Tuning the drones?

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Hooleh
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Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

So, I'm new to piping and don't actually own a set of pipes, yet (still, *sigh*...). Soon, though!
Anyway, the title pretty much says it: I'd like to know some about tuning the drones.
I've read quite a bit about tuning the chanter and tampering with the chanter reed, but haven't come across that much information about tuning the drones. How does it work in practice? Are there some sort of "quick buttons" or controls to do this or something?

Thanks if someone bothers to answer and develop conversation.
If there is already a topic (or a million topics) about this, please point me in the right direction.

Cheers,
Hooleh
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dyersituations
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by dyersituations »

Are you talking about tuning reeded drones or the reeds themselves? Drones have slides that allow minor tuning once working reeds are in. Typically people tune one drone at a time against the chanter and other drones. There are a handful of ways to tune drone reeds when making/tweaking them. The source I use is the Hegarty book that is included with the NPU membership as a PDF. If you don't have an NPU membership, you might consider it, as there are great videos on reed making and whatnot that can help give you an idea of how it all works.
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An Draighean
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by An Draighean »

Hooleh wrote:So, I'm new to piping and don't actually own a set of pipes, yet (still, *sigh*...). Soon, though!
Anyway, the title pretty much says it: I'd like to know some about tuning the drones.
I've read quite a bit about tuning the chanter and tampering with the chanter reed, but haven't come across that much information about tuning the drones. How does it work in practice? Are there some sort of "quick buttons" or controls to do this or something?

Thanks if someone bothers to answer and develop conversation.
If there is already a topic (or a million topics) about this, please point me in the right direction.

Cheers,
Hooleh
Definitely no quick buttons or controls; the end of each drone is a slider that can be moved, to lengthen or shorten the drone, which lowers or raises the pitch respectively. Most pipers tune the tenor drone to the chanter, starting with A on the chanter (assuming a concert-pitch set), though it needs to sound good against all the standard notes on the chanter. When you are happy with that, then you stop the baritone drone (and the chanter), and tune the bass drone to the tenor. When you get close, you can hear the "beats" of the two frequencies getting longer and longer as the frequencies converge. When there is no beat between the two, they are in tune with each other. Then you stop the bass drone and tune the baritone against the tenor in the same way. Then you play for a while, and do it again after all the reeds warm up.
Last edited by An Draighean on Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

Thanks for the info!
I'm, indeed, talking about tuning the reeded drones.
I suppose that tweaking the reeds will affect things like staying in tune etc.?
By the "quick controls" I meant those slides on the drones. Although not being necessarily that quick or in any way automatic, it must be quicker than having to adjust the reeds themselves each time.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by bensdad »

One of my students asked me if I had composite reeds in my drones. I said I honestly couldn't remember because I had not seen the reeds in about 25 years.
So, yeah, no you don't mess with the drone reeds, once they are going well.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

Hopefylly someone still bothers to read this thread, as I came up with another question related to the topic.

How do you actually stop one drone from playing for tuning at a time? I would suppose there's another way besides removing the whole drone from the mainstock.
What's more, the pitch/key to tune the drones is the A from the chanter? Somewhere I heard that the drones were tuned to the lowest key of the chanter, which would be D in my concert pitch set, right? Any thoughts or advice in this?
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myles
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by myles »

The tenor plays the same note as bottom D, but always tune the tenor against A on the chanter - you are looking for a clean 5th interval. The idea is when playing A you have a hand free to move the drone slider.

Once you've got the 5th sounding good you can then check against hard D (should be bang on if your chanter's in tune) and back D (should be a good octave).

You can stop a drone sounding by lightly tapping your finger over the hole at the end. So when tuning up I'd usually get them all going, tap the bass and baritone, tune the tenor against A, then stop the neck of the bag while I tuned the remaining drones to the tenor.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by tommykleen »

As vary. "One-hand" A is usually different in pitch from "two-hand" A. Make sure to check your two-hand A against the tenor drone.
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myles
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by myles »

That's a good point there.

It occurs to me that Mr. Touhey described a very similar process over a century back:

"The next step is tuning the drones, one of the most important features in connection with the instrument and an art in which some so-called pipers are lacking. Commence by tuning the smallest or tenor drone to A on the chanter. If the latter is properly fitted with a reed, it will tune also to low D and high D. Then tune the second drone to the tenor, and lastly the bass drone to the second. In some old style pipes there are four drones, but the same rule holds good in all cases. No piper worthy of the name will play in public when his instrument is out of tune"

"So-called pipers"!
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by dyersituations »

Hooleh wrote:How do you actually stop one drone from playing for tuning at a time? I would suppose there's another way besides removing the whole drone from the mainstock.
Pipers tend to do what myles mentioned, tapping the ends of the drones to shut off drones when tuning. If I'm working on a particular reed and trying to get it to play in tune, I put a small piece of scotch tape on the ends of the two other drones.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

Thanks for the answers, fellas. Instructions and views like this are priceless for a beginner like myself. I got my first set of pipes, a half set from Mike Hulme, a few days ago, and although there will be a long way before I'll probably even start using the drones in playing, it's good to know how they work and sound. When I get the bellows and bag coordination going so much as to be able to keep a note steady on the chanter, I can try out tuning the drones to see how they sound.

While I'm at it, I might as well present another newbie question: what do 'hard D' and 'back D' actually mean? I've heard the names around but never got a clear picture of what is meant by them.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Tom_S »

Hooleh wrote:'hard D'
The hard bottom D note is a characteristic of the uilleann chanter. A reasonable reed will be able to play two different 'styles' of low D note - the lowest note of the chanter. The 'soft' bottom D sounds less harsh and is achieved by lifting the chanter off the knee and not applying too much pressure. The hard bottom D has a more brash sound and is generally achieved by applying more pressure and cutting a very short A note as you lift the chanter. Generally the hard bottom D should be in tune, and the soft D may be slightly flat in pitch.
Hooleh wrote:'back D'
This refers to the second octave D note played by lifting the top thumb on the back of the chanter. Seeing as this note is the only one where the tone-hole is on the back of the chanter, it's generally referred to as the 'back' D.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

Thanks for the clarification, Tom_S. I had a vague conception of it going somehow like this, but now it all certainly makes sense.
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by rorybbellows »

A few skype lessons might be useful at this stage of your journey .

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Hooleh
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Re: Tuning the drones?

Post by Hooleh »

rorybbellows wrote:A few skype lessons might be useful at this stage of your journey .

RORY
You're right, they would definitely do no harm. Gladly I have one fellow bagpiper in my town and a handful in the country, so I can ask them. I even had one physical lesson already, though that was before I owned a set of pipes myself. Also Mr. Hulme has been extremely helpful, understanding and encouraging with all my dozens and dozens of questions.

One tiny step at a time. :thumbsup:
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