beginner woes on low D and high E

Uilleann Pipes
1

so guys, i know that both these problems have been discussed before, and i have reviewed the posts. i am just wondering if they have anything to do with each other. other than, of course, both being beginner issues. if they are just skill issues, i have a fair amount of patience for that.

new gallager concert chanter with keys.

  1. Low D- i am able to get it about 60% of the time. i am not sure if it is a soft or hard low D, and at my stage i do not care. 40% of the time i get a screechy high D when trying for low. some of these times, i can find the fault in my fingering or in too much bag pressure. however, sometimes, my fingering and bag pressure seem fine- in that case, it invariable initially hits the ugly high note, and then drops down to a passable low D without my changing anything.

  2. high E almost impossible to get, whether i hit it directly, from below, or from above. high F, G and A are fine. the advice on the makers website implies that the reed needs to be closed a bit. under his telephone advice, i did just that- very gently, with fingers only. it improved only about 10%, and seemed to make the low D problem a bit worse.

i have no intention of doing anything to this reed other than the adjustment mentioned above.

the pressure that the reed plays at seems to me to be fine.

if this is all beginner blues, then it will pass in time. i have been able to get a nice high E on other chanters.

so, do not feel need to rehash stuff you have already posted. but if you have anything new…or if these problems are connected…

meir

2

You’re probably not covering one of the holes as well as you could, but you can overcome that.

Since you’re a physician and you must wash your hands frequently, be sure to use some kind of moisturizing lotion frequently so the skin on your hands remains soft and pliable enough to cover the tone holes. Sometimes a drop of olive oil, sweet almond oil, or bore oil will help this problem - just massage a drop into your fingers a few minutes before sitting down to practice.

3

just massage a drop into your fingers a few minutes before sitting down to practice

… or get one of those interns to do it for you… :astonished:

4

I know exactly the problem you have. You need a new reed, you may get around it by learning the correct pressure when lifting the chanter, but in truth it will just drive you absolutely nuts until you get better reed. New reed fixed it for me.

Jeff

5

thanks guys.

you know pat, as a physician we should never do anything without scientific data. so i will try extra virgin on even days and extra-extra virgin on odd days and let you know.

thanks again.

meir

6

so, there is good news. i had been trying to close the reed by hand. when i thought about it, every sign pointed to it still being open too much. so i closed it with a tool. of course it was too much. almost no sound. so i opened it gradually. on the first try i hit, not gold, but certainlyl silver.

the low D was much easier, being able to hit consistantly (expect when i really am not covering the holes right)

the high e is not easy, but it is now possible.

and the whole chanter finally sounds like a uilleann chanter! it has that whine we all love, and i feel the slight vibration in my hand.

the notes are not perfectly in tune, but now you can talk to be about “embrouchure” and it makes more sense.

so my question now is: what kind of plyers, or tool, is the proper one to use to open and close reeds so that i can get minor adjustments right. please be specific if you know.

although if this one plays tomorrow like it did today, i will not be adjusting for a while. “better is the enemy of good”. you doctors know that one don’t you?

thanks

meir

7

I just had 2 chanters re-reeded by Gallagher…
NO TOOLS NEEDED
You shold be able to make adjustments with light finger pressure and miniscule raising or lowering of the bridal.
There is a chance that as the reed re-adjusts you might have to undo a setting that was good yesterday and not today… but that should pass.

8

Meir, welcome to the joys of spending hours f***ing with UP reeds. :smiley:

How’s the climate in your area? Hot and dry? If so, you must expect your reed to change, but the adjustments needed to correct it are ever so slight. If the bridle has become loose you may need to get a small set of needle-nose pliers to firm up the fit - but don’t make it tight! Just pinch the bends in the bridle enough to make sure it is in contact with the sides more than the edges of the reed. Moving the bridle towards the lips should open the lips more. Once you have a snug fit, you should, as Tony pointed out, be able to make slight adjustments by moving the bridle a hair’s breadth up or down to modify the openess of the lips of the reed.

If you can feel the chanter buzz with the reed, you may not have the reed seated correctly, i.e. the reed may be touching the inside of the top. That would be a bad thing. Re-seat the reed so it is upright and air-tight in the throat. That may also help with your tuning problems.

If worse comes to worst, are you far from the maker? Else you should plan to attend the next piping event near you (North Hero, Vermont?) where you can sit with experienced pipers and learn how to adjust your reed as required.

