baby your pipes, sets of commercial fabric sleeves are available or some pipers go as far as cutting individual slots in a large block of spongy foam for each bagpipe section.

If your case is overly stuffed you might consider weeding out nonessential items (particularly items that could scratch or otherwise damage your pipes) or if they are all things you need readily available, investigate a larger case. 

Storing/Moving your Pipes.

A good piece of advice is to think of your bagpipes as your baby. Don't leave it in a car unattended. Play with it often. Don't drop it or throw it. Only sit on it if you are sure that it's big and strong enough to hold your weight. Feed it (seasoning, if a hide bag). Don't leave it wet (empty/dry your moisture traps). Don't force things to move if they are really stuck. If it screeches, it probably needs some attention. And singing tunes to it (canntaireachd) won't hurt!

Bottom line, treat your pipes to a mild environment that would be very comfortable for you personally. So if your car is a very mild environment and will stay that way while you are gone, then, yes, you can leave your pipes on the seat—but it better be a very overcast and not too hot or too cold of a day! I have seen a set of poly pipes go from a glorious looking stand of pipes to something reminiscent of a banana statue. It still played music - but it looked really sad and wilted.

In closing...

If you take good care of your bagpipes, they will take care of you, and they will last your lifetime - and probably a few more. Yes, some pipers are lucky and can get away with not taking proper care of their pipes, but sooner or later, it may just to come back to haunt them!

The spring and summer season of competitions and performances is coming up, so if you haven’t done anything as far as maintaining your pipes - you know, checking the hemp and air tightness of your drone stocks and tuning pins, cleaning out the blow stick with a little soap and water, wiping out the inside of your hybrid bag with the same, checking the flapper valve for seal - that sort of thing, now is the right time to make sure your bagpipes sound their best. A great bagpipe sound depends on a lot of things, and an important one is having a great set of drone reeds.

Andrews Duncan, of the Piping Dojo, is often asked this question:  How long do drone reeds last?

His reply is that that's the wrong question.  

The right question is:  How long do drone reeds stay in like-new condition?

The reality is that a great set of drone reeds will be great right out of the box, once fitted and tuned to the pipes, and they will continue to be great for a good long while.  But eventually they stop playing as well and will need to be replaced.  Just like chanter reeds, drone reeds do not improve with time.

How do you know when it's time to replace your drone reeds? 

The answer to this question varies based on the conditions you are playing in, the type of pipe bag you have, the type (if any) of moisture control system you use, and how often you play your bagpipes.

I know some top pipers get a new set of drone reeds every year, simply as maintenance to keep their performance in top form. I also know they have sponsors tripping over themselves to get their reeds into his/her pipes so they can boast that their drone reeds gave the piper the extra edge he/she needed to win the championship. The rest of us have to shell out real money, and at anything north of $100 a set, drone reeds can become a luxury. Me, I cannot afford to do that annually, so I replace my drone reeds every three years or so when I completely rehemp all my stocks.

When you use the right drone reeds and a quality set of pipes, you achieve a warm, smooth, and full sound that uses air efficiently, stays stable, and makes your instrument easier to tune.

Finding the right sort of drone reeds takes time and patience. Ask really good pipers at competitions what they use. Talk to piping teachers and ask them. Talk to other folk in your band and ask them. Read the EUSPBA, the MWPBA and the WUSPBA newsletters and see what they are recommending. Once you have a consensus on a particular set, search the web for a good price. Don’t forget about postage and taxes, which may affect your final cost. Then buy the set. Once you have them, remove the old drone reeds CAREFULLY, and set them aside. Hemp the new reeds up, fit them in, and begin the process of tuning them in

The best modern drone reeds should take very little adjustment to get going.  Then they should operate consistently with no further adjustment.  When things start changing, and you find yourself adjusting the bridles or tuning screws or if your pipes lose their stability — it's possibly a sign your drone reeds are starting to go.

