Hi everybody
I’ve some problems for passing to the hight octave.
Sometimes is good, but I must very often sqeeze hard my bag.
I’ve an HARPA Practice set.
May be it’s me ? I don’t know what to do 
Two things:
- If you’re at the beginner stage, your fingers may be leaking a little. This can make the 2nd 8ve require more pressure. Start with all holes closed and make sure you can feel or hear no air leaks under your fingers, then play an 2nd 8ve E with as little pressure as possible. Close fingers then try F#. Do the same for G. Jumping from the low octave to notes above G may not be possible - you have to hit a G first then slur to A, B, and C.
\ - If you don’t have any leaks, your reed may be too open. Does it play in tune with itself (assuming you hit the 2nd 8ve) or does it tend to be flat? If it is flat and hard to blow, the reed opening may need to be reduced.
Take a look at http://www.reedshaman.co.uk/adjusting.htm for reversible reed adjustments.
Good luck.
Christophe:
Though SImon’s right about leaks making it harder, be careful not to try fixing this by gripping harder with your fingers. This will cause you all kinds of trouble and possibly injury.
The only notes in the second octave which can be reached directly from the first octave are E, F#, and G. Above that, you need to start from a note which is already in the second octave - just in case you did not realize that.
In order to get used to the second octave, I recommend slowly playing notes in the first and second octave like so:
E e E e
F f F f
G g G g
(where ‘e’ means second octave and ‘E’ means first octave, and so on). Make sure you close all fingers between notes. If when a note starts, you “miss” the second octave, pushing harder on the bag won’t help, you can’t “jump” up from one octave to the other without closing the chanter (or at least, you should not try to do this).
Perhaps this will have cleared up some confusion on your part. It is also possible that your reed is set up a little too hard for learning, but you should seek an experienced person to help you there.
regards,
Bill
Depending on the experience of the player, 'popping notes will help to jump into the 2nd octave on e,f# and g
Yes, but as our friend here is at the stage where popping is a ways off yet, I think it best to concentrate on the fundamentals within Billh’s suggestions.
Bill’s got a very important point here. It’s a problem that many players suffer, especially in the earlier stages. I still have to make a conscious effort sometimes to relax.
You’ll see lots of posts about white knuckles, gorilla grip or death grip. As soon as you start squeezing hard everything will suffer. Keep your fingers relaxed and try to feel the correct postion over the hole
Finbar Furey’s suggestion is to put a bit of handcream on your fingers to aid airtightness. It really does work!
Also a one finger high g is easy to obtain with v little bag pressure.
Thank you very much at all.
The Finba Furey’s is really amazing !
Regards
Pascal
Sorry my french fingers !
“The Finbar Furey’s suggestion is really amazing”
There’s nothing you need to apologize for. 
Indeed you do need to be careful, as a number of you have pointed out, to avoid putting the chanter in a death grip, but the same goes for the bag. I have a student who has been playing the smallpipes for years and made the transition very well to the uilleann pipes.
His plight came when he did not make the conscious effort to relax: He broke one finger from gripping the chanter way too hard and slipping of against a key. Was that it? No. He was squeezing the bag so hard trying to acheive that “popping” effect that he did literally just that…his shoulder popped out of its joint.
So take it easy and take it slow. With enough practice it will come all on its own and will sound much better as a result. There is nothing more satisfying than that. After all, this is all about having fun, yes?
Pascal,
How long (how many hours) has you been playing this set? There was an ARPHA set on loan to the SCUPC last year–the reed was very stiff at first, but after a few hours of playing, it became much easier to play. You might stay in the first octave for a week or two.
bon chance,
Sans E
I play since average 2 years (alone).
I’m a great Highland Bagpiper at first and squeeze the bag is easy for me 
I had try all your advices, passing the 2nd 8ve is became more easy 
Now I work the sustain of the 2nd 8ve = 
Thank you very much
All the best
Pascal