Isn’t this fun?

djm

9

thanks guys. tony, the bridle on my reed is down as low as it goes. the problem was that i needed to close more, and that would have meant lowering it, right?

djm, the vibs are feel are subtle- just the music. and the tuning problems are minor- clearly related to steadiness of bag pressure, which i hope to improve with time.

so for now i got away with it. we will see what today brings.

i will be at north hero, as will seth, so he will look at it again.

meir

10

Gallagher bridles do not slide up or down. You do not move them. You either pinch them shut a bit or squeeze them open a bit.

Seth has a huge volume of reed information free on his web site which you can download in the form of a complete manual, something like the “Seth Gallagher Reed Workshop” or so. It’s in the bottom of my case under some old towels for padding, but it gives you all the information you need to adjust his reeds.

That being said, I took the Gallagher bridle off one, bound it up a bit higher to close up where the bridle had been clamped, and installed a sliding cramp or belt-type that would allow me to open or close the eye/throat area of the reed more directly, which controls the E tunings etc better.

I also ended up taking half the cane off one reed and did some fairly good scraping on the other to really get them down to where they weren’t flattening the grass and scaring the dogs and children in the neighborhood.

The other one I just left Seth’s bridle in place as decoration and added one higher for the same reasons.

If you can’t get a strong low D on a Gallagher chanter with a Gallagher reed you can’t be covering the holes or you can’t have any control at all over blowing. The low D on a Gallagher is absolutely goose-like in it’s honkiness with a raw, unscraped reed. Before I took my reed down I made more noise than three pipers and the entire rest of the session. You probably don’t have a bad reed, you have an unfinished or rough-finished reed, which is how Seth ought to be sending them out, which gives you, the final player, some bark to work with when setting final pressures.

Your problem is also almost certainly with all those keys and key blocks, which you don’t need and ordered because you’re probably able to thoughtlessly afford them so you just thought a fully keyed chanter was an easy choice. They aren’t. In fact the key block on F# there usually screws up your playing for a year trying to develop a feel to get that hole covered so you have no low D or high E–er, gee sounds familiar?

In any case, the only key you’d probably ever use is the Cnat, and maybe an Fnat, and rarely a G# just to prove you can play in A major with some Scottish Fiddler if it ever comes up. The only reason a Bb key even exists is because certain fiddlers or box players think it’s funny to play in Gm to keep pipers and fipplers from playing along with. Keys leak, need constant attention, actually make the chanter harder to play, and like I say, you really don’t need any of them when it comes down to playing I Trad.

Fix–send me the chanter and I’ll trade for a fine Gallagher without any blocks at all. (Eh, never hurts to ask…)

Royce

11

Hahahahahahaaaaa…

I had a friend over who plays as well (and better than me, damn him :smiley: ) and he asked if he could try my Joe Kennedy reed in his Rogge (?) chanter. That went fine, but I’ve been Fing with the reed for two days now to get it back into tune. I don’t understand it, what could have gone wrong? Oh, yea… don’t touch the reed. Gotta remember… don’t touch the reed…don’t touch the reed…never get off the fing boat…

Mark

12

Mark, don’t be a wimp. Sure! Go ahead! Get off the boat. The natives are friendly … :smiling_imp:

Don’t just adjust the bridle. You may have to move the reed up or down in the reed seat as well (use extra thread to keep it air-tight).

Then, for the second hour, … :smiley:

djm

13

Meir,

I have a Charles Roberts D chanter with a C key and a Tom Kennedy reed. I live in an very dry area. The reed plays very nicely. Everytime I suddenly get a gurgling bottom D and a flat back D, I find the pad on the key has dried out. A drop of olive oil on the pad and the problem is magically solved. I find the chanter is much more tolerant of me not completely sealing a hole without this tiny tiny leak from the C key. Good luck
John

14

I found a 1" vise that I use to adjust my reeds as I don’t trust using needle nose pliers any longer (cracked a reed). I use the bottom bridle reed style and I close by pinching the “flat” of the bridle between my thumb and middle finger. I use my vise to open it when that is needed.

You will find a magic opening that will give the hard D with no gurgle and with back D in tune and pressure stable.

To improve the response of the E, try covering up to 2/3 of the bottom of the ghost D hole until you get a real faint note just barely sharp of your back D when you finger ghost D.

I like to use hand lotion (Palmer’s cocoa butter lotion is not greasy/slippery) to soften and sensitize the pads of the fingers.

When you can feel each and every hole “buzz” while playing a hard D, you have finally sealed each hole as it should be and relaxed your hands enough to play.