Here are some other signs to look for that tell you it's time to replace your drone reeds:

• Drone reed tongues seem tired and the sound is muffled

• Reed bridles are loose or cracked

• Dirt or residue has built up on and underneath the tongues

• Trouble tuning your pipes consistently

• Unsteady sound even after tuning

• Drones shutting off too easily

• Drones taking too much air

• Drones not starting consistently (the dreaded “wail” or “howl”)

• Bass drone won't start consistently

• Whistling or squealing tenors

• Drones tuning too low or high on the pin despite reseating and adjustment of the screws and bridles

If you have been playing bagpipes for a while, you might have a collection of old drone reeds.  I know I do. I have my original Shepard plastics (gods, those are awful), several sets of EE-Z-Drones that have definitely seen better days, and a collection of by gosh, for real cane reeds from pipe sets I have refurbished for friends and band members.

The Scot in me feels that because I paid for them, I could maybe use them in another set sometime, but while we sometimes keep these old reeds thinking they might be useful someday to someone else, the truth is that drone reeds age, like chanter reeds, and it’s expensive to repair or replace a drone reed set. 

But those old drone reeds will never be as good as a new set because the tongues break down at a microscopic level as they play, and the humidity and temperature variances inside the bag affect even plastic reed bodies adversely.

So I reluctantly dispose of them when my wife complains they are beginning to accumulate like cockroaches - and I complain loudly about the cost and the waste as I do. But every time I put in a new set of drone reeds, I'm so pleased at how smooth and efficient they are and how much more easy they are to tune and play than the old set. 

As the new season starts, put your best performances out there. Every piper knows that we play best when our pipes are efficient, and sound and feel great.  A great set of new drone reeds is an important part of getting a world-class sound.

A new set of drone reeds can make your pipes easier to play, so you can focus on your tunes, execution, and musicality.  A new set of drone reeds is not a luxury, it's a necessary element of your instrument set up, and a vital part of ongoing maintenance. Make it a practice to replace them regularly. But you can complain bitterly about it every time.

Thanks, Andrew.

I have six chanters, each one has its own personality, and they are all as finicky and temperamental as a Pipe Major on competition day. Chanters are not alike. Even if they’re from the same manufacturer, no two chanters are ever exactly alike, even the polypenco ones.

When I am playing my pipes with the group, my Lowrie, Bannatyne, Shepard and Gibson poly chanters seem to lock in tune when paired with the Colin MacLellan Senior reeds. These reeds have been a game changer for me, as they have the decency to play well straight out of the envelope with very little fine tuning. The fact that my ancient lungs no longer have to push air through a so-called easy-medium Souter, Shepard or a Melvin reed is a bonus, as I am nowhere near as sweaty and tired after playing a set.  

I sometimes will use my Campbell Tunable McCallum chanters (466 and 475), which tend to be pretty consistent with the stronger Easy MacLellan reeds, for solo and competition in order to keep my chanter in tune with my drones. 

Once I find where the reed is set for the chanter sweet spot, that tunable-fine tuning ability isn’t as big an issue as I believed it was. But it’s still nice to be able to really fine tune on the fly without taking the whole chanter out and repositioning the reed, or worse, wondering where all the tape slid to in the summer heat. 

Otherwise, especially for piobaireachd, I heavily favor my Chris Apps blackwood solo chanter with a MacLellan Easy reed, which also seems to do really well with the natural notes.

When it comes to reeds, here's what I've found:

Traditionally, I'd always used either Shepard, G1 or Souter reeds ... bands prefer the ridge cut versions because they tend to be louder and harsher than the smooth shouldered ones. They can also be responsible for bleeding from the eyeballs and bulging blood vessels in the face and forehead, too, which is why bandsmen furiously shave their reeds while pipe majors curse them and apply yards of tape. 

Recently, I'd read somewhere that molded, non-ridge reeds fare better than ridge-cuts for natural notes, so I picked up a bunch of the MacLellan molded Easy and Senior strength reeds. So far, the Easy MacLellan reeds in my band chanters seem to do really well without any sanding, shaving or clipping, and they've already been truly tested over a long string of gigs in a variety of chanters.

My current MacLellan reed in the Gibson chanter is a Senior strength, now approaching a year, and it settled in nicely and fast with little change in tone despite the punishment it receives in our Mississippi humidity and heat. Only now is it beginning to crow on a high to low hand drop, like E to A or G. It gets the mandrel if it gets worse, but I already have another reed I am playing in.

I find that, for my style of playing, easy-medium strength is the way to go. Too hard a reed, and you're not going to be able to maintain good pressure on it, let alone a continuous and stable note, or remain conscious for long. Too light a reed, like the senior strengths, and the natural notes tend to easily "blow out."

