4 Steps for Getting Your Drone Reeds to “Point Zero” by Vince Janoski

“Point zero” is exactly what it implies. It is setting the strength of your drone reeds at the starting point before you begin adjusting for pitch and chanter reed strength.

Chanter Reed Selection—The Match-Up by Vince Janoski

The ideal bagpipe sound starts with selecting the ideal chanter reed. Obvious? It is not always as easy as it seems. Personal preferences and taste coupled with what amounts to unlimited choice in makers and quality of chanter reed makes that initial task of selecting your ideal reed a bit more daunting. But unlimited choice [...]

Chanter Reed Selection—The Physical Exam by Vince Janoski

The ideal bagpipe sound starts with selecting the ideal chanter reed. Obvious? It is not always as easy as it seems. Personal preferences and taste coupled with what amounts to unlimited choice in makers and quality of chanter reed makes that initial task of selecting your ideal reed a bit more daunting. But unlimited choice [...]

Better Bagpipe Blowing: Take It to the Limit by Vince Janoski

You should always be playing at the edge of your abilities if you are committed to improvement. That is a given in just about anything you do. There are many who will say that the outer limit is as far as you can go, that you will go no further, while the more rational and [...]

From the Archive: Basics of Chanter Reed Manipulation Part 1—The Lick by Andrew Douglas

Ed. Note: Now is the time when many pipe bands are outfitting their pipe corps with new chanter reeds for the big contests to come. Here is a post from last year that will help. —————- Ok, Reed Manipulation. A HUGE topic for pipers. First off, I would like to say that this is a [...]

Pipehacker Project: Rebuild and Resurrect a Practice Chanter Reed by Vince Janoski

Never chuck a good reed. Wait. Did I say that already once before? Well, it’s true, and if you’ve been at this bagpipes thing for any length of time, you’ve probably amassed quite the collection of old reeds off all kinds. Practice chanter reeds are typically going to give up the ghost more frequently only [...]

Reed Anatomy: Synthetic Drone Reeds by Vince Janoski

The last ten to fifteen years or so have seen an explosion of synthetic drones reeds makes out on the market. The modern Highland bagpiper is not at a loss when choosing a make of reed that is suitable to personal bagpipe vintage or sound taste. Stalwart varieties spawned from Ross’s early plastic body and [...]

4 Steps to Revive Dead Chanter Reeds by Vince Janoski

Never chuck a good reed. A good chanter reed that has served you well may still do so even after it has dried out or turned “wimpy.” As long as it has no damage and is not in a state of decomposition, the reed can be revived and brought back to its former glory for [...]