Chiff and Fipple Forums

My reed is functioning quite nicely, responsive through both octaves, except for the fact that it doesn't want to play c natural--it will do, but only under duress and generally only coming up from b and not down from back d. Any thoughts, friends?

How are you fingering it?

Remember that c natural on pipes is fingered something like this, although chanters are different and pipers use different fingerings to get different tonal colors:

thumb -x
LH1 - o
LH2 - x
LH3 - x
RH1 - x
RH2 - o
RH3 - o
RH4 - X

This is the "square" way to do it; if you want the C to sound tortured and soulful, you have to learn to half hole LH1, lift the chanter slightly, and lift either RH1 and RH2 or RH2 and RH3, depending on what sounds right to you, and fan one of the vents to get that fluttering tremolo effect.

My chanter likes:
t OXXXOXX x

My chanter, in the past, has liked what Tony's does--and so I'm leery of changing my fingering to solve what may be a temporary reed disorder, only to have to change back, or try to. It does, however, produce a good c natural with rh2 and 3 off the holes. At any rate, thanks for your replies, gentlemen, and particularly your detailed instructions for soulful torturing, Pat.

Best,

Lemon

I had a similar problem not long ago. Finally I found out that the reed wasn't sitting firmly and airtight in the chanter. I was able to fix this by applying some teflon tape (you can use hemp or whatever).
Christian

Christian,

That was the ticket. Cheers.

Lemon

If pressure is an issue, try Robbie Hannan's preferred fingering for C nat:
o
x
x
o
v
o
x

The "v" denotes the tone hole where you give the note vibrato.
The note should be played with the chanter [slightly] lifted off the knee.
LH1 is 3/4 open, so the finger still covers 1/4 or less. Do this by straightening the finger out. Best practiced with a tuner if you haven't a musical ear.

Boyd.
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