Now, on to the bag!?

[Leel]

Hi all - There is much, much, much talk about the use of the practice chanter in preparation for an eventual move to the pipes. It has all been very useful, and led to significant impovement over time.

But, I am haveing a duece of a time finding any info on the proper introdution to using the bag.

I have been on my PC for about 2 years now, am good with the scale, and making progress with graces and embellishments. I have 4-5 tunes down pretty well.

I recently aquired a set of kitchen pipes and MAN!, what a new challenge!; trying to wrestle with the bag and getting decent breath/squeeze control.... forget it! :eek:

So, bottom line: any hints tricks, suggestions, etc. on ways to approach this next step in my development?

Thanks,

[ThreeEightyNine]

two things to get the hang of playin... on the pipes ... getting hang of contol, breathing etc.. wrestling the octopus..

1) cork off the chanter and warm up the drones, making it possible to tune them at least to a pleasent sound :) for the moment.... tap the inside tenor off, and lay around a little, but dont get crazy slide the Bass drone middle slide down a bit and then up a bit the farther out of tune the drone are the more waw-waw-waw sound you will have as you get closer to tunedthey will Not make that obvious inflection but closer to a hmmm....
this being said you willtune the outside tenor to your low A, then the bass to the ioutside tenor, then the inside to outside tenor , so DOnt get crazy over it just yet..... :)

blowing the drones stedily with the chanter shut off (corked) will give you a feel for all that as well as how to "blow your arm off the bag" rather ten thinking about blow/raise arm, underblowing or overblowing will be more obvious on kitchen pipes or small pipes because the resiviour is smaller so for the GHB beginners small pipes aremuch more sensative to all these things ...

spend some serious practice time doing just that "playing drones" it will get boring but its an important step ...

I would also suggest corking your drones off or even removing the drones and corking the seats nd playing just the chanter through the bag as a goose, which teachs you control of the chanter reed and how much pressure you'll need to hit the high as well as low ends to better control the chanter that you have been controling with your ability to breath until now....also a good time to get over those natural "stops" you have created in your tunes, since they dont happen...old habits die hard ....eventually, rebuilding and trying to balance overblowing your high A and loosing two drones from overdoing it becomes your focus...lol baby steps... break it down into managable bits....

[Leel]

Thanks 389!

Several very good tips here, all of which I will practice.

It makes perfect sense to "compartmentalize": chanter goosing, drones, bag, etc.

This is very helpful.

LEE

[piper5]

That is some very good sound advice 389. Good job!