Hello all, been lurking for some time and I’ve got a question for you folks. I’ve been piping close to a year now, and, although I suspect this may be a bit early in the game to start thinking about this, I really want to figure out how to do this reed making thing.
I’ve searched the net a bit and read the posts I could find around here, but I seem to be finding a whole lot of bits and pieces of information. Where should I start? Is there a book or website that is particularly good? DVDs? Is this one of those things not to be done in isolation (i.e. find a teacher)?
I suspect this may have been touched on before here, if so please accept my apologies and my thanks for the link to the appropriate thread.
We have posts almost exactly the same as yours…like one every month or so. They all pretty much say the same thing and what they have most in common is no identification of any kind, no location, no follow-up posts, and nothing personal. Some people think it’s the same person, and it certainly sounds the part, so you might want to open up a little and tell us more about you, dude, so we don’t get you confused with the last 45 persons we tried to help but never heard from again. One post I guess, and that’s about it.
No, actually this is my first post. Sorry to be impersonal, it wasn’t my intention. I assure you that I am not this ghost poster you speak of - just wasn’t totally clear on protocol around here…
More about me:
I have a Ray Sloan half-set that I have been playing for about a year now. I lived in NC briefly and I had some lessons with the fantastic Pat Sky. I recently moved to Seattle, and now that the dust has settled I have finally gotten in touch with the local pipers’ organization. In addition to my recent attempts at Irish piping, I haved played GHB for a number of years as well as some non-bag-based instruments. I have a couple degrees in music composition and still do a fair amount of that as well.
Hopefully that personalizes my impersonal handle a bit! Again, any guidance would be much appreciated.
Try these sites, the basic dimensions are here.
The outcome is dependent on your skills as a craftsman rather than a musician.
I would say read just a couple of the many reedmaking sites and start making reeds right away. Most of the skill and knowledge will come from the making not the reading.
They say make a hundred
and throw fifty away.
scrape the fifty
and throw 25 away
etc. etc. you should end up with one good reed and bin full of cane.
Good luck
I recommend (if you haven’t already done so) joining NPU and downloading the reed making manual by Dave Hegarty… http://www.pipers.ie/en/default.lasso
Also, you can order the reed making DVD from NPU, which is IMHO the best video instruction ‘manual’ out there.
Pat Sky: http://www.patricksky.com/ His manual for the Irish pipes is a good purchase. I own an older copy of this book (which goes through the reed making process) but the updated version has more stuff inside it.
OOO, thanks for the links!
Hey I’m getting a Sloan set myself! I’m going to be getting some reed dimensions from him, so if you don’t have that, you should probably contact him. or if you want, I can send them to you when I get them. Good luck! I’m not much help; I’m still trying to get Joseph to stay still so I can snatch that reed from his hand . . . maybe if I use the Force . . .
Get ahold of the Wally Charm and the Irish Pipers Club, Tel: (206) 784-7353, POBox 31183 Seattle, WA 98103-1183
There are several good reed makers in your immediate area and workshops by world class reed makers and pipers coming up at the West Coast Tionól in Seattle, February 17 -19, 2006.
Wow! Thanks for all the info everybody - that gives me a great place to start. I have a feeling this project may be as difficult as piping itself for me (given my limited skills as a craftsman), but I’m going to jump right in.
I’ll post a picture of the bamboo forest I butcher and the one almost usable reed it died for when that time comes, long down the road.
Going to a Tionol where there is a reed making workshop is probably the best way to get one’s head around making reeds. Failing that, I have to plug the NPU DVD “The Heart of the Instrument… reed making master class” featuring some of the absolute best in the world of reed making: Benedict Koehler, Geoff Woff, Cillian O’ Briain and Andreas Rogge.
Someday, that other master reed maker, Alan Burton, will be featured in a DVD… that dude be da man!
My first ever reed was made of bamboo. Believe it or not, it actually played in tune, but was really loud and needed a lot of air pressure. A neighbour down the road was chopping down some bamboo that had taken over her garden and I thought that it might be cane so I asked for a couple of lengths. At that point, I didn’t know about the seasoning process so I just went stright into making a reed.
You may want to use cane instead.