Practice Chanters From left to right above: |
Not being completely happy with my two plastic Naill PC's, I purchased a True-Tone long plastic PC with a watertrap and a Hawkstone long rosewood and Ebony PC with a watertrap from Rocky Mountain Highland Supply. I was such a 'wet' blower that I thought the watertrap would help keep the reed from jamming up after 20 minutes or more of practice. The water trap idea did not really make a difference, the traps fill and jam and the reed still gets wet anyway. I am not now as wet a blower as I was in the beginning but the water must still be tapped out every 15 minutes or so anyway. The True-Tone is much quieter than the Naill (smaller bore, similar to the rosewood Caledonian). It required less blowing pressure as a result, and the sound was generally nicer than the Naill, but did require varying pressure to get the notes at the right pitch with the computer music programs or to play along with CD's. Having also been spoiled by then by the sturdiness and feel of wood, I no longer cared for the flex and flimsy feel of plastic practice chanters. The Hawkstone chanter is really nice. It has a bell shaped bottom instead of a sole with inlaid ebony to contrast with the dark rosewood at the bottom of the bell. The heavy plastic top is very thick and it has a brass ferrule that really sets it off. It is a VERY nice looking and sounding chanter. The holes are tapered like the Naill for giving it a closer feel to the actual pipe chanter. It came set up with a Wygent reed and a perfect scale is registered on my Korg AT-2B electronic bagpipe tuner with a steady blowing pressure. The Best I found was after reading about the Cushing long practice chanter. I purchased a long blackwood with a couple of special requests, an elk antler sole and a sterling silver celtic knotwork ferrule. You can see the antler in the pictures on this page. It is wonderful to look at with the pure white of elephant ivory along with speckles and streaks of brown and black throughout. There will be no mistaking this for plastic! It is also harvested responsibly from the natural shedding the animal does each year. I like the look much better than ivory as it has 'character'. Not only does this look and feel like one of the finest instruments that I have ever held, the sound is deep and rich, with the correct reeding. The best part of this PC is the hole spacing, size, and character. It matches up EXACTLY with my my actual pipe chanters. This makes the gracnoting, particularly burls, just like it must be done on the pipes. The fingering transition from PC to pipes is ZERO! I can pick up any of my other practice chanters and make the gracenoting with more ease, but I know that ALL of my time spent practicing on the Cushing is well spent in comparison to those other 'easy to seal' chanters. These holes are not 'chamfered' or rounded on the edges to 'simulate' the size and feel of the pipe chanter, they ARE the size and space of them. It is very picky though on reeds because of the hole spacing. Out of 10 Wygent PC reeds that I have, 3 sound excellent in this, one almost as good, three just okay, and the rest horrible. Yet those same reeds that did not sound good in the Cushing work well in the Naill PC for instance. With carefull reeding, the Cushing is by far the best sounding chanter as well as the best looking. Another reason for my purchase of a Cushing was to observe the care and quality of worksmanship prior to actually buying a full set of pipes from him. I was not sure about the antler until I saw it on the PC (I was considering ivory up to that point...it is still available through Cushing including Mastadon Ivory but the Elk is better looking. |
A piper learns his craft on a Practice Chanter. This is an instrument in itself and is similar to a recorder. All new tunes are learned on the Practice Chanter (or PC) so it is something a piper will use throughout his playing life even after graduating to the actual pipes. It is much quieter than the full stand of pipes. I learned the pipes mostly on my own and with the help of a handy computer program called Phiob Mhor (sadly no longer available but I have been using Phiob Master after trying and evaluating many others and like it even better anyway). During that time back in January of 1998, with no guidance other than blindly stumbling in the beginning and later learning to do careful research, I became a collector of practice chanters in the quest to find one that I really liked playing. I started on a cheap rosewood PC that I found in a Caledonian kit, not knowing any better, along with a helpful video tape from an internet retailer called Lark in the Morning. This is a standard size chanter, the holes are small and have no 'feel' to them, and the sound is poor, even with a variety of reeds. I found someone to help me, for two whole lessons before he left the country, who 'busks' the sunset at Mallory Docks in Key West. He had an older Naill blackwood long chanter that sounded nice to me at the time (anything would have sounded nice next to the Caledonian) and suggested that I purchase one. None of the approximately 20 vendors I called had them in stock but I did find a plastic Naill long that Celtic Fire had on hand. When I got it, I was very disappointed in the sound. It was even worse than my rosewood chanter, which would at least blow close to a true bagpipe scale to follow along on the computer program lessons. I also did not like the 'flex' of the plastic shaft while practicing. Much later, with more experience, I learned that this was more a factor of a beginner making a 'deathgrip' in a valiant attempt to keep all those holes sealed, that softened over time. Now I go back and play those old plastic chanters without thinking about it and keep one in the Jeep with me. I called Celtic Fire and Dave was great, taking the time to explain (to a beginner back then) about how the reed affects the tone and how to move the MacAllister PC reeds up and down with hemp. Even so, Dave still sent me another Naill PC with a reed set up that worked perfectly. I aslo bought about 20 PC reeds from various manufacturers to try out (a nice investment over the years as it turned out). While most of the reeds sounded fine, all of the MacAllister PC reeds needed a lot of fiddling with hemp to sound right. |
