Could someone look in a botany/forestry book and tell me if elderberry grows in Michigan?
So far I’ve had no luck. It looks alot like a semi poisonous annual we have around here called poke berry. Most searches I’ve done on elder end up with references to a Wiccan/“Celtic” astology page. Elder is their equivilant to late Scorpio. Oddly enough my birthday is represented by “reed”.
Marc
Tony
I am an extremely unfit piper and any form of exercise apart from propping up the bar is , of course, out of the question! I don’t really squeeze the bag at all, in fact I can remove my arm from it all together and still play. I think it is down to very efficient bag and bellows and a certain type of reed. Thats why I use elder because it has so much life, a hard cane reed can be very hard to play but also dull, so what’s the point. I do also play in a very open style and I think this certainly contributes to what I look for in a reed. I’m not looking for a great staccato response but am concentrating on tone ect. Elder is definately worth a try though, particularly for double reeds. I actually dislike cane at this stage and haven’t used a cane reed for at least 6 years.
So… where do I sign up?
Lots of discussion here; I love it.
For those of you recall that I’m working w/ a Ginsberg flat set, would I have to send chanter/regs/drones afar to have a distant reedmaker set me up? Or does sending specifications suffice in some cases? (I don’t mean to be OT with this one; I’m still grinding away at the elder-reed thread)
N, determined
Ted
My USFS Major Indicator of Shrubs says that both Trailing Snowberry/(common)Snowberry and Elderberry (from internet source) are members of the Honeysuckly family. I transplanted honeysuckle so it grows up both sides of my cabin door (the cabin in the mts). Honey suckle would only be big enough for drones generally, though some older plants might get as large an inch. Snowberry is everywhere around here also. Syringa too, but can’t find it in the book to see what family it comes from. Next, you’re going to tell me huckleberry makes good drones, I suppose. (I only pick 22 gallons of them last year!).
John Walsh is on the west of the mts with lots of humidity, wonder why he wanted a thin reed?
I can put a BK reed in my Quinn-bored McFadden chanter and not need to rush anything, nor fill any tone holes, and get solid low/high Ds. toks reed needed a sleeve in the throat and a rush in the bell to get equal performance…other reeds need other things…I think it’s all in the design of the reeds. Gotta try them all y’know.
Speaking of other uses for spruce (piano soundboards) we use to pick the new-growth off spruce trees in the summer and use them to make/flavor BEER! And so the expression “spruce it up!” BTW, the ivorys off old pianos have lots of uses for insturment builders too.