Its hard to find lobster big enough to notice nowadays. Sometimes we can get Florida rock lobster - EXCELLENT!!! There is no beating lobster served Cantonese style in an onion and ginger sauce on a bed of yee meen noodles. Scrumpdillyicious!!! 
djm
Pat it was Gay who said it at Milltown and we were both there, if I remember he actually said âJust play the feckin thingsâ which is sound enough advice.He was refering to the regulators but the same is true of the chanter. 
SlĂĄn Go Foill
Uilliam
PS ye donât need strength to play the chanter.I suspect ye are just not used to the chanter yet.Give it a wee while and it will come together.Ye are in danger of going down the wrong path and will end up with deathgripitus.Relax concentrate and then play the fecking thing.
Fair enough , thanks for that, Uilliam .
Best
Ballygo
Thatâs what I thought about cigarettes! EEEWWWWW!! 
Havenât smoked in months, thenk yew.
djm
I bow to your great feet - uh feat. Congrats dude!!
With your upper hand try playing the back D with the side of your thumb rather than with the pad of your thumb.(Patrick Darcy)
Ive found this advise very helpful . It seems to allow the top three fingers more freedom. Thanks Patrick.
Ballygo
I regularly theorise about reedmaking issues, but this thread has inspired me to ponder for a moment about how it is possible to keep a loose grip while maintaining adequate tone hole coverage. Hereâs what I came up with:
Process of logic
We use teflon/PTFE/plumbers tape to maintain airtightness under the binding of our reeds⌠right?
PTFE tape is quite spongy when wrapped in several layers⌠right?
Conventional medical treatment to rest a joint is to strap it up to a point of immobilisation⌠right? (Yes⌠I know you yanks think I spelled immobiliZation wrong)
Put it all together
Wrap the entire length of your fingers with PTFE tape in several layers to immobolise and relax the fingers into a curved position. The extra padding will easily bed into the tone holes, thereby allowing less pressure to be maintained.
Sometimes I asstound myself with my ingenuity!
Goldy, you didnât specify, but I suspect you had to extract your thumb in order to wrap it in PTFE tape (?). 
djm
Goldy wrote:
âWrap the entire length of your fingers with PTFE tape in several layers to immobolise and relax the fingers into a curved positionâ
And if you leave the ends of your fingers exposed they will turn a lovely black colour, perfectly matching the wood of your chanter
Oh⌠I just got the joke - you were saying that I should personally pull my thumb out of my arse. I thought you were questioning the theory (which canât be done because it is flawless!). However, you are certainly free to make personal reccomendations.
You can rest assured, as landlord to my thumb, I will not evict it from a home it has lived in for as long as I can remember!
This is great stuff - weâre getting a real âthink tankâ going here. As the songwriter Paul Kelly said âFrom little things, big things growâ (right on man⌠right on)