At left is a close up of the tenor drones. Please note that they are collapsed to show more detail and have a flattened appearance as they were acually laid on a flatbed scanner for this picture. At the right is the blowstick. Since this picture was taken, I have visited the shop and had him shorten the blowstick, add a silver ring below the 'bulb', and add a plastic mouthpiece extension back off of the silver like they were orginally shipped (I like very short blowsticks) |
Bagpiping Basics |
Air is blown into a reservoir bag through a non-return valve. This bag is squeezed under the piper's arm when taking a breath, and then relaxed as air is blown back into the bag. The purpose of this is to maintain a steady air pressure over the four reeds without variation or break in sound. There are 3 drone reeds going over the piper's shoulder. The larger bass drone is tuned two octaves lower than low "A" on the chanter. The two smaller tenor drones are tuned together at one octave lower than the chanter. The chanter is where the notes are played and has nine holes with a double beating cane reed. |
I currently own two sets of Scottish Highland Bagpipes. My first set of pipes were made by the Dunbar Bagpipe Company in Canada. These are the P1 model which are made of imitation blackwood with simulated wood mounts and are based on an antique chalice design. They are currently set up with Wygent synthetic drone reeds, a medium Canmore bag, an 8 1/2 inch Airstream blowpipe, and a Naill plastic band chanter with a medium Shepard reed. The nice thing about these pipes is that you never have to worry about the changes in the weather cracking them. The joints have O-rings instead of hemp and are nearly maintenance free. Many pipers will have a similar set for playing outdoors in bad weather and often refer to these as 'beater pipes'. At left is a close up of the Dunbar's tenor drones. |
My prize set of bagpipes are the Cushing "Cabar Feidh's" shown at left and in detail below. These pipes are made of African Blackwood with Elk antler projecting mounts and bushings. The ferrules and ring caps are made of casts of 'high relief' celtic knots by Walker Metalsmiths and are Sterling Silver. The slides are also plain Sterling Silver, making over 1 pound in this precious metal alone. The antler mounts are a screw-on design and I ordered a complete spare set of them with the pipes in case any ever chip, as I see has happened with many other older pipes. I usually see this most often on the ring caps in ivory mounted pipes. Since the ring caps are cast silver on this set, that will not happen anyway. It was an excellent balance of design, both of beauty and function, in the way the metal and horn mounts were placed. I also ordered an extra piece of antler, sliced, to keep in the pipe case to ease my way through Customs at the border. That, along with a signed document from Cushing with the serial number of the pipes outlining thier composition, should save any confusion over ivory. These pipes are as beautiful to look at as they are to listen to and play. They are currently set up with a Wygent base drone reed, Henderson Harmonic tenor reeds (they make a nice double tone when striking in), and a Shepard chanter reed in a Naill, hand engraved, chased silver knotwork pattern, blackwood chanter. They are tied into a medium Canmore bag. |
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At left is a close up of the tenor drones. Please note that they are collapsed to show more detail and have a flattened appearance as they were acually laid on a flatbed scanner for this picture. At the right is the blowstick. Since this picture was taken, I have visited the shop and had him shorten the blowstick, add a silver ring below the 'bulb', and add a plastic mouthpiece extension back off of the silver like they were orginally shipped (I like very short blowsticks) |
Synthetic Bagpipe Drone Reeds |
