I have recently been contacted by a novice Northumbrian piper regarding difficulties with reeds in the dry climate of Arizona. I am seeking direct NSP help elsewhere but as I do not know of any players actually in the state I thought I would ask here if there are any uilleann pipers in Arizona (or other desert states) who might share thoughts on keeping reeds going in such conditions.
Thanks for any advice on the group or through direct messages.
Ian
The simple answer is ’ one would need to learn to make the reeds and make them in that climate’.
To expect reeds made in green and verdant Northumberland to actually work at all in an arid climate like Arizona is akin to arriving on Mars and expecting to be able to breath in that atmosphere.
Making reeds for NSP’s is not difficult and if your corespondant does not feel up to the task it should be possible to find a U.piper who could follow the instructions for making them.
Good luck with that,
Geoff.
Hi Ian
Check Youtube for a set of videos called Better Reed Making uploaded by Stephen Douglass. They show Colin Ross making Northumbrian chanter reeds.
David
As a novice piper playing in Canberra, Australia, I would similarly welcome any general advice on adjusting (uilleann) chanter reeds to compensate for a dryer climate than the one in which the reed was made. In summer here it can be around 35-40% relative humidity.
Many thanks in advance…
In low humidity situations reeds will tend to loose their elevation at the lips. This can be compensated for by either moving the bridle up ( sliding it away from the binding) if the reed head is tapered at the sides or by gently squeezing the bridle with a pair of Pliers to try to open the lips. The problem with both of these moves is that whilst they will work to open the lips it may be that the curvature of the lips has diminished with the lack of humidity and all one ends up doing is seperating the two blades leaving the sides of the head open.
Some people in ultra dry climates use a humidifier to improve the local situation, probably best in a small room, or play in the bathroom with the shower running. I’ve even heard of pipers trying a system where water is dripped into the bellows, or a damp sponge is strapped over the Bellows inlet, or water poured into the bag before playing. These are all drastic measures.
Johnnyalpha, 30-40% is not really that low, when I lived in Australia I found that when the wind was blowing from inland there were days when I just could not play my pipes even though I had made the reeds there, but as soon as the wind changed to blow from a seaward direction things started to improve quickly.
Geoff is SPOT ON!!! Reeds really have to be made to suit the environment. Any NSP reedmakers out there in dryish climates to help this poor fellow out???
I have been in contact with the said piper in question and did basic service on his set. I live in the same area. I recommended he try to get a reed and I could show him basic construction of one. I told him to come down to our piper’s meeting a little while ago and I would go over his set again as I had my tools out, but he never showed up. Only 1 out of 10 pipers keeps playing out here and I don’t think there are any active NSP players around, so the odds are stacked against him. I don’t expect he will last much longer unless he has the STRONG drive to maintain the set in our unfavorable desert climate. The humidity most of the year is in the low teens or below. This time of the year it is higher (15% - 30%ish). Our climate is unforgiving and you gotta be tuff to survive as a piper. I don’t know how this poor NSP player will stand a chance.
I don’t ever plan on making any NSP reeds. The NSPs seemed weird when I tried to play them and I have never played a real working set to get an idea of pressure etc. I am recovering from a near fatal auto-immune disease and keeping all the uilleanns in the state going is enough work for me. I don’t have the time to try and get a set of NSPs playing with my limited experience, but I could take a limited stab at it.
I am no expert but, there are many tricks to making a reed play in the desert. Though a reed that is closing up will have the tension altered on the lips and deformation of the inner curvature. This extra tension from contraction and deformation often kills tone and makes the reeds sound like you know what. Long term solutions generally involve taking apart the reed to adjust the blades tension, reworking the inner curvature of the reed and all the other general adjustments. David Daye’s suggestions are the best and I highly recommend his heat setting to fix the blades. This is the most useful tip I have come across from a reedmaker for a reed in dire need of resurrection. If the reed has collapsed significantly there is really nothing you can do if heat setting will not fix it. Sadly most reeds when faced with single digit humidity that collapse don’t recover well. They develop PTSD from the lack of humidity and eventually break down and try to destroy your marriage if you attempt to play them. Some reeds transcend their environment and make it due to being blessed by a unicorn and being aligned with the cosmos. When the reed has been played in and has seen both the pleasures and pains of high and low humidity, it generally is MUCH more stable. The hard thing is getting a reed like this, its like trying to find a Rowsome set at a flea market. I always generally make a minimum of at least 20 reeds when I pull out my tools. Because despite my best efforts, the cane always has it’s own agenda and only so many reeds will really make it and be worthwhile to voice. This is just a hunch, but I think ultra low humidity reeds are different. I have lived in the desert all my life so I have nothing else to compare. The extra humidity makes the reed vibrate MUCH easier. Whenever I have brought my pipes out of the state I am amazed at what a difference the humidity makes. Even places where the humidity is low it just does not compare to the desert dryness. I think reeds that essentially operate with almost zero humidity have to be exceptional reeds that just want to vibrate. What would be an ok or great reed in a more humid climate would not work or sound poor in an extremely dry environment. Reeds that have just the right makeup will work whether humid or dry. The reed that really works I have found has to be really great not just ok or good. I have to make lots of reeds and cull most of them. For me it seems VERY difficult to balance proper rigidity of the blades in the right spots and still make the reed vibrate normally. You can’t rely on humidity so the actual cane has to be JUST right. This makes notes like the back D EXTREMELY difficult for me. Too much to get the right vibration and I lose the proper rigidity for back D. Sometimes I wonder why I picked such an insane instrument for where I live. I think in a more humid environment I could just bang out reeds like nothing or I just stink as a reedmaker.
