with your pipes playing an outdoor wedding, in front of about 75 people, alternating tunes with a celtic harp; watching your trusty-dusty, handy-dandy pocket hygrometer sink slowly and depressingly from a pleasant 65 into the low-to-mid-40’s as the wedding wears on.
You’ve already wedged enough hair into the bass drone reed to make it look like Gerardo Rivera’s nose on a monday morning, (and the reed’s still shutting off), and are awaiting with despair the moment when your chanter reed decides it’s just too damn dry to play. Fortunately, no-one but yourself seems to be aware of your perdicament.
I played at an outdoor funeral for my father-in-law last weekend in Iowa. It was windy and in the 50’s but Gallagher B set hummed away mightily. I was worried I might have problems, but didn’t.
If the drones shut off, just start humming and see if anyone notices. When the chanter finally dies, just announce that it’s out of batteries.
Yes, since of course the bellows are a primitive form of the Energizer Bunny’s drum that unfortunately cannot keep going, and going, and going, and going…
In my area we are having “Santa Ana Wind” conditions. The RH in So Cal right now is 10%…because it’s almost 11pm. By noon tomorrow it will be around 5%…with temperature in the mid 90’s…and smoke in the air from all the wildfires. Back D is so flat, it’s halfway to C#. While I don’t mind practicing this way ('cause I only need a few thousand more hours of practice to work up to being able to play badly), I couldn’t imagine performing like this. Maybe at that point, it’s time to pull out a whistle! And some sunglasses.
Squeeze the sides (edges) of the chanter reed just above the collar with my bare fingers to open it up. Squeeze the bridle a bit if I don’t succeed at first. Pray that the drone reeds keep going. Make the fecking harper tune to the pipes. Finish the gig and have a beer afterward.
Look, unless you’re actually gigging somewhere that’s humid and mild most of the year, it’s almost certain you’re never going to have perfect conditions for your reeds. Just be sure to make (or buy) the best, most adaptable reeds you can and just keep going. Learn how to adjust them as needed.
Do learn to recognize when a client is asking the impossible.
p.s. - the hair under the drone tongue may be making things worse; it surely is costing more air. At least there’s a harper to take up the slack! Probably helps explain the popularity of low whistles among pipers.
When this happens at funerals, I just go ahead and start keening.
When this happens at weddings, I just go ahead and start keening. (esp. if I don’t approve of the union, or they underpay me, or make me play New Age Christian stuff that is ripped-off lock, stock and chanter directly from Irish traditional music…without so much as a credit to the original tune or song).
Hi Jeff, so you have the set back? What I do when the Santa Ana’s are blowing (hope you’re a safe distance from the fires. We are, I think) is try not to play at all, maybe play whistle. If you really have an urge to play then get the humidifier going in a small room and close the door. When your hygrometer gets above 45 then break out the pipes. Keep the door closed and the humidifier on when playing. If you don’t do this your time spent with the pipes will be frustrating… even more than usual
Time to take up reedmaking. I have made a couple of promising reeds this week and our humidity is %5 where I am at and really windy. A good dry reed will work. I tend to go a little longer on the reeds, leave them nice and thick at the tip so I don’t lose the back D and scrape more at the base for ease and tone. The length allows me to get the back D in as I take more meat off the base of the scrape. This thick reed made in dry weather tends to be very robust in my experience.
I hope everyone is ok in CA. I wonder how travel will be down there for the Tionol.
Thats funny, when I have played for children at my children’s school over the years, the most common question that I received from them since they didn’t see me blow into them was “where do I plug them in”.
