I don’t have a tape measure to hand but as you can see I am generously proportioned, perhaps 48-50 inches around at the point my bellows strap sits. And I am having real problems with things not pointing comfortably in the right direction. The drones want to point 45 degrees to my right, the neck is crooked and can’t be straightened without lengthening my arm (an option I am told is inadvisable), and the bag seems to me to be far too far forward of where it should be. But if I move it back, the drones start to want to point even further forward.
The problem I have is I’m not sure what I can do about any of it. I do wonder if simply swapping round the blowpipe and drone stocks would help but I don’t think that would help the chanter position. Basically, I don’t quite see what my “root” problem is.
For what it’s worth, I power SSP/Border pipes with the same set of bellows so I don’t think it’s the connector hose length that’s crucial - though I’m open to being told otherwise.
I’m only seeing one image at your imgur link, mainstock & bellows tube tie-in.
But I’ll speculate. Sounds like the bag neck is too long. Move the bag back & lengthen the bellows blowpipe if necessary. If the drones are at an angle that makes them too far out, hold them in with a strap around a drone and attached to your belt. Alternatively, see if you can play the chanter with a curve in the bag neck, effectively making it shorter. I play a set where the bag neck starts out angling to the right, then bends a bit to the left so the chanter is in the correct place. Rotating the chanter in the reedcap to just the right angle is important to make this work. If it will work.
If you come from SSP/Border pipes and are not experienced with UP (as it sounds to me), I’ll speculate that you might be holding the bag in such position that you apply the pressure of the elbow approximately to the middle of the bag like you’re used to - for UP, this is absolutely wrong, the biggest part of the bag should be behind your elbow - therefore the comparatively long neck of UP bags. The length of the bag neck should roughly correspond to the length of your forearm.
I don’t think the neck of your bag is too long. If I’m not mistaken, that’s a Laurence Thompson bag (O’Briain pattern) which don’t have overly long necks. The tie in looks ok. my suggestion would be that you’re maybe holding the chanter too close in and should leave the top tilt forward a smidge and to the left a bit. This will straigten your left arm and pull the chanter to the left. It may not work for you, but I found that it helped me.
I agree with MichaelLoos; lengthen your blow pipe and move the bag way back on your left side, so that you’re elbow is just squeezing the front of the bag.
Seems to me that the bag should be held, or re-tied, so that the neck points more upward; in the pics, it starts out pointing more or less horizontally, and then has to kink upward because of the chanter’s height.
Also you need to drop your right knee quite a bit by tucking you foot under the chair. Sit where just you butt cheeks are barely on the front of the chair and tuck your foot back. That lowers the chanter and solves lots of problems especially when you use regulators but even if you don’t. Here is a great example of the right stance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zlAKYCrwvY
The new pics make it a lot clearer - I was right in that you’re squeezing the bag in the middle rather than the front.
What you need to do:
get a longer connection hose between bellows and blowpipe, this will bring the bag backwards. I guess yours will need to be at least 3 - 4 inches longer than it is now. You can use clear PVC tube from the DIY store (16 mm ID should do), this is very cheap, you can get plenty and try until you find what’s suitable for you - if you’re a beginner, be prepared that your posture will change a couple of times in the future until you find out what’s best for you.
also get a longer belt for the bellows, your waist belt sits far higher than the arm belt, probably because otherwise it’s too short. The height ot the waist belt has to correspond with the height of your elbow, which is approx. 1 1/2 - 2 inches above the belly button, not any higher! Also, the belt at that height exerts pressure on your lower rib cage and therefore impedes your breathing, whch has nothing to do with your problem but isn’t a good thing anyway.
next, move the bottom of the chanter closer to your body by slanting it, this will bring your bottom hand in a more comfortable position and allows you to move the bellows a bit further backwards (so allow for still a little more connection tube as mentioned above ) It will also bring the chanter top away from your body, thus straightening the neck (of the bag).
Although we speak about “chanter on/off the knee”, the chanter is NOT meant to sit on the knee but on the thigh, and quite high, fairly close to the private parts of the body - also, not the top portion of the thigh but a good bit to the inside - by doing this and still keeping the chanter perpendicular to the surface, you will invariably slant the chanter top outwards, which again straightens the neck. So the chanter in its playing position is slanted in two directions, the top pointing away from you as well as outwards to the left side.
I don’t quite agree with that - that is ONE good playing posture but not the only one. Absolutely right about the butt cheeks, but you can also have your feet at approximately the same distance from the chair, knees at right angles, so you have basically a stable three-point position which also forces you to keep your back straight (which is a good thing), while the position with the foot tucked back often tempts players to lean forward, with the lumbar spine bent outwards.
Look at this pic of Leo Rowsome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Rowsome#/media/File:Leo_Rowsome_uilleann_piper.jpg - that’s a very fine playing posture!
In the end, you have to find the posture which is ideal for you - this can well take a good couple of years. It all depends on your height and your built - don’t be shy to make adjustments to your instrument, particularly blowpipe length can easily be modified - instruments are made for people, not vice versa.
Do you have a teacher? They should help you, otherwise have a look at some videos and get an idea. The belt is pretty high, and should be buckled roughly around the belly button, or around where your elbow rests at your side.
) It will also bring the chanter top away from your body, thus straightening the neck (of the bag).