I have a weather station complete with indoor humidity. I can vary the humidity in my music room with a humidifier. The other day it ran out of water. I started playing and the lower octave was louder than normal and the high E, F#, and sometimes G all sounded screechy. I checked the humidity and it was 28%. So I cranked the humidifier on and at about 33% they sounded great again.
So is that normal reed behavior. And what do you do if there is no humidifier around and you dont have one of those in bellows spounges? Close the lips a bit?
Reeds close in dry air and open in humid circumstances. If you get down to the twenties you either get yourself a reed made to play in conditions like that or, what I would do, leave the pipes in the box until things improve.
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK. I was just thinking of uploading some photos around a project that addresses just this! Yes, that is normal reed behavior. A lot of good pipers just don’t play on those days unless absolutely necessary, or they stay in a room where there’s humidity. Keeping your pipes in their case with a humidifier is also a helpful option. Other pipers switch to reeds made of spruce or cane that’s seasoned in very dry temps. Mick O’Brien has mentioned actually playing directly over a small humidifer before. Another thing he’s done is put some velcro straps on his bellows clapper, and under those straps he’s placed a thin damp handkerchief (this takes some arranging). ANYWAY, that’s the project I’ve been working on. I’d done it last year with good effect but was bothered by having a damp handkerchief on the wood of my bellows. So this year I decided to improvise a little. My take still isn’t ideal (I may just go to marine varnish on the bellows clapper yet), but I played a gig Saturday night and it got me through!
Here are some pictures. I think they’re pretty self-explanatory. And I’m sure other people will do a much neater job! FWIW, the contact paper on the intake cover didn’t stay, but everything else did though I handle with care. One other NB … you’ll notice I put an extra layer of “soft” velcro over the straps to protect my arm. I heartily recommend this.
Dry air can remove humidity from the reed, thereby increasing the internal volume of the reed and lowering the pitch. It can also put stress on the reed, increasing the chances that it’ll crack when the bridle is manipulated, so I wouldn’t recommend closing the lips.
33% RH is still quite low. But it depends on what your reed is used to.
I don’t like to play my pipes unless the RH is between 40% and 50%. I usually start the humidifier 20 minutes or so before piping.
AH! I have the heater in my bedroom (MY main playing spot) closed. So the humidity there is problably the highest in the house. Well, that or the basement.
Humidity does not always open reeds. Temperature in conjunction with the amount of humidity has a great deal to do with the opening and closing of a reed.
I live in Seattle and right now the humidity outside is 70% and the humidity in my bedroom is 40%. I set the heat at 55 and in the time we have lived in our condo it has only come in a few times, that is over the space of five years. It can range quite a bit between indoors and outdoors so looking at the humidity on your local weather site my not tell the whole story no matter what type of heat (or not) you have. I think it is good to keep an eye year round with an indoor unit.
I am running at 59F and 33RH in my practice room. Reeds are a bit…touchy, but playable.
Tomorrow is the annual office party and I’ll be playing some tunes on the pipes. But going from 59F to -10F is going to be a nail biter. I did just insulate the case though. Should help.
I’m also in Portland and have noticed the lack of humidity over the past few days. I had a few gigs last week and was worried about squeaks and squawks, but fortunately, I just had to play the chanter, and that held up fine. My tenor regulator has gone seriously flat, though, and the D key on my baritone regulator is intermittently sticking open. I’m not exactly sure why this is because they’re Taylor-style regs held in place by brass plates, but the pipes themselves are boxwood, and I wonder if perhaps the wood has temporarily warped to a microscopic degree. They’ve done this before, and I notice the problem seems to clear itself up once the rain comes back.
I’ve used a dampit in the bellows before, which seems to help a bit, but in my experience doesn’t necessarily work miracles. (I got mine from David Kerr’s violin shop, Bob.) Never tried sticking it in the bag before… In some ways, that might be a little better–I worry about it hitting or obstructing the valve in the bellows–although it would be a bit harder to get it out, and depending on what’s inside your bag, a little unpleasant.
The other thing to address at this time of year is joints that need re-threading. Take care of it early so that your pipes don’t slide out of the stock and onto the floor or something flies off and puts a fiddle player’s eye out. This actually nearly happened once when I was playing a rehearsal at a venue in December a few years back and the weather was similarly cold and dry (plus the dry central heat). The cap on the top of my chanter shot off and whizzed right past the fiddle player’s head. (It’s since been re-threaded and glued into place.) It was a deflating experience.
I’ve run into problems this week too, reed playing up, mainsock sliding out, the head stop popping off the chanter stock like a cork from a bottle of bubbly! Not helped by the central heating breaking down on me either. Oh well, great weather to practice my whistling!!
Reeds close in dry air and open in humid circumstances. If you get down to the twenties you either get yourself a reed made to play in conditions like that or, what I would do, leave the pipes in the box until things improve.
I have the opposite problem. I live in a relatively hot & humid region (within 55 miles of the Gulf of Mexico) and find that most of the year my reeds will be stable due to the near constant, high humidity - even with air conditioning in the hotter months. In the winter months (such as they are), colder, dry air moves in and dries everything out - reeds, tenon & ferrules come lose. Even the Delrin drone stock seems to shrink away from the brass cup.
At these times, the reed shrinks and becomes very flat, sounds terrible as the bridles slips lose and the lips opens. All stability is gone and no amount of bridle adjustment seems to fix the problem. Once spring & humidity return, the reed returns to normal and becomes sharper and stable…
Admittedly, the dampits may be little more than placebos. There’s no way to measure their efficacy. But, by gum, I feel like I’m doing something!
The cello dampit I put in the bag has a leash on it the permits me to withdraw it. The the dampit sits in the “back” of the bag, with the leash lying directly on top of the valve hinge.
And yes, it is the projectile season here in Siberisota (Minnesota in winter. Not to be confused with Saharasota, which is Minnesota’s summer name). Playing over a rug or carpet is a must.
I too am fighting the lack of humidity and recently purchased one of those ultrasonic humidifiers that sends out a lovely cloud of mist. The room seems to be hovering in the low 30%'s. Should I run that humidifier near the bellows intake when playing or is the movement of the set to a bunch of humidity to less going to be detrimental? I’ve always gone the more Nietzschean route with reeds and am trying to use a little more TLC this season.
My new set is on its way via registered mail and it is taking forever and I am terrified for the reeds. Let’s hope they don’t explode. At least it is above 0F now.