A piper learns his craft on a Practice Chanter. This is an instrument in itself and is similar to a recorder. All new tunes are learned on the Practice Chanter (or PC) so it is something a piper will use throughout his playing life even after graduating to the actual pipes. It is much quieter than the full stand of pipes. I learned the pipes mostly on my own and with the help of a handy computer program called Phiob Mhor (sadly no longer available but I have been using Phiob Master after trying and evaluating many others and like it even better anyway). During that time back in January of 1998, with no guidance other than blindly stumbling in the beginning and later learning to do careful research, I became a collector of practice chanters in the quest to find one that I really liked playing. I started on a cheap rosewood PC that I found in a Caledonian kit, not knowing any better, along with a helpful video tape from an internet retailer called Lark in the Morning. This is a standard size chanter, the holes are small and have no 'feel' to them, and the sound is poor, even with a variety of reeds. I found someone to help me, for two whole lessons before he left the country, who 'busks' the sunset at Mallory Docks in Key West. He had an older Naill blackwood long chanter that sounded nice to me at the time (anything would have sounded nice next to the Caledonian) and suggested that I purchase one. None of the approximately 20 vendors I called had them in stock but I did find a plastic Naill long that Celtic Fire had on hand. When I got it, I was very disappointed in the sound. It was even worse than my rosewood chanter, which would at least blow close to a true bagpipe scale to follow along on the computer program lessons. I also did not like the 'flex' of the plastic shaft while practicing. Much later, with more experience, I learned that this was more a factor of a beginner making a 'deathgrip' in a valiant attempt to keep all those holes sealed, that softened over time. Now I go back and play those old plastic chanters without thinking about it and keep one in the Jeep with me. I called Celtic Fire and Dave was great, taking the time to explain (to a beginner back then) about how the reed affects the tone and how to move the MacAllister PC reeds up and down with hemp. Even so, Dave still sent me another Naill PC with a reed set up that worked perfectly. I aslo bought about 20 PC reeds from various manufacturers to try out (a nice investment over the years as it turned out). While most of the reeds sounded fine, all of the MacAllister PC reeds needed a lot of fiddling with hemp to sound right. |
Not being completely happy with my two plastic Naill PC's, I purchased a True-Tone long plastic PC with a watertrap and a Hawkstone long rosewood and Ebony PC with a watertrap from Rocky Mountain Highland Supply. I was such a 'wet' blower that I thought the watertrap would help keep the reed from jamming up after 20 minutes or more of practice. The water trap idea did not really make a difference, the traps fill and jam and the reed still gets wet anyway. I am not now as wet a blower as I was in the beginning but the water must still be tapped out every 15 minutes or so anyway. The True-Tone is much quieter than the Naill (smaller bore, similar to the rosewood Caledonian). It required less blowing pressure as a result, and the sound was generally nicer than the Naill, but did require varying pressure to get the notes at the right pitch with the computer music programs or to play along with CD's. Having also been spoiled by then by the sturdiness and feel of wood, I no longer cared for the flex and flimsy feel of plastic practice chanters. The Hawkstone chanter is really nice. It has a bell shaped bottom instead of a sole with inlaid ebony to contrast with the dark rosewood at the bottom of the bell. The heavy plastic top is very thick and it has a brass ferrule that really sets it off. It is a VERY nice looking and sounding chanter. The holes are tapered like the Naill for giving it a closer feel to the actual pipe chanter. It came set up with a Wygent reed and a perfect scale is registered on my Korg AT-2B electronic bagpipe tuner with a steady blowing pressure. The Best I found was after reading about the Cushing long practice chanter. I purchased a long blackwood with a couple of special requests, an elk antler sole and a sterling silver celtic knotwork ferrule. You can see the antler in the pictures on this page. It is wonderful to look at with the pure white of elephant ivory along with speckles and streaks of brown and black throughout. There will be no mistaking this for plastic! It is also harvested responsibly from the natural shedding the animal does each year. I like the look much better than ivory as it has 'character'. Not only does this look and feel like one of the finest instruments that I have ever held, the sound is deep and rich, with the correct reeding. The best part of this PC is the hole spacing, size, and character. It matches up EXACTLY with my my actual pipe chanters. This makes the gracnoting, particularly burls, just like it must be done on the pipes. The fingering transition from PC to pipes is ZERO! I can pick up any of my other practice chanters and make the gracenoting with more ease, but I know that ALL of my time spent practicing on the Cushing is well spent in comparison to those other 'easy to seal' chanters. These holes are not 'chamfered' or rounded on the edges to 'simulate' the size and feel of the pipe chanter, they ARE the size and space of them. It is very picky though on reeds because of the hole spacing. Out of 10 Wygent PC reeds that I have, 3 sound excellent in this, one almost as good, three just okay, and the rest horrible. Yet those same reeds that did not sound good in the Cushing work well in the Naill PC for instance. With carefull reeding, the Cushing is by far the best sounding chanter as well as the best looking. Another reason for my purchase of a Cushing was to observe the care and quality of worksmanship prior to actually buying a full set of pipes from him. I was not sure about the antler until I saw it on the PC (I was considering ivory up to that point...it is still available through Cushing including Mastadon Ivory but the Elk is better looking. |
Practice Chanters From left to right above: |