What do you do when a drone shuts off while playing? Do you just keep playing and ignore it, or stop and fix the problem?
This is a quiz, by the way, I’m interested in hearing your replies.
Fortunately, this rarely happens, but when a drone shuts off I usually play on through to the end of the tune and then fix the problem. If I’m just practicing by myself at home, I’d be more inclined to just stop and fix it on the spot.
The correct answer is to play on through if you are performing for others. I must confess, however, that I unconsciously panic and stop for a millisec or more 
before remembering to keep playing. If I’m just playing for myself I allow myself full rein to stop and vent my displeasure, probably a bad habit to allow myself, as it will inevitably come out at the of worst times.
djm
Open up the drone reeds so that you look like a gooney bird (the albatros) attempting a take-off. Then they won’t shut off. 
In my living room I stop and cuss, pull out the reed, light up the old alcohol lamp do the adjustment dance.
In public, I either keep on going or shut off the drones.
keep on playing…(and because a’m a lahdy), demurely turn them off at the first opportunity.
So what is the price and who will win?!?
It happened to me that one of the drones decided to stop … so does it matter ?!? There are still 2 to go … 
It was worse with one of my German pipes where actually the reed decided to break and make a very unpleasant noise. So only chance was to stop and block the drone.
Can I answer with another question?
Is it almost always the bass drone that we all have troubles with? It seems to be the least stable of the bunch to me.
No it isn’t! The baritone drone reed is the one that gives the most trouble.
I just spent 2 weeks getting mine stable. I hate new reeds.
I agree with FancyP. If I overpressure too much, it is just my bass drone that will keep going. The other two will cut out first.
djm
Robbie Hannan, from his performance on the Gaelic Roots CD:
" I’ve been having serious difficulties with my bass drone…we’ve come to an agreement…it’s going to work for the next 2 minutes, 30 seconds…after that, it’s going on a long holiday."
When my chanter reed dries up and starts taking too much pressure to play, the bass drone usually shuts up or becomes unreliable within a few weeks. Never had a bother at all with the other two.
Play through, always, even if only to the end of the form. Indulging in temper tantrums at home will lead to difficulty maintaining composure in public.
Keep playing and fix it on the run. Reach down with a free right hand (for RH people) and cover the hole and release (with suction) to start it again, or quickly switch the drones on and off. When it fails the second time, head straight for the thermastat in the room and turn it down. Any drone reed that stops while you’re playing is close to being right. I all else fails, stop. You can close the chanter reed a bit to even out the pressure, or open the drone reed, depending on what is needed.
I would shut my drones off and play a verse with just my chanter. I would then fire my drones up in the begining of the second verse. This adds for great effect and it shows the crowd the beauty of the chanter by itself. I have heard Uilleann Pipers do this live once or twice. When you turn your drones off after having one or more drones shut off, and then turn them back on, you have a good chance of having all three drones fire up again.
Okay, Kevin, don’t keep us in suspense. What was the purpose of your quiz?
djm
…look and see if there’s a didgeridoo player in the room 
and if there is…well…put in your own response here!! 
When it happened to me, I thought my drones were seriously “bass-y” but then thought the bass was cutting out.
Then I saw the didge player with a thing that played in D.
Made a mention of circular breathing to him as a polite suggestion for how to develop his talent 
Boyd
If I have any trouble with my drones, it’ll invariably be with the baritone, and then usually only if I bring in my drones with the switch (of course, now that I’ve written that, I’m sure I’ll have all kinds of trouble with my bass and/or tenor today…). Because of that, it doesn’t really bother me that much. If I’m just playing at home, I might reach down and bring it in but if I were doing a gig and suddenly my baritone drone didn’t come in, I probably wouldn’t panic…If I had a spare minute between tunes, I might open up the reed a bit though.
If I were having trouble with either of the other reeds, I’d probably just turn the drones off until I had time to properly mess with them.
Oh, I don’t know. Some pipers seem baffled by little problems like this, which have very simple solutions. I’m just curious why they don’t take a little time to address them when they come up; or why some put up with very wobbly drones/regs, or bad notes on the chanter, or wrappings that are so loose pipes fall out of the stock. It’s no wonder other musicians think pipers are wrong in the head sometimes.
It depends on the circumstances. If I’m at a session, I’ll just shut off the drones, no one can hear them anyway. Playing a gig - well, I just keep going and try to use the shutoff switch to get them all going again.
Playing at home, I drop everything and go through a checklist of items I’ve developed over the years. Nothing revolutionary here, just the results of trial and error over the last 7+ years.
- check all joints for airtightness. The slightest leak can make achieving and maintaining 2nd octave notes more difficult, causing me to push the bag harder than necessary, resulting in one or more drones closing up.
I apply some waxed, all cotton thread to suspect joints if necessary.
Don’t forget to check the reeds in their seats, too. They can be jolted out of position during transport.
This usually clears up the problem.
2a) Pay attention to the chanter reed a moment: does it play very hard? Perhaps it may need a slight adjustment, sometimes it may be just open enough to still be in reasonably good tune but out of balance with the drones. A SLIGHT adjustment or closure can help sometimes. Our weather in Chicago has so many wild swings in any 72 hour span that a reed often doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going. Making adjustments is just a fact of life for uilleann pipers here. You can’t be afraid to adjust your reeds, but you do have to be very careful.
2b) If the chanter seems to be within its optimal range of playability (it can take some time to develop a sense of how a chanter reed should play), then look at the drone reeds. I seldom do this because I use composite drone reeds that work under most circumstances. Sometimes moving the bridle up/down a very small amount and perhaps gently rubbing the back of the drone tongue with a pen, mechanical pencil, X Acto handle etc., using a perpendicular motion will help.
This is yet another reason why it’s so important to practice every day, doing so allows you and your instrument to get better acquainted with one another.
To borrow from David Daye, “Your mileage may vary”.
Have to share this story from the 2001 San Francisco Tionól. Seán Og Potts was in the middle of performing at the Saturday night concert when the end of his bass drone fell off. He quickly turned the drone switch off and kept right on going, using some nice sustained regulator chords to cover for the lack of drones. The best part was watching his expression–the initial look of horror, followed by a barely-supressed bout of the giggles. He never missed a beat.
No E
Kinda like this ??
After finishing playing he told us Ronan Browne’s nickname for him, what with all the pieces all falling off - “The leper piper.”
