Pumping the bellows on beat

Bagpipes (Non-Uilleann)
1

I got my smallpipes recently, and I’m loving them so far! The fingering isn’t that difficult after playing whistle for so long.

One thing I was wondering is whether it’s ok/normal to pump the bellows on beat. I ask because, if I recall correctly, I often see Uillean pipers pump in a rhythm that doesn’t match up with the beat of the tune they’re playing. As a noob with no experience blowing bags, I naturally find myself pumping to the beat of the tune (e.g., one pump per measure). If the tune is faster, I just make the pumps smaller so the bag doesn’t overinflate. If the tune is slower, I make larger pumps to get it filled. I find this makes coordination a lot easier.

All I want to know is: is this a bad habit/beginner’s trap? Should I stop trying to make it match up with the beat? Should my pumping be uniform, regardless of the tune’s tempo?

2

One thing I was wondering is whether it’s ok/normal to pump the bellows on beat. I ask because, if I recall correctly, I often see Uillean pipers pump in a rhythm that doesn’t match up with the beat of the tune they’re playing

You use the bellows to fill the bag when you need to. Not to the beat of the tune. That’s a habit you need to get rid of immediately. You fill the bag to nearly full and play until it is down enough to replenish it with a full stroke of the bellows. Which means not to a particular rhythm or with a lot of small strokes. And you play the pipes, ie keep the pressure on, with your bag arm, not with the bellows.

3

Thank you! Very helpful, Mr. Gumby! :slight_smile:

4

One more noob question: is it normal for the air to slowly leak through the chanter even when there’s not enough bag pressure for the chanter to make a sound (assuming the holes aren’t all covered and the end isn’t covered)?

5

Yes exactly, and it’s the same with mouthblown pipes.

The filling of the bag and arm action have nothing to do with that the fingers are doing.

I start people off, on both mouthblown and bellows-blown pipes, playing “long notes”.

A lot of bad habits can happen if a person starts hammering away at tunes before they can blow the pipes with a steady tone.

I’ve seen pipers who have been playing for decades that can’t blow their pipes steady. If you can’t blow steady you can’t play in tune.

Since beginners also usually have difficulty sealing all the holes of the chanter, I have them start with a note on the upper hand, a note that doesn’t require the lower-hand fingers to seal their holes to get a solid sound.

A good note to begin with is

x|xoo|xxxo (the note F# in Scottish fingering)

simply because only two digits have to seal their holes for a clean solid note.

Once they can hold that note steady for a few times through the blowing/squeezing cycle then it’s time to start going down the scale slowly one note at a time.

At first with blowing there’s often a discrepancy between the pressure during the blowing part of the cycle and the squeezing part.

-------------------------

Once this is levelled there’s often a small dip, or spike, in pressure in one of the transitions blowing > squeezing or squeezing > blowing. (Sometimes both!)

----------^----------v----------^----------- (example of the pressure spiking for a moment during one transition, and dipping for a moment during the opposite transition.)

It can take weeks of practice to get rid of all the little issues and achieve dead-steady blowing. And dead-steady blowing is an absolute must, before going on to playing tunes.

6

When I was trying to break the link between the beat and squeezing the bellows, I found that it helped to do it twice.

To begin with I only did this when I needed more than one bellows’-worth of air to fully replenish the bag. But then I realised it was a useful tactic; if you concentrate on squeezing smoothly and only reopen the bellows when they’ve given up all the air they have, you usually can’t synchronise the second squeeze with the beat. It also helped me gain a bit more confidence about using the bag’s capacity instead of anxiously topping it up all the time.

I’m still a bit prone to falling into the beat habit if I’m tired, but it’s definitely helped shift my brain towards focusing on “does the bag need air?” not “when can I pump?”.

7

Thank you again, everyone, for your invaluable advice!

8

If you avoid playing tunes, and begin only playing long notes, there’s no musical beat to fight against in the first place.

One shouldn’t try to master the blowing of the pipes, and tackling tunes, simultaneously. This often results in the person never mastering blowing, thus never being able to play in tune.

The key to piping is tone, and the key to tone is blowing steady.