Humidity works as a SHORT term solution. Using it in a dry environment for an extended period is akin to like support. Often the best method I have seen is to aim a humidifier at the bellows while playing. This can work really well as a short term solution while playing in a dry environment or to tide the pipes over till the climate becomes more favorable. You can buy small portable units that work great for this.
I have been keeping the majority of uilleann pipes in Arizona going through our club as time and skill allows. Its difficult keeping sets reeded. IMHO if you plan to keep the pipes going in the desert, you either have to be REALLY lucky, learn to make reeds, sell your soul to Satan or rely on someone to make them for you. As the piper in question is neither lucky, has no one to make him any reeds and Satan hates making reeds, he should make the trip to learn to make them and plan on learning to make them. Also playing some good working sets helps to get a feel what a good instrument feels like. THE PLAN: travel and meet NSP players and get some reedmaking instruction for the things.
Well the piper in questions is close to where I was at over 16 years ago. Wanting to play an instrument for the first time in my life, I just assumed it was hard and I am a stubborn sob. So being a crazy stupid highschool student, I decided to play the pipes all by myself. My parents wanted to kill me and I don’t blame them. I spent all the money I saved up and I sounded horrible! Really horrible! At that time the pipes had not reached the popularity that they command today. Every piper in the state was still figuring it out. I received my first reedmaking construction lesson from the genius Jim Burke. With the pipes you learn how to construct a reed and the rest is stubbornness and determination. The only way to play pipes in the desert for me was to learn to make reeds. Being young and stupid, this was the perfect time in my life to take up such a crazy instrument. For me, to play isolated in the desert, reedmaking was a necessity. For the sad lone Northumbrian piper in the Sonoran Desert, I would say he faces the same situation. The Arizona hardcore pipers are tough stubborn players who really love the pipes. If you lack any of these qualities, your pipes will end up in the closet permanently, like the gazillion other sets in the state.
Piping is rough in the desert. Like finding Nirvana, there is much guidance out there, but only you can find the path.
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http://www.azuilleann.org/ - I would enquire there.
Some observations about “dry climate” reeds, as someone who lives in the Southwestern USA.
We play mostly indoors, not outdoors. Indoor climates are controlled.
There are three spring, summer, and fall indoor climates:
Air Conditioned - cool and dry, with low humidity. In Arizona, this is most common.
Evaporative Cooling - which results in easy 30% - 40% humidity inside the structure. There is a LOT of this.
No climate control, which is not so common in Arizona, especially in Summer. The outdoor environment in Arizona is NOT always hot and dry. For example, this summer we have a pronounced monsoon, rainy season, and summer afternoons can be cooler and downright torrid. I don’t know how many play their instruments outside as a rule. Not many. Humidity is just all over the place.
Winters get quite cold, perhaps even below freezing, and we all heat, so warm and dry conditions inside structures prevail.
So you can see there is a lot of humidity variance. A piper here must learn to adjust their reeds.
That said, I get reeds regularly from the North of Ireland, that perform just fine. But they do need adjustment. with aperture needs changing quickly with the relative humidity of the environment where you are playing. Constantly dinking with your reeds, from day to day, often results in inadvertent damage to the reed when opening and closing. So we seem to go through a lot of reeds, and are forever fiddling.
When Mick O’Brien did a workshop in Santa Fe, he had a humidifier set up. His reeds did fine, and the rest of ours went sideways in the small room.
David Daye has a dry climate reed. Those need to be adjusted a lot too, but seem to be a bit more hardy, maybe because of his stressing them prior to shipping, and he uses a harder cane.
In New Mexico, my most stable reeds are those made with cane grown locally.
The pipers here with the least success are the ones that seem unwilling to dive into adjusting their reeds to meet current conditions.
So anyway, it’s more complicated that it seems.
Unfortunately, Hell is filling up fast, with the recent proliferation of bodhran players and guitarists. Hence, the market for souls is quite depressed at present - you’d be lucky to get a snazzy bag cover for one these days, never mind an enchanted reed.
For example, today, in Albuquerque, NM USA, 10:15 AM, with a strong monsoon season going, and Thunderstorms predicted - one local weather station is measuring 63% outdoor relative humidity, and another 83%, with a distance between them of about 10 miles.
Winters we would normally be 0%-20%.
Same here. The beautiful monsoon is in full force. Humidity is all over the place. It is over 60% today and only in the 90s. I will take the nice cool weather. It is normally around 110 with high humidity where I am at. Our summer this year has been very mild. It looks like a strong El Nino is forming so it may be a wet winter for CA, AZ and New Mexico. It has been VERY dry these past few winters.
Here’s a suggestion for all desert dwellers with smallpipes - you may think that this is worse then selling your soul, but how about trying plastic reeds?
Something about cowboys…