So the other night I was playing some tunes in a session, enjoying the fact that I had the opportunity to play something I knew, and that my reed was pretty well in tune. As I was playing some of the notes seemed to be cutting out, rather stopping completely. I am wondering f this was caused by too much air pressure? Perhaps I was squeezing the bag too much? Thoughts?
Arbo
I am a relative beginner, but I can keep a steady tone.
Maybe squeezing too hard, sometimes I think the pipes will be louder that way when I play along with the ipod. I’m always wrong but it’s a bad instinct.
There are probably others with more expertise than me, but I am guessing increasing temperature and possibly humidity were starting to shut your reed down. I also have the tendency when I am playing with others to play with increased pressure, as I find it a bit more difficult to hear what my pipes are doing when I am playing in a band/session atmosphere. That and maybe a bit of nerves and I can tend to overblow the reed.
Thanks for the replies… so I gather from both of your comments that squeezing too hard can shut down the reed?
Arbo
Oh yeah Arbo. If I try bits with lots of second Oct. I know I over squeeze the bag. The reed just shuts off a bit off n it’s back.