Hi All,
I was curious how people’s preferences ran with respect to playing a chanter reed that is light and easy to blow as opposed to one which is stiffer and which you have to dig into a little more. What’s your preference and why? Thanks!
M
G’day Matteo,
I definitely prefer easy to blow reeds because transition between the two octaves and the hard/soft D’s are much easier with the soft blown reed. Also, it doesn’t cause a strain on the shoulders like stiffer reeds. I know that a soft blown reed can be a loud one, but I have generally found that once you make a reed easy to blow, it is usually a quieter reed and I like this correlation. It is said that a heavily scraped reed that blows easy doesn’t last long, but I’d rather be having to make reeds more often if it makes playing the thing easier. I have found that the softer reeds do react more readily to weather changes, but if your climate is fairly stable, this doesn’t matter.
I prefer a heavier reed, I like the louder brighter sound, particularly the hard D. It is difficult at first but with time it becomes more easily manageable. I don’t mind having arms like Popeye 
In my experience, a reed that starts out its life being a little on the hard side (but not too much so) will eventually become easier to play. It will also tend to live a lot longer than a reed that starts out its life on the easy side.
I like my reeds to be about medium once they have settled in. The intonation seems to be truer, the back, soft and hard Ds tend to be steadier and the tone crisper… without being too harsh.
Flat chanters are a whole different animal… of course. 
Considering what you just said, do you think a contributing factor is your muscles are also adapting to the tougher reed? Or does the cane have a tendency to relax with use? Possibly both?
A little of both I think.
A reed left medium strong will eventually with use become (much) easier to play. Geoff Wooff usually leaves his reeds that way so they go one to become clear, crisp easy players that will last (mine has been going for 20 years now and at times it is as easy as pat Mitchell’s 1968 Willie Clancy-made reed).
I prefer medium strong. You get used to playing with the extra pressure and when you change to play a light reed, it’s like playing a tin whistle
Pat Sky posted something interesting a few months back about using light reeds at high altitude. Here’s the link.
By the end of the day it’s probably more important how responsive your reed is and how well balanced the octaves. I have played reeds that were very easy in the lower octave but need a serious increase in pressure to get above high G. That’s not right, the increae in pressure between the octaves should be minimal.
On that note: Geoff Wooff will be dropping over a new chanter for me next week, according to him it’s playing perfectly up to third octave G. So that’s going to be interesting.
What key? Another C chanter?
Yup all the improvements and experience of another twenty years poured into it (compared to the other one)
Very cool. Have some fun with it.
I 'm more concerned that the response is fairly even - the back D is stable at the same pressure as the in-tune 8ve E and the c#; the lower hand / lower 8ve notes don’t require a big drop in pressure, and as Peter says, the notes above top G don’t require an excessive increase in pressure.
Then it’s an issue of balancing with the drones and regs. On my D Gallagher set, I find some reg notes break if the reed is blowing too hard
Very good point.
What tunes would require you to go up to 3rd octave G? I know of only a few tunes that require 3rd octave D and most players don’t even bother with that and just modify the tune.
i have had preferences both ways in the past in regards to reed pressure, NOTHING ELSE! 
i currently am playing a BK reed named “reed with radical haircut” that was at one time rather stiff, but not anything close to the Lynch reeds I played for years lovingly.
After a rest in a mint container for a few months (recovering from being somewhat cantanerous and difficult to keep in upper register) it came out really really light but tonally perfect and “punchy” to quote a friend. There is no resistance whatsoever… as Pat Sky said, the weight of my arm will play it.
I used to think that stiffer reeds were more stable in various settings, but I am not sure I buy into that anymore.
How long of a time are we typically talking for a reed that plays hard at first until the time it starts to play easier? What would be an honest amount of time to give a reed, and does it eventually level out in how much it eases up?
Ailin
It depends on the amount that reed gets played, thickness of the blades and the ever sneaky climate. A good month of regular playing ought to bring about a notable change.
A week if you really work it out at the high end of the second octave. Regular playing after that ought to fettle the beast.
djm
To muddy the waters further, I would say 6 months to a year, depending upon the conditions stated by others posting in the thread.
I have (for Gallagher C chanter) a reed made by Dickie Deegan in 1992 (it was made for a Geoff Wooff C chanter) that is rather tough in my opinion. I have played it some, not as often as I want to (health), but it hasn’t eased up any in the three years that I have had it.
I have another made by a friend of mine that sounds nearly identical, but takes much less pressure to play. I had a couple of pipers try that one and they overblew it until they played it a little, so I guess I have it set up “soft”. It sounds as loud to me as the Deegan reed.
This reed was started in late fall, just before the first snow and I have worked on it until last month and I consider it “finished”.
I still want to take about 10 scrapes along the U in the Deegan reed, but I will wait until I get my strength back before I make my decision to mess with it.
There are one or two examples that I’m aware of where Seamus Ennis went up to 3rd octave E, not because the tune called for it, but just to show that it could be done. I have heard of a few other cases of people going up to 3rd octave E or F#…but G is a first…Have fun, Peter! Some older flat chanters have a key fitted to better facilitate getting an in-tune 3rd octave D (you can also see them on modern flat sets by Wooff, Kennedy, Angus, etc. I think a lot of Brad’s chanters tend to be fitted with 5-6 keys…I can’t remember for sure now, but I think he once told me that the 6th one was for 3rd octave E…Anyone else know?) This kind of stuff would have perhaps been intended for early players of the landed gentry class who were sometimes inclined to play violin/flute/oboe pieces by composers such as Bach on pipes.
I’ve gone up to 3rd octave D on a couple of tunes, but I’ve never had the courage to go higher…Hmm…
My chanter/reed tends to be happiest somewhere around the medium-strong range, but mileage definitely varies from reed to reed. Humidity will also have an effect on opening or closing the reed aperture and you may need to slightly adjust the bridle when playing your pipes in a different climate than what they’re used to…My first reed was so loud, I had to keep it a bit on the weak side to keep from driving others and myself up the wall…Cillian O Briain tends to make his reeds to sound at their optimum a bit on the loud side, in my opinion. The Angus reed currently in my chanter plays at about the same pressure, but has a little less strident edge; not so likely to peel paint off the wall.