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Advice for being too weak to blow

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:58 pm
by ceilingman
I recently just started playing my GHB again after a few years of hiatus. I'm finding I can only play thirty seconds at a time, even with my easiest reed. I tried a rubber band, as well as shutting the drones off, and I'm still struggling a lot. Does anyone have some advice on boosting your chops/blowing

Re: Advice for being too weak to blow

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:20 am
by pancelticpiper
I think the simple answer is to do more practicing.

As we know the muscles involved in blowing the pipes aren't ones that get exercised in normal life!

The way the lips have to form an air-tight seal around the little round mouthpiece requires all those muscles to do something they usually don't have to do, and they have to be built up to give the piper stamina.

At least for myself and other pipers I've known it's lip stamina that's the main problem. Usually arm strength isn't as much of an issue, though there too the arm has to exert force in an unusual way when playing the pipes.

I think, actually, that spending time on Practice Chanter builds up lip strength faster than playing the pipes. For one thing you have to blow the PC the whole time that sound is coming out! While with the pipes you only have to blow half the time.

My theory is that old traditional PCs are so stuffy, have such high backpressure, in order to build up the lip strength of beginners.

About pipe chanter reed strength, as we know there's only so easy you can make a chanter reed for the whole system to work properly. People who play extremely easy chanter reeds have to be much more skillful with bag control, blowing, striking in, cutting off, and setting up the drone reeds so that the drones perform properly than pipers who play reeds of ordinary strength do.

It's amazing how increasing chanter reed strength just a tad makes every other aspect of piping easier. With a slightly stronger reed it's easier to maintain even bag pressure, easier to strike in and cut off, easier to get the drones to perform well.

Re: Advice for being too weak to blow

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:50 pm
by marcpipes
ceilingman wrote: Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:58 pm I recently just started playing my GHB again after a few years of hiatus. I'm finding I can only play thirty seconds at a time, even with my easiest reed. I tried a rubber band, as well as shutting the drones off, and I'm still struggling a lot. Does anyone have some advice on boosting your chops/blowing
If it's been a few years, your problem may not be your endurance or the reeds. Have you corked the stocks and seen if they and the bag are airtight? After a long hiatus, it's possible a stock may have come loose, might have cracked, or the bag might have developed a leak.

Re: Advice for being too weak to blow

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 1:24 pm
by savagefellow
Also, check for cracks in the stocks, etc. Just discovered the source of my stamina drop was just that.
Mike