9

I’m just a beginner piper, and so probably shouldn’t be offering advice, but one thing that I have found useful is to avoid the temptation to manage bag pressure using the bellows. This may sound ridiculous to a seasoned piper, but it is tempting for a new player to play in steady state with the bellows partially full, and to squeeze of the bellows constantly in such a way as to kind of indirectly manage the bag pressure using the bellows, temporarily managing the bag only when replenishing the bellows. If you start doing this it can be difficult to break the habit!

10

I think I get what you’re saying. I’ll try to avoid that.

But it does seem like you have to back off on the bag pressure when you’re doing a pump, right? The pump adds more pressure, so you have to subtract a bit of pressure from the bag on each pump, I’ve found. Hopefully this is the correct way to do it.

11

Oh yes that sure is a thing!! Beginners trying to play the pipes from the bellows rather than from the arm.

The bellows shouldn’t be slowly milking air into the bag, like the air in your lungs would be putting into a flute.

Just prior to the stroke the bellows-arm can open up a bit from its relaxed default position, pulling the bellows open wider, filling them with air.

Then the bellows-arm can make a firm even stroke, not slow and lingering, yet not too violent.

During the bellows-stroke the bag-arm must come off the bag to allow the bag to accept the in-flow of air without getting a spike in bag-pressure.

Obviously the bellows-arm stroke and the bag-arm coming off the bag have to be perfectly co-ordinated for the pressure to remain exactly the same.

At the end of the bellows-stroke the arm takes over, playing the bag alone for a time (the bellows-arm returning to its default relaxed position) slowing increasing the pressure on the bag to compensate for the loss of air going through the reeds.

With uilleann pipes you first need to get used to playing just the chanter, then when you can do that hit the drone switch. At first it seems like a hole has suddenly appeared in the bag! And your pumping action has to increase in speed to compensate for the added loss of air through the reeds.

Then even more when you hit a chord on the regulators. Playing the chanter, three drones, and all three regs at the same time (with a hand-chord) and you’re pumping like mad.

12

By the way I hope you’re not trying to play the chanter and all the drones together while you’re trying to learn how to operate the bag and bellows.

It increases the squealing noises and other distractions, at a time when your practice should have one purpose only: mastering blowing the pipes dead-even.

The best thing to do at the very beginning is to remove the chanter, and put a cork in the chanter stock. This eliminates the powerful temptation to noodle on the chanter, wasting your practice time by dividing your attention and efforts.

And shut off two of the three drones, leaving only one going. This eliminates the temptation to noodle with the drones rather than focusing on the blowing.

I should have mentioned this from the get-go, but my brain was in Uilleann Land where the beginner has a set with the chanter only.

In Scottish Land (bellows or mouth blown either one) the beginner should start with one Tenor drone only.

Then when that one drone can be sounded dead-even for a couple minutes straight it’s time to open up a second drone. If your smallpipes have the Bass/Tenor/Tenor setup open up the 2nd Tenor.

If your set has the Bass/Baritone/Tenor setup open up the Bass.

Now with two drones going, since you’re blowing dead-even (since you haven’t been noodling on the chanter) you can experiment with tuning two drones together.

Then when two drones are going for a few minutes dead-even perfectly in tune (no beats) it’s time to open the 3rd drone. Tuning three drones together is much harder than two.

Now once you can play all three drones dead-even for as long as you want, no dips or spikes in pressure, the drones perfectly in tune the whole time (no beats) it’s time to start playing the chanter. For pressure reasons you might want to stop off all the drones at this point, so you can focus on playing long notes on the chanter with dead-even blowing.

Then go once more through the process of bringing in the drones one at a time.

For sure you can just try to do everything all at once, but the regimen given above uses practice time most efficiently, and makes sure that you can master one task before tackling others.

13

Oh certainly not! I haven’t even tried to get those buggers in tune yet. :stuck_out_tongue: I have all the drones plugged up and I’m focusing on just trying to get a steady note on the chanter at this point.

The best thing to do at the very beginning is to remove the chanter, and put a cork in the chanter stock. This eliminates the powerful temptation to noodle on the chanter, wasting your practice time by dividing your attention and efforts.

Good suggestion, I’m sure! I’d take it, if I had a cork that fit in there. But I don’t. So at this point, I’m just trying to get a consistent sound on the chanter, without changing the note much. I’m focusing on slow scales and steady, unchanging notes. Not attempting to play tunes (okay, I did attempt tunes the first day I had it just for funzies, but I’m not any more).

14

Sounds good!!