By "blow out" ... I mean that with too much pressure (I am still blowing hard and pressuring the bag hard in order to keep my drone tone stable), the lighter reeds are easily overwhelmed, thus the natural notes will cease to work, meaning it will sharpen and even crow, and you'll get a badly sounding C# or F# instead.

If you REALLY keep your pressure low, you can sometimes prevent the natural notes from blowing out, but really, this isn't all that feasible, because easing off too much makes the drones unstable. If you're needing to do this on the high hand a lot, the reed throat should either be opened with a mandrel (made a little stronger), or replaced altogether for a slightly stronger reed.            

All new reeds need to be played in for at least a week - in the chanter - in the pipes  - before deciding on keeping it, or ripping it up by shaving or sanding, or returning it to the box. Remember, it might sound marginal in one chanter, but in another chanter it will hit the sweet spot and sound brilliant without removing any wood. Once shaved or cut, the reed will not live long. 

Avoid sinking the reed too deep in the seat, because forcing a reed too sharp causes problems across the board  .. especially with F. There is a “sweet spot” in every chanter where the reed and the chanter agree. It takes patience, experience, work and sometimes adding extra hemp, sometimes stripping it off - and occasionally several different reeds - to find it, but once you do, that’s where the magic happens. The chanter becomes easier to sound, the reed sounds clear and true, and the music becomes melodic and joyful.

If after a few months of hard playing the natural notes are starting to fail - usually because the reed is getting too soft - you should try opening up the staple with a mandrel, before you start chopping the tops off the blades with a very sharp chisel. It might work, it might not. Don’t ever cut the reed until you’ve tried the mandrel, though. Shawn Husk has some great reed manipulation videos on youtube. Google it, I'm sure they'll come up.

Andrew Douglas of the Piper’s Dojo sends out amazing information to his subscribers fairly regularly, most of which I read and then bin, but there are several articles he has penned which are pure gold for the members of his blog. This, I believe, is one of those gold pieces. I have edited it down from a fairly lengthy description about making a bagpipe less of a beast to play, because an efficient set of pipes is an easy set of pipes, thus reducing effort to play and allowing us to perform longer and without tiring as fast. At my age, that’s a definite plus.

Aside from tackling the usual air issues like ensuring the stocks are firmly seated in the bag and tied in or sealed in; ensuring there is adequate hemp on the pins so they are airtight yet slide easily to tune without falling off or needing a wrench to move them; ensuring the zipper in a hybrid bag is appropriately greased; and finally that the blow stick is functioning easily with a large bore and a working flapper valve (whether it’s a brass and rubber tie-in, Li’l Mac, built-in like the Airstream valve, or installed in the stock like a Moose valve). 

I would also look at removing all the magic plumbing - the water trap systems and restrictor valves which choke off air flow to the drone and chanter, thus impairing the reeds from function fully - if you’re having issues even after checking for leaks. Lastly, getting the drones to sound as efficiently as possible with as little wasted air as possible makes the pipes super efficient and conserves the air in the bag while letting the reeds sound strongly. And so to Andrew’s advice.

Calibrating the Drones 

I believe that, with perhaps 1 or 2 exceptions, any set of drone reeds, when well calibrated, can sound great.

Calibration is the art of setting up your reeds to take the perfect, most efficient amount of air so that they work together to produce a stable sound. The bottom line is: It’s all about matching, as precisely as possible, your drone reed strength to suit the strength of your chanter reed. 

This idea is essential. Many times, we see students come in with reeds that are all taking different amounts of air, and all taking too much air relative to the strength of their reed. The result is a really loud, unsteady, un-tunable drone sound! Good maintenance is at the base of the bagpipe tree of sound. Therefore, achieving good tone and tuning is IMPOSSIBLE without a well-set-up bagpipe, with well-calibrated drone reeds.

To achieve the most efficient (and resultantly most "solid") set-up, the drone reeds need to be matched perfectly to the strength of the chanter. Why? Here are two big reasons:

One: A chanter that is too easy relative to the drones means by definition an inefficient bagpipe.

This one's easy - if the drones are more open than they need to be, that means you're using more air, more moisture, and more energy than you need to operate your bagpipe.

