Being to motivated to master the skills of the pipes, I injured myself by playing to frequently and to many hours. RSI they call it…
As I am slowly recovering (I haven’t touched my pipes during 18 months now - except those few times when an excess of alcohol made me ignore my ‘problem’), I am thinking of all possible possibilities to make me able again to play my pipes whithout injuring myself again…
One of the things I could use, is a reduction in pressure needed to get the pipes going.
Can anyone tell me if the pressure needed on a C#flat set is significantly lower than that on a concert pitch set?
Anyone heared a C#flat set by Dave Williams yet?
Hoping to belong to the piping world as soon as possible…
best regards
"Anyone heard a C#flat set by Dave Williams yet? "
No, never heard a C# set. Ken R. has some tune on Clips n snips playing his Bb Williams set. Sounds nice. I have a Bb chanter made by Dave Williams in 1982. I think Dave has made a C set for some French piper
Hi Wallace sorry to here about RSI problem, a C# set is a narrow bore
set and it should play on much less pressure than a concert set,but a concert set with softer reeds in still should’nt take that much pressure to play, there are far to many pipers playing on hard reeds, which will course them injury as they grow older, the chanter reed needs only to be hard enough to hold the back D stable with a little extra pressure than what is a comfortable pressure for you to play with, but there is minium which the set needs to work properly, try some other pipers sets, you will find how soft some pipers can get there’s sets to play on.all the best.
I also feel apain in my hands sometimes when playing too long.
My chanter reed is a hard one I made myself. I hate sensitive Back D and need volume playing in large sessions. I want to know how I cane make a soft blower reed which has enough volume and stability.
My chanter is a D.Stephenson chanter (Hunter style).
I have to agree with Reedman. Everything is relative, so when someone says they play a hard reed, they only mean that it is hard compared to a reed that takes next to no pressure at all to play. If your pipes are set up so that you are injuring yourself to get sufficient pressure, your reed is not set up correctly at all. That’s when you need to get in face-to-face contact with an experienced piper or pipemaker to set your pipes up correctly.
The key to good piping is soft hands. You will never achieve fast playing and all those great ornaments if you’ve got a death-grip on the chanter. If a hard grip has become a habit, you are going to have to stop and relearn your playing technique, else you will always have sore hands and your piping will never improve.
Depends on the injury. If it is upper arms or shoulders then less pressure demands will help you. If it is in the hand, then I suspect the reed or pressure demands will not make a difference that much - you have to deal with the infamouse “death grip” problem. Grabbing the chanter too tight can cause all sorts of hand problems - I seem to recall that this can be a problem regardless of how hard or soft the reed is.
Wallacepiper…sounds like ye have started way too badly.Did ye get tuition or did ye go it alone?
2 would be pipers I remember in London caused themselves quite serious tendon injuries and had to give up.One was jerking the bellows like a maniac and squeezing the bag to death the other had a vice like grip on the chanter as well as doing the jerky bit.So go back to basics and forget about C# sets unless ye want one.I had one and the pressure difference wasnae noticeable.I now have a C set and I can’t say I notice any real difference again.So …
Posture is important…be comfortable.Don’t hunch.
Don’t jerk the bellows…treat the bag and bellows as a kind of seesaw and when ye have filled the bag with air GENTLY open the bellows so that it is ready for the next deflation of bellows/inflation of bag…don’t leave it until the bag is almost empty before ye open the bellows .
Avoid the vice grip on the chanter…as an exercise rest the chanter against your hands covering all the notes,leave the bottom thumb off the chanter ,just let the chanter lie in your hands with absolutely no grip at all…the weight of the chanter can be taken by the neck o the bag.Inflate and try a note,any old note,try a tune,surprise yourself!Now that ye know ye don’t have to grip the chanter in a throttle like grip why would ye want to do it in future?
Take it easy a little every day is better than marathon sessions at first,after all its not a race is it?
Good luck and don’t be too hard on yersel
Slan Go Foill
Uilliam
As I think of how I used to play, both my shoulders were to tensioned (especially my bagshoulder), now causing pains in my entire arms, numbness in hands and armpit, cold hands…
I pulled my shoulders to much forward and my bag-biceps were to tensioned.
I don’t think I was having a death grip, as I was trying to keep myself from doing that.
To answer Uilliam’s question: yes I got tuiton, but from a book…which doesn’t seem to be THE ultimate way to learn to play pipes.
I got my halfset re-reeded by a skilled pipemaker who made it an easier-to-play set now…unfortunately, I didn’t play it properly yet.
BUT, things are getting better bit by bit and I can play my whistles again, yiehaaaaa
You ought to consider attending tionols or workshops, if you haven’t done so already. It will make an amazing difference in your playing and the way that you play. IMHO, one little pointer from an experienced piper is worth 10,000 of personal hours trying to figure the pipes out on your own. Once you are back in good health, check one out. I am not certain where you live, but surely there’s something within traveling distance. Good luck.
The relative ease/hardness of the reed(s) is probably the more critical factor here. Though in general flat/narrow-bore sets are reeded more easily (and easier to reed there are exceptions; you’ll have to try the specific reed+chanter combination first. Geoff’s C sets, reeded by Geoff, are among the easiet sets I’ve encountered. I have heard anecdotal reports that Geoff’s C# sets may tend to be stiffer than some of his other pitches. Beyond that things probably vary all over the place, and depend not only on the design and skills of the pipemaker and reedmaker but on the preferences of both.
Not every narrow-bore chanter will respond well to a really light reed, so it would be dangerous to make a purchase decision without knowing the specific instrument.
The lightest set I ever tried was Pat Mitchell’s Kiernan C with the reed made by Willy Clancy, but I understand that the reed in question has finally expired. I personally wasn’t able to come close to that reed’s lightness on the one occasion on which I tried to reed the chanter, the second octave upper hand was too stiff.
"Geoff’s C sets, reeded by Geoff, are among the easiet sets I’ve encountered. I have heard anecdotal reports that Geoff’s C# sets may tend to be stiffer than some of his other pitches. Beyond that things probably vary all over the place, and depend not only on the design and skills of the pipemaker and reedmaker but on the preferences of both. " Bill.
A Wooff C chanter I have which was reeded by Geoff, a couple of years ago, is indeed very easy to play, yet it is, surprisingly I find, capable of being made to play quite loud in volume and in tune. This is achieved by just minute adjustments of the bridle, causing the reed lips to slightly open more. I’ve however adjusted the reed so that the chanter plays at a normal level of loudness for a C chanter.
Any chanter reed will soften up a bit from playing. Most pipemakers will provide you with a stiff reed, on the understanding that it will soften up with playing. Chanter reeds that start off stiff are usually (not always) the ones that last longest.
And by stiff, I do not mean an arm-buster, just stiffer than an easy playing reed. If you have to exert a great deal of pressure just to get the reed to sound, it is too closed off. Nothing in UPs should require any significant physical effort, else it means you’re not set up correctly.
there are exceptions; you’ll have to try the specific reed+chanter combination first. Geoff’s C sets, reeded by Geoff, are among the easiet sets I’ve encountered. I have heard anecdotal reports that Geoff’s C# sets may tend to be stiffer than some of his other pitches. Beyond that things probably vary all over the place, and depend not only on the design and skills of the pipemaker and reedmaker but on the preferences of both.