I have been waiting about 6 months for my drones to be made and it looked like it might be another year… Or more. A recent thread here helped convince me that I would eventually want a set of regulators. So if I had to wait at least a year for the drones I figured I might as well put in an order for regulators, thinking that this would be at least another 2 years and I might be ready for them then…
Well… Turns out there is a drone/regulator set ready right now. So after heavy negotiations with my wife… This time next week I will have a full set in my lap.
I take lessons from Channing Dodson. And I am sure he will not want me to touch the drones much less the regulators for quite a while as my chanter playing is still beginnerish.
But I can’t have thousands of dollars of new stuff in my lap without playing with it. Are there any good online, book, or DVD resources out there that cover the tuning and playing of regulators. I found a long article by Geoff Woofe in Uilleann Obsession. Also the 4th DVD in the Na Piobairi Uilleann tutor set seems to be about regulators. Any other resources?
Assuming you will receive your regulators working and in tune (and I’d recommend you don’t accept them otherwise) you shouldn’t have too much to do to keep them in tune. Ideally adjusting the tuning pins should keep you safe for a while at least.
You for got to add “provided you live in Ireland”. Humidity and temperature swings are more extreme in North America. I know of more than one piper who has separate sets of “summer” and “winter” reeds, which get rotated out when the seasons change.
My experience is that during the times of high humidity (july/august) the regs tend to get sharper and may even close up, so frequent adjustment and tuning are necessary. Geoff Wooff’s article on regulators is excellent. If you scroll down that page, there’s also some tips from Pat D’Arcy.
On the subject of playing, NPU’s DVD tutors vol 3 and 4 give instruction on playing the regs. But there’s no quick fix: you have to practice playing the regs.
Bob lives in West Oregon, where we have two seasons, Summer and Overcast. Sound familiar?
Congrats on the full set, Bob, is it an Angus as well?
Pat Sky published a tutor almost 40 years ago with an excellent bit of advice: plug the exits of the baritone and bass drones, and just use the tenor. That way you can continue practicing with a wee bit of drones, but not so much that your chanter playing will be affected by the extra air that all 3 drones use, even when they’re working properly. It makes the music a bit more interesting to have something to listen to besides the chanter.
That sounds like good advice… I will try that. It is an Angus set. I went there today, thinking I would pick it up. But the visit was more to set up the details of what I really want. Modify the existing bag or use the one he set up for the set. Use the existing Chanter or a new one he made for the set. Somehow that took over 2 hrs with stories and playing tunes. And I guess I will have my set in the next week or so. It looks really nice. He put in teardrop brass regulator keys that match the keys on my chanter. He had the drones working and they sounded really nice. The Regs were not reeded yet.
I also ordered the NPU DVD’s 3&4 I had the 1&2. Channing said that when i progress a bit further on the chanter he could help with the regs. Brad said he would give me some pointers on tuning and playing on my next visit. I like the idea of just playing with one regulator. I am curious, why the tenor and not the baritone or base reg?
I wish I would have started these pipes when I was 20 instead of 62. So much to learn and master.
BTW I mostly play in my little man cave where I have a humidifier in the room. I keep the humidity in the 40-55% range no matter what is going on outside. I did noticed that when I let the humidifier go dry that during the winter the humidity gets down to <30%. My chanter reeds all get finicky down there.
It is good to have a full set, even if the body is not played. You will get used to the position the body must be in to play the regulators when you get there. Often, those with just a practice set or a half-set get used to a bag position under their arm that won’t be correct for playing regulators and they must re-learn where to place the bag to be able to play the regulators with the chanter.
But Kevin’s suggesting one drone, Bob. Not sure why the tenor because I don’t play UP, but perhaps because (like the SSP) it’s playing the same pitch as the six-finger note on your chanter?
Just the tenor drone, yes. It takes a wee bit less air than the others so it’s a good one to start with. You could give just one of the other drones a shot too, see how that goes. But starters should just work on the chanter for a while. Paddy Moloney and Liam O’Flynn played nothing but practice sets for the first 5 years they were learning. But of course drones 'n regs are great fun to have. I always think of a piper who dropped by Brad’s house when Brad was still living off Sandy Blvd, about 13 years ago; this guy had a brand new Dave Williams full set, ordered through Lark in the Morning, and he was playing everything. I’d tell him the whole spiel about when you’re just starting just stick to the chanter. “Why?” Well, it’s a bit more disciplined. You’ll get better results. If that’s what you’re after. He just bought the things to mess about with, though. It was a titch chaotic sounding and out of tune too of course…other thing I remember about him is he brought an instrument he already played, a rackett. Took me about 5 minutes to squeak out “Iron Man” on that little guy. They have a notoriously random fingering system. Would make for an interesting bagpipe chanter.
The Irish pipes started out as a 1 regulator instrument and someone once wrote about how that may have been an advantage at first, you could play a counter-melody on the one regulator since there’s no problem with your wrist accidentally bumping into other keys. When the other regs were added their role changed to providing a homophonic accompaniment, the “chords” we play on them.
with an excellent bit of advice: plug the exits of the baritone and bass drones, and just use the tenor. That way you can continue practicing with a wee bit of drones, but not so much that your chanter playing will be affected by the extra air that all 3 drones use, even when they’re working properly. It makes the music a bit more interesting to have something to listen to besides the chanter.
They have a notoriously random fingering system. Would make for an interesting bagpipe chanter.