Two: Drones that are too "open" will be less steady, thus will be harder to tune.

The more open a drone reed is, the more they will change with changes in pressure. Therefore, they'll be harder to "lock" in with each other if they are more open than they need to be.

How to Calibrate

So, that was a quick explanation of why you need to calibrate. Now, let's get to how to do it. Here's how we suggest you calibrate your drone reeds.

Step 1

First, cork off your bass and a tenor (I typically cork the middle tenor). Play Low A on your chanter with the one drone going. Your drone reed should shut off when you blow too hard on your chanter. Now, gradually increase your blowing pressure until you know you're blowing too hard. Does the reed shut off? It should.

Here's why: If your drone reed shuts off when you blow too hard on your chanter, you know it's taking the minimum amount of air necessary when you're blowing normally. This is essential in trying to achieve an efficient bagpipe.

If your drone doesn't shut off, close it down by VERY GENTLY adjusting the bridle on the drone reed downwards away from the drone, towards the end of the tongue. Most synthetic reeds will only need the slightest adjustment (too much and the reed won't sound at all). If, by chance, your reed is shutting off too soon, adjust the bridle - again, VERY GENTLY - towards the drone, away from the tip of the tongue.

Note: if you aren't sure how to do this, be sure to have a teacher show you a couple of times. Drone reeds are expensive, so you need to be careful not to damage bridles or tongues in the process of adjusting them. It’s not hard, but it’s worth being shown a time or two. Repeat the process until the drone shuts off when you overblow your chanter.

Step 2

Ok, now that the first reed is calibrated, our objective is going to be to calibrate the other two drone reeds to the same strength of the first.

I disconnect and cork off the chanter, and then open up a second drone. Now, we'll gradually increase the pressure in the bag, in hopes that the two drones will shut off at exactly the same pressure.

Do they? If the "new" (recently opened) drone shuts off later than the first, you'll need to close it down a bit, by moving the bridle towards the tip of the tongue. If it shuts off too early, move the bridle away from the tip of the tongue. When they shut off at exactly the same pressure, then move on to the third drone and perform the same task.

The reason we want them to shut off at the same time is this: Obviously, the principle from above still applies - if all the drone reeds shut off when you blow too hard, that means when you blow normally, the reeds are taking the minimum amount of air. Now, we add in the extra step - if the drone reeds are all taking the SAME amount of air, that means they will all react the SAME to changes in blowing. They'll be steadier, stay in tune easier, and take on the same amount of moisture. Try it! It really works!

After this process, your pipes are guaranteed to be as efficient as possible. Cover your bases with good maintenance as well (sealing the zipper, wiping out the bag, checking the seals around the stocks, properly hemping pegs and joints, etc), and you’ll have a bagpipe as stable and efficient as the pros!

—Modified from a Piping Dojo blog entry by Andrew Douglas

When we started this blog, there was some discussion in the house about letting readers comment on the posts - moderation and protection of free speech, and commentary on the shortcomings and questionable intellectual abilities of the blogger - that sort of thing. Imagine my delight - sorry, my desolation - when I accessed the page permissions for the site this morning, and found out that unless I actually PAY for this site, I can’t activate comments.

Being Scots by heritage and by nature, this was a non-starter, so if my reader(s) wish to comment, he/she/it/they/never mind will have to use the “Contact Us” tab to express his/her/it’s/never mind outrage to me.  And if or when this site actually becomes popular (ha, ha, a dream) with Gulf Coast pipers and we start seeing an expansion of our group as a result, I might think about paying the fees to expand the site and hopefully feed the expansion.

My friends in the group have been tasked with picking the nits out of the site, so refresh it every time you visit to bring the latest edits up. Once the site has matured, Google says probably three months or so, then refreshing each time won’t be necessary. However, even the hawks among us can’t find every punctuation error and bad spelling given how busy we all seem to be, so if you spot something nittish that needs correcting, let me know through email, the comment section or just sidle up during practice and tell me - I’ll fix it ASAP.

Today, we will be at the St John’s Parish Hall at 3:30pm for the usual Sunday tragedy - dang it, I meant performance. We encourage you to visit and see what we are doing.

Practice on Wednesday is already posted under the “Our Location” tab on the site. —DOC